1 
THE 1960 SMITHS ONIAN-BREDIN MAYA-LAND EXPEDITION 
Following the 1959 Caribbean expedition, the Maya-land 
0< expedition was organized primarily for the purpose of sampling 
/ 7 - re I ’t / <? f y av tknd wvo 
the marine fauna and the insect life of the east coast of the 
Mexican Territory of Quintana Roo , Yucatan, and the nearby islands 
of Mujeres and Cozumel. The expedition remained in the field 
from March 26 through May 6, 1960. 
From this seldom visited and very considerable stretch of 
coast the United States National Museum has received over the 
years little in the way of specimens, marine or terrestrial. 
Hence our keen interest to have a go at it on this sixth of the 
expeditions that Mr. and Mrs. J. Bruce Bredin, of Wilmington, 
if\ 
Delaware have sponsored for the Smithsonian Institution^, their 
/N 
fourth to the Caribbean. 
Although the former U. S. Fish Commission Str. Albatross 
had investigated the deeper waters at the north end of Cozumel 
and the Carnegie Institution had studied the terrestrial and 
cave faunas , the marine littoral had hitherto received but 
scant attention. 
All that the Museum possessed in the way of seashore life 
from the waters along the east coast of Yucatan were several 
small lots of marine invertebrates picked up by friends of the 
Institution prior to 1940. The best remembered collector is 
Ralph Elliott, of the United States Department of Agriculture, 
formerly agricultural attache with our Embassy in Guatemala. 
