3 
summer meeting of the State Natural History Society, and a week 
was spent chiefly in making collections of insects, fishes and other 
aquatic material from this region. Large collections of fungi and 
of flowering plants have also been made during the past summer, 
by Mr. John Wolf, of Canton, Illinois, and a fine collection of the 
seeds and fruits of the flowering plants of the State, numbering 
some 600 species, has been made for us by Dr. F. Brendel, of 
Peoria. 
During the two years preceding the period covered by this report, 
four-fifths of the species of the birds of the State, as shown by Mr. 
Ridgway’s list of [llinois birds, published in 1876, had been fur- 
nished us for the museum by Mr. C. K. Worthen, of Warsaw, and 
the contract with him was continued for the remaining fifth. These 
birds have all been sent in, and the collection now contains good speci- 
mens of all species known to occur in Illinois at that date. 
LABORATORY WORK. 
It is impossible to make a full report of the laboratory opera- 
tions at this time, because the work of determination, arrangement 
and distribution is still in progress. While a part of the results 
can be given in detail, others can only be described in general 
‘terms. | 
STATE MUSEUM. 
We have furnished to the State Museum, during the last year, 
15 mounted specimens of mammals, representing 12 families, and 
including a buffalo, an elk, a wolverine, a badger, an ornithorhyn- 
cus, and several smaller animals. Except a few especially interest- 
ing forms, we have not attempted to go outside the fauna of the 
‘State, either present or past. Besides the birds already furnished 
‘through Mr. Worthen, we have sent down a pair of mounted pea- 
‘cocks for the museum collection. The series of painted casts of the 
fishes of the State, made at the laboratory for the State Museum, now 
represents 38 species. We have, besides these, 6 molds of which casts 
have not yet been made, and 56 oil sketches of as many different 
‘species, from which the casts already furnished have been colored. 
‘These paintings, with the casts in the museum and the alcoholic 
‘specimens at the laboratory, furnish the material for an elaborate illus- 
trated work upon the fishes of,the State, which can be prepared at 
any time. I believe that it is the general testimony that, for ac- 
‘curacy and beauty, these fish casts have not been surpassed any- 
where in this country. 
We have now in hand for the museum about 100 species 
of alcoholic fishes from Illinois, representing 20 families, and alco- 
holic specimens of 28 species of other vertebrates. We have also 
prepared and mounted and sent to the museum 31 skeletons of 
animals—4 of them being mammals, 7 birds, 5 reptiles, 1 an amphibian, 
and 14 fishes. The plan of this work is to prepare a good mounted 
skeleton to illustrate each order of the higher vertebrates of the 
‘State and each sub-order of fishes. We have improved the oppor- 
‘tunity to secure for the laboratory an excellent series of disarticu- 
lated skeletons of fishes, which, when completed, will represent 
