REPORT OF ASSISTANT SECRETARY. Ill 



The Department of Comparative Anatomy received a few specimens 

 of alcoholic birds for skeletons. 



The Department of Birds received a collection of dry and alcoholic 

 birds, a report upon which will be furnished hereafter. 



A collection was received by the Department of Botany, a report 

 upon which will be furnished by the curator as soon as practicable. 



On April 10, 1890, Mr. Brown accompanied an exploring expedition 

 sent by the British South African Exploration Company, with a view to 

 opening up the county for settlement, to Matabela and Mashona lands, 

 about 2,000 miles from Cape Town, and near the Zambesi Biver. The 

 expedition consisted of two hundred white men and four hundred 

 negroes. Excellent facilities for collecting were furnished by Mr. John- 

 son, the director of the expedition, who also kindly offered to send 

 specimens of natural history intended for the National Museum free of 

 charge to Kimberly, by the company's ox teams. The Government 

 railway has also offered to carry collections free from Kimberly to Cape 

 Town. Mr. Linley, of the South African branch of the New York Equitable 

 Assurance Association in Cape Town, kindly volunteered to attend to 

 the iuterests of the National Museum in Cape Town, and arrangements 

 have been made with the taxidermist of the South African Museum in 

 Cape Town to repack the specimens for shipment to the United States. 



Incidentally the Museum has received, through Mr. Brown, several 

 collections of African material from private individuals. Itev. G. H. It. 

 Fisk presented an excellent series of living tortoises and some chame- 

 leons. Mr. J. H. Brady contributed a series of South African coleop- 

 tera. Mr. P. McOwan, director of the Botanical Garden at Cape Town, 

 sent to the Museum bulbs of Arctopus eehinatus, capsules of Unaria pro- 

 cumbens, Unari Burchellii, and Rogena longifiora. Mr. Erye, of Cape 

 Town, presented, through Prof. Cleveland Abbe, a collection of natural 

 history specimens, including a series of antelope horns. The superin- 

 tendent of the Kimberly Diamond Mines presented to the Smithsonian 

 Institution some specimens of the rocks in the gold mines. Dr. C. H. 

 White, of the United States steamer Pensacola, collected insects for the 

 Museum at Cape Ledo. Offers to exchange birds and mammals were 

 also proposed. 



Befereuce was made in the report for 1889* to the valuable collections 

 obtained in Morocco for the National Museum by Mr. Talcott Williams, 

 and a preliminary report upon the work which he accomplished was 

 published in the same place. It was hoped that it would be possible to 

 publish in this report a full statement of what has been accomplished. 

 This can not be done until the specimens have been unpacked and dis- 

 tributed in the Museum and a list made of them. Unfortunately Mr. 

 Williams has not yet been able to attend to this. 



The following information relating to his work has been gathered from 



* pp. 144-146, 



