News Published Monthly by Field Mvseum of Natural History, Chicago Vol. 7 JANUARY, 1936 No. 1 GELADA BABOONS, FROM HIGHLANDS OF ETHIOPIA, ARE SHOWN IN NEW EXHIBIT By Wilfred H. Osgood Curator, Department of Zoology Africa is a land of baboons, and, within Africa, Ethiopia is headquarters for several of the most important species. In eastern Ethiopia, mainly in the hot lowlands, one finds the hamadryas baboon which extends into the Sudan and Arabia, and is so well distinguished by its light gray color and very long, rufflike mane. Then there is the generally distrib- uted doguera or dog- faced baboon, plain in color and maneless, but large and impos- ing, and closely allied to forms found throughout Central Africa. Finally, there is the gelada baboon, strictly a resident of Ethiopia and confined to its rock-walled canyons and high mountain crests. This species has no counterpart elsewhere and, like the human races of the region, has an origin and history that are matters of conjecture. Apparently it has occupied its present position for a very long time, perhaps al- most as long as the volcanic mountains in which it lives. At least it is certain that its near relatives, which may have occupied other parts of Africa, are now all extinct and it is left alone on the Ethiopian highlands. It differs markedly from other baboons and, although almost wholly terrestrial in habits, it has certain peculiarities indicating a possible distant relationship to tree-living African monkeys such as the guenons and man- gabeys. Its nostrils are not terminal and doglike but well behind the extremity of the muzzle. Its legs are relatively slender and the tail fairly long. In old males, the whole back and shoulders are covered with a mantle of long, flowing hair, producing a decidedly leonine effect. Another pecu- liarity is a shield-shaped naked patch on the breast which is of a florid, pink color. The gelada rarely descends below 6,000 feet. It makes its home in rocks and caves at high altitudes where the temperature not infrequently drops to the freezing point. Early travelers report finding it in troops of several hundred and, although such large numbers may not often be seen now, it is always gregarious like other baboons. Al- though the hamadryas and dog-faced baboons sometimes associate with each other, the gelada keeps aloof and is usually master in its own territory, making up by agility and spirit for what it lacks in size Gelada Babuoub These bizarre-looking apes, found exclusively in Ethiopia, are strikingly diflerent from other baboons occurring elsewhere in Africa. A new group in Carl E. Akeley Memorial Hall, composed of specimens collected by the Field Museum-C^icaffo Daily Neivs Abyssinian Expedition. Mounted by Staff Taxidermist Leon L. Pray. and strength. It is credited with rolling boulders from a height to disconcert any animal which may be approaching. During the Field Museum-Chicago Daily News Abyssinian Expedition of 1926-27, the gelada was found in numbers along the canyons of the Muger River and the Blue Nile and in the Simien Mountains, in all cases in very rough broken country. A number of specimens were obtained for museum purposes, but only with consider- able effort since the animals were shy and elusive. The hunting required employment of some practices necessary in hunting ibexes, much hard climbing, and many long shots. Also it entailed many disappointments. The baboons seemed always to perch on pinnacles from which, if killed, they would fall into such yawning depths below that retrieving them would be next to impossible. The help of the natives was invaluable in these places, for the ability of a barefooted Ethiopian to scale a cliff is second only to that of the baboons themselves. Five young gelada baboons brought to our camps by natives were adopted as pets and soon made themselves generally popular. Being no more than a few months old, they were playful, affectionate, and exceedingly active. The males were noticeably more aggressive than the females, but there was little quarreling among themselves and scarcely any sugges- tion of the pugnacity and irascibility so fre- quently shown by the adults. As usual in such cases, they accepted us as foster parents and took for granted our guardian- ship. They were given the freedom of the camp and showed no disposition to run away. When fright- ened, they scampered at high speed directly into our arms or laps and cuddled there con- tentedly. At night, if permitted, they pre- ferred to climb to the top of the tallest tree standing above the tents and remain until daybreak. When the first rays of the morn- ing sun struck them, down they came as if in response to an order. Attempts to dislodge them earlier, however, were always unsuccessful. Feed- ing them was no problem for, being strict vegetarians, they easily found plenty of grass and herbs to satisfy their needs. On the trail, they rode on the backs of the mules, dodging overhanging branches, and taking the daily routine as if born to it. Finally they were shipped via Hamburg to Chicago for the Brookfield Zoo. One of them, now about ten years old, is still living in the zoo. The Museum's group, in Carl E. Akeley Memorial Hall (Hall 22), prepared by Staff Taxidermist Leon L. Pray, shows an old male seated solemnly on a rocky prominence with a female and a half-grown young baboon nearby, engaged in exploring crevices in the rock. Almost as Hard as Diamond The Museum has added to its collections an example of a material which is the second in hardness of all known substances, being inferior in this respect to the diamond only. This is the carbide of boron which is made in the electric furnace from coke and boric acid. It has long been known as a chemical curiosity, but methods of making it of a purity and cost permitting its industrial use have only recently been perfected. Its powder is now used for grinding hard surfaces in place of the diamond dust formerly used. In solid form it is used to line surfaces sub- ject to severe abrasion such as sand blast nozzles and dies for drawing thread or wire. The specimen was presented by the Norton Company of Worcester, Massachusetts, and is exhibited in the borax collection in Frederick J. V. Skiff Hall (Hall 37). — H. W. N. Page 2 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Jantiary, 19S6 Field Museum of Natural History Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 Roosevelt Road and Lake Michigan, Cliicago THE BOARD Sbwell L. Avery John Borden WiLUAM J. Chalmers Joseph N. Field Marshall Field Stanley Field Ernest R. Grahau Albert W. Harris Samuel Insull, Jr. Cyrus H. McCormick OF TRUSTEES William H. Mitchell George A. Richardson Fred W. Sargent Stephen C. Simms James Simpson Solomon A. Smith Albert A. Sprague Silas H. Strawn Lesue Wheeler John P. Wii^on OFFICERS Stanley Field Prendent Albert A. Sprague First Vice-President James Simpson Second Vice-President Albert W. Harris Third Vice-President Stephen C. Simms Director and Secretary Solomon A. Smith . . . Treasurer and Assistant Secretary FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Stephen C. Simms, Director of the Museum Editor CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Paul S. Martin Curator of Anthropology B. E. Dahlgren Curator of Botany Henry W. Nichoi^ Curator of Geology Wilfred H. Osgood Curator of Zoology H. B. Harte Managing Editor Field Museum is open every day of the year during the hours indicated below: Nov., Dec, Jan., Feb., Mar. 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. April, September, October 9 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. May, June, July, August 9 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Admission is free to Members on all days. Other adults are admitted free on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays; non-members pay 25 cents on other days. Children are admitted free on all days. Students and faculty members of educational institutions are admit- ted free any day upon presentation of credentials. The Museum's natural history Library is open for reference daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Traveling exhibits are circulated in the schools of Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public School Extension Department of the Museum. Lectures for schools, and special entertainments and tours for children at the Museum, are provided by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. Announcements of free illustrated lectures for the public, and special lectures for Members of the Museum, will appear in Field Museum News. A cafeteria in the Museum serves visitors. Rooms are provided for those bringing their lunches. Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 buses go direct to the Museum. Members are requested to inform the Museum promptly of changes of address. MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM Field Museum has several classes of Members. Benefactors give or devise $100,000 or more. Contribu- tors give or devise $1,000 to $100,000. Life Members give $500; Non-Resident Life and Associate Members pay $100; Non-Resident Associate Members pay $50. All the above classes are exempt from dues. Sustaining Members contribute $25 annually. After six years they become Associate Members. Annual Members con- tribute $10 annually. Other memberships are Corpo- rate, Honorary, Patron, and Corresponding, additions under these classifications being made by special action of the Board of Trustees. Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to free admission to the Museum for himself, his family and house guests, and to two reserved seats for Museum lectures provided for Members. Subscription to Field Museum News is included with all memberships. The courtesies of every museum of note in the United States and Canada are extended to all Members of Field Museum. A Member may give his personal card to non-residents of Chicago, upon presentation of which they will be admitted to the Nluseum without charge. Further information about memberships will be sent on request. BEQUESTS AND ENDOWMENTS Bequests to Field Museum of Natural History may be made in securities, money, books or collections. They may, if desired, take the form of a memorial to a person or cause, named by the giver. Cash contributions made within the taxable year not exceedmg 15 per cent of the Uxpayer's net income are allowable as deductions in computing net income under Article 251 of Regulation 69 relating to the income tax under the Revenue Act of 1926. Endowments may be made to the Museum with the provision that an annuity be paid to the patron for life. These annuities are tax-free and are guaranteed against fluctuation in amount. JAMES HENRY BREASTED 1865-1935 In the passing of Professor James Henry Breasted, founder and Director of The Oriental Institute of the University of Chi- cago, the sciences of history and archaeology as well as Egyptology have lost a most distinguished scholar. In his research and his teaching Dr. Breasted sought to know and to make known the origins of civilization and of modern culture, with an enthusiasm which inspired every student who came within the sound of his voice or under the influence of his pen. With the opening of the Oriental Institute on December 5, 1931, a long-cherished dream of his became a reality. Today there are eleven expeditions working over a 2,000-mile front from Luxor to Persepolis. The living past of the "Fertile Crescent" is being re- created. This is indeed a worthy monu- ment to the learned gentleman and gracious friend of scholar and student, James Henry Breasted, whose death on December 2 is mourned on every continent. Professor Breasted handled the purchasing and accomplished the original cataloguing and labeling of a considerable portion of the Egyptian collection now in Field Museum. On May 17, 1926, he was elected an Honor- ary Member of Field Museum for his emi- nent service to Science. As long as the waters of the Nile flow past Luxor, the name of Breasted will be revered by those who seek the truth concerning ancient times. — H. F. "CALENDAR SCREEN" PICTURES MADE OF BIRD FEATHERS Of exceptional beauty and delicate crafts- manship is a large "calendar screen" from China, with colored pictures made from bird feathers intricately cut and pieced together, on exhibition at the north end of the East Gallery on the second floor. The screen, which is about fifteen feet long and six feet high, is divided into twelve panels framed in artistically carved black- wood. In each panel are floral decorations corresponding to the plants and flowers which would bloom in the month which the panel represents in the calendar. These designs are formed with kingfisher feathers cut in the desired shape and gummed to thin plates of wood. Kingfishers are found throughout China, and are caught alive, the trappers attracting them by imitating their sound and then snaring them carefully in small nets laid over the water, according to Museum anthropologists. After some of the beautiful plumage of the birds has been plucked, they are released otherwise unharmed, and soon grow new feathers to replace those taken from them. The screen on exhibition was made about the end of the eighteenth century, and was obtained by a Museum expedition. ORIGIN OF ORANGES California and Florida may be rivals for first honors in the production of oranges, but it was in India that the orange originated, and it is to the Chinese that we owe the development of the sweet edible orange. The first people to encounter the wild orange may have been the Dravidians who lived in India before the white race settled there, or may have been a people who preceded them as inhabitants of that country. This wild orange, however, was filled with a bitter pulp, so bitter that the Arabs who first carried the orange from India to the west used it only as a medicine. They apparently considered it an important drug for they took it with them to Palestine, eastern Africa and southern Europe. They gave it the name narunj from which our word orange is derived. Meanwhile, under the hands of skilled Chinese gardeners the sweet orange ap- peared. Some botanists think that it was developed from the bitter species. Others say it first appeared as a wild sweet orange in southern China. From China it was taken to India, and thence to Europe where it was raised as early as the fourteenth century. In 1498, when Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa and reached India by the long sea route, he found an even sweeter orange than that known before. He carried it back to Portugal, and it was the seed of this orange that Spanish and Portuguese explorers planted in the West Indies and Florida. Later it was planted in the Gulf states and California. An exhibit illustrating the botanical and economic aspects of orange growing, and also of other citrus fruits including lemons, grapefruit, etc., is to be seen in the Hall of Plant Life (Hall 29). SYNTHETIC GEMS How a synthetic ruby or other jewel can be a "real" jewel, and still not be a genuine one, although only the keenest-eyed experts could ever detect the difference, is illustrated in an exhibit in H. N. Higinbotham Hall (Hall 31). The exhibit consists of a collection of synthetic gems which includes two varieties of ruby, fourteen varieties of sapphire, and one spinel. These artificially made gems are not only perfect reproductions of the genuine ones which come from the mines, but they are real gems in the sense that they are composed of the same chemical con- stituents as the genuine ones, and are synthesized by a laboratory process which produces the same result as the forces of nature. By this process raw gem material is obtained of the same brilliancy, hardness and composition as the natural gems. Examples of this synthetic raw gem material, in the unfinished "boules" as well as the finished gems, are included in the exhibit. The boules are cut in the same manner as natural stones, with the result that "real" gems, practically indistinguish- able from the genuine, are obtained. The synthetic gems, when submitted to chemical and other tests, react in the same way as the genuine. Even many jewelers of long experience and wide knowledge of gems are often unable to determine for sure whether a stone is synthetic or genuine. Although many important gems have been synthesized by this process, certain others, such as diamonds, emeralds, topazes and hyacinths, while scientifically possible of artificial production, as proved by experiments, have not yet been producible in sufficient size to be of commercial value. The synthetic gems are not cheap, as the method of production is expensive, but nevertheless they cost only a fraction of what genuine gems of equal weight and brilliancy would cost. High quality syn- thetic gems are made chiefly in France and Germany. Various sharks found in Texas waters, including the kind generally feared as "man- eaters," are exhibited in Albert W. Harris Hall (Hall 18). January, 19S6 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Pages SYSTEMATIC EXHIBIT OF SNAKES ENLARGED AND REARRANGED The poisonous snakes on exhibition in Albert W. Harris Hall (Hall 18) have recent- ly been reinstalled, and to them have been added six new models prepared by Staff Taxidermist Leon L. Walters and Mr. Edgar G. Layboume. The additions include the Florida coral snake and the pygmy rattle- snake, two of the notable poisonous forms of the United States; the wide-banded western form of the copperhead; a large fer-de-lance, the most abundant poisonous snake of tropical America; and two European vipers — the widespread common species and the sand viper of southern Europe. The specimen used for the fer-de-lance model was brought to the Museum alive by the Leon Mandel Guatemala Expedition in 1934. The other side of the screen in the same case is occupied by models of some of the larger North American snakes, the racers, chicken snakes, and king snakes. The blue racer, one of the most notable of the harm- less snakes native to the Chicago Region, the striped racer of California, and the milk snake, which is also a local form, have been added to this screen. The milk snake is extremely well-known by name on account of the fable that it sucks milk from cows. It is now relatively rare in the Chicago area, and is often confused with other spotted species, especially with the fox snake. The occasion of rearranging this case was utilized also for a complete revision of all labels. These are now printed in larger and more legible type and are provided with individual maps showing the distribution of the species. ^K. P. S, THE CHINESE PURGATORIES In the belief of the Taoists of China there are ten purgatories through which the shades of the dead pass. Eight of these have sixteen wards each, and a separate torment is inflicted in each ward. Many of these surpass anything conceived in Dante's "Inferno." However, a certain grotesquely humorous flavor is lent to the Chinese purgatories as depicted in the morality drama, the Ten Courts of Pur- gatory, popular on the stage in China. For example, many of the puppets repre- senting souls undergoing the most horrible tortures have blandly smiling faces. A reproduction of scenes in the drama forms an interesting exhibit in Hall 32. The Chinese believe every man and woman must appear in the first court after death, and if their tale of good or evil works is equally balanced they are returned to life. Male may become female; female, male; rich, poor; and poor, rich, according to their merits. There is a mirror of sin in which the wicked again behold their crimes on earth. These condemned ones are then dragged by devils into the second and succeeding courts for punishment, some being sent to only one or two, others to several or all, according to the enormity and variety of their sins. While the great sins are essentially the same as those recognized as such by occi- dental civilization, the Chinese include also among the crimes for which terrible punish- ments are meted out after death, such things as falsely setting one's age to marry for gain; repudiation of a betrothal; slight- ing of husbands by wives; finding fault with the weather; promotion of litigation; tax dodging; and getting deeply into debt. The drama warns against race suicide by depicting a hungry shade — a man who died without issue, and consequently has nobody to feed him after death with the prescribed ancestral sacrifices. He is a vagabond in the other world, begging alms. Here are a few of the many forms of torture to which culprits are supposed to be subjected in the various purgatories: They are ground in a mill composed of two large stones; they are stretched on a rack; they are roasted by being tied to a fiery pillar; they are forced to climb a hill bristling with knives; their hearts are scratched and squeezed with pincers; their feet are chopped off; their sinews are cut and their bones pulled out; they are choked with fire; they are rolled and flattened on ice; they are chopped in two at the waist; they are gnawed, bitten, and pecked at by dogs, rats, huge birds, and other creatures; they are lacerated and pierced with many kinds of weapons; they are boiled in oil, stewed, and wrung out like clothes. In the end all the shades are reborn on earth either as animals or people. DR. PAUL S. MARTIN APPOINTED CURATOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY Dr. Paul S. Martin has been appointed Curator of the Department of Anthropology, effective January 1, 1936. The appointment was made by action of the Board of Trustees at a meeting held December 16. Dr. Martin has been Acting Curator of the Department since the death in the autumn of 1934 of Dr. Berthold Laufer, former Curator. Prior to that Dr. Martin was Assistant Curator of North American Archaeology, coming to the Museum in that capacity in 1929. His earlier experience included a number of years on the staffs of the Public Museum in Milwaukee and the State Museum of Colorado in Denver. Dr. Martin has been responsible for com- prehensive revision of Field Museum's collections representing the archaeology of North American Indian tribes, and he has conducted four seasons of excavation and research on the Lowry ruin, a prehistoric Indian site in Colorado. SCULPTURES ILLUSTRATE EUROPE'S CHIEF RACIAL TYPES Alpine The population of modem Europe is divided into three principal racial divisions — Mediterranean, Alpine and Nordic. Each of these groups is represented by a sculpture in bronze among the Races of Mankind series by Mal- vina Hoffman, on exhibition in Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall (Hall 3). Most of the rounded-headed peoples of Europe belong to the Alpine race, repre- sented in the sculptures by the bust of an Austrian of the mountain re- treat of Innsbruck. Typical Alpines possess fairly dark complexion, brown wavy hair, thick eyebrows over brown eyes, strong body hair, broad face, sometimes a thick neck, and medium to heavy build. The principal regions they inhabit extend from the central plateau of France, Switzerland, and Czechoslovakia southward into the Balkans and eastward into Russia. The Mediterranean race is charac- terized by darkish or olive skin. This group is exemplified among the sculp- tures by the full-length figure of an Italian — a fisherman from Sicily — short in stature and light in build. Typical of the race are dark hair and eyes, narrow oval face, and small mouth. The Mediterraneans inhabit chiefly the Iberian peninsula, western Mediterranean islands, southern France and Italy, and also the western part of Great Britain. The Nordic peoples compose the basic population of northern Europe, comprising Scandinavia, northern Germany, and parts of Holland and Belgium; there is a strong Nordic element also in Great Britain. They are represented in Chauncey Keep Hall by the full-length statue of a tall Swede, with light complexion and hair, blue eyes, long head, and face marked by a prominent nose and chin. All three of these groups are, of course, strongly represented in the modern popu- lation of North America which, from the racial standpoint, must be considered as chiefly European. Original photographs, and photogravure post cards of these, as well as most of the other Races of Mankind sculptures, may Fhotographa copyright Field Museum of Natural History Mediterranean and Nordic Types These, and the Alpine type, represent the three principal racial divisions of Europe. The sculptures are by Malvina Hoffman, and are exhibited in Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall. be purchased at the Museum. Mail orders are given prompt attention. By special arrangement, reproductions in bronze may also be purchased. Live Stock Show Visitors at Museum Many out-of-town visitors were received at Field Museum in the early part of De- cember as a result of the holding of the International Live Stock Exposition in Chi- cago. In addition to those who visited the Museum independently, there were two large groups of children from agricultural districts brought under the auspices of the Four-H Clubs, organization of farm young people. On December 3 there was a group of 600 girls, and on December 5 one of 900 boys. Guide-lecture service was furnished by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Ray- mond Foundation. Page It FIELD MUSEUM NEWS January, 19SS THE ALTAR OF BENIN By W. D. Hambly Assistant Curator of African Ethnology Approaching the ancient city of Benin, toward the close of the Frederick H. Rawson -Field Museum Ethnological Expedition to West Africa a few years ago, my mind constantly reverted to the changes that have taken place in southern Nigeria since Benin was conquered by British forces in 1897. How much should I find of the ancient ritual surrounding the court of the ruler, or Obba as he is designated? Would the altar where human sacrifices were offered be in existence? When I actually saw the altar, which is situated in the shade of a broad verandah in the palace courtyard of the Obba, I was happy to know that twenty years ago Field Museum acquired an excellent collec- tion of antique bronzes and two carved ivory tusks. When troops sacked Benin as a reprisal for the murder of several British subjects on a trade mission, the principal loot consisted of art treasures which found their way to European museums and into the hands of private collectors. A glance at the altar showed that all ivory tusks had been removed and only a few bronze heads remained. The heads repre- sent persons of note. Wooden staffs, of which a few examples still remain on the altar, were no doubt carried by priests, while the bronze bells may have been sounded during ceremonials. Bronze plaques are known to have covered the walls of the king's palace, and the designs on these castings, of which the Museum has some excellent examples, re- late to beliefs and customs of ancient Benin. The steps of the altar were sprinkled with blood, which had also been splashed on some of the objects. This use of the blood of sacrifice is a reminder of the days when human victims were clubbed to death before the shrine, where at the present time goats and chickens are immolated. The human victims might be prisoners of war, criminals, or merely domestic slaves, but whatever their status, the object of the death ceremony was the provision of workers for the ghosts of dead kings. Worship of ancestors is fundamental in Negro religion, and the belief prevails that social status is preserved in a world of spirits. Botanical Exhibits Praised Dr. E. P. Phillips, Principal Botanist of the Division of Plant Industry, Pretoria, South Africa, who in 1934 studied herbaria and botanical museums of the United States and Canada, devoted two pages, in a published account of his investigations, to the Department of Botany of Field Museum. He states: "The outstanding botanical museum I saw was that at Field Museum." THE SKELETON OF A NORTH AMERICAN FOSSIL RHINOCEROS By Elhgr S. Riggs Associate Curator of Paleontology One of the extinct species of rhinoceroses of North America, Trigonias hypostylus, is represented by a fine fossil skeleton exhibited in Ernest R. Graham Hall (Hall 38). The specimen was collected from a famous fossil quarry, in Weld County, Colorado, operated some years ago by the Colorado Museum of Natural History. This place had been, in Oligocene time (thirty million years ago), a shallow lagoon on the open plains. All about it, apparently, was grass and meadow land inhabited by numerous wild animals. Members of this species of rhinoceros, along with other larger and smaller animals, had frequented the lagoon as a drinking-place and many of them had mired and perished there. Later, these skeletons were covered and preserved by sediments washed in by surface water. The skeletons were recently found inter- mingled and scattered over a half-acre of ground. Subsequent erosion had again washed them out. Trigonias was a rather small species of rhinoceros which would have stood, in life, about three and one-half feet in height. The body was rather hea\'y, the legs mod- erately short. There was no horn on the nose; the tusks and grinding teeth were more simple than those of modern species of the rhinoceros family. There were four toes on the forefoot, three on the hind foot. The formation in which these animals are preserved is the well-known White River "bad lands," a hardened clay mixed with volcanic ash. Many other species of rhinoceros, both larger and smaller than this one, are known to have lived on the Great Plains of North America at that period. JANUARY GUIDE-LECTURE TOURS Conducted tours of exhibits, under the guidance of staff lecturers, are made every afternoon at 3 p.m., except Saturdays, Sundays, and certain holidays. Following is the schedule of subjects and dates for January: Wednesday, January 1 — New Year's holiday. Mu- seum closed; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Races of Mankind. Week beginning January 6: Monday — Plant and Animal Life of the Past; Tuesday — Trees and Wood Products; Wednesday — Egypt and Its Art; Thursday — General Tour; Friday— Birds of Brilliant Plumage. Week beginning January 13: Monday — Stone Age of the Old World; Tuesday — Uses of Fibers, Barks and Resins; Wednesday — Asiatic Animal Life; Thursday^ General Tour; Friday — Primitive Musical Instruments. Week beginning January 20: Monday — Amphibians and Reptiles; Tuesday — The Plant Family; Wednesday — Native Philippine Life; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Pewter and Jade. Week beginning January 27: Monday — Mexican Archaeology; Tuesday — Systematic Collection of Ani- mals; Wednesday — Indians of Plains and Woodlands; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Textiles and Looms. Persons wishing to participate should apply at North Entrance. Tours are free and no gratuities are to be proffered. A new schedule will appear each month in Field Museum News. Guide-lecturers' services for special tours by parties of ten or more are available free of charge by arrangement with the Director a week in advance. Gifts to the Museum Following is a list of some of the principal gifts received during the last month: From Abb« Henri Breuil and P^re de Chardin— 282 quartzite, flint, and obsidian implements, Ethiopia: from L. H. Riddell — 6 mounted prints of reconstructed prehistoric scenes, drawn by Mr. Riddell; from Pro- fessor F. J. Hermann — 128 herbarium specimens, Michigan; from Miss Alice C. Meyers — a specimen of halloysite and one of Chinese vitrified clay. New Mexico and China; from Chicago Zoological Society — 1 1 snakes, 5 lizards, i turtle, and 89 specimens of bird skins and skeletons, including 10 emperor penguins; from High- land Park School — 2 warblers and one swift skeleton, Illinois; from Charles Baird — a rail skeleton, Illinois; from Leslie Wheeler — 17 specimens of bird skins and skeletons, Ecuador, Panama, Illinois, and Mississippi; from W. R. Whitney — 2 bird skeletons, Illinois; from Karl Plath — 6 bird skeletons. Illinois; from Rev. H. E. J. Biggs— 32 shells (9 species) and 21 beetles (11 species), Iran; from L. C. Childs — a bufflehead duck, Illinois; from R. D. Hildebrand — an eastern wild turkey skin, North Carolina; from Henry Field — 428 scorpions, 55 centipedes, 7 spiders, and 530 insects, Iraq; from John G. Shedd Aquarium — 400 fishes, Fiji and Hawaii, and an octopus and 8 crtlstaceans, Hawaii; from Pro- fessor H. W. Norris — a shark and 7 samples of shark skin, Florida waters; from Gordon Grant — 25 specimens top minnows, California; from Stewart J. Walpole — 2 young specimens of a rare shark, Bermuda; from E. F. Vacin — 3 large trout, Wyoming. Skeleton of Extinct American Rhinoceros In life this animal stood about three and one-half feet in height. It lived in Colorado some thirty miUiim years ago. The mounted skeleton is on exhibition in Ernest R. Graham Hall. NEW MEMBERS The following persons were elected to membership in Keld Museum during the period from November 16 to December 14: Life Members Mrs. Philip S. Rinaldo Associate Members Mrs. David T. Adams, Mrs. Roderick Findlay, Dr. Ben H. Huggins, Clarence H. Kavanagh, Mrs. R. E. Prussing, William P. Sidley, Mrs. Donald P. Welles, H. C. Wright. Annual Members Mrs. Hilda Baird, Mrs. Ronald P. Boardman, Dr. Ralph C. Brown, Amos H. Case, Mrs. Albert J. Denis- ton, Jr., J. David Dickinson, Stephen J. Fisher, Dr. James W. Ford, George H. Glade, Jr., Miss Rosa B. Greene, Arthur H. Hedley, Dr. Daniel W. Jeffries, Dr. Robert P. Keith, Dr. Richard A. Lifvendahl, Miss Viola Edna MacLean, Miss Sarah McLean, Charles Herman Metzgcr, William H. Nelson, R. Shreve Noble, Raymond Osborne, Julius Rosenbaum, Mrs. Irwin S. Rosenfcls, Mrs. Fred D. Sadler, William Smale, Dr. C. R. Steinfeldt, C. H. Strawbridgc, Mrs. Nathan B. Swift, John R. Topping, Harvey C. Vernon, Henry A. Wetoter, Andrew wiUe. PRINTBO BY FIELD MUSEUM PRCSS News Published Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago Vol. 7 FEBRUARY, 1936 No. 2 SERIES OF MURALS ON BOTANICAL SUBJECTS UNDER WAY FOR PLANT LIFE HALL By B. E. Dahlgren Curator, Department of Botany It has long seemed desirable to introduce into the botanical exhibits some habitat scenes showing plants in their natural en- vironment on a more adequate scale than by the photographs placed with plant material in the exhibition cases. The value of murals for such purposes having been amply demonstrated in the Charles R. Knight series on prehistoric life in Ernest R. Graham Hall, the Mu- seum's staff artist, Mr. Charles A. Corwin who has painted so many of the hand- some backgrounds for the zoological groups, was instructed last spring to prepare pre- liminary sketches for a series of fifteen large paintings of botanical subjects. Photo- graphs and other data were provided by the Department of Botany. Within a short time Mr. Corwin was able to begin work on several full size murals for the Hall of Plant Life (Hall 29). Three of these are now completed and may be seen on the west wall in this hall. The accompanying illustration shows one of these paintings representing the dragon's blood tree of Teneriflfe, Canary Islands, long famous among old world trees for its great age, which has often been estimated to exceed that of the pyramids of Egypt, as well as for its great size. It was seventy feet in height and measured seventy-nine feet in circumference at the ground. Humboldt, who visited the Canary Islands in 1799, found its girth a short distance above the ground to be forty-five feet, and its diameter sixteen feet. This famous tree about which so much myth had gathered during the three or four centuries that it remained an object of Dragon's Blood Tree The world's largest and oldest tree belonged to this rare and peculiar species, found only in the Canary Islands. The photograph represents one of a series of large mural paintings being prepared for the Hall of Plant Life by Staff Artist Charles A. Corwin. attention, was injured by a storm in 1819, and finally destroyed in 1867 when it was blown down by a hurricane and afterward consumed by fire. It left, however, several descendants of great size which, together with existing old pictures of the original tree of Orotava, serve to give an adequate idea of its appearance. Botanically the dragon's blood tree is of interest not so much for the persistence of its fame, nor for its rarity, since similar trees, though of lesser size, are found in several other places in the Old World, but rather as an outstanding example of the exist- ence of large woody plants among the lilies, a family which ordinarily is thought of as consisting solely of herbs like the crocus, wood lilies, Easter lily, hyacinth and onion. The tree- yuccas of our south- western states, also of the lily family, con- stitute the nearest parallel on this con- tinent. Africa, how- ever, furnishes several large woody species of Dracena. The popular name, "dragon's blood tree," has reference to the deep red color of a resinous exudation obtained from it, for- merly of some im- portance as a pigment and in pharmacy. More pictures from this series of murals will appear in future numbers of Field Museum News. The other two paintings now on view show the well known baobab or monkey bread tree of central Africa and some Mexican giant cacti of tree-like dimensions. RARE SEALS AND PENGUINS FROM BYRD EXPEDITION Field Museum has received specimens of the two principal species of Antarctic seals, collected by Admiral Richard E. Byrd's Second Antarctic Expedition which con- cluded its work and returned to this country last fall. These seals, of the species known as Weddell's seal, and crab-eating seal, are quite rare in museum collections. It is planned to use the Weddell's seal specimens in a proposed habitat group to be added to Hall N (Hall of Marine Mammals). Field Museum obtained the specimens through the Emily Crane Chadbourne Fund. The Museum has also received, as a result of the cooperation of the Chicago Zoological Society, ten specimens of the rare emperor penguin, and various other penguins. 