15 
mens sent from different parts of the country for identification. The 
identification and naming of material is an important work which the 
members of the staff of the Museum are always willing to do, as far as the 
resources of the Museum permit authoritative opinions to be reached. 
When specimens are exhibited they are provided as soon as practicable 
with labels printed in large, legible type, carrying the English, French, and 
scientific (Latin) names of each species. Several duplicates are printed of 
each label, and as time and other duties of the staff permit, the label is 
extended and made more informative. The aim is to make the museum 
labels attractive and instructive, conveying the most important facts 
about each species and its habits; distribution maps show the range of 
each species, both the summer and winter range if the species is migratory. 
Where appropriate photographs are available showing the natural habitat 
of the animal in life they are included in the exhibit, and where specimens 
are donated they are accredited to the donor. 
Some temporary exhibits were installed on the occasion of the Con- 
versazione of the Professional Institute of the Civil Service of Canada, 
held on April 14, 1926. These special exhibits consisted largely of material 
which could not be exhibited every day on account of lack of protecting 
cases. They included exhibits of choice skins and skulls, series of small 
mammals from the Maritime Provinces and from the Prairie Provinces 
illustrating the typical forms of mammals occurring there, and also the 
method of preparing specimens in the field. An exhibition was also made 
of the Allan Brooks collection of one hundred paintings of western birds 
prepared for a publication issued by this department during the year. 
The exhibition was primarily designed to enable members of the staffs of 
other departments, members of the Government and of Parliament to 
become familiar with the work of the department and of the museum. 
A similar exhibition was installed in the Museum for the conversazione 
held on March 23, 1927. In the biological hall three of the large exhibition 
cases were temporarily allotted to the Entomological Branch, Department 
of Agriculture, of which branch Mr. Arthur Gibson, Dominion Entomo- 
logist, has recently been appointed Honorary Curator of Insects in the 
National Museum of Canada. Mr. C. B. Hutchings of the Entomological 
Branch was detailed to prepare an exhibit and made an attractive and 
instructive display, including a systematic collection of the representative 
groups of insects found in Canada, and numerous exhibits of the life habits 
and methods of control of the more common field, garden, orchard, and 
forest pests. This exhibit attracted much attention and a considerable 
part of the exhibit is planned to remain in the Museum during the summer, 
and plans are under way to provide a permanent entomological exhibit 
from the National Collection of Insects which was formerly stored in the 
Museum in its entirety. 
The Department of Marine and Fisheries, under the direction of Mr. 
J. A. Rodd, superintendent of fish culture, Fisheries Branch, put in several 
aquaria showing living specimens of speckled trout, European brown 
trout, salmon trout, rainbow trout, and land-locked salmon; exhibits of 
several kinds of fish spawn in various stages of hatching, preserved fish 
specimens, and models of various types of fishing vessels. Special botanical 
exhibits included a large exhibit of artistically mounted wild flowers of 
Vancouver island, by Mrs. A. E. Planta, of Nanaimo, B.C.; an exhibit of 
56988—2 
