296 Field Museum of Natural History — Reports, Vol. IV. 



subspecies, was obtained by purchase. This is a part of the great pri- 

 vate collection of humming-birds belonging to the famous French 

 naturalist, M. Adolph Boucard, and is especially important since many of 

 the specimens are cotypes or paratypes of species described by him. 

 Mention should also be made of a small but valuable collection of South 

 American birds and mammals purchased from a dealer in Merida, Vene- 

 zuela, containing 6 mammals and 235 bird skins, together with 42 

 humming-birds' nests and eggs, several species being very rare. Mr. 

 John M. Studebaker of South Bend, Indiana, presented the Museum 

 with a pair of American Elk, or Wapiti, which he killed a number of 

 years ago in Colorado, and Mr. G. F. Steele of Chicago gave the Museum 

 a number of mounted heads of Deer, Caribou, Goats, and one of the 

 American Bison. A notable addition to the Osteological collection 

 is the skeleton of Ccsnolestes obscurus from Columbia, which was 

 mounted and installed and is the only known example on exhibition 

 in any museum in the world. In the Division of Entomology an impor- 

 tant addition was a collection of butterflies and moths from Key Is- 

 lands. Among this lot were six specimens, three males and three fe- 

 males, of the magnificent butterfly Tr aides priamus poseidon. These 

 will form a welcome addition to the exhibit series. Chiefly from expedi- 

 tions, 649 fishes were added to the collections in the Division of Ichthy- 

 ology and several hundreds through exchange, mention of which is else- 

 where in this report. 



EXPEDITIONS AND Field WORK. — The Assistant Curator of African and 

 Melanesian Ethnology, Dr. A. B. Lewis, returned to resume his duties in 

 the Museum last June, having completed his four years' pilgrimage 

 in the South Pacific among the Melanesian Islands, in charge of the 

 Joseph N. Field South Pacific Islands Expedition. The early months of 

 the winter Dr. Lewis spent in Dutch New Guinea, traversing the north 

 coast as far east as Humboldt's Bay. From this point he proceeded to 

 Batavia, Java, where he spent two weeks packing up the collections and 

 studying in the museum in that city. He returned to Europe via 

 Singapore, Rangoon, and India, where he visited the chief museums and 

 the chief centers of ethnologic interest. May was spent visiting the 

 principal museums of Italy, Austria, Germany, Holland, and England. 

 About 12,000 specimens were secured by this expedition. If to these 

 are added the number of specimens secured by ptirchase and from the 

 Curator's expedition into Melanesia, the total should approximate 

 20,000. Assistant Curator Owen returned to the Museum in May 

 after a visit of several months among the Hopi Indians of Arizona. As 

 a result of this expedition the Museum secured 50 boxes of additional 

 specimens to be added to the already existing Hopi collection, all of 