'These birds also were collected by the Byrd Expe- dition, and were exhibited at the Brookfield Zoo before they died. They will be used in a habitat group in the new Hall of Foreign Birds, a project upon which work is now under way. A number of other groups are being prepared for this hall. 1,400-POUND METEORITE SHOWN The Gladstone meteorite, which has just been added to the collection in Hall 34, increases to eight the number of meteor- ites so large that each is displayed in an individual case. This is an iron meteorite of roughly rectangular form, two feet long, one foot wide and nine inches thick. It now weighs 1,400 pounds. Its weight when found was recorded as fourteen and one- half hundredweight, equivalent to 1,624 pounds. It was discovered in 1914 near Gladstone in Queensland, Australia. Bryan Patterson Promoted Mr. Bryan Patterson, formerly Assistant in Paleontology in the Department of Ge- ology, was recently promoted to the position of Assistant Curator of Fossil Mammals. LINCOLN AND WASHINGTON PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN The James Nelson and Anna Louise Ray- mond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures will present two special programs of free motion pictures for children in February, in commemoration of the birth- days of Abraham Lincoln and George Wash- ington. The Lincoln program will be given on Wednesday, February 12. The films to be shown are "My First Jury" and "The Call to Arms." The Washington program, on Saturday, February 22, will consist of a multiple-reel film entitled "Washington, the Boy and the Man." Both programs will be presented in the James Simpson Theatre of the Museum, and there will be two showings of the films on each, one beginning at 10 A.M., and one at 11. Children from all parts of Chicago and suburbs are invited to attend. Page 2 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS February, 19S6 Field Museum of Natural History Founded by Marahall Field. 1893 Roosevelt Road and Lake Michigan, Chicago THE BOARD Sbwbix L. Avery John Borden WiLUAM J. Chalmers Joseph N. Field Marshall Field Stanley Field Ernest R. Graham Albert W. Harris Samuel iNsinx, Jr. Cyrus H. McCormick OF TRUSTEES William H. Mitchell George A. Richardson Fred W. Sargent Stephen C. Simms James Simpson Solomon A. Smith Albert A. Sprague Silas H. Strawn Leslie Wheeler John P. Wilson OFFICERS Stanley Field Pretidenl Albert A. Sprague First Vice-President Jambs Simpson Second Vice-President Albert W. Harris Third Vice-President Stephen C. Simms Director and Secretary Solomon A. Smith . . . Treasurer and Assistant Secretary FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Stephen C. Simms, Director of the Museum Editor CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Paul S. Martin Curator of Anthropology B. E. Dahlgren Curator of Botany Henry W. Nichois Curator of Geology Wilfred H. Osgood Curator of Zoology H. B. Harte Managing Editor Field Museum is open every day of the year during the hours indicated below: Nov., Dec, Jan., Feb., Mar. 9 A.M. to 4:30 F.M. April, September, October 9 A.M. to 5:00 FM. May, June, July, August 9 a.m. to 6:00 P.M. Admission is free to Members on all days. Other adults are admitted free on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays; non-members pay 25 cents on other days. Children are admitted free on all days. Students and faculty members of educational institutions are admit- ted free any day upon presentation of credentials. The Museum's natural history Library is open for reference daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Traveling exhibits are circulated in the schools of Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public School Extension Department of the Museum. Lectures for schools, and special entertainments and tours for children at the Museum, are provided by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. Announcements of free illustrated lectures for the public, and special lectures for Members of the Museum, will appear in Field Museum News. A cafeteria in the Museum serves visitors. Rooms are provided for those bringing their lunches. Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 buses go direct to the Museum. Members are requested to inform the Mtlseum promptly of changes of address. MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM Field Museum has several classes of Members. Benefactors give or devise $100,000 or more. Contribu- tors give or devise $1,000 to $100,000. Life Members give $500; Non-Resident Life and Associate Members pay $100; Non-Resident Associate Members pay $50. All the above classes are exempt from dues. Sustaining Members contribute $25 annually. After six years they become Associate Members. Annual Members con- tribute $10 annually. Other memberships are Corpo- rate. Honorary. Patron, and Corresponding, additions under these classifications being made by special action of the Board of Trustees. Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to free admission to the Museum for himself, his family and house guests, and to two reserved seats for Museum lectures provided for Members. Subscription to Field Museum News is included with all memberships. The courtesies of every museum of note in the United States and Canada are extended to all Members of Field Museum. A Member may give his personal card to non-residents of Chicago, upon presentation of which they will be admitted to the \Iuseum without charge. Further information about memberships will be sent on request. BEQUESTS AND ENDOWMENTS Bequests to Field Museum of Natural History may be made in securities, money, books or collections. They may, if desired, take the form of a memorial to a person or cause, named by the giver. Cash contributions made within the taxable year not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's net income are allowable as deductions in computing net income under Article 251 of Regulation 69 relating to the income tax under the Revenue Act of 1926. Endowments may be made to the Museum with the provision that an annuity be paid to the patron for life. These annuities are tax-free and are guaranteed against fluctuation in amoimt. INCREASE IN MEMBERSHIP INDICATED FOR 1936 For the first time since 1930, Field Mu- seum in 1935 ended a year with no loss in memberships. In each of the four preceding years there were declines in the num];)er of Members, ranging from 57 in 1934 to as high as 819 in 1932. But in 1935, despite some cancellations, and some losses due to deaths, the membership rolls contained on the last day of the year exactly the same number of names (4,143) as on the first day, due to the compensating addition of new Members to the lists. This would seem to indicate a generally upward trend which, if it con- tinues, should result in an increased member- ship in 1936. This evidence of the loyal support of the Museum by its Members is most gratifying, and an expression of appreciation is due to all those who have continued their associ- ation with this institution despite the dis- couragements that most of them, in common with the population at large, have had to face during the years of depression. The Museum, in order to maintain its scientific and educational work on an ade- quate basis, continues to need financial sup- port from a large body of civic-minded men and women such as those who have retained their memberships during the past few diffi- cult years. In an ever increasing number of such supporters lies the institution's hope for an expansion of its activities for the public good and in behalf of scientific advancement. To those Members who from various causes found it necessary to cancel their member- ships in the past few years, an invitation is extended to resume now, or whenever con- ditions malce it possible for them to do so, their connection with the Museum. All Members now on the lists are urged not only to remain, but to propose the names of any other persons of their acquaintance who might be interested in becoming Members. —STEPHEN C. SIMMS, Director MUSEUM VISITORS IN 1935 TOTALED 1,182,349 Despite the natural subsidence of the un- usually intense public interest stimulated in the two previous years by the holding of A Century of Progress Exposition in close proximity to Field Museum, an attendance of well above one million visitors was re- ceived at the Museum during 1935. The total number of visitors was 1,182,349, and while this represents a large decline, it is, in view of the factors bearing upon it, a satisfactory record for an average year's service by the institution to the public. Of the visitors, only 54,631, or less than 5 per cent, paid the 25-cent admission fee charged on certain days; the remainder, 1,127,718, either came on the free admission days, or belonged to those classifications admitted free on all days — Members of the Museum, children, teachers, students, etc. Apart from visitors actually coming to the Museum, the institution extended its edu- cational influence to hundreds of thousands additional through its extra-mural activities. Thus more than 500,000 children in the schools of Chicago were reached daily during the school year by the 1,300 traveling ex- hibits circulated by the N. W. Harris Public School Extension of the Museum. These cases, as usual, were sent on regular schedule to more than 400 schools, and to other centers where large numbers of children gather. Likewise in the schools, 153,557 children heard 411 illustrated extension lectures presented in classrooms and as- sembly halls by members of the staff of the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. The Raymond Foundation presented also, in the James Simpson Theatre, two series of free motion picture programs which were attended by 34,004 children. The total number of groups given service by the Ray- mond Foundation was 1,450. Guide-lecture tours of the exhibits for children were par- ticipated in by 643 groups aggregating 24,978 children, and 355 similar tours for adults were taken advantage of by 6,782 persons. Attendance at the spring and autumn courses of illustrated lectures for adults in the Simpson Theatre totaled 24,336. Altogether, 245,871 persons benefited by Raymond Foundation activities, adult lec- tures, and other such special services of the Museum. Large numbers of persons, es- pecially students, teachers, and scientific workers, made use of the Museum Library of some 100,000 books, and the study col- lections of scientific material maintained in the various Departments. MUSEUM X-RAY APPARATUS OFFERED FOR SALE As Field Museum has completed all research work contemplated in which the use of roentgenological apparatus would be involved, it is planned to dismantle the X-ray laboratory, and the- equipment is now offered for sale at far less than its cost. The equipment consists of an excel- lent X-ray machine, of recent model and in perfect operating condition, along with complete accessories. The machine, a product of the Victor X-Ray Corporation, is unusual because it is especially adapted for Museum work. At Field Museum it was used in the study of Egyptian mummies, and for investigating the interior of specimens of various kinds — archaeological, ethno- logical, paleontological, geological, etc. It would, no doubt, be of value to some other institution desiring to undertake similar studies; or it can be converted back to employment for more usual types of X-ray work. Institutions or individuals interested are requested to communicate with the Director of Field Museum. Election of Officers The Board of Trustees of Field Museum, at its Annual Meeting held January 20, re- elected all Officers of the institution who had served in 1935. Mr. Stanley Field was re- elected President for the twenty-eighth con- secutive time, his occupancy of that office having begun in 1909. The other Officers re-elected are Col. Albert A. Sprague, First Vice-President; Mr. James Simpson, Sec- ond Vice-President; Mr. Albert W. Harris, Third Vice-President; Mr. Stephen C. Simms, Director and Secretary; and Mr. Solomon A. Smith, Treasurer and Assistant Secretary. No action was taken toward filling the vacant seat on the Board caused by the recent resignation of Mr. Frederick H. Raw- son. The membership of the Board re- mained otherwise unchanged. The Herbarium of the Department of Botany now contains approximately 800,000 specimens of plants from all parts of the world. February, 19S6 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Pages By Bryan Patterson Assistant Curator of Fossil Mammals The mounted skeleton of an extremely rare and surpassingly interesting fossil mam- mal was added last month to the paleonto- logical collection in Ernest R. Graham Hall (Hall 38). This animal, known as Titan- oides, was until very recently one of the least known of American fossil mammals. It lived during the Paleocene or opening period of the Age of Mammals, some fifty million years ago. At that time the dinosaur and other great reptiles which had dominated the earth during the Age of Reptiles had but recently, geologically speaking, vanished from the scene, and their immediate mam- malian successors were for the most part small. Among these, Tilanoides looms as the giant of its time. WORLD'S ONLY COMPLETE MOUNTED TITANOIDES SKELETON ive swimming organ since it was decidedly flexible and somewhat deeper than wide. The story of the discovery of the animal reveals the great extent to which friends of the Museum sometimes aid in the work it carries on . Up to 1 93 1 Tilanoides was known only from incomplete lower jaws that had been found in North Dakota and Wyoming. In that year Mr. Edwin B. Faber of Grand Junction, Colorado, presented to the Mu- seum nearly complete lower jaws which he had found near Mesa, Colorado. These were recognized as new, and the species was named Tilanoides faberi in his honor. As a result of the interest aroused by this specimen, Mr. T. J. Newhill, Jr., and the writer made a reconnaissance of the area in 1932. Three partial skeletons were collected, two of which had been located previously by Mr. Faber. In 1933 the region was worked by a party, consisting of Mr. C. A. Quinn, Mr. James H. Quinn, and the writer, and by great good fortune three nearly com- plete skeletons were obtained from a single excavation. At the time when Mr. Faber began his investigations not a single speci- men was known to have come from the formation in which the skeletons were collected. Had it not been for his efforts this mag- nificent fossil would in all probability have remained unknown for some time to come. The preparation of the skeletons and the mounting of one of them has taken a year's work in the laboratories. This very difficult task has been skillfully carried out by Mr. James H. Quinn. CHINESE GAS BOMBS Some Chinese gaseous bombs are in- cluded in the exhibits devoted to Oriental methods of warfare in Hall 32. These are spherical earthen jars, their surfaces largely covered by pointed projections which make them appear like great thorns. They were called variously "thunder stones" and "stink pots" by the Chinese, and were used especially in besieging cities. The jars, charged with gunpowder, were hurled upon the enemy, exploding and bursting. Such bombs were much used by pirates infesting the China seas, who filled them with powder, sulphur, nails and shot. The tops of the jars were then sealed, and the bombs were put in calico bags closed at the mouth with a string. Several of these would be packed in a basket and hoisted up to the masthead. When they were about to be thrown, three or four pieces of lighted incense sticks were inserted in each bag. Thus when the jar was smashed by falling on the enemy's deck, the incense sticks ignited the powder and sulphur, and the whole pot exploded, fragments wound- ing the victims while the sulphurous gas blinded and suffocated them. One of Rarest American Fossil Mammals Tilanoides faberi, a strange extinct animal with no recognizable close relatives in modem life. This skeleton, exhibited in Ernest R. Graham Hall, is the only complete mounted example in the world of this unique creature. Prepared by Mr. J. H. Quinn. Mammals were in existence during the greater part of the Age of Reptiles, but near- ly all were of very small size, since the presence of the dinosaurs and other success- ful reptilian groups prevented them from achieving any great evolutionary radiation. It was only after the world-wide extinction of the dominant reptiles at the end of the Cretaceous period that the mammals came into their own and filled the various stations in life that had previously been closed to them. Among these was the attainment of large size by the plant feeders. The geologic record reveals the history of many mam- malian families which first appeared as small forms, increased to large proportions and then became extinct, yielding place to others of different types. As far as now known, the line that culminated in Tilanoides was the first of these. Tilanoides was about eight and a half feet long and four feet high. It has no near rela- tives now living and is so unlike any existing mammal that profitable comparisons are impossible. The outstanding structural features are the comparatively small head and neck, the stout body, the large massive legs and feet, and the long heavy tail. From studies made in the Museum and in the field it seems probable that the animal's habitat was a low swampy area supporting an abun- dant vegetation. The low-crowned teeth were adapted to a diet of soft succulent plants. The broad feet would aid in prevent- ing the animal from sinking in soft ground, and the heavy powerful body would be well suited to forcing passage through tangled thickets. Although it was not primarily adapted to aquatic life, it seems likely that Tilanoides was a good swimmer on occasion. The tail could have been used as an effect RARE ETHIOPIAN IBEX IN PULLMAN HALL A specimen of Ethiopian ibex, an animal striking in appearance, obtained in the Sim- ien mountains in northeastern Ethiopia not far from the present northern fighting front of the Italians, was placed on exhibition last month in George M. Pullman Hall (Hall 13). The Ethiopian ibex is one of the world's rarer animals, and the Field Museum speci- men is believed to be the only one on ex- hibition in any museum of the United States. It was one of several collected by a party from the Field Museum-Cfticogo Daily News Abyssinian Expedition, consisting of Mr. James Baum of Chicago, Mr. C. Suydam Cutting of New York, and Mr. Alfred M. Bailey, then a member of the Museum staff. Ibex hunting is extremely difficult and dangerous, because the animals have to be sought in rough precipitous mountains at altitudes from 14,000 to 1 6,000 feet. Messrs. Baum, Cutting and Bailey are probably the only Americans, and among the few white men of any nation, ever to hunt successfully the Ethiopian ibex, according to Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood, Curator of the Department of Zoology, who was in general charge of the expedition. Like the Ethiopian people themselves, the ibex is not indigenous to Africa, but is de- scended from a tribe of invaders that crossed over from Asia, probably, at some time in dim antiquity. Ibexes, and wild goats in general, are northern in origin, and their normal range is in the various mountain regions of Asia and Europe. The ibex is one Ethiopian Ibex This animal is quite rare, and extremely difficult to hunt. The specimen shown above is on view in George M. Pullman Hall. Taxidermy by Mr. W. E. Eigsti. of a comparatively few Asiatic and European animals to reach Africa. The species found in Ethiopia has by now developed some dis- tinguishing characteristics of its own. Plant Collection from Brazil From the S. C. Johnson Carnauba Brazil- ian Expedition the Museum has just re- ceived a large quantity of plant material collected by Dr. B. E. Dahlgren in the states of Ceard, Piauhy and Bahia. Mr. H. F. Johnson, Jr., of Racine, Wisconsin, who sponsored and led this expedition to the carnauba zone of northeastern Brazil is a Non-resident Life Member of the Museum. An elaborately carved and painted wooden house front from a hut of the primitive Batak people of North Central Sumatra is on exhibition in Hall G. A habitat group of birds which inhabit the Chicago end of Lake Michigan during the winter, with a scenic background of ice floes and water, is to be seen in Hall 20. Page i FIELD MUSEUM NEWS February, 19S6 TIBETAN MAN AND WOMAN DEPICTED IN SCULPTURES The people of Tibet are represented among the Races of Mankind sculptures by Malvina Hoffman, exhibited in Chauncey Keep Me- morial Hall (Hall 3), by a full figure, seated, of a Tibetan merchant of Lhasa, and the head of a woman. The models for these portraits in bronze were a man and wife encountered by Miss Hoffman during her exten- sive travels in Asia in the execution of her commission for the Museum. The Tibetans are a mixed people related to the southern Mon- goloid group. They are characterized by brown skin, black hair, and short stature. The head is rounded with prominent cheek- bones, short flattened nose, and eyes set at an oblique angle. The Tibetan merchant seated cross-legged on a rug, as shown in the sculpture, wears in his left ear a silver earring, inlaid with turquois, which may have some mystic significance. Original photographs, as well as photo- gravure post cards, of these and most of the other sculptures in the Races of Mankind series, are sold at the Museum and by mail order. If desired, reproductions in bronze may also be purchased by special arrange- ment. Tibetan Woman Photographs copyright Field Museum of Natural History Tibetan Man A merchant of Lhasa, and his wife, acted as models for these sculptures by Malvina Hoffman. SNAKE EXHIBITS REINSTALLED The non-poisonous snakes on exhibition in Albert W. Harris Hall (Hall 18) have been reinstalled in continuation of the program of rearrangement and relabeling of the reptile exhibits. This is the third case to be re- installed in this hall. Five new reproduc- tions, the work of Staff Taxidermist Leon L. Walters and Mr. Edgar G. Laybourne, have been added to the exhibit. These in- clude the curiously patterned false coral snake of Guatemala, collected by the Leon Mandel Guatemala Expedition of Field Mu- seum; a slender but broad-headed tree-snake from Yucatan, presented by Mr. E. Wyllys Andrews, of Chicago; a ring-necked snake from Wisconsin, presented by the late F. J. W. Schmidt of the University of Wisconsin; the red-bellied burrowing snake or ground snake of the southern United States, pre- sented by the General Biological Supply House, of Chicago; and the local water snake, collected by Wesley Lee Laybourne. The new labels are in larger type than the old, and are provided with distribution maps. RELIEF WORKERS CONTINUE SERVICE AT MUSEUM Field Museum continued in 1935 its co- operation with state and federal government relief agencies by providing work for persons who would otherwise be unemployed. Such workers have been engaged at the Museum since the latter part of 1933, in various tasks ranging from manual labor and clerical work to high forms of artisanship and scientific research, In 1935, from the beginning of the year to about the end of April, and again from the middle of June until nearly the end of Sep- tember, the Museum had work relief assign- ees from the Illinois Emergency Relief Com- mission. These men and women were in groups ranging from 48 to 117 in number. Their working time totaled 40,014 hours. The wages they received, paid by the state, amounted to $24,394. Beginning October 16 and continuing to the end of the year (under arrangements which are expected to continue during a con- siderable part of 1936 as well) the relief workers assigned to the Museum came undei the authority of the federal Works Progress Administration. The number of these WPA workers has ranged from 140 to 188, and their total working time up to December 31 amounted to 50,239 hours. Wages, paid by the federal government, during the period indicated amounted to $27,724. These workers, both under the lERC and WPA, were distributed among the four scien- tific departments of the Museum, and also among various other divisions of the Mu- seum's working personnel. Some of these people, qualified by their past experience, were engaged in projects involving scientific research, and in work involving skilled arti- sanship in various laboratories of the Mu- seum. The majority served at more routine tasks such as clerical work, mounting photo- graphs, making jackets for and mounting herbarium specimens of plants, cleaning skulls of animals, cataloguing specimens, etc. Skilled labor included a large number of printers and binders who assisted the regular staff in the Division of Printing, as well as photographic assistants and others qualified in various crafts. In the Maintenance Division it was possible to use a large force in connection with various types of work about the Museum building. The work performed by the relief helpers is extremely diversified in character, and quan- titatively large. It is of great value to the Museum, and indirectly to students and the public, as it made possible the performance of many tasks which otherwise could not have been undertaken at this time. FEBRUARY GUIDE-LECTURE TOURS Conducted tours of exhibits, under the guidance of staff lecturers, are made every afternoon at 3 p.m., except Saturdays, Sundays, and certain holidays. Following is the schedule of subjects and dates for February: Week beginning February 3: Monday — Egypt; Tuesday — Horned and Hoofed Animals; Wednesday — Prehistoric Life; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Peoples of the South Seas. Week beginning February 10: Animal Habitat Groups; Tuesday — Cereals and Their Uses; Wednes- day— North American Indians; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — South America. Week beginning February 17: Monday — Skeletons; Tuesday — Life in the Far North; Wednesday — Birds of the Chicago Region; Thursday — General Tour; Fri- day— Story of Man. Week beginning February 24: Monday — Strange Birds, Reptiles and Mammals; Tuesday — Chinese Exhibits; Wednesday— Hall of Plant Life; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Moon, Meteorites and Minerals. Persons wishing to participate should apply at North Entrance. Tours are free and no gratuities are to be proffered. A new schedule will appear each month in Field Museum News. Guide-lecturers' services for special tours by parties of ten or more are available free of charge by arrangement with the Director a week in advance. Gifts to the Museum Following is a list of some of the principal gifts received during the last month: From Professor F. J. Hermann — 138 herbarium specimens, Michigan; from Hermann C. Benke — cut and photograph of Kentucky coffee tree, Illinois; from H. E. Perkins — 2 bobcats, Michigan; from John F. Jennings — a black bear skull, Alaska; from Dr. C. D. Turner — 2 live bats, Georgia; from W. K. Kellogg Bird Sanctuary — 3 wild ducks, Michigan; from Colin C. Sanborn — a white-winged scoter, Illinois; from R. D. Hildebrand — 4 Virginia quail, Mississippi; from George M. Stevens — a snapping turtle, Arkansas; from Dr. E. R. Dunn — one snake, one lizard, and 43 amphib- ians, Panama and Costa Rica; from Chicago Zoolo- gical Society — 3 Australian birds, 2 snakes, and 3 lizards; from Stewart Springer — a spotted skunk, Florida; from William Beecher — a common loon, Illinois; from D. Dwight Davis — 5 garter snakes, Illinois; from H. B. Conover — an Arctic tern, Alaska; from G. T. Barker — a frog and 6 snakes, Fiji Islands; from Mrs. Charles McCauley — a Venus flower basket; from L. C. Cole — !2 salamanders, 22 toads, 2 snakes, and 259 lizards, Arizona and LTtah; from Kenneth B. Garner — 2 spiral concretions, California. NEW MEMBERS The following persons were elected to membership in Field Museum during the period from December 16 to January 14: Associate Members Mrs. Everett C. Brown, Mrs. Stephen R. Knott, Arthur W. Lavidge, Sydney G. McAllister, Mason Phelps, William Wilson. Annual Members Mrs. J. Bertley Arnold, Dr. Walter C. Burkct, Mrs. Thomas G. Cassady, John Claney, John Clay, Sey- mour E. Clonick, Dr. Arthur J. Coombs, Sigmund W. David, E. Porter Essley, James A. Gamble, Whipple Jacobs, Oliver Jones, Frank R. McCoy, William T. Osgood, J. Harold Selz, John J. Sheehan, Abner J. Stilwell, Bernard W. Vinissky, George B. Weiss, Mrs. Axel Werelius. Several large cases in Hall 36 are de- voted to illustrating the uses of silica. Diamonds A good idea of how diamonds are found in the mines of South Africa and elsewhere may be obtained from an exhibit of diamond- bearing gravels and earths in Hall 36. Included are several specimens showing diamonds in the rock matrix as originally found. Associated rocks, minerals, and gem materials, such as garnet, chrysoberyl, and zircon are also shown. The diamond fields of Brazil and Arkansas, as well as those of Africa, are represented. In H. N. Higinbotham Hall (Hall 31) is the famous DeVrees engraved diamond, and a series of specimens including both rough diamonds and cut stones. PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS News Published Monthhj by Field Miiseum of Natural History, Chicago Vol. 7 MARCH, 1936 No. 3 GIANT TREE CACTI OF MEXICO DEPICTED BY MURAL IN HALL OF PLANT LIFE By B. E. Dahlgrbn Curator, Department of Botany Five of the series of fifteen murals for the Hall of Plant Life (Hall 29) with which Mr. Charles A. Corwin, the Museum's Staff Artist, is currently occupied, have now been completed and are to be seen in the hall. The one selected for illustration in this issue of Field Museum News is a scene from the mesa country near Tehuacan in a part of