PANTER kore YES EDYVRY Dd Ree DEN poses MOONE eum Bs Mus of J, ‘ AY a al, & Ie Bite e/ $ &. % 2 had Pa 1869 THE LIBRARY sigh Wey is at Ae , yp ees iy i | al i Ph ' fe ae a} nh ary 4 ata) Nghe an ie aed 4 Lied bl MPR i ; vate it) 5 a M4 iA, ‘an f aj I 4 i ; by DVT) es j ‘ Wy | i ave AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL EDITED BY MARY CYNTHIA DICKERSON VOLUMES XIV. rom NEW YORK CITY Published from October to June, by THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY SIS An illustrated magazine devoted to the advancement of Natural His- tory, the recording of scientific research, exploration and discovery, and the development of museum exhibition and museum influence in education. Contributors especially from the scientific staff, ex- plorers and members of the American Museum of Natural History FREE TO MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY PRINTED BY THE COSMOS PRESS CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 1914 CONTENTS OF VOLUME XIV JANUARY nos LOLVLOMmOV USES Groups, Partie so vos 0 cna cartels: ales «ccs Seyionevel one Freperic A. Lucas Aa@hapter OL Ancient american EVISGOLY ccs. cc) tere eos eocne ole e cle 0 e2s) oo woe ss HerBert J. SprinpEN Hisheri ships in theeAmerican IVIUSCUM'. o.c.0.s wisi saci ee ane H. E. AntTHOoNyY ieaexCoppers@iucen= Mine Model. 2: —iwens ss oc Caukiow Se a eee Epmunp Otis Hovey AMEE CACOMECLY CE GE mune ane ars nee Mepat te = Sse kee oe en ae Puny E. Gopparp “My Life with the Eskimo’’ by Stefansson — A Review............ Hersert L. BripemMan Shell Collection in the American Museum.............0.....20ccescecee L. P. Gratacap AVECISEIEEMU AN OES :S yt ce Nate atects Pear AT Elie love va id Rese tes i ou, Sp Se etre ES ee gn a aa Pe 4 DECEMBER Brnercan, IViusenm: Whale, ‘Collection..).55 +4. 2c = sues co oe en eee Roy C. ANDREWS Keanchens Vid dens note aimalean casoeccn seis a ome Ge ee ee eine G. C. LoneLtEy An Episode of a Museum Expedition............. Sorat Man epare RiMenenceer ome ye eta 6 Cart EK. AKELEY Mews irom tie Crocker land Hh xpeditione of <1s «, <0.2 ssn nee ee ae Epmunp Ottis Hovey Museum Notes ILLUSTRATIONS African hall, 178, 179, 181, 186, 187 Akeley, C. E., 174, 185 Allosaurus, 86 Arsinoitherium, 89 Ass, Wild, 112, 115, 117 Aurochs, 66 Bat cave, 244, 245 Baynes, E. H., 152, 153, 155 Beaver, 124-135; group, 126; habitats, 127-129, 131, 132, 134 Bickmore, A. S., 122 Bird bath, 154; houses, 150, 151, 155 Blind in American Museum, 41, 42 Bowfin group, 32, 34, 35; habitat, 38 Buffalo, 183 Cherrie, G. K., 214 Chichen Itza, Panorama of, 19; Ruins, 16, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 25, 27; Sculptures, 17, 23, 26-31 Choate, J. H., 170 Copper deposits, Maps of, 202, 203 Copper Queen mine model, 248, 250 Cuban expedition, 100—106 Deer, cover (Jan.), 54, 63, 64 Dicynodon laticeps, 142; leontops, 143; 140-141; planus, 142; platyceps, 136; tacops, 141 Diplodocus, 98 Douglas, James, 172 moschops, psit- Eagles, Group of golden, 4 Elephant studio, 185 Elephants, back and front covers (May), 12, 96, 176, 184, 185 Endothiodon uniseries, 140 Eskimo, Life with, 261—265 Fiala, Anthony, 214 Fish (painting) opp. 96 Flower, W. H., 6 Forestry scenes, cover (Oct.-Nov.), inserts, opp. 221 Fossil reptiles, 136, 138-143 Framework for elephant, 12; for whale, 278 Groups, Arab courier attacked by lions, 8; Bird, 2,4, 7,10, 56,57,60; Bison, 15; Bullfrog, 58; Deer, 54, 63, 64; Fish, 32, 34, 35, 36, 50, 53; Lizard, 59; Monkey, 55; Octopus, 53; Orang-utan, 11 Harper, Frank, 214 Harpoon gun, cover (Dec.) Harpy eagle with macaw, 95 Hippopotamus group, Model of, 182 Ichthyosaurus, 87 Indians, Slavey, 257, 258 Jaguar, 93 Jesup, M. K., 218 Knight, C. R., 82 Laysan Island group, 60 Leopard, 83, 92 Lions, cover (Apr.) 8, 14, 183 Limestone caves, 105, 244, 245 Loon, Group of black-throated, 10 iv Mammoth, 91 Mangrove swamps, 102 Manikins, 11, 13 Mastodon, 91 Menomini bag, 72 Miller, L. E., 214 Monaco, Prince Albert of, 173 Monkey, Panamanian, 241 Moose, 45 Murals, Knight, 85 Octopus group, 53 Opossum, 247 Orang-utans, 11 Ornitholestes, 86 Paca, 246 Paddlefish group, 53; Paleolithic art, 225-237 Panama expedition, 238-242, 244-247 Pareiasaurus whaitsi, 138 Pasteur, Louis, 215 Peace River, Along, 253-260 Peale, C. W., 84 Piltdown gravel bed, 200 Piltdown man, 188, 189, 192-198 Pottery, Arawak, opp. 295, 302, 303; Cherokee, 160; Nasca, opp. 208 Pueblo Indian girl, cover (Dec.) Restorations: Allosaurus, 86; Arsinoitherium, 89; Diplodocus, 98; Ichthyosaurus, 87; Mammoth, 91; Mas- todon, 91; Ornitholestes, 86; Piltdown man, 188; Sabre-tooth tiger, 90; Tiger, 90; Tylo- saurus, 88 Rondon, Colonel, 171 Roosevelt, Kermit, 214 Roosevelt, Theodore, 171, 214 Sabre-tooth tiger, cover (Mar.), 90 Setters, 93 Sharpe, R. B., 5 Sheep, 65 Shell ornaments, 232 Sink-hole, 19, 20 Sioux invocation, 164 Somaliland, 112, 113, 115, 116, 304, 307, 308 Stone implements, 157-162; 225-231, 233-237, 295, 297-301 Storage rooms, 74, 75 Sturgeon, Catch of shovel-nosed, 38 Tapinocephalus atherstonei, 139 Thunderers, 71, 72 Tiger, cover (Feb.), 94, 97; Sabre-tooth, cover (Mar.), 90 More yal Tylosaurus, 88 Verreaux, Jules, 9 Visitors’ room, 79 Volan; 18 Water hole, 115 Whales, 274, 276, 277, 279-284, 286-294 Whaling station, 285 Wharf-pile group, 52 Zahm, Father, 214 INDEX OF VOLUME XIV Names of contributors are set in small capitals Accessions: Anthropology, 46, 119, 168, 215, 311 Geology and Invertebrate Paleontology, 80, 119, 272 Ichthyology and Herpetology, 48, 119 Library, 119, 213 Mammalogy and Ornithology, 78, 119, 213 Mineralogy, 120 Vertebrate Paleontology, 44, 167 African hall, 166, 175-187 Axetey, C. E. An Episode of a Museum Expe- dition, 304-308; The Wild Ass of Somaliland, 112-117 Akeley, C. E., 166, 174-187 Algonkin and the Thunderbird, 71-72 Allen, J. A., 271 Ambrosetti, Dr., 46 American Anthropological Association, 44, 46 American Association of Museums, 166 Ancient American History, Chapter of, 16-31 Anderson, R. M., 266, 270 Anprews, R. C. The American Museum Whale Collection, 274-294 Andrews, R. C., 48, 167, 187 Antuony, H. E. New Faunal Conditions in the Canal Zone, 238—247 Anthony, H. E., 78 Art and Science in the American Museum, 83-88 Ass, Wild, 112-117 Attendance, 44 Baker, G. F., 77 Bandelier, A. F. A., 147-148 Barnes, James, 215, 312 Barringer, D. M., 120 Baynes, E. H. What one Village is Doing for the Birds, 149-156 Beaver, American, 123-135 Bickmore, A. S., 122, 144 Bird protection, 149-156 Birds, Importation of, 69-70 Blind, Work with the, 39-42, 167, 215 Boas Franz, 167 Bowdoin, G. S., 77 Bripeman, H. L. My Life with the Eskimo (Review), 261—266 Broom, Rosert. Further Observations on South African Fossil Reptiles, 139-143 Broom, Robert, 43, 44, 137-138 Brown, Barnum, 48, 214, 269 Canadian Arctic Expedition, 80 Canal Zone, New Faunal Conditions in, 238-247 Cave exhibit, 168 si Carnegie Institution, 119 Chapin, James, 118, 269 Chapman, F. M., 271, 312 Cherrie, G. K., 213 Chichen Itza, 17-31 Choate, J. H., 170 Cole, F.-C., 47 Collecting in Cuba, 99-106 Congo Expeditions, 118, 269, 311 Contents, Table of, 1, 49, 81, 121, 169, 217, 273 Copper Deposits in Arizona, 201-206 Copper Queen mine model, 166, 216, 248-252 Crampton, H. E., 80, 216, 312 Crimmins, J. D., 48 Crocker Land Expedition, 78, 209-212, 270, 309- 310 Curtis, E. 8. Plea for Haste in Making Docu- mentary Records of the American Indian, 163-165 Cutting, R. F., 77, 269 Da Silva, Simoens, 272 Dawn Man of Piltdown, 188-200 Dean, BasHrorp. Fish Exhibits in the Ameri- can Museum, 32-35 Dickerson, M.C. Charles R. Knight — Painter and Sculptor of Animals, 82-98; Forestry in the State of New York, 221-224; New African Hall Planned by Carl E. Akeley, 175-187 Dodge, C. H., 269 Dolan, W. A., 214 Dovueuas, JAMES, Copper Deposits in Arizona, 201-206 Douglas, James, 166, 172, 248-252 Education, Public, 76-77, 269, 312 Ekblaw, W. E., 212 Elwyn, Adolph, 272 Eskimo, My Life with, 261-266 Eskimo, Prince Albert Sound, 264 Expeditions: Barnes-Kearton, 215; Arctic, 80; Central American, 271; Congo, 118, 269, 311; Crocker Land, 78, 209-212, 270, 309-310; Cuba, 99-106; Florida, 312; Panama, 238-247; Porto Rico, 80, 216, 312; Roosevelt South American, 78, 145-146, 213-214; South American, 269; Stefansson- Anderson, 270 Extinct mammal exhibit, 47 Canadian Finley, J. H., 46 Finsch collection, 119 Fish Exhibits in the American Museum, 32-35, 47, 120, 167 Fish of the Middle West, Some, 36-38 Fisher, G. C., 46 Flower, W. H., 6 Forestry, 221-224, 271 Fort St. John, 253 Fort Vermilion, 253-256 Fossil Reptiles, 136-143 Francis, H. R., 271 FRANKLIN, Dwicut, Some Fish of the Middle West, 36-38 Frick, H. C., 77 Gaffron, E., 119 Game Reservation, Hunt in, 66-68 Gifts, 43, 78, 80, 213, 311 313 314 Gopparp, P. E. Along Peace River, 253-260; New Storage Rooms, 73-75 Goddard, P. E., 44, 47, 78, 270 Granger, Walter, 44 Gratacap, L. P. Shell Collection in the Ameri- can Museum, 267-268 Greer, Dessie, 272 Green, Fitzhugh, 210 Grecory, W. K. The Dawn Man of Piltdown, England, 188—200 Gregory, W. K., 43, 78 Grossbeck, J. A., 214 Groups, Story of Museum, 2-15, 50-65 Hard, A. W., 213 Harriman, Mrs. E. H., 43 Harvey, Eli, 166 Health exhibits, 119 Hitchcock lectures, 43, 118 Hovey, E. O. Copper Queen Mine Model, 248— 252: News from the Crocker Land Expedi- tion, 309-310 Hovey, E. O., 46, 166, 168, 216 Howell, E. E., 119 Hundertpfund, Christian, 214 Hunt, H. J., 211 Huntington, A. M., 78 Hussakof, Louis, 78 Indians, American, 163-165; Arawak, 295-303; Beaver, 256; Slavey, 257, 258 Jamaica, Kitchen Middens of, 295-303 Jesup, M. K., 218-220 Jesup, Mrs. M. K., 219-220 Johnson, D. W., 47 Kaisen, P. C., 214 Keith, M. C., 310 Kingfishers, Review of the Classification of, 80 Kitchen Middens of Jamaica, 295-303 Knight, C. R., 43, 80, 82-98 Knight exhibit, 43 Lang, Herbert, 118, 269 Lanier, Charles, 269 Laysan Island group, 168 Lectures, 44, 47, 48 Lobster, 48 Loeb, Morris, 272 Lonec.LeEy, G. C. 295-303 Longley, G. C., 215 Lowie, R. H., 46, 47, 119, 269 Lucas, F. A., American Beaver, 123-135; Story of Museum Groups, 2-15, 50-65 Lucas, F. A., 48 Lutz, F. E. Collecting in Cuba, 99-106 Lutz, F. E., 312 Kitchen Middens of Jamaica, The MacCurpy, G. G. Maya Art and its Develop- ment, 107-111; Paleolithic Art as Repre- sented in the Collections of the American Museum, 225-237 Mackenzie, Alexander, 259 MacMillan, D. B., 78, 209-210, 212 Magee, Mrs. John, 215 Mason collection, 157-162 Maya Art, 16-31, 107-111 INDEX OF VOLUME XIV Meap, C. W., Ancient Pottery from Nasca, Peru, 207-208 Members, 43, 77, 118, 166, 213, 270, 311 Merriam, J. C., 46 Miller, L. E., 213, 269 Mitier, W. DeW. Importation of B:rds, 69-70 Miller, W. DeW., 80 Miner, R. W., 216, 312 Monaco, Prince, of, 173 Moose, Alaskan, 44, 45 Morgan, J. P., 77, 119, 269 Morgan, Mrs. J. P., 43 Morgan, T. H., 44 Murphy, R. C., 216 Museum Attendance, 44 Museum groups, Story of, 2-15, 50-65 Museum and the American People, 219-220 Museum Notes, 43-48, 77-80, 118-120, 166-168, 213-216, 269-272, 310-312 Museums, American Association of, 166 Mutchler, A. J., 312 Nasca pottery, 119, 207—208 New York Zoological Society, 78 Nichols, J. T., 216, 312 Oetteking, Bruno, 270 Oettinger, P. J., 80, 168 One Road, Amos, 119 Ossporn, H. F. The Broom Fossil Reptile Collec- tion, 136-138; The Museum and the Ameri- can People, 219-220 Osborn, H. F., 43, 46, 118, 166, 213, 270, 310, 311 Paleolithic Art, 225-237 Panama-Pacific Exposition, 311 Pasteur, Louis, 215 Peace River, Along, 253-260 Piltdown man, 43, 188-200 Polymastodon, 44 Porto Rico, Survey of, 80, 216, 312 Pottery, 168; Nasca, 119, 207-208 Proctor, A. P., 166 Rainey, P. J., 119, 216 Rasmussen, Knud, 270 Reeds, C. A., 46, 216, 272, 311 Resolutions to Professor Bickmore, 144 Richardson, W. B., 119 Rockefeller, William, 77 Rondon, Colonel, 171 Roosevelt South American Expedition, 78, 145- 146, 213, 214 Roosevelt, Theodore, 171, 213, 214; Patron of the American Museum’s Field Work in South America, 145-146 Sachs, P. J., 43 Schrammen collection, 272 Shackleton, Ernest, 271 Sharpe, R. B., 5 Shell collection, 267—268 Sherwood, G. H., 269 Shiras, George, 3d, 78 Skinner, Atanson. The Algonkin and the Thunderbird, 71-72; Charles S. Mason col- lection, 157-162 Skinner, Alanson, 46, 47, 119, 272 INDEX OF VOLUME XIV Somaliland, 112-117 SprnpeENn, H. J. A Chapter of Ancient American History, 16-31 Spinden, H. J., 46, 80, 271 Stefansson, V., 78, 80, 261—266, 270, 271 Stone Age, Men of the Old, 118, 310, 311 Storage rooms, 73-75 Store, Museum, 310 Thomas, A. E., 272 Thomson, Albert, 213, 269 Tower, R. W., 167 Trevor, J. B., 269 True, F. W., 271 Trustees, 77, 166, 213 VauGHan, A. L., The Blind in the American Mu- seum, 39-42; Teaching in the American Museum, 76-77 o15 Verreaux, Jules, 9 Visitors’ room, 78, 79 Warburg, Felix, 269 Watson, F. E., 272, 312 Whale collection, 274—294. Whales, 120, 167, 168 Williams, J. L., 43, 311 Wilson, G. L., 311 Winans, Water, Hunt in a Big Game Reserva- tion, 66-68 Winslow, C.-E. A., 48, 119, 168, 271 Wireless, 47 WIssLER, CLARK, Bandelier — Pioneer Student of Ancient American Races, 147-148 Wissler, Clark, 43, 44, 270, 311 Worcester, D. C., 48 Younghusband, F. E., 166, 215 POPULAR PUBLICATIONS OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY HANDBOOKS These deal with subjects illustrated by the collections rather than with the objects themselves. NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS OF THE PLAINS. By Cruark Wissusr, Ph.D. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents. INDIANS OF THE SOUTHWEST. By Puiny Eartr Gopparp, Ph.D. Paper, 25 cents; cloth, 50 cents. ANIMALS OF THE PAST. A popular account of some of the creatures of the Ancient World. By Freperic A. Lucas, Sc.D. Paper, 35 cents. ILLUSTRATED GUIDE LEAFLETS These describe some exhibit, or series of exhibits, of special interest or importance, or may deal with the contents of an entire hall. THE COLLECTION OF MINERALS. By Louis P. Gratacap, A.M. Price, 5 cents. NORTH AMERICAN RUMINANTS. By J. A. Atten, Ph.D. Price, 10 cents. THE ANCIENT BASKET MAKERS OF SOUTHEASTERN UTAH. By Georar H,. Pepper. Price, 10 cents. PRIMITIVE ART. Price, 15 cents. THE BATRACHIANS OF THE VICINITY OF NEW YORK CITY. By Raymonp L. Ditmars. Price, 15 cents. THE BIRDS OF THE VICINITY OF NEW YORK CITY. By Frank M. Cuapman, Sc.D. Price, 15 cents. PERUVIAN MUMMIES. By CuHarites W. MeEap. Price, 10 cents. THE METEORITES IN THE FOYER OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HIS- TORY. By Epmunp O7m1s Hovey, Ph.D. Price, 10 cents. THE HABITAT GROUPS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. By Frank M. CHapman, Sc.D. Price, 15 cents. THE INDIANS OF MANHATTAN ISLAND AND VICINITY. By Atanson SxInNER. Price, 10 cents. THE STOKES PAINTINGS REPRESENTING GREENLAND ESKIMO. Price, 5 cents. BRIEF HISTORY OF ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION. Price, 10 cents. TREES AND FORESTRY. By Mary Cynrtuia Dickerson, B.S. A new edition in course of prepa- ration. THE PROTECTION OF RIVER AND HARBOR WATERS FROM MUNICIPAL WASTES. By CuHarues-Epwarp Amory Winstow, M.S. Price, 10 cents. PLANT FORMS IN WAX. ByE.C.B. Fassett. Price, 10 cents. THE EVOLUTION OF THE HORSE. By W. D. Martruew, Ph.D., Price, 20 cents. REPRINTS Important Articles from the American Museum Journal. THE GROUND SLOTH GROUP. By W. D. Marruew, Ph.D. Price, 5 cents. METHODS AND RESULTS IN HERPETOLOGY. By Mary Cynruia Dickmrson, B.S. Price, 5 cents. THE WHARF PILE GROUP. By Roy W. Miner, A.B. Price, 5 cents. THE SEA WORM GROUP. By Roy W. Miner, A.B. Price, 10 cents. THE ANCESTRY OF THE EDENTATES. By W. D. Martuew, Ph.D. Price, 5 cents. ILLUSTRATED GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS New Edition issued December, 1914, 120 pages, 65 illustrations, many full page. Price 25 cents. REE TO MEMBERS FIFTEEN CENTS PER COPY American Museum of Natural History Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City BOARD OF TRUSTEES President Henry FAIRFIELD OSBORN First Vice-President Second Vice-President CLEVELAND H. DopGE J. P. Moraan Treasurer Secretary CHARLES LANIER ADRIAN ISELIN, JR. Tue Mayor or THE City or New YorK Tue COMPTROLLER OF THE City or NEw YorK THE PRESIDENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS ALBERT S. BICKMORE Mapison GRANT OGDEN MILLs FREDERICK F. BREWSTER Anson W. Harp Prercy R. PynE JoserH H. CHoaTE ARTHUR CuRTISS JAMES JouNn B. TREVOR Tuomas DEWITT CUYLER WALTER B. JAMES Feirx M. Warsure JAMES DouGuLas A. D. JUILLIARD GrorGE W. WICKERSHAM Seta Low EXECUTIVE OFFICERS Director Assistant Secretary Freperic A. Lucas GerorGE H. SHERWOOD Assistant Treasurer Tue Unitep States Trust Company or New YorkK The Museum is open free to the public on every day in the year. The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people, and it is in cordial codperation with all similar institutions throughout the world. The Museum authorities are dependent upon private subscriptions and the dues from members for pro- curing needed additions te the collections and for carrying on explorations in America and other parts of th Tous oleae 100 Associate Benefactors.......... 10,000 Benefactors (gift or bequest) $50,000 The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working collection of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and abroad. The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and_ holidays excepted — from 9 A.M. to5 P.M. The Museum Publications are issued in six series: Memoirs, Bulletin, Anthropologi- cal Papers, American Museum Journal, Guide Leaflets and Annual ee Information concerning their sale may be obtained at the Museum library. Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request by the department of public education. Teachers wishing to bring classes should write or telephone the department for an appointment, specifying the collection to be studied. Lectures to classes may also be arranged for. In all cases the best results are obtained with small groups of children. Workrooms and Storage Collections may be visited by persons presenting member- ship tickets. The storage collections are open to all persons desiring to examine specimens for special study. Applications should be made at the information desk. The Mitla Restaurant in the east basement is reached by the elevator and is open from 12 to 5 on all days except Sundays. Afternoon Tea is served from 2 to 5. The Mitla room is of unusual interest as an exhibition hall being an exact reproduction of temple ruins at Mitla, Mexico. THe AmerRICAN Museum JourNAL VoLuME XIV JANUARY, 1914 NuMBER 1 CONTENTS Cover, Photograph showing Group of Virginia Deer The work of Carl E. Akeley in the Field Museum, Chicago bo Frontispiece, Photograph of the American Robin Group.................. The first bird group in the American Museum he story of Museum Groups, Part I.........:...