44 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



lished. The birds were stored in the attic of a closed palace, in 

 great disorder and without proper care. As for many years no 

 ornithologist had visited the museum, the visit was welcomed by the 

 director, who detailed a man to assist in labeling the specimens as 

 they were identified. 



A brief stop was made in Bremen, where there is supposed to be 

 a mysterious type specimen from Bangkok, but in the absence of 

 the director of the museum, it was not possible to search for it. 



The month of August was spent in Sweden, chiefly in Stockholm 

 where there is a major Siamese collection housed in the most up-to- 

 date of European museums. Part of the collection was reported on 

 in 1913 and 1916, but many hundreds of specimens of later date, 

 never formally recorded, were also found, among them at least four 

 species new to northern Siam. In addition, permission was kindly 

 given to study a recently received small collection from rhat area 

 which included one more species new to the country. 



With the work in the museum completed and 2 weeks still avail- 

 able before the date of sailing to Xew York, a field trip to Swedish 

 Lappland was undertaken, headquarters being made some 60 miles 

 north of the Arctic Circle. Some hundreds of specimens of inverte- 

 brates and lower vertebrates were collected there and brought back 

 to Washington ; their number was augmented by further sporadic 

 collecting in the vicinity of Stockholm. Such specimens have an 

 added value in that Sweden and Lappland are type localities for a 

 large proportion of the fauna of northern Europe. 



Upon the imminent outbreak of war, the date of sailing was ad- 

 vanced a week and the port of departure changed from Hamburg to 

 Southampton. This necessitated a hurried trip from Sweden to Eng- 

 land, but the ship was reached in time and the work in hand was in 

 no way affected by the change of plans. 