southern Mexico famous for its large tree cacti. Situ- ated to the south of a line drawn from Mex- ico City to Vera Cruz, this region includes a large part of the states of Puebla and Oaxaca. The painting shows a semi-arid, subtropi- cal so-called bush- steppe with sparse and rather scraggly trees and shrubs, mostly le- guminous, and yuccas and agaves, all of which appear second- ary and insignificant in the landscape in comparison with two giant tree cacti which the mural was espe- cially designed to rep- resent. These are of two different species, both of the genus Cereus in its wide sense. Cereus is a Latin word (of Greek root) for a candle, and has long been used for these plants with re- ference to their candelabrum-like shape. The larger one, on the left, is dark bluish- green in color and of massive form with hundreds of erect secondary branches. The other is less spreading, and its fewer branches are covered at the tips by a coarse rusty- brown felt in which the flowers and fruits appear to be imbedded. The cacti are a characteristically Ameri- can group of plants in spite of the existence of a few species outside of the New World. They are generally associated with desert conditions and are especially abundant in the drier subtropics, although various species are perfectly at home on sandy or poor rocky ground in the temperate zones, as for example the prickly pear which is found as far north as Alberta, and several species existing as far south as Patagonia. Tree cacti are a well-known feature of the deserts of northern Mexico and Arizona, and other species exist as far south as the dry mountain valleys of Peru to the west, Candelabrum (>acti of Souttiern Mexico These great plants are a prominent feature of the vegetation in subtropical America. The photograph repre- sents one of a series of mural paintings by StaiT Artist Charles A. Corwin, five of which are now in the Hall of Plant Life. The species on the left is Lemaireocereus Weberi; on the right is Pachycereus chrysoviatlus. and in the arid parts of the state of Bahia, Brazil, to the east on the southern continent. Smaller forms of Cereus are found still farther south. A small section of the cactus family has well developed thick leaves, others have leaves in their juvenile stage; but the most obvious and striking characteristic of the cacti in general is their prevailingly leafless condition, an extraordinary case of reduc- tion of surface in proportion to bulk, which reaches its extreme in some of the larger globular and barrel-shaped species. Other notable characters of these plants are the dense and impervious cuticle by which they are covered and the presence in their tissues of a gelatinous substance which does not readily part with its moisture. Some plants achieve a more or less effec- tive adaptation to an arid environment by remaining leafless during a great part of the year. Others cope with drought con- ditions in different ways, as by a waxy covering that prevents evaporation from their expanded fronds, by underground water storage, or by sending roots to tremendous depths. Still others survive through a high osmotic pressure in- creasing greatly their power of absorption of such slight amounts of moisture as may be available. The cacti owe their preeminent fitness for existence in arid places to a combination of characteristics tending to restrict loss, coupled with the full- est possible utilization of their greatly reduced green surface for photo-synthesis. The largest and most flourishing of them, such as the two pic- tured in this mural, appear to be living monuments to the success of a con- sistently parsimonious habit in an environ- ment of scarcity. In this connection it may be interesting to note that the few cacti included in the flora of the moist tropics, where no water scarcity exists, are living there as epiphytes in the tree tops. In the exhibition case directly below the new mural may be seen a smaller type of Cereus, and specimens showing the internal skeleton or structual framework of sturdy bundles of wood that serve to give rigidity to these plants and support for their huge weight. A photograph, made by Professor Charles J. Chamberlain, of the University of Chicago, shows the flowering tips of the giant cacti of Arizona. MRS. OSCAR STRAUS TO SEEK RARE BIRDS FOR MUSEUM On her way to Australia and New Zealand, Mrs. Oscar Straus, of New York, stopped in Chicago last month, and visited Field Mu- seum to confer regarding material desired for the institution from those countries. Arrangements were made whereby Mrs. Straus will endeavor to obtain specimens of the lyre bird in Australia, and of the kiwi in New Zealand, together with accessory material required for the preparation of proposed habitat groups of these for the projected new Hall of Birds. Both are extremely rare species. Mrs. Straus will arrange with local collectors to seek the required specimens and material. Mrs. Straus, widow of a former American ambassador to Turkey who became Secre- tary of Commerce in the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt, was sponsor of the highly successful Straus West African Expedition of Field Museum which made important zoological collections in 1934. During several months of that expedition's work Mrs. Straus herself accompanied the party in the field. Noted Berlin Ornithologist Here Dr. Erwin Stresemann, Curator of Birds at the Zoological Museum of Berlin, and one of Germany's most distinguished ornitholo- gists, who is making a series of studies of methods employed in leading American mu- seums, spent the greater part of a week last month at Field Museum. He was especially interested in the habitat groups. An example of the clay Josiah Wedgewood used for making Wedgewood ware is shown in the Museum's clay collection (Hall 36). Pages FIELD MUSEUM NEWS March, 19S6 Field Museum of Natural History Founded by Marsh&ll Field, 1893 RooseTelt Road and L4>ke Michigan, Chlc;aso THE BOARD Sbwell L. Aveby John Borden WnxiAu J. Chalmebs Joseph N. Field Marshall Field Stanley Field Ernest R. Graham Albert W. Harris Samuel Insvll, Jr. Cyrus H. McCormick OF TRUSTEES William H. Mitchell George A. Richardson Fred W. Sargent Stephen C. Siums James Simpson Solomon A. Smith Albert A. Sprague Silas H. Strawn Leslie Wheeler John P. Wilson OFFICERS Stanley Field Pretident Alubt a. Sprague Firti Vict-Prendmt Jajob Simpson Seetmd Vice-President Albhbt W. Harris Third Vice-President Stephen C. Simms Director and Secretary Solomon A. Smith . . . Treasurer and Assistant Secretary FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Stephen C. Simms, Director of the Museum Editor CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Paul S. Martin Curator of Anthropoloini B. E. Dahlgrbn Curator of Botany Henry W. Nichols Curator of Geology Wilfred H. Osgood Curator oj Zoology H. B. Harte Managing Editor Field Museum 13 open every day of the year during the houis indicated below: Nov., Dec., Jan., Feb., Mar. 9 aj«. to 4:30 pji. April, September, October 9 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. May, June, July, August 9 a.m. to 6:00 P.M. Admission is free to Members on all days. Other adults are admitted free on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays; non-members pay 25 cents on other days. Children are admitted free on all days. Students and faculty members of educational institutions are admit- ted free any day upon presentation of credentials. The Museum's natural history Library is open for reference daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Traveling exhibits are circulated in the schools of Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public School Extension Department of the Museum. Lectures for schools, and special entertainments and tours for children at the Museum, are provided by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. Announcements of free illustrated lectures for the public, and special lectures for Members of the Museum, will appear in Field Museum News. A cafeteria in the Museum serves visitors. Rooms are provided for those bringing their lunches. Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 buses go direct to the Museum. Members are requested to inform the Museum promptly of changes of address. MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM Field Museum has several classes of Members. Benefactors give or devise $100,000 or more. Contribu- tors give or devise $1,000 to $100,000. Life Members give $500; Non-Residcnt Life and Associate Members pay $100; Non-Resident Associate Members pay $50. All the above classes are exempt from dues. Sustaining Members contribute $25 annually. After six years they become Associate Meml)ers, Annual Members con- tribute $10 annually. Other memberships are Corpo- rate, Honorary, Patron, and Corresponding, additions under these classifications being made by special action of the Board of Trustees. Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to free admission to the Museum for himself, his family and house guests, and to two reserved seats for Museum lectures provided for Members. Sut»cription to Field Museum News is included with all memberships. The courtesies of every museum of note in the United States and Canada are extended to all Members of Field Museum. A Member may give his personal card to non-residents of Chicago, upon presentation of which they will be admitted to the \Iuseum without charge. Further information about memberships will be sent on request. BEQUESTS AND ENDOWMENTS Bequests to Field Museum of Natural History may be made in securities, money, books or collections. They may, if desired, take the form of a memorial to a person or cause, named by the giver. Contributions made within the taxable year not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's net income are allowable as deductions in computing net income for federal income tax purposes. Endowments may be made to the Museum with the provision that an annuity be paid to the patron for life. These annuities are guaranteed against fluctuation in amount, and may reduce federal income taxes. GIANT FOSSIL BEAVER By Elmeb S. Riggs Associate Curator of Paleontology One of the Museum's treasures exhibited in Emest R. Graham Hall (Hall 38) is a skeleton of a giant beaver, Castoroides ohioensis, as large as that of a black bear. The chisel-like incisors are three-quarters of an inch in diameter and project three inches beyond the jaws. These are the tools which enabled this animal to cut down trees of considerable size. The specimen was found in a peat-bog near Fairmount, Indiana. A tile ditch which drained this piece of wet land had become stopped up and the farmer under- took to locate the tile by probing the ground with an iron rod. In so doing he encountered a hard object which was naturally mistaken for the tile. It proved to be the lower jaw of a large animal; the digging which followed revealed the skeleton of this giant beaver. A skull of this species of animal, exhibited in the Museum, was found nine feet under ground while workmen were digging in a creek bank for the foundation of a bridge abutment, near Groverton, Indiana. A jaw of the same species was found at Mount Ayr, Indiana. More recently another lower jaw has been dug up by workmen who were excavating in the bed of an old lagoon at Philips Park, Aurora, Illinois, for the purpose of making a small lake. Other species of animals of this kind have been found from New York to Kansas, showing that Casto- roides had a wide range over the eastern half of the United States. No specimen has been reported from the immediate vicinity of Chicago so far as this writer is informed. E\'idence in the form of beaver cuttings, nevertheless, has recentlj' been encountered near Antioch, Illinois. Mr. Charles N. Ackerman, an Associate Member of the Museum, while dredging channels in peat along the shores of Grass and Fox Lakes, encountered wood showing beaver cuttings. While some of the tooth- marks were so small as to indicate that the work had been done by a species of the com- mon beaver. Castor, other tooth-marks were so large as to indicate work of the larger Castoroides. There were branches and sec- tions of small trunks of trees among which willow, oak and ash have been identified in the laboratories of the Museum's Depart- ment of Botany. As further evidence of old forests in the Fox Lake region, Mr. Ackerman writes of his discoveries during the dredging opera- tions: "We several times had occasion to start excavations out in the clear where water did not at once come in to prevent our ob- serving the full depth of the cuts, and here on several occasions we found trees (stumps), standing erect on their roots, in natural soil and atop clay subsoil. "In one of these holes about fifty feet square were found fifteen or twenty stumps all erect and about six feet high. About these stumps and up to their tops was drift sand. Above the stumps to the surface or river level, another six feet, was peat. Around the roots of the stumps was what seemed a natural dark top soil and under- neath clay." Most of the skeletons of Castoroides are foimd in peat-swamps which, before arti- ficial drainage was introduced, were covered with standing water. The water and preservative acids developed from decaying vegetation accounts for their preservation. Bones left on dry ground and exposed to the action of sun, rain and frost would have soon decayed. The skeletons found belong to animals which lived dtiring, or after, the glacial period. Some may have survived to within a few thousand years of the present time, but the species is now extinct. FINGERPRINTING IN CHINA On exhibition in George T. and Frances Gaylord Smith Hall (Hall 24) are a number of ancient clay seals from China, inten- tionally marked with thumb or finger prints used for purposes of authenticating docu- ments on which the seals were imprinted. Also, illustrating an altogether different phase of the use of fingerprints, are several paintings executed entirely by employing the artists' fingertips and nails for spreading the ink or paint, instead of using a brush. The fingerprint system of identification, which plays such an important part in crime detection today, is one of the many things generally considered to be thoroughly modern which actually had its origin in practices common in the Orient several hundred years before the Christian era. This is demonstrated in a monograph on the subject which was written by the late Dr. Berthold Laufer, former Curator of the Department of Anthropology. While the use of fingerprints in India preceded adoption of the system in the western nations, and the idea seems to have reached Europe from there, evidence was found by Dr. Laufer to support a hypothesis that it originated in ancient China and reached India through Chinese emigrants or due to commercial intercourse. Finger and thumb prints, and even imprints of the whole hand, were widely used as signatures on legal papers in ancient China. They were not used, however, for identifying criminals. Quoting from Dr. Laufer: "Crime never assumed vast proportions in China. When crimes were committed, detection and capture were usually com- paratively easy, and nothing like a crimi- nological science was required under the patriarchal organization of government in the old China." Some of the finger paintings executed by the Chinese reach a high artistic level. Of these Dr. Laufer wrote: "The origin of finger painting seems to be somehow linked with the practice of finger prints, and may have received its impetus from the latter. Chinese words for both are closely related. It seems, also, that in finger painting the idea of magic was prevalent, and that the artist by direct bodily touch with the paper or silk was enabled to instill part of his soul into the work. There is reason to suppose that further research might indicate that finger painting is a most ancient and primitive method of drawing and painting, practiced long before the invention in the third century B.C. of the writing brush of animal hair and the older wooden stylus." New Guide-Lecturers Appointed Two new guide-lecturers have been ap- pointed to the staff of the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. Mrs. Leota G. Thomas joined the staff recently to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Mr. Franklin C. Potter, who has taken a position with the United States National Parks Service. Effective March 1, Miss Velma Whipple has been appointed to the staff to augment the number of lecturers available, because of the increasing demands for service made upon the Ray- mond Foundation. March, 19S6 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Pages MARCH 7 IS OPENING DATE OF SPRING LECTURES Field Museum will present its Sixty-fifth Free Lecture course during March and April. The first lecture will be given on March 7, and others will follow on each Saturday afternoon during the two months, the course including eight scientific and travel subjects by well-known explorers and naturalists, all illustrated with motion pictures, stereopti- con slides, or both. The lectures will begin at 3 o'clock, and will be given in the James Simpson Theatre of the Museum. The complete schedule of dates, subjects and speakers is as follows: March 7 — Where Rolls the Oregon Dr. William L. Finley, Portland, Oregon March 14 — Gold, Diamonds and Orchids Mr. William La Varre, New York City March 21— Getting the Killer Mr. Sascha Seimel, New York March 28 — A New Dinosaur Kingdom Mr. Barnum Brown, American Museum of Nat- ural History, New York April 4 — In the South Seas on the Zaca Dr. James P. Chapin, American Museum of Nat- ural History, New York April 11— The Barbary States Mr. H. C. Ostrander, Jersey City, New Jersey April 18 — Exploring the Atlantic's Great- est Deep Dr. Paul Bartsch, Smithsonian Institution, Wash- ington, D. C. April 25 — The Four Arab Kingdoms by Camel and Car Mr. Clarence W. Sorensen, Denver, Colorado No tickets are necessary for admission to these lectures. A section of the Theatre is reserved for Members of the Museum, each of whom is entitled to two reserved seats on request. Requests for these seats may be made by telephone or in writing to the Museum, in advance of the lecture, and seats will then be held in the Member's name until 3 o'clock on the day of the lecture. Members may obtain seats in the reserved section also by presentation of their membership cards to the Theatre attendant before 3 o'clock on the lecture day, even though no advance reservation has been made. All reserved seats not claimed by 3 o'clock will be available to the general public. TOBACCO PIPES FROM AFRICA Tobacco pipes as much as five and six feet long, decorated with designs of remark- able artistry, and in construction combining several distinct crafts — wood carving, brass casting, beadwork and pottery making — are on exhibition among the African ethno- logical collections in Hall D. The pipes come from central Cameroon and were used in ceremonials participated in by chiefs of the Bamum, Wum, Bali and Ossidinge peoples. The stems of the pipes are of carved wood, some being covered with beadwork in intricate designs. The bowls are usually of brass or pottery, the metal ones bearing designs in relief. The tobacco used is of American origin, but is now cultivated in Africa. No one but the chief was allowed to use these pipes. They were smoked usually in connection with such ceremonials as a func- tion for "feeding the ghost of a dead chief." In this ritual the skull of a chief, buried in a small hut, is visited by the reigning chief and his followers. The "ghost" is "fed" through a tube leading into the grave. The chief smokes one of the beaded cere- monial pipes and twirls a carved wooden staff, while dancers in canvas costumes, ornamented with human hair, perform. A double gong is clanged and a carved ivory horn is blown. Palm wine is handed to the chief in a large horn goblet while the dancers flourish horsehair switches. In addition to the pipes there is an exhibit in the Museum of the various other objects used in this ceremony. FOSSIL SEA-CROCODILE An extraordinarily complete fossil skeleton of a sea-crocodile, Steneosaurus, which was a terror of the seas during the Jurassic period (about 130,000,000 years ago) is on exhibition in Ernest R. Graham Hall (Hall 38). The specimen was excavated near Wurttemberg, Germany, from land which was a sea-bottom in prehistoric times when that part of Europe was covered by water. The fossil is unusual in that almost every detail of the skeletal structure of the animal is intact and sharply defined in the specimen. Rows of sharp^pointed vicious-looking teeth in the jaws indicate that the animal was probably carnivorous, and that it un- doubtedly preyed upon lesser creatures of the sea. "The crocodile was protected by strong plates along its back, which acted as armor. The bones of these plates are preserved in the fossil. The skull, the short front legs, longer hind ones, and the verte- brae are all practically complete. The capybara, largest of all extant rodents, is represented by a habitat group of male, female and young in Hall 16. COPY OF UNUSUAL NATURE FILM PRESENTED TO MUSEUM A copy of Trail Males, an exceptionally fine four-reel motion picture presenting natural history in story form, has been given to Field Museum by its producer. Captain Jack Robertson, of Oakland, California. The film, which was shown on one of the programs of the Raymond Foundation last year, brought exceptionally enthusiastic re- sponses from the 2,200 children and parents who saw it. It depicts the adventures of a little dog, "Wrongstart," in Alaska, where he encounters icebergs, glaciers, and a wide variety of birds, fishes and mammals, among them the ptarmigan, land-locked salmon, seals, mountain goats, reindeer, bears, foxes, caribou, sheep, moose and porcupines. The Museum plans to give frequent future show- ings of this excellent moving picture on programs for children. As copies of the film are still circulated on a commercial basis, Captain Robertson's kindness in making this gift to the Museum at this time is notably generous. Other well-known films which Captain Robertson has produced are Under Arctic Skies, Alaskan Adventures, and The Breakup. 100,000 Books in Library Many important books and pamphlets have been added to the Library of Field Museum during the past year. The total number of works on the shelves is more than 100,000. These are available to the public for reference during Museum visiting hours except Saturday afternoons and Sundays. AUSTRALIAN MAN, WOMAN AND CHILD SHOWN IN SCULPTURES The tribes of Australia are represented among the Races of Mankind sculptures by Malvina Hoffman, exhibited in Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall (Hall 3) by a full figure of an Australian man in attitude for launch- Photoffraphs copyright field Museum of Natural History Australian Aboriginals These figures, in bronze, are to be seen among the Races of Mankind sculptures by Malvina Hoffman, exhibited in Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall. ing a spear, and a full figure of a woman leading a child by the hand. An ethnologi- cal collection from Australia, of interest in connection with these sculptures, is on ex- hibition in Hall Al. Australian natives, of whom there are only about 50,000 in an area as large as the United States, live in scattered groups which exist entirely by hunting and collecting wild produce. Agriculture and domestication of animals with the excep- tion of the dog, are un- known. Shelters are of a temporary kind. Cloth- ing is not used, and orna- ments of seeds and fur are extremely simple. "The throwing boomerang is a principal weapon for fighting and hunting. Use of a spear-thrower increases the distance traversed by spears and accuracy of the aim. The woman, portrayed here, carries a wooden vessel (pitchi) in which she transports berries, roots, and other wild produce. Australian tribes show great physical uniformity. They are of medium height, dark brown in color, and though slim have great powers of en- durance. Original photographs, as well as photogravure post cards, of these and most of the other sculp- tures in the Races of Mankind series, are sold at the Museum and by mail order. If desired, reproductions in bronze, either full or reduced size, may also be purchased by special arrangement. The Director of the Museum will furnish in- formation about these on request. Page i FIELD MUSEUM NEWS March, 19SS CHILDREN'S PROGRAMS OFFERED BY RAYMOND FOUNDATION The spring series of free motion picture programs for children, provided by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Rajrmond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures, will open on Saturday morning, March 7. Eight programs will be presented on succeeding Saturday mornings through- out March and April. There will be two showings of the films on each program, one commencing at 10 A. M., and one at 11, in the James Simpson Theatre of the Museum. Twenty-eight different films will be pre- sented in the course of these programs. Children from all parts of Chicago and suburbs are invited to attend. They may come alone, in groups from schools and other centers, or with teachers, parents, or other adults. No tickets are required for ad- mission. Following is a schedule of the dates and the films to be shown on each: March 7 — Chumming With Chipmunks; The Gallas and Their Cattle; Making the Deserts Bloom; The Lair of the Spider. March 14— When Jellyfish and Starfish Meet; The Iceberg Patrol; Spinning and Wea\Tng. March 21— The Cliff Dwellers; In the Land of Mountain Sheep; The Beauties of a Great National Forest; Birds and Beasts of the American Desert. March 28 — Children of the Balkans; Our Friends the Toads; Earthquakes; "Thar She Blows." April 4— The Silent Enemy. April 11— Who's Who in the Zoo; A Visit to Boulder Dam; Where the Bananas Grow. April 18 — Glimpses of the Ethiopians at Home; The Mystery of the Ferns; Travel Through the Ages; Strange Animals of the Galapagos Islands. April 25 — Springtime; The Deadly Mos- quito; The Animals Call a Congress; The Bees — How They Live and Work; When Summer Comes. BAGOBO WEAVERS The manner in which the Bagobo tribe of the Philippine Islands makes garments out of manila hemp, which is derived from a species of banana, is shown in a life- size group in Hall H, containing the Robert F. Cummings Collection. The exhibit includes six figures of native weavers in working attitudes. Beautiful designs are achieved by the process used, known as "tie and dye weaving." The first step is to remove the outer layers of stalks of manila hemp with bone blades or wedges. Then the long strips of fiber are removed and dried in the sun. Next, a woman ties these fibers into a continuous thread which is wound on a reel. When needed for weaving, the warp threads are measured to the desired length and transferred to a rectangular frame. The weaver, with the final pattern in mind, overties with waxed threads such portions of the warp as she wishes to remain white. This tying is made so tight that no portion of the liquid dye used can penetrate beneath it. The thread is then submerged in a bark dish full of dye two or three times a day for about two weeks, until a permanent color is assured. After this the thread is again placed on the rectangular frame, the overtying is removed, and the warp is ready for the loom. The weaving is done on hand looms, an example of which is a part of the Museum group. The woof, or cross threads, are all in one color, and the design is produced entirely in the warp. After the cloth is removed from the loom, it is polished, and then made into garments. COMMANDER McDONALD PRESENTS RARE MEXICAN TRUMPET Commander Eugene F. McDonald, Jr., of Chicago, recently presented to Field Mu- seum a conch shell trumpet excavated in the state of Nayarit, western Mexico. Trumpets, made by slicing the top off a conch shell, were commonly used throughout middle America in ancient times, and con- tinue in use in the remoter villages to this day. The example presented by Com- mander McDonald is very unusual in that it has been decorated with incised lines and .\ncient Trumpet This musical instrument from ancient Mexico is a gift to the Museum from Commander Eugene F. McDonald. Note the interesting painted design which has remained intact through the centuries. a geometric pattern, painted in blue and russet. It is known that conch shells with painted designs were used in ancient times, for they are depicted on frescoes uncovered at Teotihuacan, near Mexico City, but owing to climatic conditions, specimens which still retain painted decorations, are extremely rare in archaeological collections. Little is known of the archaeology of Nayarit (formerly the territory of Tepic), but many large pottery figures, treated in an impressionistic manner strangely sug- gestive of modem art trends, have been excavated there. The art and cultural patterns find their closest resemblances in those of the peoples inhabiting the neighbor- ing state of Jalisco. MARCH GUIDE-LECTURE TOURS Conducted tours of exhibits, under the guidance of staff lecturers, are made every afternoon at 3 p.m., except Saturdays, Sundays, and certain holidays. Following is the schedule of subjects and dates for March: Week beginning March 2: Mondav— .American Animal Life; Tuesday — Men of the Old Stone Age; Wednesday — .\mber. Copal, Rubber and Turpentine; Thursday — General Tour; Friday— Africa and Mada- gascar. Week beginning March 9: Monday — Fishes. Past and Present; Tuesday — Story of Coal and Iron; Wed- nesday— Woodland Indians; Thursday — General Tour; Friday— Plant Ecology. Week beginning March 16: Monday — Hall of Races of Mankind: Tuesday — Systematic Collection of .\nimals: Wednesday — Crystals and Gems; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — ,\ncient Burials. Week begiiming March 23: Monday — Jades and Their Uses; Tuesday — Hall of Economic Botany; Wednesday — The Bird Family; Thursday — General Tour; Friday— .\rt of China and Tibet. Monday, March 30 — Marine Life; Tuesday — Plants and .Animals of Long .Ago. Persons wishing to participate should apply at North Entrance. Tours are free and no gratuities are to be proffered. A new schedule will appear each month in Field Museum News. Guide-lecturers' services for special tours by parties of ten or more are available free of charge by arrangement with the Director a week in advance. Gifts to the Museum Following is a list of some of the principal gifts received during the last month: From Commander Eugene F. McDonald, Jr. — a painted conch-shell trumpet, from a grave, Mexico; from Rev. Brother Ellas — 170 herbarium specimens, Colombia; from R. J. Seibert — 51 herbarium specimens, Panama; from James Zetek — 25 herbarium specimens, Panama; from Dr. Roman S. Flores — 27 herbarium and wood specimens, Yucatan; from Howard Scott Gentry — 415 herbarium specimens. Mexico; from C. R. Stillinger — 70 herbarium specimens. State of Wash- ington; from Professor A. O. Garrett — 52 herbarium specimens, Utah; from Miss Nellie V. Haynie — 7 herbarium specimens. Illinois; from Gordon Grant — ■ 856 Insects, bugs, and slugs. 73 snails, and a leach. California; from John G. Sbedd .