-.: Freperic A. Lucas 3 A history of the popular development of museums, a development which has changed these institutions from ‘‘the dreary exhibits of forty years ago’’ adapted only for the use of techni- cally trained scientists to ‘‘ the present realistic pictures of animal life’’ fitted for the pleasur- able instruction of all classes of people Illustrations from photographs of groups at present exhibited in the British Museum, Lon- don; Booth Museum, Brighton, England; United States National Museum, Washington; Field Museum, Chicago; Carnegie Museum, Pittsburg, and the American Museum, New York A Chapter of Ancient American History............. HERBERT J. SPINDEN 17 A brief review of the wonders of the ruined city Chichen Itza of Yucatan, ‘‘founded when the Huns under Attila were battling with the failing armies of Rome,’’ and ten centuries later sinking ‘‘into oblivion, while the English and French fought out the Hundred Years’ War’’ Illustrations from photographs taken at the site of the ruins by the Author Fish Exhibits in the American Museum.............. ... BASHFORD DEAN 33 Somes Hisheor thes Middle: West. 0). csc Sen ee 2 Dwicut FRANKLIN 37 The Blind in the American Museum...........4 Acnes LAIDLAW VAUGHAN 39 Pag EE IN GEESE fa St een Se Oe ee ns, Jee Se eee 43 Mary Cyrntruia Dickerson, Editor Published monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History. Terms: one dollar per year, fifteen cents per copy. Entered as second-class matter January 12, 1907, at the Post-Office at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress, July 16, 1894. Subscriptions should be addressed to the AMericAN Mussuu Journat, 77th St. and Central Park West, New York City. The Journal is sent free to all members of the Museum. AMERICAN ROBIN GROUP THE FIRST BIRD GROUP IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM The American robin group was mounted by Jenness Richardson in 1887. The wax leaves and flowers were made by Mrs. Mogridge, who introduced the work into the United States. This was the first of the very large series of bird groups now represented in the American Museum THe American Museum JourRNAL VoLuME XIV JANUARY, 1914 NuMBER 1 THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS Part I By Frederic A. Lucas * & &- Quaeque ipse [felicissima] vidi Et quorum pars [minor] fui HE many groups of animals in the de American Museum of Natural History represent many phases of what may be termed “the group question” and illustrate the various steps that have led from the dreary ex- hibits of forty years ago to the present realistic pictures of animal life. Twenty- five years ago, even, there was scarcely a group of animals, or a descriptive label, in any museum in the United States. It is to be noted that the qualifying adjective scarcely is used, for even twenty-five years ago there were a number of animal groups in our mu- seums, though it was still a moot ques- tion whether their display was a legiti- - mate feature of museum work, and the educational possibilities of such exhibits were realized by few. Museum authorities are somewhat conservative and as museums at first were mainly for the preservation of material for students, their educational value to the public was not considered. The principal object in mounting ani- mals, especially mammals, was to pre- serve them and put them in a condition to be studied atid compared one with~ another. Groups were not even thought of and, as Dr. Coues wrote as late as 1874: “‘Spread eagle’ styles of mount- ing, artificial rocks and flowers, etc., are entirely out of place in a collection of any scientific pretensions, or designed for popular instruction. Besides, they take up too much room. Artistic group- ing of an extensive collection is usually out of the question; and when this is unattainable, halfway efforts in that direction should be abandoned in favor of severe simplicity. Birds look best on the whole in uniform rows, assorted according to size, as far as a natural classification allows.’”’ The only use of groups was for a few private individuals and they were mainly heterogeneous assemblages of bright-plumaged birds brought together from the four quarters of the globe and shown simply because they were pretty. So far as we are aware, the introduc- tion of groups into public museums was due to the influence of an enthusiastic private collector, Mr. E. T. Booth, of Brighton, England, who devoted a large part of his life to making a collection of British birds, mounted in varied atti- tudes, with accessories that copied more or less accurately the appearance of the spot where they were taken. As Mr. Booth wrote, “the chief object has been to endeavor to represent the birds in situations somewhat similar to those in which they were obtained; many of the cases, indeed, being copied from sketches taken on the actual spots where the birds themselves were shot.” These groups were intended to be viewed from the front only and were arranged in cases of 3 q bw is ° ~ > 9 GROUP OF GOLDEN EAGLES Mounted in 1877 Booth Museum, Brighton, England. THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS 5 standard sizes, assembled along the side of a large hall. The collection, which was begun not far from 1858, was be- queathed to the town of Brighton in 1890, and is known as the Booth Mu- seum, and we earnestly hope that it may endure for many years to come. Montagu Brown of Leicester adopted the methods of Mr. Booth and a little later, through the instrumentality of R. Bowdler Sharpe, the first small “ habitat group” of the coot was installed in the British Museum. Now _ it rather interesting to note that some naturalists who are best known by their scientific work, and are usually regarded by the is ORES e R. BOWDLER SHARPE public as being of the dry-as-dust type, were among the earliest advocates of naturalistic methods in museum exhibits. Thus, to Dr. Sharpe, whose enduring monument is the British Museum Cata- logue of Birds, and to Dr. Gunther, best known for his systematic work on fishes, we are indebted for the introduction of groups into a great public museum and for obtaining for them the recogni- tion of a scientific institution of long standing. The installation of bird groups in the British Museum made good progress under the administration of Sir William Flower, who took especial interest in the ae Under whose auspices the first of the bird groups was installed in the British Museum ey ee. hn, SIR WILLIAM HENRY FLOWER DIRECTOR OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM FROM 1884 TO 1898 Sir William Flower probably did more than any other man to change the character of museum exhibits and make them attractive as well as instructive. He not only planned the exhibits and gave his personal attention to their installation, but in some instances he prepared the specimens himself. In this country like credit should be given to Dr. G. Brown Goode, who was an ardent admirer of Flower and his work in the British Museum 6 Robin redbreast group in the British Museum educational side of museums and in the introduction of exhibits that were at- tractive, as well as instructive, to the general visitor. The first group in the American Mu- seum, an Arab courier attacked by lions, was purchased in 1869 and shown in the old Arsenal building in Central Park, then the home of this institution. This group may have been theatrical and “bloody” but, as a piece of taxidermy, it was the most ambitious attempt of its day. Moreover it was an attempt to show life and action and an effort to arrest the attention and arouse the interest of the spectator, a most impor- tant point in museum exhibits. If you cannot interest the visitor you cannot 7 8 SINGS}tq ‘WUNosnIT olsoureD oy} Aq pouMo st 41 guosoid gy *AAONSTFT [RANJVN JO WINOsSNY UvoloUry oY} UT dnoas 4say oy} SVM SIT, “GOST JO UOIPISOdXT stivq oY} 1OJ ‘shivg ‘rnva11a 4 woswyy oy ye poyuNopy SNOI1 Ad GANMOVLILV YSAIYNOO daVeV Re ia eth taf JULES VERREAUX NATURALIST, TRAVELER, TAXIDERMIST 10 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL instruct him; if he does not care to know what an animal is, or what an object is used for, he will not read the label, be it never so carefully written. The Arab courier group was prepared under the supervision of Jules Verreaux, the French ornithologist and African traveler, for the Paris Exposition of 1867, where it was awarded a gold medal. This group may have suggested the combat between a lion and tiger, displayed in the Crystal Palace, or that, as well as a similar group It is worth noting here that the Maison Verreaux suggested to Professor Henry A. Ward the possibility of establishing a similar institution in the United States; whence the well-known Ward’s Natural Science Establishment at Rochester, New York. And we cannot help feeling that Ward’s Establishment had much to do with the history of animal groups. Hither came and hence departed many a man who directly or indirectly did much to advance the art of taxidermy and Group of the black-throated loon in the British Museum, one of the nesting groups of British birds formerly in the Calcutta Museum, may have originated independently. The last mentioned group illustrates the importance and effect of something that attracts attention: when the Dalai Lama visited the Calcutta Museum, it soon became apparent that he was look- ing for some particular object, and it later developed that this was the fighting lion and tiger whose fame had traveled “into far distant Tibet. make possible the existing order of things. Named according to the time of their coming, Hornaday, Webster, Wood, Critchley, Turner, Denslow, and Akeley were all graduates of the old Establishment. Perhaps some of them do not like to be considered as taxider- mists, but we can hardly call my friend Wood, whose birds lack nothing save voice and movement to make them seem alive, an animal sculptor, and we Group of orang-utans in the American Museum. Collected and mounted in 1880 by W. T. Horna- day. This was the first large mammal group in the American Museum [Manikin of excelsior and tow] This cut reproduced from a wood engraving in Harper’s Weekly, is a reminder of the time when half tones were unknown hope no one will take offense at being called a taxidermist. As there are so-called sculp- tors, who are mere makers of figures, and will be that, and that only, to the end of their days, so there are taxidermists, men like Akeley, Clark and Blaschke, who are sculptors in every sense of the word. And in some ways their task is more difficult than that of the sculp- tor who deals only with plastic clay, for the taxidermist has not merely to prepare his model, but to fit over it a more or less unyielding hide, a hide that does not conceal the defects of the model but has defects of its own to be hidden. Probably no one who has had actual experi- Papier-maché manikin for an orang-utan. By Remi Santens 11 African elephant Mungo in United States National Museum. Mounted by W. T. Hornaday in 1882 ence in mounting large mammals would question this, though probably few visitors realize the great progress that has been made in the mounting of animals, particularly large mammals. Not very many years ago animals were most literally stuffed — suspended head down- ward and rammed full of straw, often until they could hold no more. Then came the making of a manikin of tow and excel- sior; next the manikin of wire-netting and _papier- maché, and finally the modeling of the animal in The framework of Mungo clay, the molding of this THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS 13 in plaster, and the making of a light and durable form upon which the skin is deftly placed, copying the folds and wrinkles of life. If he who delves among books in various dead and living languages to decide which of the numerous many- syllabled names some small creature is rightly entitled to bear does not object to being called a taxonomist, he who works upon the skins of creatures great and small should not object to the right- ful name of taxidermist. So taxidermist let it be for the present, or until a better name is coined. The group of Arab and Lions was fol- lowed about a decade later, 1880, by the group of orangs collected by Hornaday, mounted by him shortly after his return from a two years’ collecting trip around the world and presented to the Museum by Robert Colgate. This again leads us to note that the energy of Dr. Hornaday had much to do with the formal introduction of animal groups into the American Museum of Natural History and recognition of their place in museum work, because Jenness Richardson was a pupil of Hornaday, and Rowley in turn a pupil of Richard- son and by them, and under their super- vision was begun the series of groups now justly famous. These early groups did not find their way into museums without protest as may be imagined from the remarks of Dr. Coues quoted on a previous page but in 1887 the first group of mammals was installed in the United States Na- tional Museum, and this was followed a year later by a large group of bison. The other day, when listening to the protest of a curator against the with- drawal of a certain group from exhibition, we wondered if he remembered another protest, against the introduction of a bone that a coyote might have some excuse for action. tantur. An important factor in the evolution of groups and their introduction into museums was the development of the art, for art it is, of making accessories, for without the ability to reproduce flowers and foliage in materials that would at once have the semblance of Verily tempora mu- reality, and endurance under the vicissi- tudes of temperature in the intemperate zone in which most museums are located, Manikin of wire cloth and papier-maché by Remi and Joseph Santens. Photograph to illustrate strength of modern manikin half the charm and value of groups would be lacking. For progress in this direction we are indebted primarily to the Messrs. Mintorn of London and their sister, Mrs. Mogridge, who devised methods and reproduced the foliage in the groups of birds in the British Mu- seum, and who later came to New York to carry on the same work for the small bird groups.! 1A description of these methods, improved upon by apt pupils is to be found in Plant Forms in Waz, Guide Leaflet No. 34, published by the American Museum. 14 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 1 — Lioness — an example of early work 2 — African lion mounted at the Maison Verreauwz about 1865 3 — African lion, Hannibal, mounted at the American Museum of Natural History by James L. Clarkin 1906. All three specimens are on exhibition in the American Museum at the present time The earliest bird groups in the Ameri- can Museum of Nat- ural History, the first of which was very appropriately the American robin, were made largely after those in the British Museum and _in- stalled each in a small case so as to be viewed on four sides. They thus differed from their prototypes in the Booth Museum which, as noted, were intended to be seen from one side only.? They were all eroups of small or moderate size and confined to species found within fifty miles of New York City. The time was not yet come, though it was near at hand, for the execution of the large naturalistic groups with which we are now familiar, and Museum officers and trustees would have hesitated to in- cur the time and cost involved in __ their preparation. 1 These early American Museum bird groups, thirty-four in number, have recently been brought together under the title of ““Local Birds ’’ in the west corridor of the second floor Ct trhesnjT UeolIeuy oy} ur sdnois petumetd oderdio4seut oy} ore ‘ATMO’ UyorAq 1099e] ott} ‘sdnoz8 esootu oy} pue UOstq WeoteMY ot, ‘“tWnosny URoWeUTY of} UT 4ySTUIIOprxey Jomo sve AUUT JOF ‘UOspreyory ssouuer AG 68ST UI poyUNoPy ‘aodn poAordty useq JoAeuU sey Yons se pue pojdte47e JoAo [eUTTUe Jo sofoads o[SuIS & JO sdnois seSiey oy} JO uo ST SIAL, dNOYD NOSIG NVOIHSAWV SHL AO NOILYOd TIVIWS 9T UONVIUSILUIO OIOMIOS YIM SuIpTIng poAsosord Ajouy e st AsoUUNU SuT[qured oy} Jo siaqueyo Jo osueI UreU OY, VZLI NASHOIHO LV .