2 
FIELD WORK. 
In arranging the field work, I took into principal consideration 
the needs of the State Museum, making the collections for other 
purposes subordinate to those of this institution, but so locating our 
operations as to cover parts of the State not previously worked over, 
in order to make the survey of our natural history as nearly com- 
plete as the conditions of the work would allow. Besides almost 
continuous collecting going on in the vicinity of the laboratory, 
several trips have been made to more distant points. The first of 
these, after the present appropriations became available, was made > 
to the Fox and Illinois rivers, at Ottawa and Peru, in July, 1879, 
at the time of the field meeting of the State Natural History — 
Society. Four assistants accompanied me on that trip, which 
resulted in fair additions to the collections of fishes, especially of 
the young of numerous species, taken for the study of their food ; 
and a very good collection of fishes’ stomachs, together with a good 
deal of miscellaneous material. 
The second trip was taken in August to extreme Southern Illinois, 
with two assistants. We established ourselves on the south bank 
of the Ohio, opposite Cairo, and worked steadily for nearly three 
weeks in the Ohio and Mississippi, and in the lakes and small 
streams in the country adjacent to those rivers. Large numbers of 
duplicates of the common fishes of that region were preserved in 
alcohol for the State Museum and State educational institutions 
and the public schools. A good set of fish skeletons and a few 
skeletons of birds were obtained for the museum; collections of 
material for the study of the food of fishes and birds were made, 
and especially good collections of mollusks and insects. On our re- 
turn from this trip, one of my assistants was sent to Spring Lake, 
in Peoria county, where, by working with the fishermen, he secured 
a sufficient number of such fishes as we found scarce in Southern 
Illinois; and continued, with success, the various kinds of field work 
above mentioned. Casts of nine different species were secured on 
this expedition, for the State Museum at Springfield. An assistant 
was sent, during the months of July and August, to the western 
part of the State, near Quincy, to collect the leaf-blights and other 
fungi of that region. He also collected, in the same department, 
during the remainder of the summer at Normal, and added about 
250 species of these plants to the herbarium, besides a small set of 
flowering plants and several hundred specimens of insects. In the 
spring of 1880, the principal expedition undertaken crossed the 
northern part of the State, from Galena to the valley of the lox 
river, and thence northward to the lake region of Lake and McHenry 
counties. Three weeks were occupied by this trip, and large collec- 
tions were made from the streams of the hilly regions of northwestern 
Illinois, from numerous tributaries, large and small, of Rock river, 
to the east and west, and from Fox river and its tributaries, and 
from the lakes in which this stream principally takes its rise. Addi- 
tional collections were made from the country traversed, especial atten- 
tion being paid to birds and insects. The success of the trip was 
unusual, and many thousand specimens were accumulated by this 
three weeks’ work. Later in July, a trip was made to Lake George, 
Indiana, /just across the line of the State, upon the occasion of the 