\quarium — one Ama- zonian manatee. Brazil; from Leslie Wlieeler — 2 pigeon hawks, a screech owl, and a pygmy owl, Oregon; from Chicago Zoological Society — a red kangaroo, a croco- dile, 8 birds, and 13 specimens of snakes, lizards, and turtles; from H. G. M. Jopson — 7 salamanders; from Dr. G. "W. D. Hamlett — a lizard and a snake, Brazil: from Mr. and Mrs. Frank G. Logan — Life of John W. SorUm (in one volume); from .Americana Corporation, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Jerry E. Stilwell — other valuable books for the Library. NEW MEMBERS The following persons were elected to membership in Field Museum during the period from January 16 to February 15: Associate Members William T. .Alden, Mrs. Lloyd Arnold, Mrs. Ronald J. Chinnock, Mrs. John L. Forch, Jr., D. E. Gamble, Lesley Kennedy, Miss Bertha S. Ludlam, Mrs. Frank D. Reed, Dr. W. R. Titzel, Fred S. Wilkey. Sustaining Members Miss Cora .Abrahamsen .Annual Members Mrs. Lillian H. Anderson, William H. Barnes, Salem N. Baskin, C. .A. Bethge, Samuel T. Bledsoe, William B. Eisendrath, Frank X. Finkl, Louis W. Gensburg, Fred A. Koenig, Miss Muriel MacChesney, Jesse Nitka, George W. Overton, Frederick Quellmalz, Julian C. Rver. W. M. Sawyer, Gilbert B. Seehausen, Mrs. F. B. Sherwin, Osborne B. Smith, M. M. SokoU, Mis. Charies D. Steele, Theodore Stempfel, John Frederick Strouse, Dr. Frank M. Svlvester, George B. Van Buren, Edgar H. Walker, Mrs. Joseph M. Weil, Mrs. Frank O. Wetmore, Miss Frances E. Whedon, Mrs. John T. Wheeler, Mrs. Chariotte D. White. In Hall 34 are exhibited several huge ame- thyst specimens from Thunder Bay, Lake Superior. One is about two and one-half feet long, a foot thick, and nearly two feet wide. There are also exhibited specimens of many varieties from all parts of the world . ^MINTED BY FICLO MUSEUM PRESS ilNews Published Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago Vol. 7 APRIL, 1936 No. 4 DIORAMA ILLUSTRATES PRINCIPAL FEATURES OF TEA PLANTATION IN CEYLON By Llewelyn Williams Assistant Curator of Economic Botany Tea is represented in the exhibits of veg- etable food products in Hall 25 by samples from various parts of the world, by a full- size reproduction of a tea bush from southern China, and by photographs showing its cultivation, harvesting, handling and trans- port. In addition, there has now been in- stalled a diorama, depicting in miniature, a tea plantation in the rocky highlands of Ceylon. This adjoins the coffee plantation diorama described in Field Museum News of October, 1935. The tea bush is a small tree or shrub (Thea sinensis), native to the uplands of southeastern Asia's monsoon regions. It thrives best in rocky or undulating tracts where water flows freely, yet without washing away the light, friable soil. The finest grades of tea are produced at high ele- vations in Ceylon and northeastern India where the plantations often measure up to 2,500 acres or more. In the foreground of the Museum's diorama are represented exten- sive fields or tea gardens covering steep hillsides in a landscape ^ „^„ addition to th which extends for is the work of Preparator miles to end in distant mountain crags. Through the plantation runs a rapidly-flowing stream, on the near banks of which are located the factory and other buildings necessary for various operations. Between the rows of bushes women are seen at work. On their backs are baskets into which they gather the tea leaves, tossing them over their shoulders. Outside the factory are stacks of chests ready to be transported by ox-carts. A procession of these is seen on the road. To one side is a nursery for the production of young plants to replace old and diseased tea bushes, or for use in extending the plan- tation. Under natural conditions a tea bush may attain a height of twenty or thirty feet, but in order to produce a size convenient for plucking and increase leaf production, the bushes are pruned every year during the dry season (October to March). In India pruning is done in such a way as to produce bushes with a saucer-shaped top. The harvest season begins in late March or early April, depending upon the arrival of the monsoon, and lasts through the wet period until the end of September. If the very delicate best quality of tea is required, only the bud and the two youngest leaves are plucked, but if quantity is the aim three or four leaves may be taken. The fresh leaves are transported to the factory after plucking. Two distinct classes of processed tea are generally recognized, known to the trade as black and green tea. The former is a product of Ceylon, India, the Malay States, and China. Japan and China are almost ex- clusively the producers of green tea. In the manufacture of black tea, as soon as the leaves are delivered at the factory. Miniature Model of Tea Plantation e economic botany exhibits in Hall 25, showing how tea is grown John R. Millar and assistants. Staff Artist Charles A. Corwin they are withered or wilted on trays for about eighteen hours in a draft of dry cool air. Next, by rolling them on tables they are crushed, and given the characteristic twist found in finished tea. They are then passed through a sifter and graded according to size. The following step, and the one most important in the manufacture of black tea, is to allow the leaves to ferment until the tannin in them becomes sufficiently oxidized to give the proper "body," aroma, and color to the tea infusion. The final operation is to arrest further fermentation by "firing" the leaves in hot air. The fin- ished tea is then sifted into the following grades which descend in quality in the order named: broken orange pekoe, orange pekoe, pekoe, souchongs, and fannings. These are packed separately in 100-pound chests lined with metal sheets, for export to New York, London, and other centers where they are blended before marketing. In the case of green tea, the fresh leaves are not allowed to wither or ferment, but instead are placed directly in a roasting pan and "fired" at high temperature. Then they are emptied onto a bamboo mat, rolled by hand, and dried over a charcoal fire. Chief grades are hyson and gunpowder from China, pan- and basket-fired from Japan. Brick tea is prepared from the coarser leaves and sometimes the prunings. These are steamed and placed in stacks to induce fermentation. The mass is then sorted, mixed with rice paste, steamed lightly, and pressed into molds. This form is used mostly in China for convenience in handling where transportation of bulky material is difficult, and for the use of travelers. The use of tea as a beverage is believed to have been known in China prior to the sixth century. In Ja- pan and Malaysia its cultivation was estab- lished during the ninth century. Tea first became known in Europe during the sixteenth century but not until the middle of the following cen- tury did the English become familiar with the beverage. The importation of tea in- to North America began toward the close of the eighteenth century. About the middle of the last cen- tury experiments were begun in Ceylon and India to cultivate tea on an extensive scale, and since that period the industry has con- tinued to increase. Tea can be grown in some parts of the United States, such as in Ceylon. The diorama South Carolina, but painted the background. the development of the industry here is prevented by the low cost of labor in Asia. The Museum's diorama is the work of Preparator. John R. Millar, and has a painted background by Staff Artist Charles A. Corwin. Assistance in the preparation of important details was given by Mr. Adolph Hammer and by several workers assigned to the Museum by the federal Works Progress Administration. REPLICA OF HUGE DIAMOND A glass replica of one of the world's larg- est diamonds, the Jonker, has been presented to the Museum by Mr. Harry Winston, of New York. It is exhibited in H. N. Higin- botham Hall (Hall 31) near a similar replica of the CuUinan diamond. The Jonker diamond, a flawless, blue- white stone, is an angular fragment from a larger crystal. It weighs in its rough state 726 carats (more than one-quarter of a pound), and measures two and one-half inches by one and three-quarters by one and one-quarter. It ranks somewhere from fourth to sixth in size of known fine dia- monds. Jacobus Jonker, a diamond digger, found it January 17, 1934, on his claim on the Elandsfontein farm in the Transvaal, South Africa. Page 2 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS April, 19S6 Field Museum of Natural History Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 Roosevelt Road and Lake Michigan, Chicago THE BOARD Sbwbll L. Avery John Bokdbn WiLUAM J. Chalmers Joseph N. Field Marshall Field Stanley Field Ernest R. Graham Albert W. Harris Samuel Insull, Jr. Cyrus H. McCormick OF TRUSTEES Wiluam H. MiTCHEai George A. Richardson Fred W. Sargent Stephen C. Simms Jahes Simpson Solomon A. Smith Albert A. Sfrague Silas H. Strawn Leslie Wheeler John P. Wu^on OFFICERS Stanley Field President Albert A. Sprague First Vice-President James Simpson Second Vice-President Albert W. Harris Third Vice-President Stephen C. Simms Director and Secretary Solomon A. Smith , . . Treasurer and Assistant Secretary FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Stephen C. Simms, Director of the Museum Editor CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Paul S. Martin Curator of Anthropology B. E. Dahlgren Curator of Botany Henry W. Nichols Curator of Geology Wilfred H. Osgood Curator of Zoology H. B. Harte Managirta Editor Field Museum is open every day of the year (except Christmas and New Year's Day) during the hours indicated below: Nov., Dec, Jan., Feb., Mar. 9 a.m. to 4:30 P.M. April, September, October 9 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. May, June, July, August 9 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Admission is free to Members on all days. Other adults are admitted free on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays; non-members pay 25 cents on other days. Children are admitted free on all days. Students and faculty members of educational institutions are admit- ted free any day upon presentation of credentials. The Museum's natural history Library is open for reference daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Traveling exhibits are circulated in the schools of Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public School Extension Department of the Museum. Lectures for schools, and special entertainments and tours for children at the Museum, are provided by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. Announcements of free illustrated lectures for the public, and special lectures for Members of the Museum, will appear in Field Museum News. A cafeteria in the Museum serves visitors. Rooms are provided for those bringing their lunches. Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 buses go direct to the Museum. Members are requested to inform the Museum promptly of changes of address. MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM Field Museum has several classes of Members. Benefactors give or devise $100,000 or more. Contribu- tors give or devise $1,000 to $100,000. Life Members give $500; Non-Resident Life and Associate Members pay $100; Non-Resident Associate Members pay $60. All the above classes are exempt from dues. Sustaining Members contribute $25 annually. After six years they become Associate Members. Annual Members con- tribute $10 annually. Other memberships are Corpo- rate, Honorary, Patron, and Corresponding, additions under these classiflcations being made by special action of the Board of Trustees. Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to free admission to the Museum for himself, his family and house guests, and to two reserved seats for Museum lectures provided for Members. Subscription to Field Museum News is included with all memberships. The courtesies of every museum of note in the United States and Canada are extended to all Members of Field Museum. A Member may give his personal card to non-residents of Chicago, upon presentation of which they will be admitted to the Museum without charge. Further information about memberships will be sent on request. BEQUESTS AND ENDOW.MENTS Bequests to Field Museum of Natural History may be made in securities, money, books or collections. Ihey may, if desired, take the form of a memorial to a person or cause, named by the giver. Contributions made within the taxable year not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's net income are allowable as deductions in computing net income for federal income tax purposes. Endowments may be made to the Museum with the provision that an annuity be paid to the patron for life 1 heae annuities are guaranteed against fluctuation in amount, and may reduce federal income taxes. LIZARD EXHIBIT AUGMENTED The two cases of individual models of lizards in Albert W. Harris Hall (Hall 18) have been completely rearranged, and to them have been added several new repro- ductions prepared by Staff Taxidermist Leon L. Walters with the assistance of Mr. Edgar G. Laybourne. The new models in- clude an Australian gecko; the herbivorous spinytailed lizard abundant in the desert regions of North Africa; two lizards of the American family Teiidae; two of the large and striking types of Australian skinks, the stump-tailed skink, and the blue-tongued skink; a large specimen of the common monitor of the East Indies, which is the species most important in the modern trade in lizard skins for shoes and pocketbooks; and a notable large land iguana of the Galapagos Islands, a species very distinct from the common iguana of the American mainland. The two large iguanas of the Galapagos Islands, the brown and yellow land iguana now placed on exhibition, and the darker colored marine iguana, have a romantic interest to scientists because of the freshness and charm of the first account of them by Charles Darwin, who visited the Galapagos a hundred years ago. It was his observa- tions on the remarkable animal life of these islands that began the long train of deep study and thought which took form twenty- three years later in the publication of Origin of Species, the appearance of which was one of the most important events of the nine- teenth century. The land iguana is one of the largest living lizards. Its brown color, with yellow head and under surfaces, is in harmony with the reddish weathered lava of the older parts of the islands where this lizard is principally found. Like its counterpart, the marine iguana, which feeds on the algae of the island coasts at low tide, the land iguana is a strict vegetarian. It feeds on the fleshy expansions of the cacti and on their flowers and fruits. Its stocky body, with powerful limbs, represents the most generalized reptile type. These lizards were collected by the Cor- nelius Crane Pacific Expedition of Field Museum on South Seymour Island, where they are fortunately still present in consid- erable numbers. They are to be found also on the black lavas of Narborough Island and on certain outlying islets which fringe some of the larger islands of the archi- pelago.—K. P. S. Museum Open 9 to 5 in April From April 1 to 30 visiting hours at Field Museum will be from 9 a.m. to 5 P.M. instead of 4:30. From May 1 to September 7 (Labor Day) the hours will be 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. PUEBLOS AND CLIFF DWELLINGS Famous pueblos and cliff dwellings of both ancient and modern Indians of Arizona and New Mexico are reproduced in a num- ber of models on exhibition among the North American archaeological and ethnological collections in Halls 6 and 7. One of the sites represented is the famous ruin of Penasco Blanco, in Chaco Canyon, northwest New Mexico, which is regarded as one of the most remarkable prehistoric American structures north of Mexico. It is a huge pueblo village in elliptical shape, situated on a high mesa. Another of the models of great interest is the Mummy Cave of Arizona, an important cliff village which occupies a vast niche of rock shelter in the red sandstone bluffs of Canon del Muerto. Many of the houses rise to three stories. Other ancient ruins reproduced in models are the well-known Casa Grande ruin near the Gila River, Pinal County, Arizona; an ancient cave town and cliff ruin on the Rio de Chelly, Arizona; and an ancient cliff fort on Beaver Creek, Arizona. Modern pueblo sites reproduced include that of cliff-built Acoma in New Mexico, which has been called "the most wonderful aboriginal city on earth"; the pueblo of Taos, New Mexico; the pueblo of Hano, Arizona, and the Hopi pueblo of Walpi, Arizona. These modern pueblos are all at present occupied by populations of several hundred each. THYMOL, PRINCIPAL INGREDIENT OF NEW DENTAL ANAESTHETIC Thymol, which has recently come into prominence as the principal ingredient in the Hartman formula for a desensitizer of dentine, is a camphor-like substance of vege- table origin. It is derived from the common garden thyme and from some related species of the mint family, as well as from at least one quite unrelated plant of the carrot family. These herbs, on distillation, yield oil of thyme, a volatile oil, the principal constituent of which is thymol. This can be separated readily, by appropriate chemi- cal treatment, as a colorless translucent crystalline substance, sometimes known as thyme camphor. It has a pleasant, though pungent, characteristic odor, and some anti- septic properties. Discovered as early as 1719, it is one of the oldest of known volatile oil constituents. Specimens of thyme, thyme oil and thymol are included in the representative collection of essential or volatile oils used in perfumery and phar- macy, on exhibition in Hall 28 (Case No. 611). RARE MAROUESAN DRUM A rare ceremonial drum from the Mar- quesas Islands of the South Pacific is on exhibition in the Polynesian collection in Hall F. The drum is remarkable because of its height, seven feet. It is carved from a tree trunk. Such drums have not been used by natives of the Marquesas for more than fifty years, and it is believed that not more than four are in existence today. They were kept in temples, and used to call the tribes- men to ceremonial meetings at which the chief ritual often consisted of the offering of human sacrifices to the native gods. These native temples were areas of taboo ground, containing series of platforms and houses. The drum was used in a vertical position, and because of its height the drummer had to stand on a stone about four feet high to reach the drum-head, which was made from the tightly stretched skin of a giant ray. No drumsticks were used; the skin was beaten with the drummer's knuckles. The log from which the drum is cut is tomanu wood, which closely resembles mahogany. Steps in the separation of silver from lead, a model of the apparatus employed, speci- mens of ores, by-products, etc., may be studied in an exhibit in Frederick J. V. Skiff Hall (Hall 37). Life-size groups in Hall 10 illustrate the chase and capture of seals by Eskimos, the preparation of skins, and the method of winter fishing through a hole in the ice. April, 1936 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Pages JAPANESE RACIAL TYPES SHOWN IN CHAUNCEY KEEP HALL Inhabitants of Japan are represented by four sculptures, in the series by Malvina Hoff- man illustrating principal races of mankind, on exhibition in Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall (Hall 3). The Ainu, earliest occupants of the islands how comprising the empire, are typified by a full length figure of an elderly man (reproduced in the June, 1933 issue of Field Museum News) and the head of a young Ainu, included among the accompanying illustrations. The modern Japanese are represented by busts of a man and a young woman. The present-day Ainu, now fast disap- pearing, are direct descendants, of the pre- historic race. They are confined to the northern island of Yezo, the Kuriles, and the southern portion of Saghalin Island. They differ from the Japanese and all other Mongolian races in their luxuriant black beards, the bushy and wavy hair of their heads, and the general hairiness of their bodies. The color of their skin resembles that of tanned central Europeans. Medium Photographs copyright Field Museum of Natural History Representatives of Nippon A young Ainu, descendant of the prehistoric inhabitants of Japan, and a modern Japanese woman and man, as portrayed among the racial sculptures by Malvina Hoffman in Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall. in stature, the average Ainu is thick-set, with a head intermediate in shape between long and round. The typical face is broad, and does not project markedly. The nose is characteristically narrow, short and con- cave. The large horizontal eyes are usually dark brown in color. The racial position of the Ainu presents a question of considerable interest, as their stock is markedly special- ized. Today they are a shy and retiring people. Among the modern Japanese there are two distinct types, one of which possesses refined features, while the other is more coarse in type. Both possess certain traits in common. The hair is always black and may be curly in form, especially where in- fluenced by Ainu blood. In general, stature is short, although there is considerable varia- tion. The skin color and the cephalic index are also variable factors. The eyes are dark brown. The fine or aristocratic type is tall and slender, with an elongated face, and prominent, narrow arched nose. The eyes are either straight or oblique, and the epicanthic or Mongolian fold is rarely ab- sent. The coarse type, possibly influenced by immigration from southeastern Asia, is short and stocky, with a broad face, a short concave nose with rounded nos- trils, oblique eyes usually marked by an epicanthic fold, and a darker com- plexion than the other group. Original photo- graphs, as well as photogravure post cards, of these and most of the other sculptures in the Races of Mankind series, are sold at the Museum, and by mail order. Where desired, special arrange- ments can be made to furnish reproduc- tions in bronze, either full or reduced size. The Director of the Museum will furnish information on request to institutions or individuals interested. EXHIBIT OF SEA FISHES Some of the most interesting examples of marine life are included in an exhibit of large sea fishes in Albert W. Harris Hall (Hall 18). This exhibit is divided into two groups: the rays and skates, and the food and game fishes of the Gulf of Mexico. Among the rays shown are the cow-nosed ray which digs clams from the sea bottom with its snout and chews them, shells and all, in its strong jaws; the electric ray which, having no body armor, defends itself by giving to other creatures coming into contact with it a surprisingly strong electric shock by means of an organ approximating an electric battery that nature has provided in its body; the leopard ray, one of the fastest swimmers among all fishes; the sting rays which have sharp barbed spines on the tail with which they can strike a severe blow at enemies; the butterfly ray, and the sawfish. For the most part the rays have broad flat bodies and large extended pectoral fins. In swimming they flap these fins, which resemble the wings of a bird, and they literally fly through the water. The swift leopard ray, according to Mr. Alfred C. Weed, Assistant Curator of Fishes, some- times jumps horizontally through the air from the middle of a wave for about fifty feet. Of the skates, which are closely related to the rays, there are shown several species, including one specimen of huge dimensions. Among the Gulf Coast fishes shown are many which are favorites of sportsmen fishing in southern waters. Included are excellent specimens of the tarpon, the bone- fish, the jacks, the pompano, the red drum or channel bass, the sea pike or snook, the spotted sea trout, the barracuda which with its sharp teeth menaces swimmers in tropical and semi-tropical waters, the black drum, the alligator gar, the sheepshead, and the moonfish, the last being a horse-faced species called "old man" by the Mexicans. Economic Importance of Grasses The grasses constitute one of the largest orders of flowering plants, and are repre- sented in all regions of the globe. The true grasses, including cereals, are of the greatest importance to mankind. Their food value for man and animals is greater than that of all other vegetation combined. The stems, leaves, and the roots of grasses are used in the manufacture of cordage, hats, shoes, clothing, baskets, brushes, mats, etc. There are several exhibits of grasses and materials made from them in Halls 25, 28, and 29 of the Department of Botany. HUMAN TRAGEDY OVER A FOSSIL LIKE A STORY FROM BALZAC By Bryan Patterson .\ssistant Curator of Fossil Mammals To the majority of people fossils and human tragedy would scarcely occur in association as cause and effect. Yet there is in Field Museum a magnificent skull and pair of jaws of the extinct "fish-lizard" Ichthyosaurus communis that brought sor- row and dissolution to a family. Exposed along the shore of the English Channel, in the vicinity of Lyme Regis in Dorsetshire, are deposits of hard bluish clays known to geologists as the Lias. These clays are of Jurassic age and contain fossils in abundance. This richness of ancient life has attracted many fossil hunters, some of whom sought specimens for pleasure, others for profit. One day during the eighties of the past century a man who collected for love of the quest, found the splendid skull and jaws now in this Museum. Overjoyed by his discovery, he bore the specimen in triumph to his house. There he must have spent many weeks or even months of patient work with hammer and chisel until he had removed the adhering rock and brought the head to its present state of perfection. The more he worked upon it, the more his regard for it grew until, so the story goes, there seemed to be a decided possibility that it might displace his wife in the scale of his affections. In any event, she began to look upon the specimen with decided disfavor and suspicion. Fate, in the person of Professor Henry A. Ward, now took a hand in the matter. The professor, then head of the natural science establishment which bore his name, period- ically traveled around Europe to purchase specimens for resale to museums. On one of these journeys he came to Ljrme Regis and learned of the ichthyosaur head, which by that time had acquired considerable local fame. He went to inspect the speci- men at a time when the collector was absent from home. The man's wife, only too anxious to get the thing out of the house, and delighted with the opportunity to receive cash at the same time, promptly sold the specimen. When the unfortunate collector returned and discovered what had happened, he was so downcast by the loss of his favorite that he committed suicide. The fossil was purchased for the Museum from Ward's Natural History Establish- ment in 1895, and its history was told by Professor Ward to the late Dr. Oliver C. Farrington, former Curator of the Depart- ment of Geology. The head now reposes peacefully in Ernest R. Graham Hall (Hall 38), deprived, it is hoped, of all further pos- sibility for disrupting any human affairs. Frankincense The frankincense of the ancients, or olibanum, is a resin obtained by making incisions in the bark of several species of small trees {Boswellia) native to Somaliland and southeastern Arabia. When fresh, the exudation is milky white, but upon exposure it hardens into yellowish "tears" covered with a white powder and has a bitter, aromatic taste. This resin formed an im- portant article of trade between the Arabians and the Phoenicians and Egyptians. In India, the Hindus use it as an incense in their religious ceremonies, and a volatile oil distilled from the resin is employed in per- fumery. A sample of frankincense resin is on display in the exhibit of resins in Hall 28 of the Department of Botany. Page i FIELD MUSEUM NEWS April, 1936 FOUR MORE LECTURES REMAIN TO BE GIVEN IN APRIL On Saturday afternoons during April there will be presented the four remaining lectures in the Museum's spring course for adults. All begin at 3 P. M., and are given in; the James Simpson Theatre of the Mu- seum. Motion pictures and stereopticon slides are used to illustrate the lectures. Following are the dates, subjects and speakers: April 4 — In the South Seas on the Zaca Dr. James P. Chapin, American Museum of Nat- ural History, New York April 11— The Barbary States Mr. H. C. Ostrander, Jersey City, New Jersey April 18 — Exploring the Atlantic's Great- est Deep Dr. Paul Bartsch, Smithsonian Institution, Wash- ington, D. C. April 25 — The Four Arab Kingdoms by Camel and Car Mr. Clarence W. Sorensen, Denver, Colorado No tickets are necessary for admission to these lectures. A section of the Theatre is reserved for Members of the Museum, each of whom is entitled to two reserved seats on request. Requests for these seats may be made by telephone or in writing to the Museum, in advance of the lecture, and seats will then be held in the Member's name until 3 o'clock on the day of the lecture. Members may obtain seats in the reserved section also by presentation of their membership cards to the Theatre attendant before 3 o'clock on the lecture day, even though no advance reservation has been made. All reserved seats not claimed by 3 o'clock will be available to the general public. PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN CONTINUE IN APRIL The James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures will present during April four more programs in its spring series of free motion pictures for children. These entertainments are presented on Sat- urday mornings in the James Simpson Theatre of the Museum. There will be two showings of the films on each program, one beginning at 10 A. M., and one at 11. Chil- dren from all parts of Chicago and suburbs are invited to attend. They may come alone, in groups from schools and other centers, or with parents, teachers or other adults. The following schedule shows the titles of the films to be shown on each date: April 4 — The Silent Enemy. . April 11— Who's Who in the Zoo; A Visit to Boulder Dam; Where the Bananas Grow. April 18 — Glimpses of the Ethiopians at Home; The Mystery of the Ferns; Travel Through the Ages; Strange Animals of the Galapagos Islands. April 25 — Springtime; The Deadly Mos- quito; The Animals Call a Congress; The Bees — How They Live and Work; When Summer Comes. Annual Report of Director in Press The Annual Report of the Director of the Museum for 1935 is now being printed by Field Museum Press. It is expected that distribution of copies to Members will begin at an early date. In this book of 135 pages, Director Stephen C. Simms reviews in detail all of the institution's activities during the past year. The report contains twelve photogravure illustrations. RATTLESNAKE FANGS Few persons would care to pick up a rattlesnake and make a detailed study of the inside of its mouth, its teeth, and the means whereby it secretes and discharges its poison. Most prospective investigators would be deterred by the question of what the rattlesnake would be doing while all this was going on. The rattlesnake's poison equipment, how- ever, is a highly interesting example of nature's ingenuity. Moreover, a knowledge of its construction is of some value to persons whose travels take them to places where they might encounter these venomous reptiles, especially inasmuch as so many erroneous notions are widely held as to how Danger This reproduction of a rattlesnake's head, showing its long, hollow, curved, sharply pointed poison fangs, is on exhibition in Albert W. Harris Hall. the snakes poison their victims. For these reasons, Field Museum has on exhibition in Albert W. Harris Hall (Hall 18) a life- size model of a rattler's head, with mouth wide open, showing all the minute details of the creature's weapons. Along with it is shown a rattlesnake skull, illustrating in- ternal features not visible on the surface. The model shows that the rattler's fangs or poison teeth are long, hollow, curved and slender. They taper to a sharp point obliquely cut with a slit-like opening in the end. The poison is secreted in glands on the side of the head. The action of the poison apparatus is similar to that of a bulb syringe connected to a hypodermic needle. The biting action of the jaw muscles compresses the poison sac, forcing its contents through a canal and the hollow of the fang, from the hole of which it is ejected. A series of growing fangs is always ready to replace those that are broken in use, or are shed. The surprisingly mechanical means of sliding them which nature has provided to accomplish this substitution is illustrated in the skull part of the Museum exhibit. The tongue or feeler has no connection with the poisoning system. In addition to its paired fangs, the rattlesnake has numerous small teeth which are non- poisonous, and used only for grasping and holding its prey. The model was made by Mr. Leon L. Walters of the Museum's taxidermy staff. APRIL GUIDE-LECTURE TOURS Conducted tours of exhibits, under the guidance of staff lecturers, are made every afternoon at 3 p.m., except Saturdays, Sundays, and certain holidays. Following is the schedule of subjects and dates for April: Wednesday, April 1 — Melanesia; Thursday — General tour; Friday— Birds of the Chicago Area. Week beginning April 6: Monday— Egyptian Hall; Tuesday — Trees; Wednesday — Geology Exhibits; Thursday— General Tour; Friday— South America. Week beginning April 13: Monday — Primitive Costumes; Tuesday — Uses of Plant Fibers; Wednesday —Vertebrate Animals and Their Skeletons; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — American Archaeology. Week beginning April 20: Monday — Useful and Decorative Minerals; Tuesday — Deer and Antelopes; Wednesday — Botany Exhibits; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Masks of Various Lands. Week beginning April 27: Monday— Animal Habitat Groups; Tuesday — Man Through the Ages; Wednes- day— Prehistoric Plants and Animals; Thursday — Gen- eral Tour. Persons wishing to participate should apply at North Entrance. Tours are free and no gratuities are to be proffered. A new schedule will appear each month in Field Museum News. Guide-lecturers' services for special tours by parties of ten or more are available free of charge by arrangement with the Director a week in advance. Gifts to the Museum Following is a list of some of the principal gifts received during the last month: From Dr. Earl E. Sherflf — 45 herbarium specimens; from Museo Nacional — 275 herbarium specimens, Costa Rica; from Otto Degener — 237 herbarium speci- mens, Hawaii; from Professor G. Eifrig — 18 herbarium specimens, Maryland; from Professor Manuel Valerio — 24 herbarium specimens, Costa Rica; from Harry Winston — a glass replica of the Jonker diamond; from H. B. Conover — a Muscovy duck skin and 7 other bird skins, Brazil and Ecuador; from Lincoln Park Zoo — an ostrich and a crowned pigeon; from Leslie Wheeler — 4 owls and 39 hawks, Brazil; from Karl Plath — 4 Anna's hummingbirds; from Robert Zimmerman — 30 small fishes, Bahama Islands; from Gordon Grant — a snake, 27 tree frogs, and 58 lizards, California; from Henry Field — a snake and 6 lizards, Florida; from Henry Dybas — 3 Graham's water snakes, Illinois; from Chicago Zoological Society — 3 birds; from Roswell S. Britton, from Cyrus Hall McCormick, and from the Roumanian Legation to the United States — valuable books for the Library. NEW MEMBERS The following persons were elected to membership in Field Museum during the period from February 17 to March 16: Associate Members Mrs. L. F. Gates, Miss Eleanor Merriam, Mrs. Egbert H. Spencer. Sustaining Members Fred Bernstein, Harvey L. Harris. Annual Members John Agazim, Henry H. Barlow, Harry J. Berry, Carl A. Birdsall, Edward T. Blaker, George Bates Cunningham, Tully De Stafani, William S. Elliott, Salvatore Ferrara, Arthur Fisclier, R. P. Fletcher, H. A. Foaburg, Homer F. Horton, Mrs. Michael Igoe, Arthur Katzinger, Mrs. James Daniel Kelman, George N. Lamb, Walter I. Massey, Daniel Peterkin, Jr., Marvin C. Reynolds, Modie J. Spiegel, Frederick E. Stout, Emil F. Vacin, A. J. Whipple, Miss Annie C. Wiersen. SPECIAL NOTICE Members of the Museum who have changed residences or plan to do so are urged to notify the Museum of their new addresses, so that Field Museum News and other