«SVPNOW,, HO AYANNOAN SJHL SO SNINY AHL AO NOILYOd A CHAPTER OF ANCIENT AMERICAN HISTORY By Herbert J. Spinden With photographs by the Author HE wreck of human handicraft AL touches the heart and none of us can fail to invest a ruined city with the purple haze of romance. At least it is safe to say that not a traveler in Yucatan and Central America but has been deeply stirred by the vestiges of ancient empire that le scattered through the jungle. The ruins of Chichen Itzé, long famous on account of their size, accessibility and healthful situation, have been explained by fanciful tales or wrapped in impene- trable mystery ac- cording to the mood or stock of informa- tion .of the person describing them. It does not detract from the wonder of this city or the grandeur of its buildings to say that the light of recorded history, somewhat faintly to be sure, shines upon its foun- dation, its periods of brilliancy and deca- dence and its final abandonment. But first let us view the monuments that time has spared. To visit Chichen Itz4, which is situ- ated in northern Yucatan not far from Valladolid, we leave the narrow gauge railroad at the station of Dzitas and then jolt for a never-to-be-forgotten fifteen miles over the solid limestone plain in a vehicle called a volan. This Atlantean figure carved from a single block. At Chichen Itza occur table altars, consisting of a flat stone carried upon the heads and hands of figures of this sort word volan means in Spanish “they fly”’ but judging by unhappy experience, “they leave the earth frequently and return with emphasis” would be a better etymology to follow. The volan is a high, two-wheeled cart which travels at top speed behind several mules. It has no seat for the passenger but instead a sort of box, hung from a stiff frame, in which he reclines. As this primitive trans- port lurches along the road, glimpses over the edge of the box may be caught of the tan- gled jungle on either hand with here and there a trail making off to some milpa or cornfield. Finally, when misused flesh and bone can hardly stand another bounce, we arrive at the vil- lage of Pisté with its little cluster of palm- thatched huts. . His mouth is very big. It is like a half-circle. The corners of his mouth turn up and almost meet his eyes and make you think he is laughing...... Another child writes of the hippopotamus, ‘He is so fat that he has a big rinkle in his neck.”” The spelling however is remarkably good for children, rinkle being the only mis- take in half a dozen compositions. For the blind children the visits to the Museum will be recognized from now on as part of their school work and will be made during school hours. There are more than one hundred blind children in the elementary schools, too many to deal with satisfactorily at one time. One-half of the classes will come to the Museum on the second Tuesday and the other half on the fourth Tuesday of the month. The same lecture will be re- peated, and will be given a third time to classes from Jersey City and Newark. In addition to natural history specimens and ethnographical material lent to the schools, we have prepared several small models of large mammals. There’has been a good deal of discussion on the use of small models with blind children, and in Mr. J. A. Charlton Deas’s admirable paper on the “Showing of Museums and Art Galleries to the Blind,” in a recent number of the Museums Journal of Great Britain, he and his associates deprecate the use of small models of animals. I took his arguments to some trained workers THE BLIND IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM 4] or the blind, with a wide experience, and we carried the discussion further than it had gone in England, and agreed that the small model should not be used alone, but that it is valu- able as supplementary to the examination of life-size mounted specimens of large mam- mals. The child forms a better conception of the animal as a whole, and of the proportion of its parts from the model which he can hold in his hands. His ad- justment to the conception of size may be trained, as is that of the sighted child when regard- ing maps, pictures or toys. The danger however of the first im- pression fixing an erroneous con- ception of size and texture is per- haps greater for the blind than for the normal child whose ad- justments are more rapid and constant. We propose therefore, both the life-size mount and the small model. The child shall first feel the actual spect- men, shall realize that it is large, hairy and so forth; then he shall take the model and study the appearance of the animal as a whole, and gain a more definite conception of its proportions. He may then study the mounted animal in detail. The blind children of the city are pitiably lacking in ‘‘back- ground.” The most common objects are unknown to them; teachers find that the appear- ance of domestic animals, ex- cept perhaps the cat or dog, is outside of their knowledge. The visit to the Museum means more than an _ hour’s instruction, more than the mere viewing of new objects, it means a change of environment, a stimulation of intellectual ex- pression, the appreciation of the socializing forces which go to pro- ’ duce public institutions for the distribution of knowledge and the betterment of life. A blind man epitomized the labor and purpose of science when he laid his hand on the enormous meteorite ‘Ahnighito”’ brought from far Greenland, and exclaimed, “And they took all that trouble to bring this big thing down here so we’d know there are such things.”’ The work with the blind was made possible through the be- quest of Phebe Anna Thorne and gifts in her name by her brothers, Jonathan and Samuel Thorne A NEW EXPERIENCE FOR SIGHTLESS CHILDREN American Museum furnishes an instructor for classes of blind children who are allowed >’’ with their hands the many interesting animals they read and talk about MUSEUM NOTES SincE the last issue of the JouRNAL the fol- lowing persons have been elected to member- ship in the Museum: Life Members, Messrs. 8S. C. Pirin, Cuartes T. RamspEN and CuHarLes B. WEBSTER; Sustaining Members, Dr. Epw1n BEER and Mr. Haroip C. WHITMAN; Annual Members, Mrs. ALBERT WINSTEN, Misses HELEN Louise JoHNSON, MARGUER- Ire T. Ler, CarotinE LeExow and Curis- TINA MurENnDEL and Messrs. CLINTON G. Appott, ANDREW K. ACKERMAN, WILLIAM C. ANDERSON, ALFRED L. Baker, 8S. HINMAN Birp, M. C. Bouvier, Oscar Faux, H. Luoyp Fousom, E. Howarp-Martin, Louis M. JosePpHTHaL, Rump A. KatHan, EpwArp V. Kittren, J. M. Kiern, Espen B. KNow1- Ton, Joun G. Livineston, DanreEL ALDEN Lorine, Jr., Ropert Encar McALLIsTER, Irvine E. Raymonp, AucustT Sarin, Gus- TAVE H. Scuirr, Max Scuuine, Davin Scuwas, Rospert R. Sizer, FRED STERNBERG, JULIUS STERNFELD, JOHN FRANCIS STRAUSS, Maurice J. Strauss, H. M.Swerianp, T. B. Waaener, Mitton H. WaAtLENSTEIN, LEO WALLERSTEIN, WILLIAM Dr H. WASHINGTON, JOHN CALDWELL WELWoop and JAcoB WERTHEIM. A CONFERENCE on the Piltdown skull and the origin of man was held by the Section of Biology, New York Academy of Sciences on January 12. Professor Osborn reviewed the succession of the early human types showing their relations to the alternating advances and retreats of the great continental glacier in Europe. Dr. J. Leon Williams then sum- marized the present knowledge of the already famous Piltdown skull. He was inclined to side with Professor Keith’s reconstruction of the skull, which implies a high brain volume. Dr. Robert Broom on the other hand defended Smith Woodward’s reconstruction which as- signs a low brain volume to this very old type. The discussion brought out the fact that the lower jaw found with this skull is more like that of an orang-utan, while the skull frag- ments are typically human. Dr. W. K. Gregory gave a series of views showing the base of the cranium in various families of Primates including man. Heemphasized the idea that whether the Piltdown man had a large brain or a small brain the evidence for man’s relationship with the old world mon- keys and apes was long since made conclusive and new lines of evidence are continually coming to light. He showed that the de- tailed characters at the base of the skull in man agree fundamentally with those of the Old World Primates. Dr. Williams’ interesting collection of casts of human and prehuman skulls were exhib- ited. This collection brings together casts of all the famous fossil skulls of Europe and illustrates the stages leading from the apelike Pithecanthropus through the Ne- anderthal stage with low brows and retreat- ing forehead and sloping chin up to the Cro- Magnon or low palolithic stage with highly developed brain case and well-formed chin. This collection will be on view for a short time in the hall of fossil mammals. Mr. and Mrs. Paut J. Sacus have estab- lished a fund to be known officially as the Angelo Heilprin Exploring Fund. The money is given in memory of Angelo Heilprin and is to be applied each year to any exploring pur- pose the Museum authorities deem fitting. Dr. Cuark WIssLER, curator of the de- partment of anthropology, was elected vice- president of Section H of the American Asso- ciation for the Advancement of Science at the Atlanta meeting in December. Proressor HENRY FAIRFIELD OssBorNn will deliver the Hitchcock lectures at the University of California from February 16 to 20 inclusive. The subject of the series will be the “Antiquity of Man.” Mr. CuHarzes R. Knicut will hold during the month of February, a special exhibition of his work in the west assembly hall of the Museum. The sculptures and paintings exhibited will include not only examples of his restorations of extinct animals and de- signs for mural decorations for the hall of fossil vertebrates in the Museum, but also many representative illustrations of his work as a sculptor and painter of modern animals. Various bronzes and canvases belonging to Mrs. J. P. Morgan, Mrs. E. H. Harriman, Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn and others have been especially loaned for the exhibit. 43 44 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL THe attendance at the Museum during 1913 exceeded by 19,000 the attendance of the previous year. Dr. Rospert Broom, as has been announced in previous numbers of the JoURNAL, has been spending some months at the American Mu- seum for the purpose of studying and com- paring the ancient Permian reptiles of South Africa and the United States. The results of his work published in the Museum Bulletin and more briefly noticed in the JOURNAL, form an important addition to scientific knowledge of these animals. His splendid private collection has been purchased for the Museum and will when completely prepared and mounted afford an exhibit of these ancient and peculiar reptiles, no less remarkable and instructive than the Texas Permian collec- tions of which the Museum has been justly proud. A preliminary exhibit of a few se- lected specimens from the Broom collection has been placed on exhibition in the case opposite the elevator, on the fourth floor. Dr. Rosert Broom will sail for Scotland on January 24. In the work that he has been doing in America reference may be made to his redescription of the pectoral fin of Sauripteris taylort. This was a specimen that belonged to the Hall collection and was origi- nally described in 1843. He points out that it throws new light on the origin of the five- fingered limb from the fish’s fin. Also he has made a study of a number of the American Permian reptiles and has at present in press a paper in which he points out the affinities of these early American types with the South African. Mr. WALTER GRANGER as a result of his expedition to New Mexico last summer brought to the Museum a finely preserved skull of Polymastodon discovered by Dr. W. J. Sinclair of Princeton. This is one of the ‘‘Multituberculates,’’ mammals found chiefly in the ancient formations of the Age of Reptiles. Very little of these animals has been known except for the jaws and teeth and their relationship has been much disputed. With the additional evidence fur- nished by this specimen, the conclusion is given by Dr. Robert Broom, who has de- scribed it, that they are related to the Monotremes or egg-laying mammals of Aus- tralia and New Guinea, which are perhaps their degenerate descendants. Polymasto- don was originally described by Cope and the type specimens are in the American Museum. It was at first thought to be allied to the mar- supial group. Later Cope suggested its affinities with egg-laying mammals of Aus- tralia. Still later scientific opinion swung back to the old idea that it was marsupial. This new skull shows conclusively that it is not at all allied to the marsupials but that in confirmation of Cope’s views and of those long held by Dr. Broom, it is probably fairly nearly allied to the egg-laying mammals. Tue lectures on ‘Heredity and Sex’ de- livered in the spring of 1913 as the Jesup Lectures at the American Museum of Natural History by Thomas Hunt Morgan, Ph.D., professor of experimental zodlogy at Colum- bia University, have recently appeared in book form from the Columbia University Press. THE installation of the Alaskan moose at the entrance to the hall of North American mammals places this magnificent animal, the giant of the deer family, in an appropriate position, where it forms a fitting introduction to the fauna of North America. It also dis- plays the light, metal-framed case at its best, showing how great size may be combined with extreme lightness. The case, measuring 6x10 x 10 feet, is one of the largest of its kind that ever has been constructed, yet its frame of bronze is only seven-eighths of an inch in width. This style of case is indeed admira- bly adapted for the display of large single specimens, there being just enough frame to individualize the object—as a line around the title of a pamphlet gives it character. Perhaps for wall cases however and for large open groups a wooden case, or at least one with a fairly heavy frame, is better, giving the objects the appearance of being better protected or shut off from the surrounding objects of the hall. At the meetings of the American Anthro- pological Association held at the Museum from December 29 to 31 the following papers were read by members of the Museum’s staff: “The Horse and the Plains Culture,’ Dr. Clark Wissler; ‘Wayside Shrines in North- western California,’ Dr. P. E. Goddard, also ‘‘Is there Evidence, other than Linguis- tic, of Relationship between the Northern AT ENTRANCE TO HALL OF NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS The moose was mounted in 1902 by Mr. Ernest Smith. The new case in which it is at present exhibited is the largest metal case with sides of a single piece of glass ever constructed. The case measures about 10 by 6 feet with a height of 10 feet. The bindings are made of extruded metal, not rolled like steel nor forged like iron but extruded by hydraulic pres- sure through a die which forms the bottom of a crucible. The sections are held together by clasps and the whole can be taken apart,and reassembled in very short time. The case is absolutely dustproof 46 and Southern Athapascans?’’ by Dr. Goddard; “‘Phratries, Clans, Moieties,’’ Dr. Robert H. Lowie; ‘‘The Social, Political and Religious Organization of the Tewa,”’ Dr. H. J. Spinden; “The Cultural Position of the Plains Ojib- way,” Mr. Alanson Skinner; ‘‘The Crow Sun Dance,” Dr. Robert H. Lowie; “Home Songs of the Tewa Indians,” Dr. H. J. Spinden; ‘‘Some Aspects of the Folklore of the Central Algonkin,”’ Mr. Alanson Skinner. Among the noted anthropologists who at- tended the meetings of the American Anthro- pological Association at the Museum in December were Professor Roland B. Dixon of Harvard, Dr. Berthold Laufer of the Field Museum, Chicago, Professor Hiram Bingham and Professor George Grant MacCurdy of Yale University, and Dr. John R. Swanton, Dr. T. Michelson, Dr. William H. Holmes, Dr. Walter Hough and Dr. A. Hrdlicka of Washington. Dr. E. O. Hovey and Dr. CHEsTser A. ReEeEps represented the department of geology at the annual meetings of the Geological Society of America and the Paleontological Society which were*held at Princeton Uni- versity in December. At the December meeting of the Section of Biology, New York Academy of Sciences, Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn led a dis- cussion on unit characters as they appear to the paleontologist. His researches on the extinct Titanotheres and on the recent and extinct horses had revealed two kinds of char- acters: first, allometrons, progressive changes of proportion occurring through long periods, resulting for example in very long skulls or very broad skulls or in the lengthening of one part as compared with another; second, rectigradations, characters which appear in an almost invisible degree as new characters, such as the additional cusps which develop in the molar teeth of herbivorous animals; these characters generally advance steadily toward a culminating or extreme form. These he thought possibly of the same nature as unit characters of the experimentalist and inherited according to the Mendelian ratio. A discussion followed in which Professors Morgan, Broom, Davenport and Osborn took part. THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL Dr. E. O. Hovey and Dr. G. Crype FiIsHEeR were the delegates representing the Museum in Albany at the inauguration of Dr. John H. Finley as president of the Uni- versity of the State of New York and State Commissioner of Education. TuroucH Dr. Ambrosetti the American Museum has acquired a very considerable archeological collection from Argentina, representing the ancient culture known as Calchaqui or Diaguito-Calchaqui. The col- lection comes from two localities. That from the valley of Santa Maria, Province of Cata- marca, contains about fifty pieces of pottery including six of the large and beautiful burial jars characteristic of that region. The bal- ance is from ruins on the island of Tilcara, Province of Jujuy, and consists of pottery vessels and many implements of stone and bone. The collection comes as an exchange with the Museo Ethnografico de la Facultad de Filosofia y Letras of Buenos Aires. Dr. JoHN C. MerriaM, head of the depart- ment of paleontology of the University of California, visited the Museum during Janu- ary for the purpose of comparative study of some of our fossil vertebrate collections. Dr. Merriam has forwarded to the Museum a valuable installment of the series of skulls and skeletons from the asphalt deposits of Rancho-la-Brea, near Los Angeles, which we are to receive in exchange from the University of California. The first installments received some time ago have enabled us to illustrate in the “asphalt group” the extraordinary manner in which these animals came to be preserved as fossils. The present installment is intended for the series showing the various kinds of animals (all extinct species) pre- served. It consists of complete skeletons of the great wolf (Canis dirus) and sabre-tooth tiger (Smilodon californicus) and skulls of the lion (Felix atrox var. bebbi) and horse (Equus occidentalis). The wolf is notably larger than the largest living timber wolves to which it is nearly related. The sabre-tooth tiger, one of the most remarkable of all extinct beasts of prey, is considerably smaller than the great Pampean species of South America, but equals the existing lions and tigers in size, although very different in appearance and habits. It was especially adapted to prey upon large powerful and thick-skinned beasts, using its great dagger-tusks to pierce through MUSEUM NOTES 47 their thick hides and protecting coats of hair. The lion is closely related to the lions and tigers of to-day, but of much larger size, comparing in this particular with the great brown bears of Alaska, the largest living Carnivora. It seems to have been much like the modern lion in appearance and habits, although it is not known whether it had a mane. The horse is also anear relative of the living species and about as large as an average domestic carriage horse. This gigantic extinct lion is comparatively rare among the asphalt fossils and the horse is not very common. The selection of these fine specimens for our collections by the Uni- versity of California is therefore very highly appreciated. The skulls and skeletons are among the finest of their kind that have been secured from the La Brea deposits. A WIRELESS receiving set has been secured and is now being used daily at the Museum for getting the noontime signal from the Naval Observatory at Washington through the great radio station at Arlington. On January 26 Mr. Fay-Cooper Cole will give an illustrated lecture on ‘‘The Wild Tribes of Mindanao” before the American Ethnological Society and the Section of Anthropology and Psychology of the New York Academy of Sciences. AurHouGH the Museum through its public lectures reaches a large number of people, it does not perhaps reach in this way the stu- dents who are in search of more technical