40 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY. 



Venezuela division prosecuted their researches for a time in the 

 district of Caraccas, and then returned via the Orinoco river. All 

 the collections of both parties have been sent to the Institution 

 for identification, and have been distributed for that purpose among 

 the naturalists of the country. 



A collection principally of birds and butterflies, made in the neigh- 

 borhood of Bogota, was conveyed to the Institution through the 

 attentive care of Hon. A. A. Burton, late United States minister. 

 Many of the species are new as regards that locality. From Chile there 

 has been received a collection, nearly complete, of birds prepared and 

 determined by Prof. A. R. Phillippi, Director of the National Museum 

 at Santiago. The series is of special value as containing types of 

 many of the new species described by Prof. Phillippi and his asso- 

 ciate, Dr. Landbeck. 



An important Smithsonian exploration has been made during the 

 last year in the Province of Buenos Ayres by Mr. W. H. Hudson, 

 who has transmitted large collections of birds, which have been 

 referred to Mr. P. L. Sclater and Mr. Osbert Salvin, of London, for 

 examination, these gentlemen having been especially occupied in 

 the study of South American birds. Mr. A. de Lacerda, of Bahia, 

 has continued his valued contributions from that portion of Brazil. 



With the exception of the Russian telegraph expedition at Plover 

 bay, and on the Asiatic side of Behring's straits, the explorations we 

 have enumerated have been confined to the American continent and 

 its islands. This is in accordance with a settled policy of the Insti- 

 tution, to the effect that the natural and physical history of the Old 

 World shall be relinquished to the explorers of Europe. 



The following remarks by George Bentham, esq., president of the 

 Linnean Society of London, present the scientific importance of 

 explorations in this country in so clear a light that I may be 

 excused for quoting them at length : "The peculiar condition 

 of the North American continent requires imperatively that its 

 physical and biological statistics should be accurately collected 

 and authentically recorded, and that this should be speedily done. 

 Vast tracts of land are still in what may be called almost a 

 primitive state, unmodified by the effects of civilization, uninhab- 

 ited, or tenanted only by the remnants of ancient tribes, whose 

 unsettled life never exercised much influence over the natural pro- 

 ductions of the country. But this state of things is rapidly passing 

 away; the invasion and steady progress of a civilized population, 

 while changing generally the face of nature, is obliterating many of 

 the evidences of a former state of things. The larger races of wild 