communications may reach them promptly. Members going away during the sum- mer, who desire Museum matter sent to their temporary addresses, may have this service by notifying the Museum. Among the most striking of the habitat groups of birds in Hall 20 is one of flamingoes. PRINTED BY -leLD MUSEUM PRESS News PMished Montiiln by Field MnsniDi oj' Xatin-al Ilisfo7->j, Chicago Vol. 7 MAY, 1936 No. 5 ARAUCARIA, GREAT CONIFER OF SOUTH AMERICA, SHOWN IN MURAL PAINTING Bv B. E. Dahlgren Curator, Department of Botany The Museum's Staff Artist, Mr. Charles A. Corwin, is continuing his work on the series of mural paintings of botanical sub- jects, and these are now beginning to fill the spaces between the pilasters on the west wall of the Hall of Plant Life (Hall 29). A recent addition is a landscape from the timbered lake region of the Andes of southern Chile. There, and to a less extent also to the south and west over a small area on the Argentine side of the Cordillera, the magnificent Chilean pine forms one of the few impressive stands of coniferous forest to be found in South America. The scene depicted in the paint- ing is from a photo- graph from Tolhuaca, province of Malleco, published in Reiche's volume, The Vegetation of Chile (1907) and repeated in Engler and Prantl, Pflanien- familien. The conifers on the whole are a charac- teristic feature of the vegetation of the northern hemisphere rather than of the southern, where, how- ever, they are by no means lacking. This appears to be as true of many past geologi- cal periods as of the present. The conifer group in a wide sense includes the yews, cypresses, and cedars, widely scattered over both hemispheres, as well as the more familiar larches, spruces, pines and firs, but to most people the word conifer denotes especially the latter, the most common and abundant types in the north temperate zone. On the North Ameri- can continent these extend from the Arctic circle southward well into Mexico, with a few species of pine growing south to Guate- mala and one or two even in Nicaragua where they reach their southern limit. Totally absent from the American tropics, the pine-like type of conifer reappears, as if in a strange and foreign guise, in the Araucarias of southern Chile and southern Brazil — respectively, the Chilean and the Brazilian, or Parana, pine. These constitute a remnant, apparently representing the last recession on the American continent of an ancient coniferous group shown by its fossil remains once to have been common in the entire northern hemisphere as far north as Greenland. It is evident that it formerly had a wider distribution also in the southern hemisphere, extending farther southward in the general area of its present home. In this connection it is of interest to note that fossilized and extremely well preserved cones tree of New Zealand (source of the well- known kauri resin), and the graceful Norfolk Island pine {Araucaria excelsa) of which small specimens are often cultivated as house-plants. The Chilean pine, growing almost to the line of perpetual snow in the Andes, is the hardiest of the entire group. It is sometimes seen cultivated in the warmer parts of the United States, especially in Florida and on the Pacific coast. mm ml^m^ lull Pines in a Chilean Landscape The Araucaria, ancient trees of South America, as represented in recent addition to series of murals on botanical subjects which are being placed on walls of the Hall of Plant Life. The paintings are the work of Staff Artist Charles A. Corwin. There will be fifteen altogether, of which six are now on view. of an extinct Araucaria were discovered a few years ago by a Field Museum expedition in Patagonia, and have recently formed the subject of an elaborate monograph by Pro- fessor G. R. Wieland of Yale. The name Araucaria is from Arauco, one of the two Chilean provinces in which these trees are found. The entire group as now existing is represented by about a dozen species scattered from South America to New Zealand and Australia, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Norfolk Islands, Malaya, the Philippines and Cochin-China. These include the so-called monkey puzzles, with narrow, stiff and spine-like leaves closely applied to the branches as in the Chile pine, the bunya-bunya of Australia, the kauri Because of its great botanical interest, and as a precaution against its total ex- tinction, easily possi- ble in view of its limited natural range, the establishment of the Chilean pine on a somewhat extensive scale in the United States has been pro- posed by Professor Wieland, who con- siders the neighbor- hood of Klamath Lake in the Cascade Moun- tains to offer a suit- able locality with conditions of soil and climate resembling those of its Chilean habitat. The Parand pine, less robust and ap- parently more exact- ing as to climatic and other environmental factors, is rarely seen cultivated outside of its proper area. This extends from the State of Sao Paulo, or even southern Minas and Espirito Santo, to Rio Grande do Sul, a terri- tory which a poetically botanist therefore calls minded Brazilian Araucarilandia. Both of the South American species are valuable timber trees. They yield a dense and uniform, fine-grained, cypress-like wood of great importance in a continent practically without other coniferous lumber. The large globose cones of both South American species, likewise the Australian ones, furnish edible seeds, considerably larger than those of our pinon pines, and greatly esteemed in their native country. Specimens of Araucaria cones and seeds are displayed in one of the cases devoted to the conifers in Hall 29, and Araucaria wood as illustrated by Parana pine is to be seen among the foreign woods in Hall 27. WILD SHEEP OF AMERICA The four principal species of wild moun- tain sheep of North America are exhibited together in a case in George M. Pullman Hall (Hall 13). They are Ball's sheep, also known as the white Alaska sheep; Stone's sheep, commonly called black sheep; the Canada or bighorn sheep, and the California sheep. The exhibit is of special interest, particularly to sportsmen for purposes of comparison. The animals are mounted on rock, typical of their natural habitat. One of the specimens was presented by Mr. Boardman Conover, Research Associate in Ornithology on the Museum staff; and one is a gift from Mr. William J. Morden, formerly of Chicago, now of New York. The Stone's mountain sheep is repre- sented also in a striking habitat group in Hall 16, prepared by the late Carl E. Akeley. Page 2 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS May, 1936 Field Museum of Natural History Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 RooseTelt Road and Lake Michigan, Chicago THE BOARD Sbwell L. Avery John Borden WiLUAU J. Chalubrs Joseph N. Field Marshall Field Stanley Field Ernest R. Graham Albert W. Harris Sauugl Insull, Jr. Cykus H. McCormick OF TRUSTEES William H. Mitchell George A. Richardson Fred W. Sargent Stephen C. Sihms Jambs Simpson Solomon A. Smith Albert A. Spragub Silas H. Strawn Leslie Wheeler John P. Wilson OFFICERS Stanley Field President Albert A. Spragub First Vice-President James Simpson Second Vice-President Albert W. Harris Third Vice-President Stephen C. Simms Director and Secretary Solomon A. Smith . . . Treasurer and Assistant Secretary FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Stephen C. Snnis, Director of the Museum Editor CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Paul S. Martin Curator of Anthropology B. E. Dahlgrbn Curator of Botany Henry W. Nichols Curator of Geology Wilfred H. Osgood Curator of Zoology H. B. Hartb Managing Editor Field Museum is open every day of the year (except Christmas and New Year's Day) during the hours indicated below: Nov., Dec, Jan., Feb., Mar. 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. April, September, October 9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. May, June, July, August 9 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Admission is free to Meml>ers on all days. Other adults are admitted free on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays; non-members pay 25 cents on other days. Children are admitted free on all days. Students and faculty members of educational institutions are admit- ted free any day upon presentation of credentials. The Museum's natural history Library is open for reference daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Traveling exhibits are circulated in the schools of Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public School Extension Department of the Museum. Lectures for schools, and special entertainments and tours for children at the Museum, are provided by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. Announcements of free illustrated lectures for the public, and special lectures for Members of the Museum, will appear in Field Museum News. A cafeteria in the Museum serves visitors. Rooms are provided for those bringing their lunches. Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 buses go direct to the Museum. Members are requested to inform the Museum promptly of changes of address. MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM Field Museum has several classes of Members. Benefactors give or devise $100,000 or more. Contribu- tors give or devise $1,000 to $100,000. Life Members give $500; Non-Resident Life and Associate Members pay $100; Non-Resident Associate Members pay $50. All the above classes are exempt from dues. Sustaining Members contribute $25 annually. After six years they become Associate Members. Annual Members con- tribute $10 annually. Other memberships are Corpo- rate, Honorary, Patron, and Corresponding, additions under these classifications being made by special action of the Board of Trustees. Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to free admission to the Museum for himself, his family and house guests, and to two reserved seats for Museum lectures provided for Members. Subscription to Field Museum News is included with all memberships. The courtesies of every museum of note in the United States and Canada are extended to all Members of Field Museum. A Member may give his personal card to non-residents of Chicago, upon presentation of which they will be admitted to the Museum without charge. Further information about memberships will be sent on request. BEQUESTS AND ENDOW.MENTS Bequests to Field Museum of Natural History may be made in securities, money, books or collections. They may, if desired, take the form of a memorial to a person or cause, named by the giver. Contributions made within the taxable year not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's net income are allowable as deductions in computing net income for federal income tax purposes. Endowments may be made to the Museum with the provision that an annuity be paid to the patron for life. These annuities are guaranteed against fluctuation in amount, and may reduce federal income taxes. A RARE GAME BIRD By Emmet R. Blake Assistant, Division of Birds Among the most notable results of the Leon Mandel Guatemala Expedition of 1933-34 was the discovery and subsequent intensive study of a remarkable colony of Derby's guans. The faisan, as the guan is called by the natives, is the sole representative of its genus, and one of the most regal game birds in the western hemisphere. Attaining the size of a small turkey, it is glossy black above and white below, with a single broad white band across its generous, fan-shaped tail. A bare, red spike, two inches long, is borne on the head of both sexes and immediately distinguishes this species from related forms. From the several specimens collected by the Mandel Expedition a fine example was chosen for mounting, and is now on view in the exhibit of pheasants in Hall 21. This specimen indicates well the truly striking appearance of this bird in life. Derby's Guan Rare Central American bird of striking appearance. The specimen was obtained by the l]eon Mandel Guatemala Expedition. Guans are confined to the American tropics, and are generally common in locali- ties suitable to their habits. Unlike most other members of its family, however, Derby's guan has a remarkably restricted range for so large a bird, being known from only a few isolated volcanoes in western Guatemala. Highly specialized as to habitat, these interesting birds never occur beyond the limits of the humid cloud forests which clothe the mountains at altitudes between 7,000 and 9,500 feet. Characteristic of this zone and closely correlated with the limited vertical distribution of the faisan is an exotic climbing cactus, the celebrated monkey hand plant, and a large forest tree of the genus Prunus, upon which the bird appears to depend for food. In the subtropical forests on Volcan Tajamulco the Mandel Expedition found the last stronghold of Derby's guan. A camp was established in the heart of the zone, at an altitude of 7,600 feet, which permitted an unprecedented opportunity to observe this unique species almost daily. Rare and extremely wary elsewhere, faisans proved to be quite abundant here, and they were so fearless that individuals actually entered camp on several occasions. Accus- tomed to the proximity of generations of unarmed, agricultural Indians, and rarely if ever molested, they have never acquired the timidity so characteristic of the species elsewhere. No less typical of Derby's guan than its appearance are its remarkable calls. Most frequently heard is a soft mooing, suggesting the distant lowing of a cow, which is uttered with the measured regularity of a machine as the bird feeds. Few sounds in nature are more difficult to trace. RECONSTRUCTED TOMBS FROM EGYPT Some 4,500 years ago, Unis-ankh, a hered- itary nobleman of ancient Egypt, built a tomb for himself just outside the enclosure wall of the Step or Pyramid of King Zoser. Today some of his tomb chambers, and also those of another nobleman named User- neter, may be seen in Field Museum's hall of Egyptian archaeology (Hall J), where they constitute one among many remarkable exhibits. The original stones of the tombs, brought to the Museum some years ago as a result of the interest and generosity of two former Trustees, the late Martin A. Ryerson and the late Edward E. Ayer, are so re- erected in the Museum as to restore their appearance when originally built between 2600 and 2700 B. C. The tomb walls bear carved and colored pictures, mingled with inscriptions in hiero- glyphics which reveal something of the his- tory of the deceased. From inscriptions in one of the tombs, as deciphered by the late Professor James H. Breasted of the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, and Dr. T. George Allen, Assistant Curator of Egyp- tian Archaeology at Field Museum who is also a member of the Oriental Institute staff, it is learned that Unis-ankh was "the King's son, Governor of the South, First under the King." The blessings besought for him include the customary offerings made in the name of the king. His dinner table in the tomb is to bear "a thousand jars of beer, a thousand oxen, a thousand leaves." At each side of the inner doorway of the tomb is carved a portrait of Unis-ankh with a long staff in one hand, and a folded linen handkerchief in the other, inspecting gifts of cattle, geese, and other things from the villages. The tomb of User-neter is similar. Elab- orate carvings on its walls show the rites for the dead: sacrifices, bearers of offerings, lists of offerings, the offerings themselves, and the ceremony of purification by water and by incense. The decorations include also baskets of figs, bowls of lotus blossoms, covered dishes, jars of liquors, baskets of meat and of cakes, and various delicacies which the ancient Egyptians enjoyed while on earth and hoped to enjoy again in the next world. On the architrave over the outer doorway User-neter is shown seated in state, wearing a wig with long straight curls, and holding his ceremonial staff. Both tombs are from the necropolis of Memphis at Sakkara, where many Egyp- tian kings and nobles of the Old Kingdom period were buried. May, 1936 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Page S WILD FLOWERS OF LATE SPRING Bv Paul C. Standley Associate Curator of the Herbarium By the first of May the earliest spring flowers, such as bloodroot, spring-beauty, marsh marigold, Jack-in-the-pulpit, and adder's-tongue, have bloomed and faded. Opening in the first days of sunshine, these welcome flowers mark the end of winter and draw more attention than those of any other season. They are but forerunners of a host of others, less modest in hue, which attract notice by their vivid tints and masses of color rather than delicacy and grace of form. It is only during May that we find in fields and woodlands some of these most brilliant of all the wild flowers of Chicagoland. In the woodlands the coarser plants have not yet grown rank and tall. In the forest preserves or the dunes along the lake shore, in the shade of oaks and hickories, the ground is carpeted with violets in blue, white, or yellow, the delicate white flowers of wild lily-of-the-valley, blue phlox, and wild geranium or cranesbill. In favored spots, especially in the dunes, are many clumps of lady's-slippers, finest of northern orchids, scarcely exceeded in beauty and rich coloring by any orchids of tropical forests. The yellow ones are the most common, but in a few places are luxuriant colonies of the showy lady's-slipper, its flowers or "slippers" pure white with mark- ings of crimson. The stemless lady's-slipper or moccasin flower, one of the most cele- brated American wild flowers, is probably now extinct in the Chicago region. The edges of the woods are banked with marvelous displays of fragrant crabapple, and scarcely fragrant but nevertheless hand- some red haw or hawthorn. In the dunes are many elegant trees of flowering dogwood, one of the finest flowering trees of temperate climes. There, too, the common columbine thrives when not too much molested by vandals. On the open sand in the mornings there are clumps of spiderwort or Trade- scantia, which is aggressive enough to maintain a foothold even in many vacant city lots. Its petals are blue as the sky, but so delicate that they wither in the sun, and all the flowers are closed by noon. Another plant of similar situations is the golden Coreopsis, much like its sister of the gardens. In open fields, or even in the thinner woods, are large colonies of may-apple, each plant with two broad leaves and a single pure white flower hidden beneath them. The plants often grow in rings like the fairy rings of mushrooms, each circle apparently originating from a central plant now disap- peared. With them often are wide meadows scarlet with Indian paint brush or painted cup, a plant that shows bewildering varia- tion in its coloring, and often over large stretches is yellow rather than red. Almost always associated with it are the butter- colored heads of ragwort. The open fields, too, are a favored habitat of the wild strawberry, a pretty plant in spring, before it has attained its summer untidiness of long runners that strangle weaker competitors. Whoever has seen a field or dune covered with spirelike spikes of blue lupine will not soon forget the sight. Other flowers of open fields or brushy thickets are the graceful wild roses, the compact bushes of New Jersey tea, lush clumps of white and purplish pentstemons, and dense masses of meadow-rue, whose femlike leaves often are mistaken for those of maidenhair fern. On moist prairies there are large colonies of shooting-star, its droop- ing flowers pinkish purple, or in this region often almost pure white, their form suggest- ing that of their relative, the cyclamen. By late spring even the swamps, whose vegetation is sluggish in growth because of the cold water, are showing signs of abun- dant vegetation. Their handsomest flower is the stately blue iris. Many spring flowers of the Chicago area have been reproduced in the Hall of Plant Life (Hall 29), where Museum visitors may see how well they hold their own in competi- tion with famed flowers of the tropics. GRASS TREES Grass trees of Australia and other South Pacific lands are often called "black boys" because at a distance they are sometimes mistaken for natives. A specimen of grass tree is on exhibition in the Hall of Plant Life (Hall 29). The plant is a member of the lily family, yucca-like in characteristics. It is known also as the grass gum tree because of the red and yellow resin obtained from it, which is used in the manufacture of spirit lacquers. THE EARTH'S INTERNAL STRUCTURE ILLUSTRATED BY MODEL By Henby W. Nichols Curator, Department of Geology A model recently installed in Clarence Buckingham Hall (Hall 35) illustrates the internal structure of the earth. It is a representation in miniature of the southern hemisphere with parts cut away to show the interior. Instead of a thin crust over a molten interior, as the earth's structure was once conceived to be, the model shows three concentric shells of rock of increasing density enclosing a core of hot metal. Obviously, the features shown have not been directly observed, since the earth's diameter is 8,000 miles while the deepest excavations for mines have penetrated only The Interior of the Earth Model showing the various subterranean shells which metal, according to current theories of the earth's internal into the outer crust, and that for less than two miles. Yet, despite the impossibility of direct observation, the major structural features have been determined indirectly by study and measurement of geological and physical phenomena at the surface. These studies have been varied and com- plex, requiring thousands of delicate meas- urements, much mathematical computation, and years of work by able geologists and physicists. The most important line of attack has been a study of the effect of passage through the earth upon earthquake waves. Interpretations of the meaning of variations in the strength of gravity, and changes in elevation of land surfaces, have also been important. The study of mete- orites has had its share in the accumulated data, as have determinations of the strength, melting points, elasticity, etc. of rock, and other geological and physical studies. 'These researches are continuing, and additional minor features of earth structure are ob- scurely indicated but not sufficiently con- firmed to be included in the model. As the model demonstrates, the outer one of the three concentric rock shells is incomplete. It underlies all the land, but is absent under the deeper parts of the seas. Its boundaries have not been mapped, but it probably covers about half of the surface. It is composed of granite and related rocks. This shell is called the sial, a name com- pounded from the first syllables of silica and alumina, the predominant elements of granitic rocks. The sial is thin compared with the more subterranean shells. It is thirty-seven miles thick over much of its extent, but the thickness is not uniform. With the land it supports, the sial floats upon heavier basaltic rock. This basaltic second shell is called the sima, a name compounded from the first syllables of silica and magnesia, two elements present in basalt and related rocks. Besides basalt, it prob- ably contains other heavy magnesian ig- neous rocks. The sima, 700 miles thick, rests upon a third shell, the transi- tion layer, concerning which little is known other than that is is 1,060 miles thick, and divided by two dis- continuities into three concentric sub-shells. It may be composed of ultrabasic rocks heavier than basalt, or it may be a mixture of compounds of heavy metals with such elements as sul- phur and phosphorus. The transition layers rest upon a metallic core 4,000 miles in diameter, which is an alloy of iron and nickel with unknown quantities of other heavy metals. The model represents these rocks and metals as they would appear, cooled, at the surface of the earth. Their true appearance probably is quite different owing to the conditions under which they exist. The weight of the overlying rock is millions of pounds per square foot on the surface of the sima, and more at greater depths. The tem- perature is so high that the rocks are kept from melting only by the enormous pressure to which they are subject. The pressures and temperatures are so much greater than those encountered in ordinary human experi- ence that little can be said positively of the physical state of the rocks or of what they would look like if they could be seen, and this therefore continues to be a matter of dispute. There is evidence that the rocks are in an extremely rigid state, and other evidence that their state is plastic. The plasticity and rigidity may resemble that of stiff pitch which is elastic and unyielding to momentarily applied forces, yet yields so readily to continued force that a lump of it will flatten and flow from its own weight. surround a core of molten structure. Page i FIELD MUSEUM NEWS May, 19S6 AFRICAN BUSHMAN FAMILY DEPICTED IN BRONZE SCULPTURE From a racial standpoint the Bushmen are the most interesting people south of equa- torial Africa. These nomadic hunters, small in stature, are represented in Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall (Hall 3) by several notable bronzes among the Races of Mankind sculp- tures by Malvina Hoffman. Outstanding is a family group consisting of full length figures of a hunter and his wife and baby, the last being strapped to the mother's back. From this group, and from the head of a man and the bust of a woman also on exhibition, the visitor to the hall is able to obtain a splendid idea of the racial charac- ters of this extremely primitive people. At present the Bushmen are confined to the Kalahari Desert. They have a simple hunting culture comparable to that of Stone Age men in Europe some 50,000 years ago. They do not practise agriculture, but the women gather wild vegetable produce. They build crude huts for temporary shelter, and their arts and handicrafts are poorly developed. However, they have made some rock paintings and engravings which are remarkable for realis- tic depiction of animal life. They excel in the hunting arts — camou- flaging themselves, making traps, marks- manship with bow and arrow, and in finding water in regions where the quest would seem hopeless. They have only the most elemen- tary religious beliefs, interwoven with crude magical practices, and their social organiza- tion is of the simplest sort. They have a peculiar language in which clicks, variously inflected, play a large part. The Bushmen have on their heads short frizzly hair which grows in separate tufts coiled into balls, and be- cause of its appearance is known as "pepper- corn" hair. There is very little hair on the face and body. The skin ranges in color from yellow to olive, and becomes markedly wrinkled at an early age. The low-crowned head is extremely small, and in shape is intermediate between long and round. The face has a lozenge-shaped appearance due to the width of the cheekbone and the narrow- ness of the forehead, which is slightly pro- truding. The Bushmen have broader and flatter noses than are found in any other race. Their eyes are dark, often narrow, and slightly oblique. The average male is below five feet in height, and the women even shorter. In both sexes there is a peculiar development of the buttocks which is often extremely accentuated among the women. Photogravure post cards, and larger size photographs of the Bushman group, and most of the other sculptures in the Races of Mankind series, are sold at the Museum. Mail orders are also handled. Institutions photograph copyright Field Museum of Natural History Africans of Small Stature Bushmen, one of the most primitive of peoples living today, as represented in bronze group by Malvina Hoffman in Races of Mankind series. or individuals so desiring may make special arrangements to purchase reproductions in bronze, either in full or reduced size. Com- munications on this subject should be ad- dressed to the Director of Field Museum of Natural History. Volcanic Vapor Vent A vapor vent from the floor of the crater of Kilauea has just been added to the vol- canic collection in Clarence Buckingham Hall (Hall 35). Much of the liquid lava in this crater is covered by a crust of cooled lava as the water of a lake in winter is covered by a crust of ice. This crust is penetrated by vents through which jets of steam and hot gases are flung high in the air. This steam and hot gas has so corroded the lava with which it came in contact that the vent appears to be lined with light gray in strong contrast with the almost black lava of the crust. intaglios or seals from signet rings. Because of their interest, excellent impressions which facilitate their enjoyment and study, have been made of each of the intaglios. The remainder of the collection consists of cameos, some of which show delicate work- manship, rare beauty, and exquisite detail. These engraved gems were cut from several varieties of quartz, such as smoky quartz, citrine, chalcedony, carnelian, chrys- oprase, plasma, bloodstone, agate, onyx, sardonyx, and jasper. There are also some of topaz and lapis lazuli. Intaglios and Cameos A very interesting collection of engraved gems, acquired in the early days of Field Museum's history, has recently been attrac- tively reinstalled in H. N. Higinbotham Hall (Hall 31). Many of these gems are Summer Visiting Hours Begin Beginning May 1 summer visiting hours, 9 A.M. to 6 p.m., go into effect. The Museum will be open during these hours up to and including September 7 (Labor Day). MAY GUIDE-LECTURE TOURS Conducted tours of exhibits, under the guidance of staff lecturers, are made very afternoon at 3 p.m., except Saturdays, Sundays, and certain holidays. Following is the schedule of subjects and dates for May: Friday, May 1 — Birds of Beautiful Plumage. Week beginning May 4: Monday — Races of Man- kind; Tuesday — Native American Plants; Wednesday — Crystals and Their Uses; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Animals at Home. Week beginning May 11: Monday — Musical Instru- ments; Tuesday — Plants and Their Blossoms; Wednesday — Moon and Meteorites: Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Egypt. Week beginning May 18: Monday — Asiatic Animal Life; Tuesday — Makers of Totem Poles; Wednesday — Native Philippine Exhibits; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Bows and Arrows. Week beginning May 25: Monday — Cave Dwellers of the Old World; Tuesday — Palms and Cereals; Wednesday — Fishes and Reptiles; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Prehistoric Hall. Persons wishing to participate should apply at North Entrance. Tours are free and no gratuities are to be proffered. A new schedule will appear each month in Field Museum News. Guide-lecturers' services for special tours by parties of ten or more are available free of charge by arrangement with the Director a week in advance. Gifts to the Museum Following is a list of some of the principal gifts received during the last month: From Rev. Brother Elias — 35 herbarium specimens, Colombia; from Directoria de Plantas Texteis — 34 specimens of textile plants, Brazil; from Museo Nacional — -400 herbarium specimens, Costa Rica; from O. A. Oakes — 21 study samples of woods, Hawaii; from Mrs. Ynes Mexia — 18 herbarium specimens, Brazil; from School of Forestry, Yale University — 65 her- barium specimens, Ecuador; from Professor Martin Cardenas — 80 herbarium specimens, Bolivia; from H. G. Metcalf — 9 specimens upland diamond bearing ground, Brazil; from Walter J. Flesch — 25 specimens of minerals; from William J. Chalmers — a kunzite crystal and a twenty-eight carat gem kunzite, Califor- nia; from Chicago Zoological Society — a Galapagos turtle and 2 kangaroos, Galapagos Islands and Aus- tralia; from Arthur Patterson — a glass-snake, Indiana; from General Biological Supply House — sets of develop- mental stages of meadow frog and tiger salamander. Illinois; from Museo Nacional de Historia Natural — a coral snake, Argentina; from Leslie Wheeler — a red- tailed hawk, Illinois; from J. M. Simpson and A. W. Armour — a markhor, India; from Henry Dybaa — a newt, Illinois; from Robert L. Fleming — a gavial skull, India; from Comte A. de la Chevasnerie and from Walter Necker — valuable books for the Library. NEW MEMBERS The following persons were elected to membership in Field Museum during the period from March 17 to April 15: Life Members Oscar Heineman. Associate Members Paul E. Darrow, Bernard H. Heide, Edward R. Hills, O. J. Schafer, H. Belin Voorheea, E. Frank Young. Annual Members Mrs. James S. Baley, L. H. Barkhausen, Mrs. Walter F. Beachy, V. D. Berry, Archie H. Cohen, Dr. Israel Davidsohn, Walter H. Flood, P. Martin Granstrom, Dr. Paul Headland, Mrs. Samuel H. Holland, Isidore Horween, A. C. Kussman, E. F. McDonald, Jr., Mrs. Paul Scott Mowrer, Leslie F. Muter, Guy L. Noble, Jacob S. Fohn, David Rockola, C. D. Ryan, Mrs. Flora Warren Seymour, Roger A. Simonson, Mrs. F. B. Steece, Gray B. Tuthill, Miss Mary E. Westphal. Wood Exhibits Aid Builders Persons interested in the construction of buildings, or the manufacture of products involving the use of woods, find much assistance in selecting the woods best suited to their purposes by consulting the exhibits of American and foreign woods occupying two halls in the Department of Botany. PniNTCS BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS News Published Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago Vol. 7 JUNE, 1936 No. 6 EUROPEAN CAVE BEAR, FOE OF PREHISTORIC MAN, SHOWN IN MURAL PAINTING By Elmer S. Riggs Associate Curator of Paleontology The great fossil cave bear of Europe, Ursus spelaeus, was the largest of all known bears, and also the largest true carnivore, either recent or fossil, so