knowledge in those fields which do not lend themselves readily to popular presentation and illustration by lantern slides. To those students the Museum opens its library, its study collections, its exhibition halls and renders assistance by guide leaflets, hand- books and scientific writings but in order to be of more service a course of lectures which are not illustrated and which are intended for those especially interested along the lines of social organization of primitive people has been arranged. On January 8 and 15, Dr. Robert H. Lowie will speak on “Social Organization”; on January 22, Dr. Pliny E. Goddard will speak on “Religious Observ- ances” and on January 29, on ‘Religious Beliefs.” Tue American Museum of Natural History and the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society announce a lecture to be given January 14 at the Museum by Dr. Douglas Wilson Johnson on ‘The Scenery of the Atlantic Coast and its Answer to the Question: Is the Coast Sinking?” On January 27 in the east assembly hall of the Museum, Mr. Alanson Skinner will speak before the Linnean Society of New York on the Cree and Ojibway Indians of Saskatchewan. Mr. Skinner visited these tribes in 1913 securing valuable information along the lines of folklore and material culture. SEVERAL interesting fishes have recently been mounted in the Museum laboratories by Mr. Thomas Bleakney, and placed on exhibi- tion in the systematic collection. Among these is a peculiar spotted South American catfish with much flattened head and very long barbels (Brachyplatystoma filamentosum). South America is the home of many different catfishes. Some have the appearance of the whiskered horned pout of North America; others are variously encased in coats of mail, while still others are especially adapted to clinging to the beds of swift mountain tor- rents. Another abundant South American family, the Characins, is in some respects intermediate between catfish and carp, but the typical representatives look and act more like large-scaled trout. Hrythrinus erythrinus is an Amia-like Characin which has recently been placed on exhibition, as has also Stern- archorhynchus curvirostris, with elephant-like snout or trunk. This latter species belongs to an allied group of eel-like fishes. Two specimens of the swellfish common in salt water near New York, have likewise been prepared. One shows the fish in its normal condition, the other as it appears after having inflated itself, a strange habit doubtless use- ful in intimidating its enemies. ADDITIONS and rearrangements now under way will notably increase the interest of the exhibit of South American extinct mammals (fourth floor, south pavilion). To the ground sloth group is added a fifth skeleton of Sceli- dotherium, the long-skulled ground sloth. It differs from the more common Mylodon in that the head is long and narrow, probably prolonged in life into a slender snout as in the modern anteaters, while the body is peculiarly short and almost globular. The new glypto- 48 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL dont group shows three of these so-called tortoise-armadillos. The largest and most complete is the Panochthus of Argentina, of which the carapace, head and tail have hereto- fore been on exhibition in a separate case. The limbs and feet are now placed in position and add to the oddity of its make-up. The massive powerful hind legs support the main weight of the body. The fore limbs show that the animal walked upon the tips of the claws like the little modern armadillos, instead of resting upon the sole of the forefoot, as one might expect in a beast so massively pro- portioned. A remarkably’ perfect carapace found in Mexico two years ago by Mr. Barnum Brown, is now exhibited for the first time. The third and smallest glyptodont is from northern Texas, found by Mr. J. W. Gidley in 1901, and has been on exhibition separately in a case. This wonderful extinct fauna, so different from those of the rest of the world, is further illustrated by the magnificent sabre-tooth tiger skeleton, the casts of skeletons of Toxodon, Macrauchenia and Hippidium (the last to be transferred from the horse evolu- tion aleove) and a large series of skeletons, skulls, limbs, etc. of the various extinct ani- mals characteristic of South America already emplaced or in preparation for the walls and table cases. THE recent acquisition by the New York Aquarium of a lobster weighing twenty-one pounds calls to our attention the fact that the American Museum has the largest known mounted specimens of lobsters in the world, one weighing when caught thirty-four pounds and the other thirty-one. Both were caught off Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey, in 1897. Although they are abnormal as to size, they seem to be perfectly normal in every other way, their proportions being not at all out of the ordinary. The specimens are exhibited in the Darwin hall of the department of invertebrate zodlogy. Mr. Joun D. Crimmins has recently presented to the Museum a large mounted specimen of the rare silver-fish Hynnis cubensis taken at Palm Beach, Florida, in February, 1913. Dr. C-E. A. Wrinstow delivered the presi- dential address before the Society of Ameri- can Bacteriologists in Montreal, Canada, January 1, 1914, on the “Characterization and Classification of Bacterial Types.’’ Dr. Winslow together with Prof. J. G. Adami of Montreal and Prof. E. O. Jordan of Chicago have been appointed members of an Inter- national Commission on the Classification of Bacteria, which is now being organized. It is hoped that the American Museum collec- tion of living bacteria will prove of peculiar value in the work of this commission. Tue following lectures to take place on Thursday evenings at 8:15 have been ar- ranged for the Members’ course: February 5, “Among the Wild Tribes of the Philippine Islands,’’? Dean C. Worcester; February 19, “Seals and Other Animals of the Pribilof Islands,’’ Frederic A. Lucas and Roy C. Andrews; February 26, “Fertile Argentina and its Vast Patagonian Pampas,” Charles W. Furlong; March 5, “‘The Ascent of Denali (Mount McKinley),’”’ Archdeacon Stuck; March 12, “Mexico and Her People,”’ Fred- erick I. Monsen. Tue children’s course of lectures open to all school children who are accompanied by their teachers and to children of members on the presentation of a membership ticket has been arranged as follows: March 2, ‘‘The Coming of Columbus,” Agnes L. Vaughan; March 4, ‘‘Geography of the United States,” G. Clyde Fisher; March 6, ‘‘The Panama Canal,” Agnes L. Vaughan; March 9, ‘Exploration of the West,” Agnes _ L. Vaughan; March 11, “River Highways,” G. Clyde Fisher; March 13, ‘‘Glimpses of South America,’ Charles H. Rogers; March 16, “Settlement of New England,’ Roy W. Miner; March 18, “The Mountains,” Albert E. Butler; March 20, ‘Scenes in Asia,’”’ G. Clyde Fisher; March 23, ‘Inside the Indian’s Wigwam,” Alanson Skinner; March 25, ‘‘The Great Plains,’”? G. Clyde Fisher; March 27, ‘‘A Summer Trip to Europe,” Agnes L. Vaughan; March 30, “Barly History of New York,” Roy W. Miner; April 1, “Our Great Northern Territory,” Agnes L. Vaughan; April 17, ‘‘ African Desert and Jungle,’ G. Clyde Fisher; April 20, “New York City To-day,’’ Roy W. Miner; April 22, “The Forests of Our Country,” George H. Sherwood; April 24, ‘Mexico and Central America,’’ Charles H. Rogers. The hour of the lectures is four o’clock.. Scientific Staff DIRECTOR FrepEeric A. Lucas, Se.D. GEOLOGY AND INVERTEBRATE PALHONTOLOGY Epmunpb Otis Hovey, Ph.D., Curator CuEsTER A. Reeps, Ph.D., Assistant Curator MINERALOGY L. P. Gratacap, A.M., Curator GeorcE F. Kunz, Ph.D., Honorary Curator of Gems INVERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY Henry E. Crampton, Ph.D., Curator Roy W. Miner, A.B., Assistant Curator Frank EK. Lutz, Ph.D., Assistant Curator L. P. Gratacap, A.M., Curator of Mollusca Joun A. GrossBEck, Assistant A. J. Mutcuurr, Assistant Wii1i1aAM Morton WHEELER, Ph.D., Honorary Curator of Social Insects Aaron L. TREADWELL, Ph.D., Honorary Curator of Annulata Cuarues W. Lene, B.S8., Honorary Curator of Coleoptera ICHTHYOLOGY AND HERPETOLOGY BasHFrorD Deran, Ph.D., Curator Emeritus Louis Hussaxor, Ph.D., Curator of Ichthyology Joun T. Nicuots, A.B., Assistant Curator of Recent Fishes Mary Cynruia Dickerson, B.S., Associate Curator of Herpetology MAMMALOGY AND ORNITHOLOGY J. A. Atuen, Ph.D., Curator Frank M. Cuapman, Se.D., Curator of Ornithology Roy C. Anprews, A.M., Assistant Curator of Mammalogy W. DeW. Miter, Assistant Curator of Ornithology. VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY Henry Farrriputp Osporn, Se.D., LL.D., D.Se., Curator Emeritus W. D. Martruew, Ph.D., Curator WALTER GRANGER, Associate Curator of Fossil Mammals Barnum Brown, A.B., Associate Curator of Fossil Reptiles Wiui1am K. Grecory, Ph.D., Associate in Paleontology ANTHROPOLOGY CLARK WISsSLER, Ph.D., Curator Puiny E. Gopparp, Ph.D., Curator of Ethnology Rospert H. Lowrie, Ph.D., Associate Curator HERBERT J. SPINDEN, Ph.D., Assistant Curator Nets C. Nextson, M.L., Assistant Curator CuHarLes W. Mean, Assistant Curator ALANSON SKINNER, Assistant Curator Harwan I. Smrru, Honorary Curator of Archeology ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY RaueH W. Tower, Ph.D., Curator PUBLIC HEALTH CHARLES-Epwarp Amory Winstow, M.S., Curator IsRAEL J. Knicier, B.S., Assistant WOODS AND FORESTRY Mary Cyntata Dickxrerson, B.S., Curator ‘ BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS RaueH W. Tower Ph.D., Curator Ipa RicHarpson Hoop, A.B., Assistant Librarian PUBLIC EDUCATION ALBERT S. Bickmore, Ph.D., LL.D., Curator Emeritus Grorce H. SHerwoop, A.M., Curator G. CriypE Fisuer, Ph.D., Assistant Curator Acnges LamipLaw VAUGHAN, Assistant pl e 1 + ~~ hlUre Any 4 ‘ ate - . uw +4 Pr bee 4 * t = A He Ko age 2 * 3 . ’ e ‘ b 4 aS . : bir oe, Qe é oe pet oe ee a? . > onic? KS tet Ke ~ ere! > Pw. % * “f of et Pee RVing tartrene, beret toy TS ‘ + i” “ * ° . b Set 7 ces, : ry ape Gt “ ¢ oe : t = y 7 ’ =e : : =< c Z t . : : . ’ aw n ’ , y ts Zz vias Rs — a 7? Bos a 4 Pui one h ~ Pa ik pee x - . i i t ee “ee * eit: + .¢.% his " : Bige as © DR re Cail ee coat m™ oO. ; a “4 gut 5 ig “ aie “ew: a Bikes . ae Fs bet ah - * Sas {2 rD et ore: . i, res ~ . a yO Bees Ata “he Ae ie Sa aa rt eae “Se 565 ROR; pa yt * * ia nae é Pha ne Fa . er : Re ear oe a 2 REE TO MEMBERS . FIFTEEN CENTS PER COPY American Museum of Natural History ’ Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City . BOARD OF TRUSTEES President Henry FAIRFIELD OSBORN First Vice-President Second Vice-President CLEVELAND H. DopGE J. P. Morgan Treasurer Secretary CHARLES LANIER ADRIAN ISELIN, JR. Tue Mayor or THE City or New York Tuer COMPTROLLER OF THE City or NEw YORK THE PRESIDENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS GrorGce F. BAKER Henry C. Frick Seta Low ALBERT 8S. BICKMORE Mapison GRANT OagpEN MILLS FREDERICK F. BREWSTER Anson W. Harp Percy R. Pyne. JosEPH H. CHOATE ArcHER'M. Huntincton JoHN B TREVOR R. Futton Cutrtine ARTHUR CuRTISS JAMES Fevix M. WarBuRG Tuomas DeWitt CuyLerR WALTER B. JAMES GrorcEe W. WICKERSHAM JAMES DovuGuLas A. D. JUILLIARD EXECUTIVE OFFICERS Director Assistant Secretary Freperic A. Lucas GeEorGE H. SHERWOOD Assistant Treasurer Tue Unitep States Trust Company or New York The Museum is open free to the public on every day in the year. The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people, and it is in cordial codperation with all similar institutions throughout the world. The Museum authorities are dependent upon private subscriptions and the dues from members for pro- curing needed additions to the collections and for carrying on explorations in America and other parts of the world. The membership fees are, Ammnual MIGEMDErs.c).<) 211s sles ris we oie $ 10 INCL OWS 5.0. 2\eis,0suvjole ae teeaicvenr Sree ene $ 500 Sustaining Members (Annual)..... 25 IPAALODS 2, Setersis\cpez.sreisterdvawinie anette 1000 MoIRE”INEGMUDCIS or ciateirecene! steleieheve sis «clure 100 Associate Benefactors.......... 10,000 Benefactors (gift or bequest) $50,000 The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working collection of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and abroad. The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and _ holidays excepted — from 9 A.M. to5 P.M. The Museum Publications are issued in six series: Memoirs, Bulletin, Anthropologi- cal Papers, American Museum Journal, Guide Leaflets and Annual Report. Information concerning their sale may be obtained at the Museum library. Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request by the department of public education. Teachers wishing to bring classes should write or telephone the department for an appointment, specifying the collection to be studied. Lectures to classes may also be arranged for. In all cases the best results are obtained with small groups of children. Workrooms and Storage Collections may be visited by persons presenting member-- ship tickets. The storage collections are open to all persons desiring to examine specimens for special study. Applications should be made at the information desk. The Mitla Restaurant in the east basement is reached by the elevator and is open from 12 to 5 on all days except Sundays. Afternoon Tea is served from 2 to 5. The Mitla room is of unusual interest as an exhibition hall being an exact reproduction of temple ruins at Mitla, Mexico. Tue AmericAN Museum JouRNAL VotumEe XIV FEBRUARY, 1914 NUMBER 2 CONTENTS Cover, “Tiger and Cobra”’ Half tone showing portion of canvas by Charles R. Knight Frontispiece, Fishes of a Coral Reef Photograph of a group in the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences The Story oho Marsenm: Groups: Part TL 25. cae oe Freperic A. Lucas 51 A continuation of the history of museum exhibition, with illustrations from photographs of some of the most famous groups of recent construction Pring in a, bie (Game Reservations... ests hale 2 e's WaLTER WINANS 67 In Pilowin Forest, Estate of Count Josef Potocki, Volhynia, Russia. With photograph of the largest bull aurochs ever recorded MEME FIOM “Ole IS INAS isan Seale Sid ws hs hale ace Vw eel sees W. DEW. MILLER 69 Authoritative account of the annual importation into the United States of 800,000 living birds for use in zodlogical parks and private aviaries and for sale by bird-dealers ie sleonkin. and the Thunderbird }. 5... ...0.002. Yad ALANSON SKINNER 71 Rarer Stare” NM OONIS 2.5 ayes crane a Oss sade ened ee an Soe Puwny E. Gopparp 73 How the museum has planned to preserve its valuable historical collections for the use of future generations ‘Teaching in the American Museum............./ AGNES LAIDLAW VAUGHAN 76 (EIS TL SP aye a aS Rn a ae RP RC tere ano dE Hip Mary OCyntaia Dickerson, Edttor Published monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History. Terms: -one dollar per year, fifteen cents per copy. Entered as second-class matter January 12, 1907, at the Post-Office at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress, July 16, 1894. Subscriptions should be addressed to the AMertcaAN Museum Journal, 77th St. and Central Park West, New York City. The Journal is sent free to all members of the Museum. LOGI ‘UIEIM *f POTTY ‘II A ‘soduOIDg pu Sy Jo oINIYSUT UAPOOIg oy} Jo UAHosN IA 944 UT 433Y IWHOO V 4O S3HSI4 THe American Museum Journat VoLuME XIV FEBRUARY, 1914 NUMBER 2 THE STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS Part II By Frederic A. Lucas NCE admitted into museums, a () precedent established, and in- trenched behind the bulwarks of high scientific authority, groups slowly found their way into all muse- ums and their scope extended to all branches of natural history as fast as opportunity offered and the skill of the preparator would permit. Birds lend themselves more readily to groups than does any other class of animals; they combine beauty of form, pose and color with moderate size that permits ease of handling. Hence birds naturally were chosen for the first museum groups and bird groups still predominate. Just as naturally mammals followed birds and from mice to elephants have furnished many notable groups and many triumphs — and failures — for the taxidermist. After mammals came any- thing that the taxidermist or modeler could master—reptiles, fishes, insects and other invertebrates, and last of all plants, which copied by modern methods are ever green and may be made to show their adaptations to environment and interrelations to varying conditions of soil, climate and surroundings. Yea, the group idea has even been carried into the dim and distant past and in the hall of fossils one may behold a ghostly group of great ground sloths, or farther on, Allosaurus feeding upon Brontosaurus. And the ground sloths passed out of existence thousands of years ago and Allosaurus has not felt the pangs of hunger for over six million years! Fishes offer some of the most difficult problems; not only does their expression depend almost entirely upon their atti- tudes, but in many cases there is little of interest in their habits or small beauty in their surroundings, when they have any. And added to all these things is the ever present difficulty of making a fish suspended in air look as though he were swimming in water. Furthermore in the character of their integument, fishes and amphibians furnish a practi- cally insurmountable problem in the way of mounting, which has led to much friendly discussion as to whether it is better to show a stuffed specimen that does not at all resemble the living animal or a cast that cannot be distinguished from it. In this instance the writer is entirely on the side of those who offer “some- thing just as good,” believing firmly that the object of exhibits is to hold the mirror up to nature and let it reflect an image of nature as she looks when alive, not as she appears when dead and shriveled. And if a cloth leaf and a glass eye are 51 52 THE AMERICAN M allowable, why not a wax frog and a celluloid fish? One of the first efforts in the line of fish groups, that by Mr. Alfred J. Klein in the Brooklyn Museum, showing the fishes of a coral reef, is one of the best, partly from the nature of the subject, which affords more scope for attractive surroundings than is usually presented. And while the credit for this group, pre- pared in 1907, is entirely due to Mr. Klein, yet it really dates from a memo- randum written in 1893 after an inter- view with Dr. Goode, “make a group of red snappers with natural surroundings.” It embodies principles, carried to great the habitat groups, that perfection in USEUM JOURNAL were independently worked out in the construction of a group of octopus, form- ing part of the exhibit of the United States National Museum at the Chicago Exposition of 1893. Painted background connected with the foreground, rounded corners and overhead lighting were all used in this small group, and while in comparison with what has been done since, it now seems a very crude little affair, yet it contained the germs of the beautiful Orizaba group. The curved, panoramic background and overhead lighting — borrowed con- sciously or unconsciously from our cycloramas — permit the last touches in the way of illusion and control of light THE WHARF-PILE GROUP A new marine group in the American Museum made by Mr. I. Matausch and other preparators under the supervision of Mr. Roy W. Miner. Itshows the sponges, hydroids, sea anemones and other invertebrate animals with which wharf piles in favored localities are crowded below low-water mark Portion of the paddlefish group in the American Museum of Natural History regardless of the time of day. The octopus group embodied also another idea, brought to great perfection here by Miss Mary C. Dickerson, that of making a single mold serve for making many in- dividuals. In the octopus group the animals were cast in gelatin compound and bent into diverse attitudes; to-day casts are made in wax, warmed and worked into many poses; a case of the parallel development that occurs in methods as well as in nature. OCTOPUS GROUP This group was prepared by Dr. F. A. Lucas for the Chicago Exposition of 1893 and is at present in the United States National Museum. The animals were modeled in clay and cast in ‘‘cathcartine,”’ a mixture of glue and gelatin 53 54 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL The first bird groups, those in the British Museum and those here, were, if we may borrow a phrase once familiar, now almost obsolete, pre-Raphaelistic in their character — exact copies of the spot or surroundings where the animals The plants were counted and plotted on a diagram; sod, roots and shrubs were dug up and transported, often in the face of great difficulties, to were taken. the museum where the group was to be established, and there assembled in the \\ W Pr a exact and proper order of occurrence. The next step was the habitat group and here is where Dr. Frank M. Chap- man comes into the story, for it is to him that we owe the series of nature pictures known by that name. The habitat group does not copy nature slavishly, even though an actual scene forms the background; it aims to give a broad and graphic presentation of the conditions under which certain assemblages of bird life are found, to VIRGINIA DEER IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM Virginia deer, American Museum of Natural History, mounted by Mr. Carl E. Akeley in 1902. This is an example of work that has made modern taxidermy anart. The work of the taxidermist is in a way more difficult than that of the sculptor, that is he must not only make a model of the animal in lifelike pose, but must then with great art fit over this model the unyielding skin of the animal HOWLING MONKEYS In the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, mounted by Mr. J. William Critchley. It is a group whose main purpose is to show the varied attitudes of the animals. Such groups preceded the large naturalistic groups which combine artistic effect with instruction and so greatly enhance the educational value of museums bring home to the observer the atmos- phere and vegetation of some typical part of the country. But save in ex- ceptional cases, the foreground does not exactly reproduce any given bit of coun- try, although it does copy the plants and shrubs found there. How these groups were prepared, what journeyings by flood and field they involved is told by Dr. Chapman himself in Camps and Cruises of an Ornithologist and very briefly in the leaflet describing these groups. The 55 9¢ RG6ST Ul UeMdeYyO “A HUCIA “Iq JO WoTstAJodns off} Jopun wmMesn] UedfIoury otf} Ut epetr sem sty, ‘dnois patq oS1e] 4sI1g OTL dNOYD MOO" GHIg AHL Lg tmMmesnjT 949 jo siojeiedoid s0qy4o pue siajeg WeITIM “AW Aq pojyonsjsuop = ,,, Sdnois yeqiqey,, 94} JO jeordsy pue wmesny, Urolemry oy} Ul sdnois patq oy} Jo [ET6T] 9899"l CML dnowS VvaVvzidO AHL 8g wosIOyIC “O LIVIA SSTPAT JO WOIsTAodns oy} Jopun peyonsysuod sdnois Apngs oft JO sotses optydor oy} Jo 4Say oY} SBM QT “WMESNTAL 94} JO siojeredoid pure WMG “M ISOM ATT AQ TI6T Ul UNosNyT UROLeULy 94} UT poredoig dnowS )oYdsjTINd AHL _— ee Ee IOS TI AN 2] THE LOWER CALIFORNIA LIZARD GROUP The third of the series of reptile groups in the American Museum, built in 1913 by Mr. Frederick H. Stoll and other preparators of the institution under the supervision of Miss Mary C. Dickerson 59 The Laysan Island group made for the State University of Iowa by Mr. Homer R. Dill. This group shows a portion of the albatross rookery on the little island of Laysan where millions of birds find a home in the middle of the Pacific Ocean habitat groups thus involved a slight de- parture from nature, in that while the background depicted an actual scene, the foreground was often generalized and this involves the whole question of how far it is allowable to depart from actuali- ties. May we combine animals from different localities or show together those taken at different seasons? Shall we fabricate our soil and “fake” our trees? Personally the writer believes that all these things are permissible, with certain restrictions, nay, in some instances, must be done, not merely to make a group at all, but to enhance its educational value. For example, a bison in _ his winter coat may be introduced into a group with the mother and young and a baby moose placed with an antlered 60 bull — in no other way can you com- plete the life cycle and tell the whole story. Dr. Chapman found it physically impossible to bring away the water- soaked nests of the flamingos; Mr. Cherrie found equal difficulty with the sodden nests of the guacharo birds, while to carry off the cave in which they were found would have defied even Hercules in his prime. Here certainly, fabrica- tion is a necessity; and if so much, why not more? If we cannot import a tree from the forests of Venezuela, let us “adapt” an ironwood from Vermont, whereon a colony of howling monkeys may disport themselves. In this case it is the animals and not their surround- ings that are to be emphasized and the $$] eae SSS Sere eae} EE arr ar accessories are a matter of secondary importance, merely a setting. The first large group, the Bird Rock group, placed on exhibition in 1898, was not definitely planned as a_ habitat group, but merely as a picture of part of a famous and impressive bird colony and to make “a permanent record of this characteristic phase of island life.” The Cobb’s Island group was the next and the first real habitat group to be con- structed, this subject being chosen partly because it provided a large and interest- ing group at small expense. Year after year this series of groups has been extended, covering the country from east to west and north to south, until room is left for but one more and that, it is hoped, will include the bird life of the Arctic regions. The bullfrog and giant salamander groups, which are among the latest to be added to museum exhib- _ its, belong in still another category and may be termed synthetic, or life study groups, bringing together in one compos- ite picture a number of animals that probably would not be found in so small an area at any one moment of the season de- picted, but might all be found there at some moment of the season. Such a group may, or may not, represent a particular spot; it does depict the natural condi- tions under which, the animals are to be found and shows them engaged in the most characteristic and interesting of their varied occupations. In this, the day of moving pictures we may say that as the moving picture condenses into five minutes’ time the events of days or weeks, so these groups depict in a few square feet of space the life and happenings of a much larger area. The group in its latest form is to be found in the Museum of the University of Kansas, where it includes a great part of the Museum, a special section having been constructed to contain a large cyclorama where the various North American animals from plain to moun- tain and from temperate to Arctic Amer- ica may be viewed approximately as they would be seen in nature.1. Somewhat similar is the Laysan Island group, executed for , the State University of 1 This prepared by and under the direction of L.'L. Dyche, is an amplification of his ideas as shown in 1893 in the Kansas Building at the World’s Fair. 61 39 ROLIOUY I1401y 04 09R10duI94 mmO0’Iy pue ulejunom 04 uteld moj sjemuMeU URdLIoUTY YIION MOYS 09 syOAG “T “T “AI Aq posedoid dnous e ‘sesuey Jo AJIsIgAIU 949 JO UMesN]L 94} UT dNOYS VNVYOTDAD vor “LHDINADOD ZO6T ‘A9TPNV “AH MeO JIN Aq ‘O8voTYO ‘WIMESNIT Pel 944 UT YAWANNS —SNOSV3S YNOA AHL aE —— THE FOUR SEASONS — WINTER In the Field Museum, Chicago. By Mr. Carl E. Akeley, 1902 64 STORY OF MUSEUM GROUPS 65 Iowa by Mr. Homer R. Dill, where the visitor gazes about him at the imposing assemblage of albatrosses and other sea fowl, while beyond the blue Pacific stretches to the horizon. Aside from these the bison and moose groups in this Museum, by Richardson and Rowley, are the largest that have been made, and although they have been on exhibi- tion for twenty-four and twenty years respectively, they compare favorably with those of to-day. The African mammals by Mr. Carl E. Akeley in the Field Museum, are among the finest of their kind for pose and character, but the “Four Seasons,” in the same museum and also by Mr. Akeley, depicting the Virginia deer in spring, summer, autumn and winter, rep- resent high-water mark in this direction, combining as they do pictorial beauty with scientific accuracy of detail. It was while engaged on these groups that Mr. Akeley perfected the method of making the manikin, or artificial body on which the skin is placed, so as to combine strength, light- ness and durability, and also devised methods for the rapid reproduction of leaves and a compound stronger and more durable than wax. The need for making leaves in large quantities is shown by the fact that in the “Four Seasons,” the group alone called for sev- enteen thousand leaves. Such, briefly, is the story of museum groups; they have grown from the little box containing a pair of birds and a square foot or two of their im- summer mediate surroundings, to entire colonies of flamingos and albatrosses and the broad sweep of land or sea shown in the Orizaba and Laysan groups. No one man can justly claim credit for the beauty and accuracy of such groups as may to-day be seen in our larger mu- seums; many have contributed to this perfection and some stand preéminent among the rest. To each and all his just meed of praise. might now provoke a smile, labored Some, whose work hard and earnestly in the face of many discouragements to lay the foundations on which we build to-day. Some of whom the present generation has never heard, held out a helping hand to the youthful would-be taxidermist and by aid and encouragement started many of our best men on their career, and some, keen observers of nature, endowed with artistic spirit and possessed of technical skill, have perfected what others began. Head of mountain sheep, in the Brook- lyn Museum. Mounted by Remi Santens, for many years at Ward’s’ Establish- ment, now at Carnegie Museum, , Pittsburgh THE LARGEST AUROCHS RECORDED The horns resemble those of the American buffalo with a turn at the end like those of a gnu. This aurochs was so bad-tempered that he became a menace both to keepers and animals of the forest His measurements and weight are officially recorded in Count Potocki’s Estates Records as follows: Length of horns 214 inches Length from nose to tail end 133+ inches Greatest width between horns 24;°; inches Length of head 27} inches Distance between points of horns 21; inches Distance between eyes 15; inches Diameter of horn 11; inches Height at withers 733 inches Distance between bases of horns 11% inches Girth behind shoulder 108% inches Length of body 107? inches Weight 2001 Ibs. 66 HUNT IN A BIG GAME RESERVATION ON THE ESTATE OF COUNT JOSEF POTOCKI IN VOLHYNIA, RUSSIA By Walter Winans Mr. Winans is not only a man with expert knowledge of the art of shooting but is also as evidenced in his book, Deer Breeding, a power in the preservation and propagation of game animals especially of the larger deer. on his estate at Surrenden Park, Pluckley, Kent. obtained a fertile breed from crossing the red deer, wapiti and Altai deer. He has devoted much thought and money to the subject Among recent results of his work he has This triple cross known in Germany as Cervus winansis has taken its place among other species in the deer forests of the German Emperor and in other game preserves.— THE Ep1Tor. Josef Potocki I was allowed two days’ shooting in his game preserve of Pilowin, where there is a greater variety of different species of big game than anywhere else in the world. Count Potocki in 1901 conceived the idea of fencing in a very large tract of forest on one of his estates in order to preserve the elk (Alces alces or Alces palmatus as it is known in Russia) which is a near relative of the American moose. This European elk is gradually being exterminated and it was to insure the safety of the remnant that Count Potocki made the reservation. Pilowin is fortunately a part of the original habitat of the elk, having just the swampy spots these animals love. The beauty of the Pilowin forest is in- creased by the great clumps of yellow azalea that grow there, plants not known anywhere else in the neighborhood. It is supposed that when the Cossacks camped in the forest in one of their raids some three hundred years ago, the seeds of this species of azalea common on the Russian steppes were scattered from the horses’ fodder. After starting the reservation Count Potocki began to introduce all the sorts of deer that would thrive in the climate, which is very severe in winter. Thus he now has wapiti (Cervus wapiti), Caucasian deer (Cervus caucasicus), han- gul (Cervus cashmiricus), maral (Cervus ieee the courtesy of Count elaphus maral), Chinese Thian Shan wapiti —in fact he is now turning in every species of large deer that he can get. He has not introduced any Euro- pean red deer (Cervus elaphus) or fallow deer (Dama dama) as he wants to have large animals only. The forest contains a certain number of roe deer (Capreolus vulgaris) and he has tried turning into it Siberian roe (Capreolus pygargus) but these latter died off, although some of the roe that I saw I think must have crossed with the Siberian deer. The Siberian roe is very difficult to keep. I have tried several in my place in Kent, and all have died. Year by year the Count has increased the area of the ground fenced in so that it now consists of some 32,000 acres. The past year in inclosing some extra ground, he was fortunate enough to include a herd of wild elk, which will be of great help in crossing the blood of those already inclosed. In 1905 Count Potocki received three aurochs! (Bison bonasus) from His Im- perial Majesty the Emperor of Russia, from the Imperial Preserves of Nielo- wicz and in 1906 he imported a pair of American buffalo (Bison bison). All these species of big game including the 1The name “‘ aurochs’’ properly belongs to the European wild ox (Bos primigenius) which became extinct in the early part of the seven- teenth century, After its disappearance the name was transferred to the European bison (Bison bonasus). 67 68 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL aurochs have increased so that now there are large herds of deer and a considerable herd of aurochs. It is impossible how- ever owing to the extent of the ground and the densenessof the forest to estimate the number. In addition Count Potocki is anxious to introduce some American moose to cross with the European elk for the improvement of their horns. On September 25 I went out shooting in the Pilowin forest, taking stand in a clearing behind some trees. At first four wapiti stags came past on a gallop in single file, followed by a very large horned stag which I shot. Then fol- lowed a rush of some fifty wapiti stags and hinds. A herd of maral deer next passed with a very good stag among them which however the Count did not wish shot. Finally came five cow elk at which of course I did not shoot and thedriveended. I immediately went to examine the stag I had shot and found it to be a cross- breed between the wapiti and the Caucasian deer (Cervus caucasicus-wa- piti). It weighed 796 pounds as it fell and had fifteen points on the horns — very good horns, more of the European red deer type than of the wapiti. Next day, I took my stand in the part of the forest where the largest aurochs was known to be. This bull aurochs was thought to be about thirty years old and had become bad-tempered and taken to killing everything he met. They had been obliged to treat him like a “rogue” elephant and turn him out of the herd. Before this took place how- ever he killed a big wapiti stag, an American buffalo, and attacked one of the keepers who was passing on horse- back, killing the horse and so severely goring the keeper that he had to be taken to the hospital for attendance. In preparation for the hunt an old peasant had tracked the aurochs and kept him under observation for several days and nights, lighting fires around him at night. As soon as the drive began the aurochs came cantering out some sixty yards away. When he saw me he stopped and I gave him a right and a left shot from my rifle. He turned and started galloping off, never stagger- ing nor dropping on his knees although he had received two .303 bullets, one in the heart and one in the lungs. After going a short distance however, he stopped in a dense thicket where I had to give him several more shots to bring him down. He is the largest aurochs ever accurately measured and has horns five inches longer and of seven inches wider spread than the record aurochs in Rowland Ward’s Records of Big Game. The horns near the head are like an American buffalo’s but have a turn at — the end rather like a gnu’s. I am told that only very old aurochs have this. A cast of the horns will be presented later to the American Museum. After the aurochs fell I heard some wapiti roaring and succeeded in shooting one which weighed 837 pounds as it fell, and had horns with sixteen points. On the way back I shot a bull elk very fine as far as body was