far as is now known. The skulls of some specimens measure twenty inches in length. The animal in life stood more than four feet in height at the shoulder, and if as heavy in propor- tion to the size of its skeleton as the great Alaskan bear of modern times, it must have weighed more than two thousand pounds. The cave bears lived in Europe as long as fifty thousand years ago during the glacial period of Pleistocene time, and died out near the close of that period. They are known from fossil remains found in "bone caves" scattered through England, France, Germany, Austria and other parts of Europe. The large skeleton exhibited in Ernest R. Graham Hall (Hall 38) was found in a cave near Trieste, Italy. The accompanying illustration is from a photograph of a mural panel by Charles R. Knight exhibited in the same hall. The animal is known as the "cave bear" because its re- mains are found most abundantly in caves and in rock-fissures. More than one hundred skeletons, in varying states of preservation, have been reported from the caverns of Europe. The presence of fossil skeletons in such places is due to the habit of bears, as well as other pre- daceous animals, of resorting to caverns as dens. In such caverns the skeletons have been covered up along with the bones of various other animals by an accumulation of debris on the cave floor. They may be covered by sediment carried in by water or by earth falling from the walls; often the bones are embedded in cave formations of hard calcareous matter formed by Fhotograph copyright Field Museum of Natural History Huge Bears of the Ice Age Primitive man in Europe apparently often had to combat these great beasts for possession of desirable caves. These animals are the largest bears known to science, and lived about 20,000 to 50,000 years ago. The picture is from a mural in Ernest R. Graham Hall, by Mr. Charles R. Knight. dripping water. In places the bones have been washed by streams into open fissures in rock formation and there covered and preserved. The remains of the cave bear are reported as intermingled with those of other animals. In their earlier appearance the cave bears are associated with animals of a warmer climate such as the lion, hyena, stag and others. In a later stage they are found with cold climate animals such as the reindeer and arctic fox. These conditions marked the change from the third warm, inter- glacial period to the final advance of glacial ice and cold. Association of the cave bear with an extinct race of men is of highest interest. From a cavern in the Swiss lake region have been reported a large number of bones of the cave bear. Associated with them were found more than one hundred imple- ments of a type known as the work of the Mousterian race, or Neanderthal man. Similar evidence is abundant toward the close of the Ice Age. Many caverns in France bear engrav- ings of the cave bear made by primitive man, and in one in- stance a clay model of the animal was left as an eloquent tribute to his memory. Before the close of the ice age in Europe, some twenty thousand years ago, the great cave bears had disappeared entirely. Their re- mains are frequently brought to light and in such numbers as to indicate that this huge beast was the flesh-eater in western Pleistocene time, and most common Europe in later doubtless one of the most formidable enemies of primitive man A 341 -Carat Aquamarine A beautiful gem of aquamarine, weighing 341 1-2 carats, is exhibited in the collection of gems and jewels in H. N. Higinbotham Hall (Hall 31, Case 11). It is believed to be the largest perfect gem of its kind in the United States, and one of the largest in the world. It was presented to the Muiseum by the late Richard T. Crane, Jr., former Trustee. The Crane aquamarine is a flawless stone of high value. It has been skillfully cut in the form of an ova! brilliant, with scores of facets. Its dimensions are: length, two and one-half inches; width, one and one-half inches; and depth, one inch. Its color and transparency are like those of sea water in its deep blue phase, and it is from this characteristic that this variety of trans- parent precious beryl derives its name "aquamarine" meaning sea water. Aqua- marines occur also in the color of green sea water, but the blue gems of this type are much rarer, and a blue one the size of this specimen is extremely unusual. The gem came from Brazil, probably from the vicinity of Arassahuay in the state of Minas Geraes. Beryls of large size are ob- tained there by mining in the decomposed coarse granites of the region. Higinbotham Hall, in which this specimen is displayed, contains a large and valuable collection of gems and jewels of nearly every known variety from all over the world. This collection is one of the finest in exist- Heredity Principles Illustrated The principles of heredity as exemplified in plant life are illustrated in an exhibit in the Hall of Plant Life (Hall 29, Case 824). One part is devoted to explaining the color factor in the cultivation of sweet pea hybrids. The other illustrates a simple case of the Mendelian inheritance principles as re- vealed by inbreeding and inter-breeding of red and white four-o'clocks and their hybrid, the pink four-o'clock. Page 2 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS June, 19S6 Field Museum of Natural History Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 Roosevelt Road and Lake Michigan, Cliicago THE BOARD Sbwell L. Avery John Borden WUXIAM J. Chalubrs Joseph N. Field Marshall Field Stanley Field Ernest R. Grahau Albert W. Harris Samuel Insull, Jr. Cyrus H. McCormick OF TRUSTEES William H. Mitchell George A. Richardson Fred W. Sargent Stephen C. Sihhs Jambs Simpson Solomon A. Smith Albert A. Sprague Silas H. Strawn Lbsue Wheeler John P. Wilson OFFICERS Stanley Field Pretident Albert A. Sprague Fint Vice-President James Simpson Second Vice-President Albert W. Harris Third Vice-President Stephen C. Simms Director and Secretary Solomon A. Smith . . . Treasurer and Assistant Secretary FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Stephen C. Simms, Director of the Museum Editor CONTRIBITTING EDITORS Paul S. Martin Curator of Anthropology B. E. Dahlgren Curator of Botany ElENRY W. Nichols Curator of Geology Wilfred H. Osgood Curator of Zoology H. B. Harte Managing Editor Field Mtiseum is open every day of the year (except Christmas and New Year's Day) during the hours indicated below: Nov., Dec., Jan., Feb., Mar. 9 a.m. to 4:30 f.m. April, September, October 9 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. May, June, July, August 9 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Admission is free to Members on all days. Other adults are admitted free on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays; non-members pay 25 cents on other days. Children are admitted free on all days. Students and faculty members of educational institutions are admit- ted free any day upon presentation of credentials. The Museum's natural history Library is open for reference daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Traveling exhibits are circulated in the schools of Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public School Extension Department of the Museum. Lectures for schools, and special entertainments and tours for children at the Museum, are provided by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. Announcements of free illustrated lectures for the public, and special lectures for Members of the Museum, will appear m Field Museum News. A cafeteria in the Museum serves visitors. Rooms are provided for those bringing their lunches. Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 buses go direct to the Museum. Members are requested to inform the Museum promptly of changes of address. MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM Field Museum has several classes of Members. Benefactors give or devise $100,000 or more. Contribu- tors give or devise $1,000 to $100,000. Life Members give $500; Non-Resident Lite and Associate Members pay $100; Non-Resident Associate Members pay $50. All the above classes are exempt from dues. Sustaining Members contribute $25 annually. After six years they become Associate Members. Annual Members con- tribute $10 annually. Other memberships are Corpo- rate, Honorary, Patron, and Corresponding, additions under these classifications being made by special action of the Board of Trustees. Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to free admission to the Museum for himself, his family and house guests, and to two reserved seats for Museum lectures provided for Members. Subscription to Field Museum News is included with all memberships. The courtesies of every museum of note in the United States and Canada are extended to all Members of Field Museum. A Member may give his personal card to non-residents of Chicago, upon presentation of which they will be admitted to the tluseum without charge. Further information about memberships will be sent on request. BEQUESTS AND ENDOW.MENTS Bequests to Field Museum of Natural History may be made in securities, money, books or collections. They may, it desired, take the form of a memorial to a person or cause, named by the giver. Contributions made within the taxable year not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's net income are allowable as deductions in computing net income for federal income tax purposes. Endowments may be made to the Museum with the provision that an annuity be paid to the patron for lite. These annuities are guaranteed against fluctuation in amount, and may reduce federal income taxes. TYPES OF BACTERIA SHOWN IN ENLARGED MODELS The elements of bacteriology are graphi- cally illustrated in an exhibit in the Hall of Plant Life (Hall 29). It is the purpose of this exhibit to present information for the benefit of the layman who does not have access to microscopes and laboratory facili- ties, and whose ideas about these forms of life are usually extremely vague. As bacteria are invisible except under the highest powers of the microscope, the many varieties of bacterial forms shown in the Museum exhibit are accurately fashioned in glass on a greatly enlarged scale. Among the types shown, with labels giving the principal facts about them, are the germs of tuberculosis, typhoid, diphtheria, cholera, splenic fever, pneumonia, epidemic menin- gitis, milk bacteria, nitrifying bacteria, and others, exactly as they appear in a typical microscopic field. The splenic fever germ was discovered in 1863, and was the first bacterium to be positively identified as the cause of a disease. Besides illustrating specific forms of bacteria, the exhibit has several other fea- tures. One section treats the subject in a general way, illustrating the differences be- tween the principal forms in which bacteria occur — the rod-like or bacillus form, the cocci or globular form, the corkscrew-like or spiral form, and the thread-like form each being represented by several important varieties. Another division illustrates the rapid multiplication of bacteria, which exceed all other organisms in power of rapid increase. Here it is shown how, starting with a single cell which divides in two, each of these again divides in two, and so on indefinitely with generations following generations in such astounding rapidity that during a day a single bacterium may give rise to millions of progeny. The process continues until checked by lack of nourishment, or unfa- vorable change in environment. Another section of the exhibit demon- strates the formation of resting spores. Many bacteria have the power of producing these when threatened with extinction by dryness or other unfavorable conditions. The cell contents contract into very small globular masses about which are formed highly impervious envelopes. The organism has then entered its resting stage. The spores are remarkably long lived, and resist- ant to destruction except by sunlight. Most disease germs, fortunately, do not form spores. The exhibit also illustrates methods of developing bacterial growths in various culture media for study and other purposes. Bacteria are the smallest of plants. They are present everywhere, in air, soil, water, bodies of animals, etc. They are of vast significance in the economy of nature, per- petually returning to the soil the substances abstracted from it by all other living things. Lacking green coloring, bacteria are mostly unable to obtain their carbon from the at- mosphere like other plants, and the vast majority can live only by the destruction of organic substances. Wherever dead organic matter and moisture are found, bacteria flourish, breaking down the complex animal or plant remains into simpler products such as may again be absorbeid and utilized by the higher plants. Some of the bacteria, on the other hand, have the peculiar power of taking nitrogen directly from the air, thence eventually adding it to the soil. Numerous species grow only in the bodies of animals. Some of these are harmless and may be actually beneficial; others are pro- ductive of the most dreaded diseases. Others, again, are responsible for blights, rot and diseases among higher plants. Alone, as well as in combination with fungi, bacteria are concerned in various fermentations, and are thus of importance in many industries such as baking, cheesemaking, brewing, tanning, tobacco curing, retting hemp and other fibers, etc. Most bacteria grow only in the presence of air, but some, such as the bacillus of lockjaw, grow where air is excluded. Direct sunlight is fatal to the majority of them. Although few bacteria are actually killed by freezing, low temperatures are unfavor- able to their growth. Excessive heat is one of the most certain means of sterilization, a few minutes of boiling sufficing for most practical purposes. The average thermal death point of bacteria is about 55 degrees centigrade. The heat required to kill their spores lies between 55 and 100 centigrade. ORNAMENTS MADE FROM BEARDS In the not distant past the white beards of old men were highly valued for the mak- ing of ornaments among the natives of the Marquesas Islands in the South Pacific. When a man who was too young to grow a white beard wanted to make one of these ornaments, he prevailed upon one of his elderly relatives to part with his beard for the purpose. If he had no relative willing or qualified to supply his need, he often would hire an old man outside his family to grow such a beard for him. There were other queer practices in con- nection with hair and hairdressing among various native tribes of the Micronesian and Polynesian groups of islands. In both the Marquesas and the Society Islands, women bobbed their hair while men arranged theirs in fantastic ways. Sometimes the men would have one-half of their hair shaved off completely, and the other half left long; sometimes they would have a path shaved down the center with hair on both sides gathered into knots, and sometimes they would have it plaited into a broad tail. Among the Maori of New Zealand, un- married women wore their hair short, and married ones wore theirs in long braids around their head. The Fijians had the most elaborate coiffures. Their hair was naturally curly, stiff and wiry, and stood out from the head, and one case is recorded where a head of hair measured five feet in circumference, this great growth being dyed in various colors, some sections red, some yellow, some white, and some blue. Shaving and haircutting throughout these regions were done by means of shark teeth. The teeth were set in wooden handles, and with these the hair, gathered into small bunches, was sawed off. When this became too painful, it was singed off with a brand. Field Museum has notable collections illustrating the enthnology of Polynesia and Micronesia. These are on exhibition in HaUF. Flora of Central Europe Field Museum recently purchased a set of Hegi's Illiistrierte Flora von Miltel- Europa. This is the most recent complete flora of Central Europe, and is especially useful because of the many colored plates and text figures which illustrate nearly every species of plant growing in the region. An ingenious baby's cradle, and a fox- skin swaddling, used by the Karok Indians of northwestern California, are exhibited in Hall 6 (Case 1). June, 1936 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Pages PRESIDENT FIELD PRESENTS RARE OLD DICTIONARY Mr. Stanley Field, President of the Museum, has presented to the Library of the institution a rare and valuable work, the two volumes of the first edition of Dr. Samuel Johnson's Dictionary of the English Language, published in 1755. This interesting work, published at a time when a good lexicon was very much needed in England, was hailed with great enthusi- asm by Johnson's contemporaries. It was even proposed that he should be made a "dictator" over the English language, whose decisions on definitions or con- troversial matters should be regarded as authoritative and final. The dictionary represented a labor of seven years, and was brought out by a group of eminent publishers who combined to commission Johnson to undertake the task. It was at this time that Johnson had broken with his famed patron of previous years, the Earl of Chesterfield. While Johnson's definitions have been superseded largely by later lexicographers, it still remains a monumental work and is especially notable for the apt choice of examples of usage of words selected from the greatest writers. In addition to the .dictionary, the volumes contain Johnson's history of the language, and an English grammar. The books, which are beautifully bound and excellently preserved, were formerly in Mr. Field's personal library. ARCHERY IN CHINA The remarkable development of archery in China, for warfare, for sport, and as a means of physical education, is illustrated in an exhibit of Chinese bows, crossbows, arrows, darts, bullets for crossbows, and related equipment in Hall 32 (Case 25.) Among novelties in the collection are some whistling arrows, which shrieked when passing through the air, and were used by the imperial bodyguards to disperse ob- trusive people when the emperor was driving out, as policemen's motorcycle sirens are sometimes used today in convoying celebrities through traffic. In addition to familiar types of bows, there is a series of bows of different sizes made in the K'ien-lung period (1736-95) es- pecially for the purpose of testing the strength of men; a series of crossbows designed for shooting bullets; and a self- loading repeating crossbow, similar in prin- ciple to the modern repeating rifle, with a magazine holding eleven darts which can be discharged one after another in rapid succession. A pocket-size spring-gun, carried in the sleeve by the Chinese, is also shown. It shot arrows or darts, and was the equivalent of a pistol as a personal weapon. Brigands used such sleeve guns, as hold-up men today use revolvers. Another personal weapon shown is a blow-gun which, by means of a detachable knob, could be camouflaged and used as a walking stick. The ordinary Chinese bow is a composite type with layer upon layer of carefully pre- pared sinew glued upon the wooden founda- tion, and strips of polished buffalo horn on the other side. "The strings are usually twisted deerhide. The test bows displayed were used solely for measuring the strength of candidates in the military examinations held under the former Manchu dynasty for the appoint- ment of officers. These bows, which the contestants had to draw and pull, were classified according to the number of "strengths" of pulling power. The unit "one strength" was an arbitrary measure like our "horsepower," and represented the power required to lift ten "catties" (a "cattie" being equal to about one and one- third pounds). Bows of four, six and seven strengths were used in preparatory training and for exercise; in the competitions the bows used were of from eight to twelve strengths. On exhibition is a complete series of the eight sizes. The crossbow is still the regular weapon of some aboriginal tribes in China, as well as being a weapon often kept around the house by city dwellers to scare burglars. RARE FOUR-HORNED ANTELOPE PLACED ON EXHIBITION A specimen of the four-horned antelope, a little animal from India rarely found among museum collections, has been placed on exhibition in George M. Pullman Hall (Hall 13). Because of its four horns, this creature is unique in its family, the Bovidae, which includes all the world's antelopes, oxen, sheep and goats. The other mem- Rare and Unique This small antelope, known in India as "chau- singha," is distinguished from all other members of its family by possession of four horns. The specimen shown is on exhibition in George M. Pullman Hall. bers of the family, comprising all hollow- horned mammals, have only two. Some animals in other families, such as the gi- raffes, have more than two horns, but no other antelopes or their immediate relatives. The four-horned antelope is known in India as "chausingha." It bears the scien- tific names of Telraceras and quadricornis. The females have no horns. The largest of the bucks weigh about fifty-five pounds, and stand about two feet high, according to Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood, Curator of the De- partment of Zoology. The pair of horns in front, which point on a slightly forward angle, range from one to one and one-half inches in length, while the rear horns, which point on an angle in the reverse direction, average three to four inches. The animals, which are, apart from their horns, somewhat similar to the abundant duikers of Africa, are found only in a very restricted area in central India. They are tawny in color, with a white patch running down the under part of the neck and body. The Museum's specimen was obtained by the late Colonel J. C. Faunthorpe, of Bom- bay, and has been mounted by Assistant Taxidermist W. E. Eigsti. THE CIRCUS LIZARD By Karl P. Schmidt Assistant Curator of Reptiles It has become a widespread custom at circus performances throughout the United States to offer for sale small bright-green lizards, tethered usually by means of a wire collar and short chain, so that they may be worn on the lapel of the purchaser's coat. These small lizards, while interesting and attractive as inmates of a well arranged terrarium, can only rarely be kept under suitable conditions. They usually die in a few days or weeks. The lizard in question is known by the scientific name Anolis carolinensis. The species is found in the southern states, from the Carolinas to Texas. The fact that these lizards undergo a conspicuous change of color from bright green to brown has led to the popular application to them of the name "chameleon," but zoologists prefer "anole" as a common name. The power possessed by the true chameleons of the Old World of changing color to an extraordinary degree has become firmly associated with the word chameleon and rooted in the language, so that it is easy to understand the transfer of the name to any lizard whose skin has a similar capacity for color change. The true chameleons are not at all closely allied to the anoles. The chameleons form, in fact, the most distinctive and bizarre of all the families of lizards. They are charac- terized by a projectile tongue, modification of the feet into tong-like structures for clasp- ing twigs, prehensile tail, and a casque-like skull, often with horns or other appendages. They inhabit Africa, Madagascar, Arabia, and India; a single outlying species is found in southern Spain, and in Syria. The anoles are lizards of more normal form, belonging to the primarily American family of iguanas. There are in the West Indies, and Central and South America, a great number of distinct forms allied to the North American species. The feet of these lizards are modified in correlation with their tree-climbing habits. Adhesive pads on the toes are effectively supplemented by terminal claws whose movements are inde- pendent of the pads. One of the most strik- ing characteristics of the group is the pres- ence in the males of a distensible throat-fan or disk, which is displayed in courtship and which may be brilliantly colored in contrast with the green or brown body. The color changes of the anoles, like those of chameleons and some other lizards, occur in response to stimuli received through the eyes. The coloration of the skin may take on an astonishing resemblance to the limb or leaf on which the creature rests. Color change is also induced by excitement of the emotions, such as fear or rage. Papyrus manuscripts from ancient Egypt are exhibited in Hall J. Mrs. Oscar Straus Elected Patron Mrs. Oscar Straus, widow of the late Oscar Straus who was a former ambassador to "Turkey and later Secretary of Commerce in the administration of President Theodore Roosevelt, was elected a Patron of Field Museum at a meeting of the Board of Trustees held May 18. This honor is in recognition of her eminent services to the institution. Mrs. Straus's deep interest in the work of the Museum was manifested in 1934 by her sponsoring of the Straus West Afri- can Expedition which obtained notable zoological collections. At present she is making a visit to New Zealand and Australia where she is endeavoring to obtain for the Museum specimens of certain extremely rare birds required for proposed habitat groups for the Hall of Birds. Pagei FIELD MUSEUM NEWS June, 19S6 ARCHAEOLOGICAL SPECIMEN AIDS PALEONTOLOGICAL RESEARCH An archaeological specimen from ancient Kish offers valuable evidence in the study of a paleontological problem, viz., whether an extinct member of the giraffe family, known as Sivatherium, may have persisted until comparatively recent times somewhere in Asia Minor, and may have been contempo- rary with Paleolithic man. The specimen cited is a copper rein ring, nearly 5,500 years old, which came to the Museum among the collections of the Field Museum-Oxford University Joint Expedi- tion to Mesopotamia a few years ago. The rein ring, which was found associated with the remains of a chariot, is surmounted by a small figurine of an antlered ruminant. This object was the subject of an article by the late Dr. Berthold Laufer, former Curator of the Department of Anthropology, who deduced that it indicated the existence of tamed deer in ancient times (Field Mu- seum News, March, 1930). P\irther study by Dr. Edwin H. Colbert, Assistant Curator of Vertebrate Paleon- tology at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, has led him to the belief that it more closely approximates the appearance of Sivaiherium than any known species of deer. Dr. Colbert has established a number of details in the figurine which correspond strikingly with characteristics of Sivaiherium. These resemblances would seem to lend weight to the idea that Siva- iherium might still have been extant when the early Sumerians were living in Kish. COLLECTIONS OF U. S. PLANTS Field Museum has received from the De- partment of Botany of the University of Chicago, through Professor E. J. Kraus, two large and valuable collections of United States plants. One consists of 591 mounted specimens from the lower Illinois River valley, collected by Mr. L. M. Turner. These will be added to the state herbarium, which for convenience is kept apart from the general Museum Herbarium. The other collection consists of 2,555 plants from the Black Hills of South Dakota, a region of special interest because it is the easternmost outpost of the Rocky Mountain flora. This collection was made by Professor Herman E. Hayward, and was the basis of his published report upon the plant ecology of the Black Hills. ESKIMO TYPES ILLUSTRATED The modem Eskimos are the result of a migration of a special Mongoloid type from Asia into America. They now inhabit the entire Arctic coast of North America, Green- land, and the extreme northeastern fringe of Asia. Among the Races of Mankind sculptures by Malvina Hoffman in Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall (Hall 3) are bronze busts of an Eskimo man and woman. In contrast to the marked facial expressions and the char- acteristic racial vivacity of many types among these portraits representing the principal divisions of the human race, the Eskimos seem calm and almost expression- less. They are hunters and fishermen, living in small family or tribal groups with- out chiefs. They display great artistic skill in the carving of bone and ivory. There are now about thirty thousand individuals be- longing to one linguistic stock, whose dialects have been regarded as akin to the Ural- Altaic family. In physical appearance, the Hudson Bay Eskimo is short in stature with a long, nar- row, and high head. The face is flat with very broad, prominent cheek bones and a narrow, somewhat prominent nose. The eyes, which are black in color, sometimes show Mongolian folds. The hands and feet are remarkably small. The color of the skin is yellow, generally tinged with red or brown. The western Eskimos are taller and have slightly rounder heads. In comparing the modern Eskimo with prehistoric types of man we find that during the Magdalenian and Solutrean periods in western Europe, some twenty thousand years ago, Cro-Magnon man also possessed a long head and a broad face, thus forming the so-called "disharmonic" type, which can be studied in the Hall of the Stone Age of the Old World (Hall C). In view of the physical and cultural resemblances between the Cro-Magnons and the modern inhabi- tants of the Arctic, it has been tentatively suggested that there may be some relation- ship between them. When the climate of western Europe became milder, the reindeer and other cold-habitat animals moved north- Pboto^raphs copyri^t Field Museum of Natural Histor; Eskimo Man and Woman Sculptures, by Malvina Hoffman, of people of the far north, on exhibition in Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall. ward, and the Cro-Magnons naturally fol- lowed them. The Eskimos may be their direct descendants. The ravages of various epidemics intro- duced by Europeans have taken a serious toll among the Eskimos, and since intermar- riage with the white population steadily increases the Eskimos seem to be fated to disappear in the course of time. Photogravure post cards, as well as larger size photographs, of the Eskimo busts and of nearly all the other racial types in this series, are available at the Museum. If desired, they may be ordered by mail. Also, reproductions in bronze, either full or re- duced size, may be purchased under special arrangement by institutions or individuals interested. For full information communi- cate with the Director of Field Museum. Unusual Fulgurite An interesting fulgurite, formed by a stroke of lightning, has just been received from Mr. J. O. Beadle of Marshall, Wiscon- sin. When lightning strikes into soil it usually forms a tube with glazed walls. In this instance the lightning penetrated the loam through cracks, the walls of which it melted and glazed, forming rough plates instead of tubes. Probably the somewhat clayey soil had cracked during a dry spell. A sudden shower filled the cracks and before the soil became wet the lightning struck. As lightning penetrates moist earth more readily than dry it followed the moisture into the cracks instead of making the hollow tubes as it usually does. JUNE GUIDE-LECTURE TOURS Conducted tours of exhibits, under the guidance of staff lecturers, are made every afternoon at 3 p.m., except Saturdays, Sundays, and certain holidays. Following is the schedule of subjects and dates for June: Week beginning June 1: Monday — Chinese Art; Tuesday — General Tour; Wednesday— Systematic Col- lection of Mammals; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Plants of Tropical Lands. Week beginning June 8: Monday — .\ncient and Modem Men; Turaday — General Tour; Wednesday — Plants and Animals of the Fast; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Summer Birds of the Chicago Region. Week beginning June 15: Monday — Indians and Eskimos; Tuesday — General Tour; Wednesday — Plants of Economic Value; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Geology Exhibits. Week beginning June 22: Monday — Habitat Groups: Tuesday — General Tour; Wednesday — South America; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Hall of Plant Life. Monday, Jime 29 — Jades and Gems; Tuesday — ■ General Tour. Persons wishing to participate should apply at North Entrance. Tours are free and no gratuities are to be proffered. A new schedule will appear each month in Field Museum News. Guide-lecturers' services for special tours by parties of ten or more are available free of charge by arrangement with the Director a week in advance. Gifts to the Museum Following is a list of some of the principal gifts received during the last month: From Clarence Burley — a whale harpoon with seal- skin float, Hudson Bay, Canada; from The L^niversity of Texas — 606 herbarium specimens, Mexico; from George B. Hinton^-3 herbarium specimens, Mexico; from Professor Manuel Valerio — 14 herbarium speci- mens, Costa Kica; from Carnegie Institution of Washington^-31 herbarium specimens, Yucatan; from Botanisches Institut of Vienna — 170 herbarium specimens, Brazil; from Bernard Bartnick — a specimen of friction breccia in calcareous sandstone. Illinois; from Oscar Main — an antler of Cerratces species, Indiana; from .