concerned (weight 943 pounds), but he had, like most European elk, rather a poor “head,” that is to say the horns had none of the palmation of the American moose but were only like those of a two or three year old bull moose. This ended the second day. This reservation is a most interesting and valuable experiment in animal preservation and I can report that all the deer which I saw were in perfect con- dition and in fact that all of the wild animals in the Pilowin forest seemed to be thriving. IMPORTATION OF BIRDS FIVE HUNDRED THOUSAND CANARIES AND THREE HUNDRED THOUSAND OTHER BIRDS BROUGHT TO THE UNITED STATES IN 1913, THROUGH AN IMPORTING HOUSE OF LOWER NEW YORK CITY By W. DeW. Miller Special Inspector of Foreign Animals and Birds at the Port of New York, for the United States Department of Agriculture ROBABLY no importing house Pp in this country is more unusual than that occupied by Mr. Louis Ruhe at 248 Grand Street, in lower New York City. Seen from the outside there is little suggestion of its interesting character, but the moment the visitor opens the door of the building hundreds of voices greet him, and he can easily imagine himself in a_ tropical jungle. There are birds everywhere, on the shelves, on the floor, overhead and in the windows, birds of all kinds and colors, each singing in his own way regardless of his neighbors. Quite different how- ever, is the effect as one mounts the stairs to other floors. On the second floor in particular, where there are canaries to the exclusion of all other kinds, the effect produced by the thou- sands of small voices blended together is indescribable. It is on this floor that one gets a more adequate idea of the extent of the bird importing industry, for here small wooden cages with two canaries in each cage are piled high and so close to- gether that only a narrow passage is left in which a person can move about. Here, almost hidden by the cages, one may be so fortunate as to meet Mr. Ruhe, the proprietor, and learn from him a little about his business and its history. The beginning was made by his great-grandfather, who traveled in Russia and Australia in search of birds long before there were any railroads, and when it was necessary for him to tramp about with cages upon his back. The business is now the largest of its kind in this country. Last year over five hundred thousand and about three hundred thousand other birds were imported. All come direct from Germany and not a week passes that a shipment does not arrive. The majority of the small birds are bred in captivity in Germany, France and Belgium. Most of the canaries are raised in the Harz Moun- canaries, tains, where the climatic conditions are unusually favorable, and chiefly between December and June. The proficiency of the canaries as singers is determined by an expert who stands before the rows of cages and in the babel of voices judges the ability of each bird by the move- ments of its bill. The birds are then marked as to grade, the value ranging from eighteen to ninety-six dollars per dozen. On the other floors of the building are to be found scores of varieties and some- times a single shipment will include as many as seventy kinds of birds. Among the birds that are imported in particu- larly large numbers, the canaries of course come first; and then the wax- bills or weavers (comprising many spe- cies of small finchlike African and Asiatic birds), bullfinches, Australian shell parra- 69 70 IMPORTATION OF BIRDS keets, parrots of various species, cocka- toos, shama thrushes, South American cardinals, African siskins and bulbuls. Of well-marked domesticated breeds imported in large numbers, are the white form of the Java sparrow, the yellow variety of the shell parrakeet and the pied variety of one of the weavers known as the Japanese or Bengalese nun. Birds of every size from the tiny sun- bird, less than half as big as a canary, and so delicate that it is fed on honey and water with a little oatmeal, to the largest birds such as the emu, rhea, ostrich, vulture and maribou are among the list of importations. The larger and rarer birds are secured by men sent out in the interest of Mr. Ruhe and of his brother who has a similar business in Germany. These men visit all parts of the world and ship to Germany the birds they secure. Zoological parks, private aviaries and bird-dealers throughout the country are supplied with whatever species are needed through Mr. Ruhe’s establish- ment. Mammals of various kinds but in both number and variety much fewer than the birds are also imported. The larger kinds, such as lions, tigers, ele- phants and bears are not kept in Mr. Ruhe’s store, but upon reaching port are sent direct to his “farm” on Long Island. The top floor of the Grand Street building is given up to monkeys, comprising apes, rhesus monkeys, baboons, man- drills and others, which are imported in larger numbers than other mammals. Of the smaller quadrupeds guinea pigs and white mice should be mentioned, and among the reptiles is an occasional lot of pythons or turtles. As a safeguard the Government main- tains a careful inspection of all the birds that come into the country, the inspec- tors being specialists in ornithology appointed by the Government. The only restrictions made are in the cases of the European starling and house spar- row, which however are already thor- oughly naturalized in this country, and among mammals the destructive mon- goose, the introduction of which into the United States is rigidly guarded against. An importer arranging for a ship- ment of birds from abroad applies to the authorities of the Department of Agriculture at Washington for a permit, stating the numbers and kinds of birds and other animals expected, with name of the vessel, port from which it is coming and approximate date of arrival. Because of the delicate nature of many of the birds and the disastrous results that might follow from exposure at the docks preceding and during inspection, the shipment is at once removed to the importing house and the inspection follows later. Complete records of the numbers and species of birds imported by the various dealers are made by the inspector and forwarded to Washington where they are kept on file for future reference. THE ALGONKIN AND THE THUNDERBIRD By Alanson Skinner MONG other traditions held by the descendants of the Delaware Indians, who used to dwell on our island of Manhattan and in neighbor- ing New Jersey but who are now exiled to Oklahoma, is one regarding the so- Long ago when called “Thunderbird.” the ancestors of the Delawares still lived on the shores of “the Great Water where Daylight Appears,” some of their mighty nimrods succeed- ed in making cap- tive the great horned — serpent that lives in the depths of the sea, and while they held it prisoner they scraped some of the scales from its back. Now the Thun- Cree tipi, in human form Drawing of human Thunderer from carving on block of wood in a Menomini war bundle Saskatchewan, showing a Thunderer derers are the great enemies of the horned serpent and are constantly on the watch to destroy him. Thus it happens that when a medicine man puts in an ex- posed place one of these scales taken from the horned serpent, the Thunderers hasten to the spot darting their lightning at it and bringing the rain — which is just what the Indians desire. The recorder of this tradition has left us in doubt as to the form of the Thunderers, whether like men or beasts, but the belief which he records concern- ing the Thunder- ers and their ha- tred of the horned snake or snakes is very widespread among the Wood- land Indians. In Drawing of a Thunderbird etched ona pots- herd. From Shinnecock Hills, Long Island 71 72 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL the Middle West, the Sauk and Fox, Menomini, Winnebago, Ojibway, Potawa- tomi and Ottawa, have many tales of this titanic feud. These tribes all believe that the Thunderers are mighty “super- eagles” who dwell in floating tiers of rock in the ether above man in the west- ern sky. It is the flashing of their eyes which we call lightning and their raucous cries that we de- nominate the thun- .der. Itis the duty of these birds to guard man, to rake the earth with hail and water it with rain, and above all, to prevent the evil horned snakes from destroying mankind. They are war gods and patrons of war- riors and it was through them that the war bundles, sa- cred packs of talis- mans carried into battle as protection from the arrows and bullets of the foe, were given to mankind by the Sun and the Morning Star. In the Museum’s collection in the Woodland hall are many examples of the images of these birds from all the central western tribes. They are mostly woven on carrying bags made of native basswood string with the designs in yarn or blanket ravelings. Most interesting of all is a painted robe which forms the inner wrapping of a war bundle. On it appear the Thunderers in both bird and A Menomini woven bag showing the Thunderers. very old specimen made of basswood bark fibre with the designs of buffalo: wool yarn human form as protectors and patrons of warriors. The human Thunderers are always distinguishable by their pos- session of huge beaks in place of noses. Another unique piece from nearer home, is a fragment of pottery found in 1902 on a Museum expedition to Shinne- cock Hills, Long Island. On it is incised the crude figure of a Thunderbird, very The bag is @ much like those shown on the woven bags from farther west. It is interesting in that it shows the eastern distribution of this concept. Among the Plains-Cree, men who. dreamed of the Thunderers not infre- quently ornamented their buffalo skin tipis with paintings of the Thunder- birds in semihuman form. The photo- graph showing the Cree tent was made in the summer of 1913 in the Qu’Appelle Valley, Saskatchewan, and _ illustrates this custom. NEW STORAGE ROOMS PREPARATIONS FOR KEEPING UNHARMED FOR A MILLENIUM SOME OF THE MUSEUM'S MOST VALUABLE HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS By Pliny E. Goddard S the years pass, one phase of the A Museum’s responsibility toward future generations becomes more ‘emphatic. Its duty to the general public of the present generation is met in its exhibition halls in which the col- lections are displayed arranged by locali- ties and tribes. Its duty to a smaller public of this and succeeding generations is met in its research work made availa- ble in the several series of publications. Specimens tell but a small part of a people’s activity and thought, and by themselves are more or less meaningless. This work of research however is largely based upon specimens. The primitive peoples of the earth are passing with ever increasing rapidity. Whole tribes even are becoming extinct. All over the world the old occupations and customs are being discarded in favor of European civilization. This means that in a few years we shall not be able to secure ethnological specimens from native sources. In 1908 twenty-four storerooms were built under the eaves of the west wing and proved fairly satisfactory, but failed in not being sufficiently tight to exclude insects or to permit thorough treatment with gases to destroy the insects after infection had taken place. ‘Those rooms having outside walls proved to be too damp for general purposes. Also the space provided by these rooms furnished storage for only a small part of the ma- terial needing especial care. To meet this need sixteen new storage vaults have just been completed in the sixth story of the southwest pavilion. They ere arranged in two rows, back to back, and two stories in height, galleries and stairways of metal furnishing easy access to the upper tier. This arrange- ment provides ample space between the walls and roof of the building and the storerooms, protecting the specimens from moisture. The rooms themselves are of concrete with tightly closing metal doors rendering them fairly fireproof and entirely proof against insects and dust. If infection should take place through open doors or from the introduction of fresh cyanide gas can be generated in the rooms with entire safety. A room after being charged with poisonous gas can be thoroughly cleared by means of a permanent venti- lating arrangement and electric fans. The material stored in these rooms will in part be used for future exhibition when other halls are provided by the construction of the projected additions to the building. A large number of specimens however, will probably al- ways be retained in storage because it is not necessary to display very extended series of related specimens and because very rare specimens ought not to be ex- posed to the risk of general exhibition. While in storage these specimens should be easily accessible to the special student, both to save time in looking for them and to prevent the deterioration result- ing from constant handling. The new and old storerooms have been appor- tioned to the large culture areas. With the exception of skin clothing of native tanning, containing in some cases the elements of chemical decay, our collections ought to show little deterio- ration in a millenium. material, 73 A PORTION OF THE NORTHWEST COAST STORAGE ROOM Storeroom devoted to the Indians of the Northwest Coast. A large number of Thompson and Fraser Rivers baskets are arranged so as to be easily accessible Since the greater number of specimens are perishable, particular care must be taken of them if they are to be preserved for examination in the distant future. The chief causes of deterioration are the ravages of insects and chemical changes due to moisture and sunlight. The specimens must also be protected from thieves and from loss by fire 74 GZ SOATOYS 3uy}}0u-3.1IM 94} UO pRolds SJITys ULYsSyoONG Jo soles @ ‘sjoofqo JoBUO] oy} JO Sulsuey oy} IOJ SMOT[e 919U90 *‘SUOTJOOTIOD SUBIPUT sUIe[q OY} JO Javed Sururequoo ‘(JooJ UseZIMOF AQ Uoa}UBAVS JNOqe) SUIOOI0I0}S MoU 94} JO 9UO JO JOLIE}UT OTT, WNASNW NVOIYAWV SHL NI WOOY ADVYHOLS SNVIGNI SNIV1d JO SA®1} UI ore SJOOfqO JOT[eUIS OY} ‘YS oY} UO SulIod oy} IvOU UMOYS o1v ey) Ysnoimy youl W ATA .* ag ae a ' ABT RSAPABAMCD ieee - es “avs TEACHING IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM! By Agnes Laidlaw Vaughan S an experiment in the teaching of A history with the aid of museums, it was proposed to begin with a brief study of primitive man and the beginnings of human social life. A class of thirty-five boys of 5B Grade, that is about twelve years old, visited the American Museum in charge of a teacher. The class was met by the Museum instructor in a small lecture hall, in which she had placed a collection of objects consisting of stone implements, wooden, shell and gourd utensils, baskets, pottery and weapons, all of which the children were permitted to handle. The boys had been reading Robinson Crusoe, so the instructor took the adven- tures of Crusoe as a text and compared his situation with that of early man, dependent on his surroundings and on his powers of invention. The theme of the lesson was the in- crease of man’s power over matter, illus- trated by the evolution of his tools as his power to use perception and memory developed into reason. A river pebble was shown as the earliest hammer; next the hammerstone with pits hol- lowed to fit the thumb and finger, a shaping of the implement that aug- mented its utility while it diminished the effort required to produce effect. Axes and knives of flint, chert and obsidian were examined and the growth of the ideas of symmetry and adaptation were 1Jn line with the work in teaching described here, an elaborated series of lessons has been prepared for a class of teachers from the New York Training School. On the completion of this course in the American Museum the class will continue the work at the Metropolitan Mu- seum of Art. A similar experiment is being car- ried on in Boston to correlate education in pub- lic school and museum, and notes on the results of the experiments will be presented at the Mu- seums Association meeting in May. 76 discussed as well as the effect of the nature of material on the perfecting of the tool. Also a digging stick, the pre- cursor of hoe and plough, was studied, together with bows and arrows, slings, stone, shell and iron-pointed spears, used in war and hunting, and implements designed for the preparation of food, with questions as to their modern equivalents. Emphasis was laid on the persistence of form in some articles, which illustrates the happy discovery by the early makers of a perfect adapta- tion of the implement to its uses. The effect on the growth of human mind and power came in for consideration, the de- velopment of ingenuity and invention from these simple origins which have made possible the complex machinery and processes of modern times. After the discussion the class visited the anthropological halls and asked many more questions in relation to the ma- terial on exhibition. Another lesson, conducted in similar fashion, took up primitive fire-making, the preparation of clothing and the be- ginnings of art, earliest manifestations of love of beauty and of that need for self-expression which is the deepest craving of humanity, the end toward which the satisfying of hunger and other passions is but a means. Several members of the classes after- ward called at the Museum to ask the instructor further questions. No tabu- lated record of results could be made from this experiment but there was neither doubt of the interest aroused in the children, nor of their eagerness for “more.” The recent installation of the exhibit on the antiquity of man will be of value MUSEUM NOTES 77 in lessons of this kind. Such lessons could be expanded and carried on into picture-writing, folklore, religious and social customs, effects of climate and natural resources on development of culture and on the temperament of peoples, all stated in simple terms with material illustration. The child being in the objective stage of mental development is interested in primitive man, the problems that he faced and the means he used to solve these problems successfully —‘although the needs of the boy of to-day may be working themselves out through the construction of complicated motor boats, aéroplanes or instruments for amateur wireless telegraphy. All technical labor however gains in dignity when one knows Perhaps the products of human labor will increase in beauty when we understand that the need for beauty is an essential element in human- ity. moral principles, of all social evolution. It leads toward the perfecting of the tool to its use, to the satisfying of the instinct of joy, toward health and uprightness. In the folk museums and _ historical its beginnings. It lies at the root of the forming of collections of Europe, this method of teaching history could be carried readily into the study of a nation or of European culture as a whole. In America the museums of fine arts can provide the lessons when the study passes beyond the period of the foundations of culture, into those periods in which the expression of human activity is more complex. MUSEUM NOTES SINCE the last issue of the JouRNAL the fol- lowing persons have been elected to member- ship in the Museum: Associate Benefactors, Hon. JosmpH H. CuHoatEe, Mr. Anson W. Harp, Mrs. JoHn B. Trevor and Mr. Joun B. TREvorR; Patrons, Mrs. Harriet L. ScHUYLER, Mrs. Rosert WINTHROP, and Messrs. FREDERICK F. Brewster and F. Augustus SCHERMER- HORN; Honorary Fellow, Mr. VinHsJALMUR STEF- ANSSON; Life Members, Mr. and Mrs. Paut J. Sacus, Miss Beatrice BEND, Dr. P. J. OETTINGER, and Messrs. WiuuiAM G. Briss, WILLIAM P. CLYDE, SipnEy M. Couaarte, H. P. Davison, GEORGE C. LoNGLEY and Pau A. ScHOELL- KOPF; Sustaining Member, Mr. Max Wiliam STOHR; Annual Members, CountsEss E. FESTETICS, Mrs. FranK W. Batiarp, Mrs. LAWRENCE P. Bayne, Mrs. WC. Bere, Mrs. O. W. Brrp, Mrs. Ropert C. Buacx, Mrs. Jona- THAN BuLKLEY, Mrs. James A. BURDEN, JR., Mrs. D. Jones Crain, Mrs. Davin P. Morcan, Mrs. E. Moses, Mrs. Recrna ARMSTRONG NreHAUS, Mrs. J. E. Watson, Miss ANNA R. ALEXANDRE, Miss VERA A. H. CravatH, Miss Lipa L. Dopps, Miss Mary EK. Harrineton, Miss G. T. Sackett, Mr. and Mrs. Eucene E. Marrs, Hon. Davin LEVENTRITT, Dr. LeRoy Broun, Dr. Harotp A. Foster, Dr. Morirz Gross, PROFESSOR JULIUS SACHS, and Mzssrs. H. B. ADRIANCE, JOHNS. Batrp, Orro F. BEHREND, CuHaruES 8. Brown, Jr., Matcotm Camp- BELL, GEORGE E. Crarnuin, ASHTON C. CuARKSON, Pau B. Conxuine, E. V. Con- NETT, JR., F. G. Cooprr, Howarp Cor.iss, F. W. M. CutcHton, Erich DANKELMANN, Geo. Birp GRINNELL, THEODORE GROSs, Ricuarp Hown, Davin Huyuer, Etas KEMPNER, GEORGE LAUDER, JR., Cart K. MacFappren, Epwarp G. Miner, CarLeton Monteomery, I. C. RosenrHau, Mitron P. SKINNER, NorMAN F. Torrance, T. EpwIn Warp, Horace Waters, T. WouFson. At the annual meeting of the Board of Trustees the following new trustees were elected: Mr. George F. Baker, to fill the vacancy due to the death of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan; Mr. R. Fulton Cutting, for the vacancy made by Mr. William Rockefeller’s resignation necessitated by ill health; Mr. Henry C. Frick for the position opened through the death of Mr. George 8. Bowdoin; 78 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL and Mr. Archer M. Huntington, elected to membership to cancel the vacancy brought about by his own resignation in 1912. Dr. WitiiaAm K. Grecory has been pro- moted from assistant curator in the depart- ment of vertebrate paleontology to associate in palzontology. Dr. Piiny E. Gopparp, associate curator in the department of anthropology, has been promoted to the position of curator of eth- nology. Dr. Louis Hussaxkor has been promoted from assistant curator of fishes in the depart- ment of ichthyology and herpetology to curator of ichthyology. Mr. VitHsALMUR STEFANSSON, in recogni- tion of the important explorations that he has carried on and his contributions to the science of geography and ethnology, has recently been made an Honorary Fellow by the Trus- tees of the American Museum of Natural History. This is the highest honor that it is within the power of the Museum to bestow and has been awarded to but seven other persons during the history of the institution. Tue New Yor«k Zo6uoaicat Society has presented two orang-utans and “Baldy,” a chimpanzee, to the American Museum. Practically all of the anthropoids at the New York Zodlogical Park were killed recently by an epidemic of tuberculosis and have been distributed among the various institutions where they will be of the greatest value to science. Tue new “‘visitors’ room” of the Museum is situated on the first floor at the right from the main entrance. It furnishes a comforta- ble place where people may wait for their friends — which perhaps is its greatest use- fulness; it provides facilities for writing or resting, also for consulting or purchasing the Museum’s scientific and popular publications which are to be found there. An attendant is in charge during the hours that the Museum is open for visitors. The number of visitors who have made use of the room averages thus far about one thousand a month. Mr. Georce Suiras, 3p, of Washington and Mr. H. BE. Antuony of the Museum’s department of mammalogy, are studying the fauna of the Gattin region of Panama. Because of the flooding of the region it is ex- pected that the animals will be concentrated in small areas and that rivers which before were unnavigable may be ascended for the purpose of collecting specimens. Mr. Anthony will endeavor to secure jaguar, puma, tapir, tiger cat, deer, peccary and other specimens for the Museum, and Mr. Shiras, who has an inter- national reputation as a photographer of wild animals, will take flash lights and other pic- tures with cameras especially designed for the work. The expenses of the expedition, with the exception of Mr. Anthony’s salary, are borne by Mr. Shiras. Tue RoosEvELT SoutH AMERICAN EXPE- DITION has just sent to the Museum a ship- ment of one hundred and forty-eight bird skins from Paraguay. Colonel Roosevelt. will probably return early in April and it is expected that he will deliver his first public lecture to the members of the American Museum. Mr. Donato B. MacMriuian and the other members of the Crocker Land expedi- tion are in winter quarters at Etah, the old camp of Peary on the coast of Greenland, as published in the October, 1913, JouRNAL. No word has been received from the expedi- tion since the account of the arrival at Etah. Greetings from the Museum were sent at the beginning of the New Year by the Marconi Wireless Company of Canada, through the courtesy of Mr. G. J. Desbarats, Deputy Minister of the Naval Service at Ottawa. BesipEs the courses of lectures on history and geography which have been arranged for school children [noted in the January Jour- NAL], the Museum announces the following lectures on subjects connected with natural history: March 26, ‘“‘The Sea Creatures of Our Shores,” Mr. Roy W. Miner; April 2, “The Birds of Our Parks,’ Dr. G. Clyde Fisher; April 16, ‘‘Fur-bearers Found Within Fifty Miles of New York City,” Mr. H. E. Anthony; April 23, ‘‘ Wild Flow- ers of the Vicinity of New York City,” Dr. Fisher. Scrence stories for the children of mem- bers will be told on Saturday mornings at 10:30 and will include subjects and lecturers as follows: March 7, ‘‘Seals at Home,” Roy C. Andrews; March 14, ‘‘Water Bab- ies,’ Roy W. Miner; March 21, “Our Neighbors in Feathers,” Frank M. Chapman; NASNW NVOINSWV 3HL NI WOOY SHOLISIA 3HL 80 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL March 28, ‘“‘Katydids, Crickets and Other Insect People,” R. L. Ditmars. Dr. P. J. OrTTINGER has presented to the Museum his entire collection of ores gathered through a lifetime spent in Mexico and vari- ous other parts of the mining world. The collection consists of about thirteen hundred specimens of silver, gold, lead and zinc ores. Dr. H. J. Sprnpen of the department of anthropology is carrying on archeological explorations in Central America. Mr. W. DEW. Mitisr has recently published a paper of seventy-three pages on a Review of the Classification of the Kingfishers which makes notable changes in the arrange- ment of the various species, dividing the family into three subfamilies instead of the two commonly recognized. The changes are based on both external and internal charac- ters and also have the corroborative support of geographic distribution. Our common belted kingfisher is the representative of one subfamily, Ceryline, the only one of the three whose members are found in both hemispheres, but we shall know him no more under the name Ceryle for this proves to be the exclusive property of the African black and white bird. The beautiful little European kingfisher, the Alcedo or Aleyon of the ancients, the har- binger of fair weather, typifies another sub- family, Alcedinine. It is restricted to the eastern hemisphere and with the exception of one genus does not occur in the Australian region. The third and largest group, Dace- lonine, containing the greatest number and variety of species is, with the exception of two genera, confined to the Australian and Indian regions. It includes those species having the habits of flycatchers and those that feed largely on small reptiles. Tue cover photograph of this number of the JouRNAL is from the painting ‘Tiger and Cobra” by Charles R. Knight. The March number will contain reproductions in black and white of a long series of his canvases and a reproduction in color of one ‘of his notable fish paintings. Dr. Henry E. Crampton has just returned f.om a month’s stay in Porto Rico where he placed the project of a complete scientific survey of Porto Rico before the Governor and other officials of the island with a view to se- curing the codperation of the insular govern- ment in the work. He also conducted a general scientific and a special zodlogical re- connaissance preparatory to future intensive work in characteristic localities. During the course of the reconnaissance more than 1300 miles of motoring and railroad travel were accomplished. Indian engravings were ex- amined and photographed at several locali- ties, notably inland from Utuado and along the Rio Blanco north of Naguabo. The general geology of the island was worked out as far as the peripheral sedimentary rocks, the inner limestones and the central igneous formations are concerned. Limestone cav- erns in three places—Corozal, Aguas Buenas and Ciales—were explored and _ photo- graphed. Fossil-bearing strata were re- corded in several localities and representative specimens secured. Also zodlogical collect- tions were brought back from various caves, meadows, forests and plantations. THOSE interested in the work of Mr. Vilhjdélmur Stefansson, for four years con- nected with the American Museum in the Stefansson-Anderson Arctic expedition and now leader of the Canadian Arctic expedition, will be glad to learn definitely that the report is false which appeared in the newspapers in November stating the loss of the ‘‘Mary Sachs,”’ one of the vessels of the expedition. The news that the “Mary Sachs” together with the ‘‘Alaska”’ is safe in winter quarters at Collinson Point, fifty miles from Flaxman Island, arrived December 23 from Dr. R. M. Anderson, second in command of the expedi- tion, and finally from the explorer himself when he cabled the New York Times,‘... On December 14 I reached Collinson Point and found both schooners safe wintering in the bay,’ and again in speaking of the spring plans for the ships, ‘‘I shall proceed with both [the ‘Alaska’ and the ‘Mary Sachs’] to Herschel whenever possible... The ‘Alaska’ will proceed to’ Coronation Gulf and the ‘Sachs’ will undertake the work of the ‘ Karluk’ if the ‘ Karluk’ is not reported by the time of the first opportunity to sail from Herschel.” Scientific Staff DIRECTOR Freperic A. Lucas, Se.D. GEOLOGY AND INVERTEBRATE PALHONTOLOGY Epmunp Otis Hovey, Ph.D., Curator Cuester A. Reeps, Ph.D., Assistant Curator MINERALOGY L. P. Graracap, A.M., Curator GerorcE F. Kunz, Ph.D., Honorary Curator ot Gems INVERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY Henry E. Crampton, Ph.D., Curator Roy W. Miner, A.B., Assistant Curator Frank EH. Lutz, Ph.D., Assistant Curator L. P. Gratacap, A.M., Curator of Mollusca Joun A. GrRossBECcK, Assistant A. J. Murcer, Assistant Wiui1amM Morton WHEELER, Ph.D., Honorary Curator of Social Insects Aaron L. TREADWELL, Ph.D., Honorary Curator of Annulata Cares W. Lena, B.S., Honorary Curator of Coleoptera ICHTHYOLOGY AND HERPETOLOGY BasHrorp Dean, Ph.D., Curator Emeritus Louis Hussaxor, Ph.D., Curator of Ichthyology Joun T. Nicuots, A.B., Assistant Curator of Recent Fishes Mary CyntuiA Dickerson, B.S., Associate Curator of Herpetology MAMMALOGY AND ORNITHOLOGY J. A. Auten, Ph.D., Curator Frank M. Cuapman, Sce.D., Curator of Ornithology Roy C. AnprEews, A.M., Assistant Curator of Mammalogy W. DeW. Mrtter, Assistant Curator of Ornithology. VERTEBRATE PALHONTOLOGY Henry FAIRFIELD Ossorn, Sc.D., LL.D., D.Se., Curator Emeritus W. D. Marruew, Ph.D., Curator Water GRANGER, Associate Curator of Fossil Mammals Barnum Brown, A.B., Associate Curator of Fossil Reptiles Wiuuram K. Grecory, Ph.D., Associate in Paleontology ANTHROPOLOGY CLARK WIssLeR, Ph.D., Curator Puiny E. Gopparp, Ph.D., Curator of Ethnology Rosert H. Lowig, Ph.D., Associate Curator HERBERT J. SPINDEN, Ph.D., Assistant Curator Nets C. Netson, M.L., Assistant Curator Cuartes W. Mean, Assistant Curator ALANSON SKINNER, Assistant Curator Haran I. Smirx, Honorary Curator of Archeology ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY Rautew W. Tower, Ph.D., Curator PUBLIC HEALTH CuHaArLES-Epwarp Amory Wrinstow, M.S., Curator IsRAEL J. Kuicuer, B.S., Assistant WOODS AND FORESTRY Mary Cyntruia Dickerson, B.S., Curator r BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS Rauteu W. Tower Ph.D., Curator Ipa Ricuarpson Hoop, A.B., Assistant Librarian PUBLIC EDUCATION Apert S. Bickmore, Ph.D., LL.D., Curator Emeritus Grorce H. SHerwoop, A.M., Curator G. Crypr Fisuer, Ph.D., Assistant Curator Aanes LAIpLAw VAUGHAN, Assistant Jones OF Sioet pe ae ee © © | NATURAL ” HISTORY AMA \) FOR THE. PEOPLE — Sve <> . FOR ‘EDVCATION, FOR : © »f E NC E Py NUMBER 3 > ean ro) 9) io 4 Ww ro 79) e Zz wy 12] > e Zz. jay S e VOLUME XIV FREE TO MEMBERS American Museum of Natural History Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City BOARD OF TRUSTEES President Henry FarrRFIELD OSBORN First Vice-President Second Vice-President CLEVELAND H. Dopar J. P. Morgan Treasurer Secretary CHARLES LANIER ADRIAN ISELIN, JR. Joun Purroy Mircuen, Mayor or THE City or New YorK Witu1am A. PRENDERGAST, COMPTROLLER OF THE City oF NEw YorRK Casot Warp, PRESIDENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS GrorGcE F. BAKER Henry C. Frick Seta Low ALBERT S. BICKMORE Manpison GRANT OaprEn MILLs FREDERICK F. BREWSTER Anson W. Harp Percy R. Pyne JoserH H. CHOATE ArcHER M. HuNntTINGTON JoHN B. TREVOR R. Furitron Currine ARTHUR CURTISS JAMES Fevtrx M. WarBuRG Tuomas DeWitt CuyLER WALTER B. JAMES GEORGE W. WICKERSHAM JAMES DouGLASs A. D. JUILLIARD EXECUTIVE OFFICERS Director Assistant Secretary FrepDERIc A. Lucas GEorGE H. SHERWOOD Assistant Treasurer Tue Unirep States Trust Company or NEw YORK The Museum is open free to the public on every day in the year. The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people, and it is in cordial codperation with all similar institutions throughout the world. The Museum authorities are dependent upon private subscriptions and the dues from members for pro- — curing needed additions to the collections and for carrying on explorations in America and other parts of the world. The membership fees are, Amma NECMDEES se ecteclels ais s elousis « $ 10 IHOIEONWS seierstehewtstevoie eusveretnie lot eae eis $ 500 Sustaining Members (annually).... 25 IPACROWS fe -ccio oeiere sein wim cahale’ » coNerare 1000 Lori eI) all ois eo oo Biante Co OC 100 Associate Benefactors.......... 10,000 Benefactors (gift or bequest) $50,000 The Museum Library contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working collection of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and abroad. The library is open to the public for reference daily — Sundays and _ holidays excepted — from 9 A.M. to5 P.M. The Museum Publications are issued in six series: Memoirs, Bulletin, Anthropologi- cal Papers, American Museum Journal, Guide Leaflets and Annual Report. Information concerning their sale may be obtained at the Museum library. Guides for Study of Exhibits are provided on request by the department of public education. Teachers wishing to bring classes should write or telephone the department for an appointment, specifying the collection to be studied. Lectures to classes may also be arranged for. In all cases the best results are obtained with small groups of children. Workrooms and Storage Collections may be visited by persons presenting member- ship tickets. The storage collections are open to all persons desiring to examine specimens for special study. Applications should be made at the information desk. The Mitla Restaurant in the east basement is reached by the elevator and is open from 12 to 5 on all days except Sundays. Afternoon Tea is served from 2 to 5. The Mitla room is of unusual interest as an exhibition hall being an exact reproduction of temple ruins at Mitla, Mexico. THe American Museum JourRNAL VoLtumME XIV MARCH, 1914 NUMBER 3 CONTENTS Cover, “ The Sabre-tooth Tiger” From a canvas in the possession of the Museum, by Charles R. Knight Charles R. Knight —Paimter and Sculptor of Animals,.................... 