\lbert Walker — a specimen of hematite replacing day, and 2 specimens of concretions, Wis- consin: from Lincoln Park Zoo — a chimpanzee; from J. A. King — 9 bird specimens, British Guiana; from Chicago Zoological Society — 4 bird specimens, 13 snakes, and 3 lizards; from Captain R. D. Reeve — a gaur ox skull, Malay Peninsula; from C. Shockley— 6 frogs and 45 salamanders, Indiana: from L^lie Wheeler— 34 hawks and an owl, Brazil; from Henry Field — 91 fish specimens (including eels) and 27 speci- mens of invertebrates (including 6 specimens of a rare squid), Florida; from John Moyer — a sailfish and 2 eels, Florida; from Stanley Field — A Dictionary of Ihe English Language, by Samuel Johnson (2 vols., original edition, 1755); from Boardman Conover, from Henry W. Nichols, from Colon Eloy Alfaro, and from Chemical Foundation — other valuable books for the Library. NEW MEMBERS The following persons were elected to membership in PHeld Museum during the period from April 16 to May 15: Associate Members Laurance H. Armour, Richard S. Bull, Mrs. Haven Core Kelly, Mrs. Julius Rosenwald. Annual Members Mrs. Peter Berkey, Mrs. George E. Brennan, P. C. Brooks, N. R. Clark, Mark W. Cresap, L. H. Crist, Elmer Erickson, Richard T. Fox, William J. Gibbs, Benjamin H. Goodman, Harr>- Millard Hall, Mrs. Phelps Kelley, Harry C. Kinne, Mrs. Jeneva A, Lyon, Billings McArthur, Mrs. M. E. Mountcastle, Albert G. Oratmann, John P. Oleson, Mrs. Gordon L. Pirie, Miss Edith M. Simsky, Henry H. Straus, George M. VanKirk, Mrs. Robert E. Wilsey, Benedict F. Zimmer. An exceptionally fine collection of ancient Chinese porcelain and faience objects is on exhibition in George T. and Frances Gaylord Smith Hall (Hall 24). The ethnological collection representing the Maori people of New Zealand, displayed in Hall F, is probably the best representation of the culture of these people to be found in the United States. PRINTCO BT riELD MUSCUM PRESS News Published Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago Vol. 7 JULY, 1935 No. 7 carpa). The irregularly buttressed trunk of this old baobab tree is very large and may well be presumed to be hollow, as is usual in old trees. Its thick branches are irregularly disposed, which is another sign of its great age. It is unfortunate that the scene did not include also a young tree THE BAOBAB, LARGEST TREE OF AFRICA, DEPICTED IN HALL OF PLANT LIFE By B. E. Dahlgren Curator, Department of Botany Before the big trees of California and the huge eucalyptus trees of Australia became known, the baobab trees of Africa were held to be the largest and oldest trees in the world. Humboldt called them the oldest organic monu- ments of our planet, and the age of the most ancient of them was placed at 3,000 to 6,000 years. This, however, is n ow generally considered to be an exaggeration. They are unques- tionably the largest trees of the African continent. Their height of sixty to seventy feet is doubt- less exceeded by vari- ous trees of the African forests, but their diameter of thirty to fifty feet is rivaled by none. These giants among African plants do not take part in the forest formations of that continent, but grow isolated, scattered here and there in the open savannas or grasslands of central Africa from Senegal to Angola on the west, across central Africa to Abyssinia and British East Africa, avoiding forested areas on the one hand and dry regions without ground water on the other. The baobab tree (Adansonia digiiala) represented in Mr. Charles A. Corwin's mural, recently placed in the Hall of Plant Life (Hall 29), is from a specimen photo- graphed by the German botanist Busse at Mpapwa in Tanganyika, East Africa. Published in Karsten and Schenck's Vegeta- tions-bilder, its picture has long been familiar to all botanists. It shows a tree of considerable age growing on open grass- land in the company of scattered specimens of a common African acacia {Acacia spiro- Mural Showing Baobab Tree Giant of African plants, whicb attains heights of sixty to seventy feet, and diameters of thirty to fifty feet. In the background are seen examples of a common African acacia. The painting is by Staff Artist C. A. Corwin. showing the branching habit of the baobab in its prime and earlier stages. It would be found to be much more regular, with an open, rather syinmetrical crown con- sisting of several widely spaced tiers of thick horizontal branches disposed with considerable regularity as in the ceibas or kapok trees. East Indian and American relatives of the baobab. The superficial lateral roots of the baobab are indicated in the painting, but the trees are said to possess also one or more deep- going central roots which enable them to exist in the driest situations as long as water may be found within their reach beneath the surface. In the region where they grow, the hollow stems of the old trees have naturally attracted the attention of the inhabitants, and the trees themselves have become an object of some awe and superstition. They are regarded as sacred, a place to guard amulets or to suspend the corpses of the dead who for some reason are not given a regular burial. The wood, which is light and porous, is held to be especially suitable for coffins. Beneath the smooth gray bark is found a layer of bast which serves for string and rope and may be made into a service- able kind of bark- cloth, for clothes or bags. Sacks made of this are said to be used in some places for export of coffee and peanuts. The tree has digitate leaves, some- what like those of the American buckeye but larger. It bears large white flowers which are solitary on long stems and are succeed- ed by oblong gourd- like fruits eight to ten inches long. These are woody capsules covered with a short gray down and filled with a pulpy substance enclosing the seeds. The pulp is of an acid, agreeable taste and is often eaten. It is also used for medicinal purposes, and has a reputation in Moham- medan countries as a remedy for fevers. The tree is sometimes known as the Ethiopian sour gourd tree, and the fruit as monkey bread. An Australian species is called cream-of-tartar tree. The baobab belongs to the botanical family Bombacaceae consisting of trees closely related to the mallows. The big silk cotton trees of the tropics and the balsa are its best known American relatives. MEXICAN STONE "YOKES" Examples of stone "yokes," peculiar carved stones in the shape of a horseshoe, large enough to fit around a person's neck and shoulders, are found in regions inhabited by prehistoric men of eastern Mexico. Several excellent examples are on exhibition in Hall 8 (Mexican and Central American archaeology). These strange objects, believed to have had a religious significance, bear carved designs, in conventionalized style, usually representing reptiles when viewed from the side, while from above they usually portray the upper jaw of a reptile. Occasionally bird and butterfly designs are found. Archaeologists believe it likely that the yokes represent the gaping jaws of an "earth monster" and therefore symbolize Death. Although the yokes are sometimes found in an almost horizontal position around skulls in ancient burials, the protection of the head of the deceased does not seem to have been the primary purpose. There are some grounds for a belief that despite their great weight they were worn around the waist in certain ceremonies, as there are sculptures in existence depicting priests wearing belts of this type. The yokes are found over a wide area from Veracruz to San Salvador, the great majority occurring in the central part of the state of Veracruz and the adjacent territory of Puebla. The Museum exhibit includes six especially fine examples. Two of these are of a rare type with closed ends; the others have the usual open ends. One is without decoration; the others all have sculptured designs of reptiles, human skulls, monsters, and underworld symbols. One is remarkably elaborate in design. Page 2 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS July, 1936 Field Museum of Natural History Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 Roosevelt Road and Lake Michigan, Chicago THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES William H. Mitchell George A. Richardson Fred W. Sargent Stephen C. Sihus Jambs Simpson Solomon A. Smith Albert A. Spbague Silas H. Strawn Lesue Wheeler John F. Wii^on Sewbll L. Avery John Borden William J. Chalmers Joseph N. Field Marshall Field Stanley Field Ernest R. Graham Albert W. Harris Samuel Insull, Jr. Cyrus H. McCormick* *Deceased June, 1 9S6. OFFICERS Stanley Field Premdent Albert A. Sprague First Vice-PreiidenI Jambs Simpson Second Vice-President Albert W. Harris Third Vice-President Stephen C. Simms Director and Secretary Solomon A. Smith . . . Treasurer and Assistant Secretary FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Stephen C. Simus, Director of the Museum Editor CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Paul S. Martin Curator of Anthropology B. E. Dahlgrbn Curator of Botany Henry W. Nichols Curator of Geology Wilfred H. Osgood Curator of Zoology H. B. Hartb Managing Editor Field Museum is open every day of the year (except Christmas and New Year's Day) during the hours indicated below: Nov., Dec, Jan., Feb., Mar. 9 A.M. to 4:30 p.m. April, September, October 9 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. May, June, July, August 9 A.M. to 6:00 F.M. Admission is free to Members on all days. Other adults are admitted free on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays; non-members pay 25 cents on other days. Children are admitted free on all days. Students and faculty members of educational institutions are admit- ted free any day upon presentation of credentials. The Museum's natural history Library is open for reference daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Traveling exhibits are circulated in the schools of Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public School Extension Department of the Museum. Lectures for schools, and special entertainments and tours for children at the Museum, are provided by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. Announcements of free illustrated lectures for the public, and special lectures for Members of the Museum, will appear in Field Museum News, A cafeteria in the Museum serves visitors. Rooms are provided for those bringing their lunches. Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 buses go direct to the Museum. • Members are requested to inform the Museum promptly of changes of address. MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM Field Museum has several classes of Members. Benefactors give or devise $100,000 or more. Contribu- tors give or devise $1,000 to $100,000. Life Members give $500; Non-Resident Life and Associate Members pay $100; Non-Resident Associate Members pay $50. All the above classes are exempt from dues. Sustaining Members contribute $25 annually. After six years they become Associate Members. Annual Members con- tribute $10 annually. Other memberships are Corpo- rate, Honorary, Patron, and Correspondmg, additions under these classifications being made by special action of the Board of Trustees. Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to free admission to the Museum for himself, bis family and house guests, and to two reserved seats for Museum lectures provided for Members. Subscription to Field Museum News is included with all memberships. The courtesies of every museum of note in the United States and Canada are extended to all Members of Field Museum. A Member may give his personal card to non-residents of Chicago, upon presentation of which they will be admitted to the Museum without charge. Further information about memberships will be sent on request. BEQUESTS AND ENDOWMENTS Bequests to Field Museum of Natural History may be made in securities, money, books or collections. They may, if desired, take the form of a memorial to a person or cause, named by the giver. Contributions made within the taxable year not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's net income are allowable as deductions in computing net income for federal income tax purposes. Endowments may be made to the Museum with the provision that an annuity be paid to the patron for life. These annuities are guaranteed against fluctuation in amount, and may reduce federal income taxes. CYRUS HALL McCORMICK The death, on June 2, of Cyrus Hall McCormick, a Trustee of Field Museum since 1894, brought keen sorrow to his associates on the Board. Mr. McCormick, noted as widely for his philanthropies as for his leadership in the business world, had always manifested a deep interest in the work of the Museum. In addition to being a Trustee he was one of the institution's Contributors, a Life Member and a Corporate Mem- ber. On the Board of Trustees he served as a mem- ber of the Building Committee. Mr. McCormick, who was 77 years old, died at his Lake Forest estate after a brief illness. He was the son of the first Cyrus Hall McCormick, founder of the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, and succeeded his father in the presidency of that company in 1884. In 1902, Mr. McCormick united with other industrialists to form the International Harvester Com- pany, in which he was active as president, and later as chairman, until September, 1935, when he retired. He was especially well known for his pioneering in the field of employes' welfare activities. During the world war Mr. McCormick served as a member of the special diplomatic mission to Russia. He was a generous con- tributor to educational and charitable institutions. Cyrus H. McCormick RESEARCH BEGUN ON PLANTS COLLECTED 150 YEARS AGO During the next few months, Field Mu- seum will finish the botanical research in connection with a scientific project begun nearly 150 years ago under the patronage of King Charles III of Spain. There recently arrived at the Museum, from Madrid, what is declared by Mr. Paul C. Standley, Associate Curator of the Her- barium, to be one of the most important bo- tanical collections ever to cross the Atlantic. Some 7,000 plants of nearly as many species, collected in Mexico between 1788 and 1804, are included. Collected under circumstances surrounded by much dramatic and romantic lore, they have been lying untouched in vaults in Spain for more than a century. Completion of the original pro- ject was prevented during the nineteenth century by political conditions in Europe. The Botanic Garden of Madrid, vested all these years with the care of the plants, has entrusted the task of their identification to Mr. Standley, who is well-known for his explorations and botanical research in Mexico and Central America. The Museum will receive a share of the collection for permanent addition to its own herbarium. The expedition to Mexico, then called New Spain, was undertaken by Charles III as part of a survey to determine the natural resources of his extensive dominions over- seas. For the execution of the project ex- plorers were chosen from among the most learned scientists of Spain. Other expedi- tions were dispatched to the Philippines and to Peru. The members of the Mexican expedition worked enthusiastically for several years under the direction of Dr. Martin Sesse. But when they returned to Spain with their collections, ready to undertake the task of classifying the hundreds of new species of plants, they were halted by lack of facilities for publishing a report. The government's policy discouraged spreading of information concerning the resources of the colonies, as a precaution against stimulating other powers from attempts at conquest. One of the explorers, Don Jose Mariano Mocifio, a Mexican by birth, became friendly with the French. Rebuffed in Spain, and suspected as a spy, he was im- prisoned at the time of the French invasion a few years later. However, he escaped to France with valuable manuscripts and paintings pertaining to the Mexican col- lection. These were later turned over to the famous Swiss botanist DeCandolle. In 1817, following the adoption of a constitution in Spain, it became possible for Mociiio to return there, and he demanded from DeCandolle, then in Geneva, the immediate return of his drawings and descriptions. DeCandolle, however, was determined to retain copies of this valuable material. He made a dramatic and urgent appeal tor help, and more than 100 of his townspeople, among them many women, responded. For ten days and nights they worked diligently, making in this time copies of more than 1,100 of Mocifio's drawings. These were later used in important scientific work. The manuscripts of the explorers were finally printed in Mexico in the 1880's and '90's, long after their authors were dead. By this time the data had become obsolete. The work now to be done by Mr. Standley will represent the first adequate treatment of the collection, and make it possible to utilize it in accordance with modern knowl- edge. The collection was sent to Field Museum through the courtesy of Dr. Antonio Garcia Varela and Dr. Jose Cuatre- casas of the Botanical Garden of Madrid. "BLUE SHEEP" EXHIBITED A specimen of the animal known as "blue sheep" (also bharal or burrhel), inhabitant of the high mountains of western China, was placed on exhibition recently in George M. Pullman Hall (Hall 13). Difficult to hunt because of its habitat at high altitudes, the animal is in consequence comparatively rare in museum collections. This specimen was shot at about 14,500 feet in the Himalayas by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt while leading the William V. Kelley-Roosevelts Expe- dition to Eastern Asia for Field Museum. The blue sheep is of special interest to zoologists because it is intermediate between the sheep and goats, having some of the characteristics of both groups, those of the sheep being generally more pronounced, according to Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood, Curator of Zoology. It is characterized by the lack of any goat-like beard, but its horns are dark-colored like a goat's; however, the horns are sheep-like in shape and smooth- ness. It has glands in its feet like a sheep, and none in its face such as a goat possesses. The animal is bluish gray in color, hence its name. The exhibited specimen was mounted by Mr. W. E. Eigsti of the Mu- seum's taxidermy staff. Models of tipis, such as were used for dwellings by Indians of the Great Plains, are on exhibition in Mary D. Sturges Hall (Hall 5, Case 13). July, 19S6 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Page 3 ROSE QUARTZ BOWL A bowl, beautifully cut from an extremely large and flawless piece of rose quartz, is on exhibition in H. N. Higinbotham Hall (Hall 31, Case 14). Rose quartz is a stone much in vogue at present for necklaces and other jewelry. The bowl, which is translucent and beautifully marked, is of high value because of the extreme rarity of so large a block of this material as that from which it is cut, and because of the delicate quality of artistry in cutting which it exemplifies. It is twelve inches in diameter and six inches high. The rose quartz from which the bowl was cut was obtained in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The cutting was done about sixty- five years ago by skilled artisans at Idar, Germany. So skillfully was this work per- formed that there is not the slightest fracture in the piece, although the walls have been ground down and polished to less than an eighth of an inch in thickness. The rose color of the quartz is unusually deep in this specimen, and the bowl is a remarkable example of the workmanship of the Idar lapidists, especially when it is considered that at the time it was made they worked only with wooden grinding wheels driven by water power. By using wheels of special shapes, and exerting the pressure of their whole bodies against them for many hours a day, the rough mass of quartz was con- verted into this delicately rounded and designed, symmetrical thin-walled bowl. The bowl was received at the Museum as a gift from the late Richard T. Crane, Jr., former Trustee of the Museum. Mr. Crane contributed other valuable specimens also. CHINESE TYPES PORTRAYED IN HALL OF RACES Physical anthropologists have established various characteristics which distinguish the northern and southern Chinese from each other, although they belong to the same general racial group. Both are represented among the Races of Mankind series of sculptures by Malvina Hoffman in Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall (Hall 3), the northern by a full length figure of a Chinese coolie posed in the shafts of a jinricksha, and the southern by a bust of a Cantonese woman of the peasant class upon whose shoulder is seen a bamboo pole which is used for carry- ing loads. The northern Chinese are further divided by anthropologists into two types, one of which appears to be allied to the southern Chinese, and the other to the eastern Tibe- tans. Although the Chinese as a whole are medium in stature, statistical data show that there is a tall element in the population paralleled only among the neighboring Tibetans, and to this element belongs the jinricksha coolie portrayed in one of the accompanying illustrations. In southern China the people are usually shorter in stature, and their heads are usually shorter, although the breadth remains fairly con- stant. The nose in the southern type usually appears slightly greater in width, and the color of the skin appears to be darker. In spite of minor physical divergences as sketched above, the Chinese form a single racial unit, which has had sufficient strength to maintain its culture and traditions in the face of numerous invaders. Characteristic of the race are a head shape intermediate between long and round; yellowish-brown skin; oblique eyes with the Mongolian fold; and straight, black hair. The present republic of China extends over an area which may exceed 4,000,000 square miles, with a population of about 400,000,000. There are several other Chinese types shown among the sculptures in the Museum. One shows an attractive Chinese woman in ornamented robes, and another a Chinese man of Shanghai. Both of these are busts carved in stone. In bronze are busts of a Chinese student, a Manchu man of Peiping, Cantonese Woman The physical type of the southern Chinese is exem- plified by this bust of a peasant woman. and of two types of scholars, one typifying the southern Chinese, and the other the central Chinese. Photogravure post cards, as well as larger size photographs, of the sculptures of Chinese depicted here, and of nearly all of the other racial types in this series, are available at the Museum. They may be ordered by mail, if desired. Institutions or individuals may obtain also, under special arrangement, reproductions in bronze, either full or reduced size. The Director of the Museum will gladly furnish information on this subject to inquirers. CAVE SALAMANDERS By Karl P. Schmidt Assistant Curator of Reptiles In a number of regions in various parts of the world systems of caves and of under- ground waters have existed for so long that there has been time for animals which enter them to become adjusted to life in such dark subterranean situations, and to have ac- quired striking modifications of structure associated with this unique environment. The most conspicuous of such modifications are the loss of pigment and the reduction or loss of eyes; and there is often a development of the tactile sense to replace the no longer useful sight. A host of insects, spiders, Crustacea, and other invertebrates have become cave animals in this way, and with them are found a considerable number of blind cave fishes and a very few salamanders. Of true cave salamanders only three are known — the well-known olm of the eastern Alps, the Ozarkian cave salamander of the cave region in Missouri and Arkansas, and the Texan cave salamander of underground waters in Texas, which first came to the surface in an artesian well at San Marcos. The olm (Proteus anguineus) is a white creature, pink from the blood which shows through its skin, with an elongate body and much reduced limbs. A specimen is on exhibition in Albert W. Harris Hall (Hall 18). It has tufts of bright red external gills at the sides of the neck, and it is clear that it is a "permanent larva" — that is, a salamander in which the larva has acquired the ability to breed without transformation into the adult stage. The usual adult form is thus lost. This is a phenomenon otherwise well- known in salamanders, as in the American mud-puppy (Necturus), for example, and most conspicuously in the famous axolotl of the Mexican lakes, which may or may not reach adult form. The two American cave salamanders represent distinct stages of progress toward the loss of eyes and of adaptation to the cave environment. The Ozarkian cave salaman- der, Typhlolrilon spelaeus, described by Dr. Leonhard Stejneger in 1892, is a completely normal salamander in form, which has be- come nearly white, and whose eyes are recognizable only as dark spots in depres- sions on the head. It has a well defined larval stage, which loses its gills upon trans- formation into the adult form. The Texan species (Typhlomolge rathbuni) was also made known by Dr. Stejneger. It is a much more remarkable, completely white and eyeless creature, a permanent larva with external gills, like the olm, but not much elongated. The limbs are of about normal length, but are so much reduced in diameter that they are entirely useless for locomotion. Apparently they are retained as tactile organs. The skin is completely colorless. On account of the presence of external gills it was at first thought that this species could be grouped with the olm and the mud puppy. A comprehensive examin- ation of its anatomy has proved, however, that it is directly allied to the family Plethodontidae, which contains the majority of the American salamanders. It may be seen that the three cave salamanders are not directly allied, but represent three distinct offshoots of the salamander stock, which have become modified with their adoption of a completely subterranean life. Photo8T«phs copyright Field Mttseum yf Natural History Jinricksha Coolie Representative of the northern type of Chinese is this sculpture in the Races of Mankind scries. A collection of wooden masks and orna- ments from Cameroon, West Africa, is on exhibition in Hall D (Case 4). Page i FIELD MUSEUM NEWS July, 19S6 TAMARAO AND BANTING ADDED TO EXHIBITS Specimens of two kinds of wild oxen, one of them extremely rare, were recently added to the horned and hoofed mammal exhibits in George M. Pullman Hall (Hall 13). The rare species is the tamarao, a small buffalo which is found nowhere in the world except in the interior of the island of Min- doro in the Philippines, and which is in danger of early extinction. This animal was obtained for the Museum by Mr. A. W. Exline, an American engaged in business on that island, who organized a special expe- dition for the purpose. Mr. Exline's interest in this project was aroused by Colonel Theodore Roosevelt at the time the latter was Governor-General of the Philippine Islands. The other addition to the exhibits is a specimen of the banting, a wild ox of southern Asia from which some of the domesticated varieties of that continent have been derived. It was received in the col- lections made by the William V. Kelley- Roosevelts Expedition to Eastern Asia. The tamarao does not occur even in the Philippines outside of Mindoro, and only a small number remain there, according to Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood, Curator of the Depart- ment of Zoology. It lives in forests in an almost inaccessible mountainous area in the center of the island, and is a difficult animal to hunt because of its scarcity and the various natural obstacles of the country. There are very few specimens in any mu- seums. Mr. Exline obtained three speci- mens for Field Museum, which, with two from another source in the institution's unexhibited study collections, give the Mu- seum a larger number of specimens than are found in any other institution. Male, female and young specimens are included. The tamarao is a sort of dwarf of the com- mon water buffalo of India, Burma, and Indo-China. Of all wild oxen, the banting is most simi- lar in appearance and characteristics to domesticated cattle such as the Jersey cow. Some varieties of it have been domesticated in southern Asia. It is found principally in Siam, Indo-China and Burma. A Rare Buffalo The tamarao, a species of wild ox found exclu- sively in the island of Mindoro of the Philippine group. Presented to the Museum by Mr. A. W. Exline of Mindoro. EDUCATIONAL SETS OF POST CARDS The Museum has published forty-nine educational sets of post cards illustrating subjects represented in the exhibits of the De{)artments of Anthropology, Botany, Geology, Zoology and the N. W. Harris Public School Extension. The cards are printed by the photogravure proce.ss. Each card contains a brief text. The sets are in special envelopes prepared for convenience, in mailing, but they also may be mailed as individual post cards if desired. They are suitable, too, for mounting in albums, and can thus be made into a pictorial natural history library. Following is a list of the sets with sub- jects, number of cards in each, and price: ANTHROPOLOGY Numbers and subjects of sets Cards in sets Price 16 .30 10 .20 15 .30 14 .30 1. Archaic Bronzes, China 2. Sung Bronze. Vases, China 3. Bronze Figures, China 4. Ancient Pottery, China 5. Mortuary Clay Figures a. Human Figures, China 10 .20 6. Mortuary Clay Figures 6. Animal Figures, China 14 .30 7. Buddhist Sculpture, Buddhaa, China 7 .15 8. Buddhist Sculpture, Bodhisatvas, China 14 .30 9. Buddhist Sculpture, Monks, China 6 .10 10. Buddhist and Taoist Sculptures, China 10 .20 11. Imperial Costumes, China 6 .10 12. Actors' Costumes, China 8 .15 13. Lama Mystery-play, Tibet 13 .30 14. Folk Costumes, Tibet 10 .20 15. Buddhist Sculpture, India 14 .30 16. Ancient Sculpture, Mexico 8 .15 17. Ancient Pottery, Peru 16 .30 18. Drums, Daggers, Bags, etc.. New Britain and New Guinea 11 .20 19. Household Utensils, Admiralty Islands and New Guinea 10 .20 20. Humanand Animal Figures, New Guinea 10 .20 21. Ceremonial Masks, New Guinea and New Hebrides 8 .15 22. Malagan Figuresand Masks, Newlreland 10 .20 23. Wooden Masks, New Guinea and New Britain 10 .20 24. Prepared Human Heads, New Guinea and New Hebrides 8 .15 25. Alabaster Jars, Egypt 12 .25 26. Bronzes and Ivory Carvings, Benin, West Africa 12 .25 Cards Numbers and subjects of seta in sets Price 27. Medicine-man, Wooden Masks, etc., Cameroon, West Africa 8 .15 28. Bronzes: Races of Mankind 30 .60 29. Man of the Stone Age 10 .20 30. African Races: Sculptures in Hall 3 18 .35 31. American Races: Sculptures in Hall 3 12 .25 32. Asiatic Races: Sculptures in Halt 3 30 .60 33. European Races: Sculptures in Hall 3 10 .20 34. Oceanic and Australian Races: Sculptures in Hall 3 16 .30 BOTANY 1. Miscellaneous Plants 12 .25 GEOLOGY 1. Restorations of Ancient Landscapes, Plants and Animals 28 .50 2. Neanderthal (Mousterian) Man 10 .20 3. Mesohippus, a Three-toed Ancestor of the Horse 6 .10 ZOOLOGY 1. Apes and Monkeys 8 .16 2. Interesting Large Rodents 7 .16 3. Marsupials, or Pouched Mammals S .16 4. Tarantulas, Centipedes and Scorpions 10 .20 5. Skates and Rays of American Waters 10 .20 6. Common American Moths 10 .20 7. Common Illinois Butterflies 20 .40 8. North American Mammals: Habitat Groups 18 .36 9. African Game Animals 19 .36 10. British Champion Animals: Sculptures in Hall.l2 20 .40 N. W. HARRIS PUBLIC SCHOOL EXTENSION 1. Types of cases loaned to Chicago Schools 7 ,15 Post card sets on other subjects will be added to these series from time to time. Ancient Surgery An exhibit of ancient Roman surgical instruments, some of them in a general way similar to the simpler forms of in- struments used by modern surgeons, may be seen in Edward E. and Emma B. Ayer Hall (Hall 2). The Long Island (Kansas) meteorite, largest stone meteorite ever found any- where in the world, weighing approxi- mately 1,200 pounds, is on exhibition in Hall 34 (Case 55). GUIDE-LECTURE TOURS During July and August the conducted tours of the exhibits under the guidance of staff lecturers will be given on a special schedule, as follows: Mondays: 11 A.M., Halls Showing Plant Life; 3 p.m.. General Tour. Tuesdays: 11 A.M., Halls of Primitive and Civilized Peoples; 3 P.M., General Tour. Wednesdays: 11 A.M., Animal Groups; 3 P.M., General Tour. Thursdays: 11 A.M. and 3 p.m.. General Tours. Fridays: 11 A.M., Minerals and Prehistoric Exhibits; 3 P.M., General Tour. There are no tours given on either Satur- days or Sundays. Persons wishing to participate in the tours should apply at the North Entrance. The tours are free, and no gratuities are to be proffered. Guide-lecturers' services for special tours by parties of ten or more are available free of charge by arrangement with the Director a week in advance. Gifts to the Museum Following is a list of some of the principal gifts received during the last month: From Henrj; Field — 34 ethnological specimens, Iran; from Miss Marvin Breckenridge — 16 stone implements and 6 prints of Bushman cave paintings. South Africa; from Mr. and Mrs. Rudyerd Boulton — 230 stone implements from Ma'anga rock shelter. South Africa: from George N. Lamb — branch and fruits of mahogany, Florida; from University of Chicago — 3,146 specimens of plants, Illinois and South Dakota; from W. F. Durno — one herbarium specimen, Indiana; from School of Forestry, Yale University — 91 herbarium specimens, Colombia; from Dr. Earl E. Sherff— 919 negatives of type and other specimens of plants; from James Zetek — 44 herbarium specimens, Panama; from National Park Service, U. S. Department of the Interior — 230 herbarium specimens, Oklahoma; from Professor J. Soukup — 26 herbarium specimens, Peru; from American Museum of Natural History — cast of Protoceratops eggs; from Samuel H. Gilbert — U specimens of minerals. North Carolina; from R. W. Chadwick — 40 frogs, 5 lizards, and 4 snakes, Ecuador; from Lincoln Park Zoo — a prong- horn antelope; from Leslie Wheeler — 2 turkey vultures, 3 hawks, and 3 owls, Utah and Cuba; from Chicago Zoological Society — an Arabian gazelle, an African monkey, 2 bird skins, 4 mammal skeletons, and 7 . specimens