88 With an introduction on the union of art and science in the American Museum Color plate of Bermuda fishes reproduced through the courtesy of the Century Company; many plates in black and white to show the artist’s work with modern animals; six repro- ductions from canvases owned by the Museum of restorations of extinct animals to indicate the progression of life through the Age of Reptiles and the Age of Mammals AOreecp tinaiias linac shaves «cine oA iw ete des S daw oN eee Frank E. Lutz 99 Field work in Cuba for comparison with the environments and insect faunas of Florida Mea Ariiand its Development: 0)..0... .4. s+: GroRGE Grant MacCurpy 107 Discussion of the prehistoric art of Yucatan with a review of Herbert J. Spinden’s memoir on Maya Art Mary Cynrsita Dickerson, Editor Published monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History. Terms: one dollar and a half per year, twenty cents per copy. Entered as second-class matter January 12, 1907, at the Post-Office at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress, July 16, 1894. Subscriptions should be addressed to the AMeRIcAN Museum JourNaL, 77th St. and Central Park West, New York City. 5 The Journal is sent free to all members of the Museum. Photo by Mix CHARLES R. KNIGHT PAINTER AND SCULPTOR OF ANIMALS THe American Museum JourNat VoLuME XIV MARCH, 1914 NUMBER 3 CHARLES R. KNIGHT—PAINTER AND SCULPTOR OF ANIMALS WITH AN INTRODUCTION RELATIVE TO THE UNION OF ART AND SCIENCE IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM Illustrations! from the canvases of the Artist HERE are many people who know something of the Ameri- can Museum of the past — of its small beginning in the Arsenal in Central Park and its change to the new building, the central wing of the present structure; of its many years of strictly technical exhibits, systematic collections like some still to be seen as in_ the North American bird hall; of the addition of the south facade and the west wing and the gradual intro- duction of exhibits more adapted to the needs and the pleasure of the peo- ple. We_ know that the construction of its buildings has al- ways been in the hands of architects of a high order, that its exhibits have been under the supervision of a staff of more or less note jn the scientific world. Do we know that now its exhibits and the newly-planned east facade of the build- 1[llustrations copyrighted by the American Museum of Natural History, the Century Com- pany and Charles R. Knight. Leopard drawing, showing pencil technique ing are calling to the work not only scientists, not only architects, but also various noted representatives from the guild that has the creation of the beau- tiful its aim—namely, sculptors and painters. It is interesting in this con- nection that almost the first step toward the foundation of science museums in this country was made in Philadelphia at the close of the eighteenth century by Charles Wilson Peale, an artist who had first been a taxidermist. He was a man of fame as a portrait paint- er of the great men of his time, and by painting a portrait of himself in his museum he made this early step toward science mu- seums an unforget- able one in history. This picture is reproduced through the courtesy of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. To-day in the American Museum Hobart Nichols, one of our rising land- scape painters, is continually called upon to paint large background canvases for cycloramic groups, and similar work is 83 Property of the Artist Courtesy of Frederick A. Stokes Company, New York CHARLES WILSON PEALE IN HIS MUSEUM, PHILADELPHIA, 1777 Noted portrait artist of the last quarter of the eighteenth century, who made one of the first steps toward the inauguration of science museums in thiscountry. [The Charleston Museum is supposed to be the oldest museum in America.] Many of his ideas regarding artistic ex- hibition we are just beginning to carry into effect to-day. This portrait of Peale by himself is the property of the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts 84 done by Robert Bruce Horsfail, Carl Rungius and Charles J. Hittell. R. Knight has planned a series of murals Charles to surround the halls of fossil mammals; E. W. Deming has made sketches for a mural series which has been accepted for the Plains Indian hall; Will S. Taylor is the creator of six large mural canvases in the North Pacific hall—where also are Eskimo paintings by Frederick A. Stokes —and Mr. Taylor in his studio in the northwest tower of the Museum is working at present on a second series Howard McCormick is painting a canvas 19 by 48 feet, in the hall of the Southwest Indians to form the background for a to show Indian ceremonials. group of figures which are being made by the sculptor Mahonri M. Young; and so on. Various mural studies have been copied from old cave paintings by Albert Operti who also has painted some back- grounds for groups. Carl E. Akeley, a newly recognized sculptor, engaged im- mediately in the work of mounting an elephant group for the Museum, has been given charge of the plans for the future African hall, into which will be drawn A. Phimister Proctor and other sculptors and artists. It is a new era for museums and for the American Museum in particular, and Property of the Museum Scientist, sculptor and painter will go on with work more closely it is but begun. Architect, sculptor and painter will continue hand amalgamated in exhibition. in hand in the construction of buildings. Thus results will always become more satisfying to the millions of people who, because limited in opportunities for edu- cation and obliged to live for the most part in humble surroundings, will look more and more to the free museum and its exhibits for instruction and for the beauty, gentle or austere, their imagi- nations crave. The new era for museums in America is of course but a part of a larger move- ment felt in many lines of thought and work and it correlates closely with the increase in free art and music of the highest class, of free education in many things ideal along with the practical, of all conditions tending toward a spirit- ualizing of the race over and above the rapid material advance. Understanding this, we give unstintedly of what we have — interest, time, work or money. We can but give ourselves more gladly when we look ahead and realize that the people of America can be consciously guided to a future great in a degree we to-day can conceive but cannot compass, and that the guidance ae = ri Property of the Museum Two of Knight’s sketches for murals in the fossil halls of the Museum eres Allosaurus feeding on the remains of an amphibious dinosaur.— Restoration of a carnivorous dinosaur from Wyoming representative of the Age of Reptiles. The artist has shown the ferocious reptilian head, with huge mouth bristling with sabre-like teeth, the large birdlike hind limbs, the tail used in balancing and the sharp talons of the feet. Although this conception of the animal has been elaborated from detailed anatomical studies, the finished picture has no suggestion of the laboratory but instead the animal seems alive and in a natural habitat fie ARE » y!

' \ THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL common to both right whales and fin whales, with most extraordinary individual peculiari- ties. These relate chiefly to the ribs which are more numerous than in other whales and are flat strips of bone seven or eight inches in breadth. It is also interesting because of the small number of lumbar vertebree. This whale is without doubt one of the most important living cetaceans. Professor Dollo recently read a paper in London in which he expressed the view that Neobalena marginata presents an extraor- dinary case of convergence and that while resembling the right whale in many super- ficial ways it still is closely allied to the fin whales. Whether or not upon further study of the species Professor Dollo’s views will be sustained remains to be seen. THE department of geology has received from Mr. D. M. Barringer of Philadelphia, through the courtesy of Princeton University, the loan of an important exhibit illustrating the surface features, structure and theory of origin of Meteor Crater in Arizona. Meteor Crater is the name now applied to the hill and depression in Arizona which formerly went by the name of Coon Butte. The locality is about ten miles southwest of Cafion Diablo, a station on the Santa Fé Railroad. The investigations of Mr. Barringer and others have led to the increasing adoption of the theory that this crater-like depression in the plateau was formed by the impact of a large mass or assemblage of masses of meteor- itic iron. The depression is about 4200 feet in diameter and its present bottom is 570 feet below the highest point of its rim or about 450 feet below the surface of the plateau. Explorations made by the diamond drill show that the bolide which caused the depression penetrated to a depth nearly 700 feet farther. The exhibit consists of photographs, charts, records of analysis, specimens of the rock which was pulverized and fused by the impact of the meteorite, numerous fragments of the meteorite itself, bolls formed by the oxidation of portions of the iron as they lay imbedded in the débris, specimens of the undisturbed rocks from the vicinity of the crater and samples of the drill cores from the beds beneath those which were altered or tilted out of position when the meteorite struck the earth. The whole exhibit forms a most interesting con- tribution to the history of the association of meteorites with the earth. Scientific Staff DIRECTOR FrepEric A. Lucas, Sc.D. GEOLOGY AND INVERTEBRATE PALHONTOLOGY Epmunp Otis Hovey, Ph.D., Curator Cuester A. Reeps, Ph.D., Assistant Curator MINERALOGY L. P. Gratacap, A.M., Curator GeorcE F. Kunz, Ph.D., Honorary Curator of Gems INVERTEBRATE ZOOLOGY Henry E. Crampton, Ph.D., Curator Roy W. Miner, A.B., Assistant Curator Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D., Assistant Curator L. P. Gratacap, A.M., Curator of Mollusca Joun A. GrossBEck, Assistant A. J. Mutcuuer, Assistant WitiramM Morton WHEELER, Ph.D., Honorary Curator of Social Insects Aaron L. TREADWELL, Ph.D., Honorary Curator of Annulata Cuar.tes W. Lena, B.S., Honorary Curator of Coleoptera ICHTHYOLOGY AND HERPETOLOGY BasHForRD Dean, Ph.D., Curator Emeritus Louis Hussaxor, Ph.D., Curator of Ichthyology Joun T. Nicuots, A.B., Assistant Curator of Recent Fishes Mary Cyntuia Dickerson, B.S., Associate Curator of Herpetology MAMMALOGY AND ORNITHOLOGY J. A. Auten, Ph.D., Curator Frank M. Cuapman, Sc.D., Curator of Ornithology Roy C. Anprews, A.M., Assistant Curator of Mammalogy W. DeW. Mi ter, Assistant Curator of Ornithology. VERTEBRATE PALHZONTOLOGY Henry FarrFiELD Osporn, Se.D., LL.D., D.Sc., Curator Emeritus W. D. Matruew, Ph.D., Curator WALTER GRANGER, Associate Curator of Fossil Mammals Barnum Brown, A.B., Associate Curator of Fossil Reptiles Wiuu1AmM K. Gregory, Ph.D., Associate in Paleontology ANTHROPOLOGY Cuark WIssuLER, Ph.D., Curator Puiny E. Gopparp, Ph.D., Curator of Ethnology Rosert H. Lowip, Ph.D., Associate Curator HERBERT J. SPINDEN, Ph.D., Assistant Curator Neus C. Netson, M.L., Assistant Curator CuHarLes W. Mean, Assistant Curator ALANSON SKINNER, Assistant Curator Haran I. Smits, Honorary Curator of Archeology ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY RautpeH W. Towner, Ph.D., Curator PUBLIC HEALTH CHARLES-EpwaArRp Amory WINsLow, M.S., Curator IsRAEL J. Kurauer, B.S., Assistant WOODS AND FORESTRY Mary Cyntuaia Dickerson, B.S., Curator BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS RautpeH W. Tower Ph.D., Curator Ipa RicHarpson Hoop, A.B., Assistant Librarian PUBLIC EDUCATION AuBEerRT S. Bickmore, Ph.D., LL.D., Curator Emeritus GrorcEe H. SHERwoop, A.M., Curator G. CiypE FisHer, Ph.D., Assistant Curator AGnes LAIDLAW VAUGHAN, Assistant s + aa 7 $° ‘ x a te 4 , s ‘ . ‘ . : ‘ ‘ P >» t _* ba * 3% : bs u 74 P a ‘ « < 4 ‘ 4, t. . Ld + ¢ 4 ‘ . ‘ . t ‘ FI 7 % ~ * : . « “~ 4 I . Pn » * x . . ai ' : . B he % s* ICAN * SEU m HE AMER t oF AL #4 . HISTORY * a t. FOR -S.CGH-E:Nic Ba até — LE FOR EDVCATION > EOP: Ee? s Padus >? THE P 4 7 © eae oe Eadie ATUR R- N FO VOLUME XIV APRIL, 1914 NUMBER 4 THE ~AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL FREE TO MEMBERS TWENTY CENTS PER COPY American Museum of Natural History Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City BOARD OF TRUSTEES President Henry FArrFIELD OSBORN First Vice-President Second Vice-President CLEVELAND H. DopcE J. P. Morcan Treasurer - Secretary CHARLES LANIER i ADRIAN ISELIN, JR. Joun Purroy Mircuren, Mayor or THE Criry or New York Witiiam A. PRENDERGAST, COMPTROLLER OF THE City oF NEw YORK Casot Warp, PRESIDENT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PARKS GrorceE F. Baker Henry C. Frick Seta Low ALBERT S. BICKMORE Mapison GRANT OgpEN MILLs FREDERICK F. BREWSTER Anson W. Harp Percy R. Pyne JosepH H. CHOATE ArcHEer M. HuntTINGTON Joun B. TREVOR R. Futton Curtina ARTHUR CURTISS JAMES Freirx M. Warsura Tuomas DeWitt CuyLer Wa.ter B. JAMES Grorce W. WICKERSHAM James Dovuaias A. D. JUILLIARD EXECUTIVE OFFICERS Director Assistant Secretary FreperiIc A. Lucas GeorceE H. SHERwoop Assistant Treasurer Tue Unitep States Trust Company or New YorK The Museum is open free to the public on every day in the year. The American Museum of Natural History was established in 1869 to promote the Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people, and it is in cordial coéperation with all similar institutions throughout the world. The Museum authorities are dependent upon private subscriptions and the dues from members for pro- curing needed additions to the collections and for carrying on explorations in America and other parts of the world. The membership fees are, AMUaIIVIEMIDENSE meee rmre Ctr ee ACS eee 144 A Letter from Theodore Roosevelt, Patron of the Museum’s South American Harebelt NV Oke Sage Sa OSLO a oN ear RRS cree Re a hen Ee Res 145 Bandelier — Pioneer Student of Ancient American Races....CLARK WISSLER 147 What One Village is Doing for the Birds.......... ERNEST Harotp Baynes’ 149 With many illustrations from photographs taken at Meriden, New Hampshire, by Louise Birt Baynes and Ernest Harold Baynes ithe Charles ©: Mason Collection: 2+ 2% «:¢ycb. st. es enone. ALANSON SKINNER 157 Description and illustration of an archeological collection from Tennessee presented to the Museum by Mr. J. P. Morgan Plea for Haste in Making Documentary Records of the American Indian Epwarp S. Curtis 163 PMT STATIN GUS ele Satoh ok, AE Cee sk eee ore LE Es a, AEA eo NRT Ble snr CA pee 166 Mary Cynrata Dickerson, Editor Published monthly from October to May by the American Museum of Natural History. Terms: one dollar and a half per year, twenty cents per copy. Entered as second-class matter January 12, 1907, at the Post-Office at Boston, Mass., Act of Congress, July 16, 1894. Subscriptions should be addressed to the AMericAN Museum Journat, 77th St. and Central Park West, New York City. The Journal is sent free to all members of the Museum. PROFESSOR ALBERT S. BICKMORE — ‘‘ Resolutions to Professor Bickmore on the Occasion of his Seventy fifth Birthday,’ page 144 Tue AMERICAN Museum JOURNAL VotuME XIV APRIL, 1914 NUMBER 4 THE AMERICAN BEAVER THE NEW BEAVER GROUP IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM — AND BEAVERS IN GENERAL By Frederic A. Lucas T is not without diffidence that we | announce the completion of a beaver group, for fear lest our critical friends should ask why it is that such an interesting and important animal was not long ago represented in an institu- tion bearing the name of the American Museum of Natural History. For the beaver is one of the most characteristic, most interesting and most widely dis- tributed of North American mammals and time was when it was the most important. As Merriam writes in the Mammals of the Adirondacks: “No ani- mal has figured more prominently in the affairs of any nation than has the beaver in the early history of the New World. Its influence on the exploration, coloniza- tion and settlement of this country was very great. The trade in its peltries proved a source of competition and strife, not only among the local mer- chants, but also among the several col- onies, disputes over the boundaries hav- ing frequently arisen from this cause alone.” And if it is not endowed with the almost human skill and intelligence we were brought up to believe that it possessed, its keen instincts and engineer- ing ability may well excite our admira- tion and respect. ” The former importance of the beaver was due to its use in the manufacture of the fashionable, expensive and cum- brous beaver hat, a species among hats almost as extinct as the great auk among birds, and like it known to the present generation mainly from specimens pre- served in museums. A variety however still survives in Wales, which was also the last abiding place of the beaver in Bri- tain. In one of its many forms it is seen in the familiar portrait of Pocahontas, and it will probably survive for genera- tions to come in the cartoonists’ “ Uncle Sam,’’ whose dress would be incomplete without the bell-crowned beaver hat. It is just possible that in days gone by the beaver hat may have been worn for other reasons than simply to keep the Almost every natural pro- duct was supposed to be endowed with some malign or beneficent property and head warm. the beaver hat was guaranteed to cure deafness and stimulate the memory. Trade in beaver skins began early, almost with the founding of the first colonies. In 1624 the Dutch shipped four hundred skins from New Amster- dam; by 1635 the number had increased to nearly fifteen thousand — 14,981, to be exact, and the beaver was deemed of sufficient importance to be adopted as the seal of the colony. Albany — Fort Orange it was in those days — was the headquarters of the Dutch fur trade, and from there it went to the French at Montreal, only somewhat later to pass to the English. An interesting feature of the early 123 124 trade is that for hat-making, old and worn beaver skins were preferred to new and in 1636 Bradford in his History of Plymouth Plantation notes that coat beavers, as they were termed, brought to twenty-four the pound, others selling for fifteen to six- twenty shillings teen shillings the skin. As Adrian van der Donck wrote, “unless the beaver has been worn, and is greasy and dirty, it will not felt properly”’; so wherever possible, the Indians were wheedled or cozened out of their robes and these The hats went into the making of hats. THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL of those days were valuable and cherished possessions, of sufficient importance and endurance to be handed down by will from father to son. Also they could be rented by the year for about fifteen dollars by those who could not afford to purchase outright. All of which shows that Dame Fashion was not so fickle in those days as now. The English colonist did not neglect the beaver. The “Fortune,” the first ship to visit Plymouth, took back in 1621 two hogsheads of beaver and other pelts, and in 1634 Winslow sent twenty es Copyright, 1914, by the National Geographic Society The beaver hat still survives in Wales as part of the national costume. Photograph reproduced turough the courtesy of the National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C. THE AMERICAN BEAVER hogsheads, the shipments up to this time having a total value of about ten thousand dollars. Thus the beaver seems to have been for a time the chief source of revenue of the Plymouth col- ony, although it is evident from the rec- ords that many of the skins must have come from Maine. But in New England, outside of Maine, the beaver was not abundant, and by 1645 the trade in the skins was practically at an end in that sec- tion. As any part of the country became settled the trade creased, and as fast as the beaver was in beaver skins in- exterminated, it became necessary to go farther and farther into the interior in search of it. Here is where the Hudson’s Bay Company played the leading rdéle, and by virtue of its efficient organization captured from the French and Dutch the fur trade that it has held even to the present day.