of amphibians and reptiles; from Lament C. Cole — 38 lizards, Arizona and Utah; from Legation of Dominican Republic, from Frans M. Olbrechts, from Rev. Theo. Sorensen, and from Colonel Albert A. Sprague — valuable books for the Library. NEW MEMBERS The following persons were elected to membership in Field Museum during the period from May 16 to June 15: Patrons Mrs. Oscar Straus Associate Members Miss Cora Abrahamsen, Miss M. M. Capper, Dr. Edgar D. Coolidge, Lyman M. Drake, Walter H. Jacobs, Meyer Kestnbaum, E. B. Lanman, Mrs. Herbert G. Mayer, Lewis McDonald, Alfred C. Meyer, Everett B. Michaels, John Glen Sample, J. R. Short, Miss Marion D. Smith, Mrs. Leon Weil. Sustaining Members Miss Natalie S. Gushing Annual Members Arthur W. Consoer, Mrs. Ruthven Deane, John H. Denson, Ernest L. Fantus, Benjamin R. Harris, George F. Jewett, A. Kline, Mrs. George H. Knutson, A. M. Langert, M. C. Penticoff, Raymond S. Pruitt, John R. Railton, Samuel H. Rosenthal, Dr. Leonard F. Skleba, Daniel P. Trude, C. E. Wickman, Leon Zglenicki. Geologist from India Dr. M. S. Krishnan, Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India, recently visited Field Museum and studied its geological collections. The culture of the Calchaqui of Argentina, one of the least known of early American peoples, is represented by an exhibit in Hall 9 (Cases 34 to 37). PRINTED BY FICLO MUSEUM PflCSS News Piiblished Monthly by Field Miiseum of Natural History, Chicago Vol. 7 AUGUST, 1936 No. 8 GROUP SHOWS EMPEROR PENGUINS COLLECTED BY ADMIRAL BYRD IN ANTARCTIC By Rudyebd Boulton Assistant Curator of Birds With the recent installation of the emperor penguins in Hall 20, the first of twenty new bird habitat groups was placed permanently on exhibition. AH of the most important ecological environments in which birds live are to be shown. This first, the polar ice shelf, will be closely followed by others, including: savanna, mountain rain forest and desert, of north, west and south Africa; lowland rain forest, savanna, and cloud forest of Central America; inundated forest and pampas of South America; moor of Scotland, and fern forest of New Zealand. These penguins, very strange and exotic birds, are a gift from the Chicago Zoo- logical Society, which received them from the Second Antarctic Expedition (1935) of Rear- Admiral Richard E. Byrd. The eight penguins shown in the group were mounted by Staff Taxidermist John W. Moyer, assisted by John LaBonte. A method unusual in bird taxidermy was employed. Manikins similar to those used for large mammals were modeled from the skeletons in accordance with measurements of fresh specimens. Staff Taxidermist Leon L. Walters cast and reproduced the bills and feet in cellulose-acetate, which gives most realistically the appearance and texture of life. Staff Artist Charles A. Corwin and Mr. Arthur G. Rueckert painted the pano- ramic background of the great Ross ice shelf. Six of the penguins arrived alive at the Chicago Zoological Park in Brookfield, although afflicted with an incurable respir- atory disease caused by a fungoid infection. Never before had these extraordinary birds been transported alive to America. The opportunity afforded for study and observa- tion of living specimens was thus unique. Emperor penguins deserve the extrava- gant adjectives that are applied to them. They live farther south — nearer to the South Pole — than any other birds. They Rare Birds from "Little America" Largest of all species of penguins are the emperors. They are extremely rare in collections. This group shown amid a reproduction of a scene in the south polar regions, has been placed on exhibition in Hall 20. never even approach Cape Horn at the tip of South America. They are larger than any other birds except ostriches, rheas and their kin. A fat, full-grown emperor may stand about four feet high and weigh as much as 94 pounds — the size and weight of a ten-year old boy. Perhaps the most amazing thing about emperor penguins is their nesting habits. They lay their eggs during the long antarctic winter when the sun is continuously below the horizon for five long months. Tempera- tures from 40 to 60 degrees below zero are normal, and blizzards and storms are fre- quent. Only one egg is laid by each hen. It is about five inches long, pale green and has a rough shell. On the grounded pack- ice, three to five miles from open water, there is no material from which to build a nest, so the egg is held on the feet and a fold of abdominal skin lowered over it, enclosing it as in a warm muff. The emperors instinctively know that an unprotected egg would freeze solid in a very few minutes. Consequently every unoccupied bird in the colony makes a rush for an egg when it is released by a hungry parent that is return- ing to sea after several days of fasting. Fierce squabbles take place over the eggs and even more roughly handled are the chicks — fluffy balls of black, gray and white down — when, after seven weeks incubation, they hatch in early September, just as the sun at last shows over the horizon. Com- munity of interest is essential to these birds. Their success depends entirely on cooperation even if it is occasionally carried too far. Sometimes the poor little chicks crawl away to hide in the ice to escape the bickerings of their foster parents, an escape that often ends in a frozen death. The infant mortality is estimated at from 70 to 80 per cent, but as an emperor will live twenty-five or thirty years, the mortality of the chicks is not dangerous to the survival of the species. The principal enemies are killer whales and the spotted seals known as sea leopards. Large blocks of ice falling from the ice cliffs above the colonies at times cause injury. During the summer molting period, in Jan- uary and February, the emperors sit on the floating ice floes at the northern edge of their range. Their thick waterproof feather clothes are shaggy and unkempt and no longer adequate protection from the cold water and so they fast for a month or so while waiting for their feathers to grow. The Gaekwar of Baroda Presents Valuable Indian Art Objects Four of the arts of India — fine embossed metal work, delicate lacquer work, carving in teakwood, and the making of excellent textiles — are represented in a gift received last month through the kindness of His Highness the Maharaja Gaekwar Sir Savaji Rao III, ruling monarch of the state of Baroda. In the summer of 1933 the Gaekwar was a visitor at Meld Mtiseum, and the present gift is a result of the interest which the institution at that time aroused in His Highness. One of the objects included in his gift is a remarkable square stool or tablette, with divisions composed of three metals — silver, brass and copper — all covered with beautiful engrossed designs. This is a rare example of a piece of furniture of a type used vari- ously to hold objects connected with rituals in Hindu temples, and also sometimes for decorative purposes in the homes of wealthy inhabitants of India. The skill of the natives in lacquer work is illustrated by a small size cradle, intended either for a child's doll, or for purely ornamental uses. It has pleasing designs in red, gold and green lacquer, and is decorated with carvings of bells and birds. Wood carving of the highest type is repre- sented by a small Indian buffalo, made of teak, which is at the same time naturalistic and artistic in conception. A colorful tablecloth of intricate design, woven of pongee silk threads of many contrasting hues, testifies to the superior development of textile-making in Baroda. It is planned to exhibit these objects at an early date. Collecting Alpine Plants Mr. Emil Sella, of the staff of the Depart- ment of Botany, has gone to Wyoming on a collecting trip to obtain material for the preparation of a group of alpine plants planned for one end of the Hall of Plant Life (Hall 29). He will gather a typical representation of the flora found almost in contact with the melting snow above the timberline in the mountains of the region. Page 2 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS August, 1936 Field Museum of Natural History Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 Roosevelt Road and Lake MIchlftan, Chlcaf^o THE BOARD Sewell L. Avery John Borden William J. Chalmers Joseph N. Field Marshall Field Stanley Field Ernest R. Graham Albert W. Harris Samuel Insull, Jr. John P. OF TRUSTEES William H. Mitchell George A. Richardson Fred W. Sargent Stephen C. Simhs James Simpson Solomon A. Smith Albert A. Sprague Silas H. Strawn Leslie Wheeler Wilson OFFICERS Stanley Field President Albert A. Sprague First Vice-President James Simpson Second Vice-President Albert W. Harris Third Vice-President Stephen C. Simms Director and Secretary Solomon A. Smith . . . Treasurer and Assistant Secretary FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Stephen C. Simms, Director of the Museum Editor CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Paul S. Martin Curator of Anthropology B. E. Dahlgren Curator of Botany Henry W. Nichols Curator of Geology Wilfred H. Osgood Curator of Zoology H. B. Harte Managing Editor Field Museum is open every day of the year (except Christmas and New Year's Day) during the hours indicated below: Nov., Dec, Jan., Feb., Mar. 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. April, September, October 9 A.M. to 5:00 p.m. May, June, July, August 9 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Admission is free to Members on all days. Other adults are admitted tree on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays; non-members pay 25 cents on other days. Children are admitted free on all days. Students and faculty members of educational institutions are admit- ted free any day upon presentation of credentials. The Museum's natural history Library is open for reference daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Traveling exhibits are circulated in the schools of Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public School Extension Department of the Museum. Lectures for schools, and special entertainments and tours for children at the Museum, are provided by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. Announcements of free illustrated lectures for the public, and special lectures for Members of the Museum, will appear in Field Museum News. A cafeteria in the Museum serves visitors. Rooms are provided for those bringing their lunches. Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 buses go direct to the Museum. Members are requested to. inform the Museum promptly of changes of address. MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM Field Museum has several classes of Members. Benefactors give or devise ?100,000 or more. Contribu- tors give or devise $1,000 to $100,000. Life Members give $500; Non-Resident Life and Associate Members pay $100; Non-Resident Associate Members pay $60. All the above classes are exempt from dues. Sustaining Members contribute $25 annually. After six years they become Associate Members. Annual Members con- tribute $10 annually. Other memberships are Corpo- rate, Honorary, Patron, and Correspondmg, additions under these classifications being made by special action of the Board of Trustees. Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to free admission to the Museum for himself, his family and house guests, and to two reserved seats for Museum lectures provided for Members. Subscription to Field Museum News is included with all memberships. The courtesies of every museum of note in the United States and Canada are extended to all Members of Field Museum. A Member may give his personal card to non-residents of Chicago, upon presentation of which they will be admitted to the ifuseum without charge. Further information about memberships will be sent on request. BEQUESTS AND ENDOWMENTS Bequests to Field Museum of Natural History may be made in securities, money, books or collections They may, if desired, take the form of a memorial to a person or cause, named by the giver. Contributions made within the taxable year not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's net income are allowable as deductions in computing net income for federal income tax purposes. Endowments may be made to the Museum with the provision that an annuity be paid to the patron for life. These annuities are guaranteed against fluctuation in amount, and may reduce federal income taxes. FORMS OF IGNEOUS ROCKS ILLUSTRATED BY MODEL By Henry W. Nichoi^ Curator, Department of Geology Granites, and all igneous rocks other than lavas, are never formed at the surface of the earth. They can be seen only where thou- sands of feet of other rocks that once lay above them have been eroded away. A new model installed in Clarence Bucking- ham Hall (Hall 35) illustrates the various shapes assumed by bodies of igneous rock in their original positions before they are exposed by erosion of the rocks above. The crust of the earth, composed of the various rocks with which we are familiar, is underlaid at the great depth of possibly thirty-five or forty miles by rock so hot that it would be liquid were it not com- pressed into a state that more resembles a solid by the enormous weight of the rock above. This hot rock is called magma, and from magma come all lavas, all granites and all other igneous rocks. Magma is more or less plastic, and in places it endures not only the weight of the miles of rock above, but other pressure exerted by mountain-building forces. In places where the pressures are unusually great, or where the strata above have been weakened, portions of magma may be squeezed upwards into the overlying rock, becoming liquid by relief from iwessure as it moves upward. The liquid magma may penetrate completely through the crust and cause a volcanic eruption. Usually the injections do not reach the surface but remain entrapped in the rocks below as bodies of liquid nSietgma. As the magma mass is surrounded by an insulating body of rock thousands of feet thick, it cools very slowly, and thousands of years may pass before the molten magma has frozen to solid rock. The slow cooling under pressure produces a rock in appearance and properties quite un- like the more rapidly cooled lava from a magma of the same composition. The deep seated plutonic rock is dense, strong and completely crystallized. The lava is more or less porous, less well crystallized, and finer grained, and it contains glassy matter from the freezing of liquid rock before it has had time to crystallize completely. It might be supposed that these masses of igneous rock formed by injection into rocks of various kinds and structures would present such a variety of irregular shapes that any attempt to classify them by shape would be hopeless. But it has been found that nearly all forms, however they may differ in minor detail, can be grouped into a few easily recognized classes. The more important classes appear on the model. The largest bodies of igneous rock are the batholiths, some of which are exposed over thousands of square miles. They are irregu- lar in outline, with irregularly flat or roughly domed roofs. They have no floor, but extend indefinitely downwards, possibly merging below with the magma of the sial or outer shell of the earth. They are often found in mountainous regions where they form the cores of mountain ranges. The stock is a small batholith. A mass with less than forty square miles area would be a stock. If the stock is circular in outline it is a boss. A laccolith is an igneous body with a flat floor and a domed roof connected through a fissure or conduit with the supply of magma below. Although they do not attain the size of batholiths they are some- times, as in the case of the Henry Mountains of Utah, large enough to form mountains. Among the smaller igneous bodies are dikes which fill parallel walled fissures. Some are shown penetrating through the base of the model to unknown depths where they may connect with the large reservoirs of magma below. Others are oflshoots from batholiths and laccoliths, and branches from other dikes. Sills are dikes which have been injected between the beds of a sedimentary series of rocks. Any of the bodies may have small tongues projecting from them called apophyses. The model has been made simple in design with the hope that it can be easily and quickly understood by the visitor without technical knowledge. Only the more im- portant and most frequently mentioned types are represented. Specialists who study intensively the origin and features of igneous rocks recognize and have named a number of other forms most of which are only variations of the forms displayed. These are not shown, as it is believed that the model in its simple form will be more readily understood than would a model with numerous complicating features. IMPORTANT PLANT COLLECTIONS RECEIVED AT FIELD MUSEUM From the National Museum of Prague, Czecho-Slovakia, Field Museum received recently for study a collection of 500 Mexi- can plants gathered in 1791 by Thaddaeus Haenke. The material was determined in the Department of Botany, and portions of most of the specimens were retained for deposit in the Museum Herbarium. Haenke was one of the botanists of the famous Spanish voyage under the navigator Malas- pina, who circumnavigated the globe. His collection was one of the first made in Mexico, and many well known Mexican plants were described from his specimens. From the Botanic Garden of Madrid the Museum has received a large and extremely valuable collection of plants for permanent deposit in the Herbarium. They were col- lected in Mexico and South America, most of them about 1800 or earlier, and include original material of many hundreds of species described by Ruiz and Pa von, Ortega, Lagasca, Cavanilles, and other famous Spanish botanists. Such important material cannot be purchased at any price, and its acquisition by Field Museum is possible only because of the courtesy of Dr. Antonio Garcia Varela, Director of the Jardln Botdnico of Madrid, and his asso- ciate Dr. Jose Cuatrecasas. These early collections from the former Spanish colonies are of the greatest importance to botanists who study the tropical American flora, and they are not duplicated elsewhere in Amer- ica, or, for that matter, in many if any of the great museums of Europe. — P.C.S. Trustees Honor Dr. E. E. Sherff Dr. Earl E. Sherff, well-known botanist, and member of the faculty of the Chicago Normal College, was elected Research Associate in Systematic Botany on the staff of Field Museum, by the Board of Trustees at a meeting held July 20. This honor was bestowed in recognition and appreciation of the valuable services and cooperation given to the Museum by Dr. Sherff for many years. A large collection of fossils of prehistoric fishes and fish-lizards, obtained chiefly in Germany and England, is on exhibition in Ernest R. Graham Hall (Hall 38). Exhibits in Hall 25 (Cases 22 and 24) illustrate principal facts about the cane and beet sugar industries and their by-products. August, 1936 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Page 3 "WHIFF NUMBERS" Descriptions of odors are apt to depend on simile and metaphor rather than on definite terminology. As sense-impressions rather than objective entities, they are often difficult to define with precision. Linnaeus, the great classifier, attempted to discover some order in their multiplicity, and divided odors into nine classes: ethereal, aromatic, balsamic, ambrosial, alliaceous, empyreumatic, repulsive and nauseating. He thus established a classification which, if far from exact, has been widely useful to the present day. In an article called "Whiff Numbers," reviewed in Tropical Woods, E. C. Crocker and L. F. Henderson discuss first the at- tempts at a simplified classification made by a German experimenter, Henning, who reduced the number of fundamental odors to six: spicy, flowery, fruity, resinous, burnt, and foul. They then explain their own system which, on the basis of only four primary odors and a scale of values for each of these, permits of the definition of per- fumes with a high degree of exactness. Their elementary odors, for which they believe, like Henning, that there exist dis- tinct smell-sensation nerves in the human nose, are: fragrant, acid, burnt and caprylic. "Fragrant is strong in the odor of most flowers, spices, and fruits, and in some ani- mal secretions such as musk, ambergris, and civet. "Acid is the sharp character notable not only in volatile acids, but in chemically neutral materials such as turpentine and camphor, and in alkalies like ammonia. "Burnt is a character well-known to cooks — prominently present in creosote, tars, and so on, as well as in skunk, beaver, fox, and many other animal odors, and roasted coffee . "Caprylic or goaty is the character poign- antly present in rare cheeses, illuminating gas, and rancid grease, very evident in many animal odors, including perspiration, and moderately represented in many odors classed as pleasant." As to the scale of values used by them, these authors write: "We went a step further and represented the amount of each com- ponent present in a given odor by a digit such as 1, 4, or 7, based on 8 as the strongest that the particular character ever attains in any known odor. If these digits'^are ar- ranged in a standard order, it becomes pos- sible to represent any odor as a four digit number, as: 6523 for the odor of the damask rose, where 6 is fragrant, 5 is acid, 2 is burnt, and 3 is caprylic. Similarly derived, the odor of the purest ethyl alcohol is 5301, and oil of wintergreen 8442." Finding the fragrant values of most odors of interest to be about 6, and the acid value about 4, their burnt and caprylic coinponents become most important for their exact definition, and may be represented on a single chart. With the aid of a set of "stand- ards" the authors "found it possible to get good agreement between operators in assign- ing odor numbers and in using the number system in practical perfume and flavor experimentation ." The most important odoriferous sub- stances in the vegetable kingdom are repre- sented by the essential oils of which a com- prehensive display may be found in Hall 28. A beautiful painted dome which once hung from the ceiling in a Lama temple in Tibet is on exhibition in Hall 32. TRAGEDY OF CALIFORNIA "TAR BEDS" RE-ENACTED IN GROUP By Elmer s. RiGGs the pools; the tarry mass below served to Associate Curator of Paleontology catch and hold the unwary feet. Often the half-submerged carcass remained as a bait to lure other preying animals to it. Many of the latter were caught in turn, and so the process went on. The bones, settling into the tar, were saturated and preserved by it and accumulated as a heterogeneous mass at the bottom of the pool. There they remained as mute evidence of a system of animal life of a past age. The specimens, though darkly discolored by the tar, are splendidly preserved. In most cases parts are separated and inter- mingled with those of other animals of many kinds. Included are such great birds as eagles, vultures and condors, together with many smaller and more common A tragic scene enacted many thousand years ago at the "tar pools" of Rancho La Brea, Los Angeles, is reproduced in a group of skeletons from that place which recently have been installed in Ernest R. Graham Hall (Hall 38). The group includes skele- tons of the saber-tooth tiger (Smilodon), of the great ground sloth (Mylodon), of an extinct species of bison, and of one of the species of prehistoric American horse. These specimens have been mounted and are grouped in a tar-pool scene to indicate the way in which the animals were caught in a natural death-trap. Above them a mural painting by Mr. Charles R. Knight further illustrates the gathering of preying animals Death Trap In Asphaltum Pools of Rancho La Brea - New fossil group in Hall 38 showing how preyed-upon and preying animals both met their doom thousands of years ago. At left is a helpless sloth being attacked by a saber-toothed tiger; in the rear at left is an early, type of horse, and on the right an extinct species of bison. Specimens of many plants important in the preparation of medicinal products are shown in the Hall of Plant Life (Hall 29). and of carrion-feeders to feast upon the remains of the unfortunate victims. These tar pools were known to the earlier Spanish settlers about Rancho La Brea, and were marked by them as danger-spots on the range. Riders were constantly on the alert for unwary cows and horses which had been caught in them. These they dragged out by means of horse and lasso. Many domestic animal victims no doubt failed to be thus rescued. Some thirty years ago an attempt was made to use the asphaltum of the La Brea pits for paving roads. The mass was found to be so filled with bones that it could not be used. A professor from the University of California observed that some of the bones embedded in the asphaltum were not those of modern animals but of animals now entirely extinct. Enthusiastic investigation followed, and pits dug to a depth of twenty- five feet yielded masses of fossil bones. More than eighty species of extinct birds and mam- mals have been discovered in this locality. The asphaltum pools, now commonly known as the "tar pools," are formed, like springs of water, from asphaltum in the liquid state seeping up from the earth through crevices in the rock and collecting in pools at the surface. Often the "tar" was covered by water which collected in the same pools and served to conceal it. The water acted as a bait to attract animals to species. Common preying animals such as the coyote, the wolf and the saber-tooth tiger are most abundant. Mastodons and elephants are found there less frequently, and lions and camels of Asiatic type are among the number. Even great ground sloths of South American origin found their way to the tar pools. Bones of men of Indian type have also been found there. The remains so preserved have been a great boon to natural history. At no other place in the world have fossils of an entire system of life been so well preserved in a limited locality. Large collections of these fossils have been stored in the museums of Cali- fornia, and many specimens have been dis- tributed by them to museums throughout the world. The skeleton of the ground sloth in the Field Museum group shows how the animal had ventured into the pool to drink and had become mired in the sticky asphaltum. A lurking saber-tooth tiger, realizing the helpless condition of the sloth, has attacked him and in turn has found his hind foot sinking into the mire. A bison sniffs doubt- fully at the tarry pool while the horse is wheeling away to escape. The group was assembled by Preparator Phil C. Orr. Exhibits representing the every-day life of the present Indian inhabitants of Central America are on view in Hall 8. Page i FIELD MUSEUM NEWS August, 19S6 WHEELS AID TIBETANS IN SAYING PRAYERS Saying one's prayers is made easy in Tibet by the use of "prayer wheels." The prayer is written or printed on long strips of paper resembling stock market ticker tape, on which the formula may be repeated a thousand times, thus supposedly adding to the efficacy of the prayer. The suppliant merely inserts the paper in the hollow cylinder of the wheel, and spins it around. Each time the wheel revolves is equivalent to reciting the prayer aloud, and with the tape containing a thousand repetitions, the effect of saying the prayer a thousand times a second is accomplished, the Tibetans believe. The more often repeated, the more likely the prayer is to be answered by the gods, think these people, and often they will spin their wheels constantly at a rapid rate for several days. A collection of such wheels is exhibited in Hall 32 (Case 3) . They were obtained by the late Dr. Berthold Laufer, former Curator of Anthropology, while leading an expedition in Tibet. Most of the wheels exhibited are designed to be revolved by hand, but there is one equipped with a tin propeller to be spun by the wind, thus relieving the person seeking divine aid of still more of the effort involved in prayer. The hand operated prayer wheels are made variously of brass, copper, silver and ivory. They are artistically decorated, and mounted on axles of wood or iron. To be effective, they must be turned from left to right, the Tibetans think. Every Lama priest and layman carries one of these instruments and keeps it in almost perpetual motion. Dr. Laufer observed. Besides the hand wheels and small wind- propelled wheels, there are huge barrels turned by windmills or water power, which are set up in rows in the open air near villages or in the galleries of temples. These are sometimes thirty to forty feet high, and fifteen to twenty feet in diameter. In them is placed a complete collection of the canonical books of Lamaism. From a psychological point of view it is interesting to note that it is the mechanical process of motion which renders written prayer efficient — an idea which might more logi- cally be expected to spring from our western civilization of machinery and rapid motion than from the ancient and slow-moving culture of Tibet. round heads. They are short in stature, standing slightly above five feet. The skin is sometimes yellowish, and the nose broad although not so wide as in true Mongolians. Several types of Lapps are recognized, and BRETON AND LAPP TYPES DEPICTED IN BRONZE Among the European peoples represented among the Races of Mankind sculptures by Malvina Hoffman in Chauncey Keep Mem- orial Hall (Hall 3) are the Bretons and the Lapps. The Bretons, who belong to the Alpine race, are natives of Brittany in the north- western part of France. In the Museum exhibit their physical characteristics are illustrated by a bronze bust of a Breton woman with her picturesque head-dress. The Bretons of the mountains are a broad- headed people. Their language, which is of the Celtic group, is spoken by approximately a million inhabitants. In clothing and habits the Bretons are very conservative; their costumes, which vary locally, are peculiar in cut and color. Bright red, violet and blue are much used. The Bretons cling with great attachment to their ancient customs, of which many are connected with seafaring and fishing. The Lapp>s, represented among the sculp- tures by the bust of a man, are a people of Mongolian type having broad faces, and Breton Woman Sculpture in bronze of a picturesque European type, among the Races of Mankind series. these differ considerably in the degree to which they have inherited Mongoloid fea- tures. Some have a fair complexion and blue eyes, perhaps the result of a mixture of Mongolian and Nordic strains. The Lapps extend from the north of Norway, Sweden and Finland to the Kola Peninsula in Russia. Photoffraphs coiiyrii;ht Fieki Miisctim of Natural History Lapp Representative of a sturdy seafaring folk of Mon- golian type who inhabit parts of northern Europe. In culture they are variable, but the typical Lapp is a wanderer and herder of reindeer. Photogravure post cards, as well as larger photographs, of the sculptures depicted here, and of nearly all of the other racial types in Chauncey Keep Hall, are available at the Museum. They may be ordered by mail, if desired. Institutions or individuals may obtain also, under special arrangement, reproductions in bronze, either full or re- duced size. The Director of the Museum will gladly answer inquiries on this subject. GUIDE-LECTURE TOURS During August the conducted tours of the exhibits, under the guidance of staff lectur- ers, will be given on a special schedule, as follows: Mondays; 11 a.m., Halls Showing Plant Life; 3 P.M., General Tour. Tuesdays; 11 a.m;, Halls of Primitive and Civilized Peoples; 3 p.m., General Tour. Wednesdays: 11 A.M., Animal Groups; 3 P.M., General Tour. Thursdays; 11 A.M. and 3 P.M., General Tours. Fridays; 11 A.M.. Minerals and Prehistoric Exhibits; 3 P.M., General Tour. There are no tours given on either Satur- days or Sundays. Persons wishing to participate in the tours should apply at the North Entrance. The tours are free, and no gratuities are to be proffered. Guide-lecturers' services for special tours by parties of ten or more are a\ ailable free of charge by arrangement with the Director a week in advance. Gifts to the Museum Following is a list of some of the principal gifts received during the last month : From Dr. A. B. Lewis — a betel-nut box of woven strips of bamboo, covered with lacquer and painted designs, Burma; fr.jm Dr. H. Sydow — 100 herbarium specimens, Costa Rica; from University of Texas — 288 herbarium specimens, western Texas; from Dr. Earl E. Sherff —20 speci-nens of Bidens, Pacific Islands; from Museo Nacional — 1,019 specimens of orchids, Costa Rica; from Dr. F. C. Hoehne — 17 herbarium speci- mens, Brazil; from Rev. Brother Cletus — 310 her- barium specimens, Colorado; from C. I. Westbrook — one Kirkland's water snake, Chicago area; from Tom Birks — 8 tiger salamanders, Chicago area; from John R. Schmidt— a box turtle, Kentucky; from Walter A. Weber — 2 frogs, 2 lizards, and 2 snakes, Texas; from Henry Trefflich — a juvenile chimpanzee, Africa; from Lincoln Park Commissioners — 2 oran^, Borneo, and one Burchell zebra, Africa; from Chicago Zoological Society — one Matschie's tree kangaroo. New Guinea; from Donald Farquhar, Jr. — one cephalopod, Illinois; from G. W. Wharton — one specimen cycatl leaf in matrix, Oregon; from Sir Frank Colyer, from Dr. Earl E. Sherff, and from the Japan Society of New York — valuable books for the Library. NEW MEMBERS The following persons were elected to membership in Field Museum during the period from June 16 to July 15: Associate Members Mark A. Brown, Mrs. Grace L. Cowan, Mrs. Milton F. Goodman. Annual Members Henry T. Adamson, Mrs. V. J. Bert, John F. Bolton, O. S. Caesar, G. J. Casseiis, Ralph Chapman, Miss Marian Fairman, Mrs. Carl Gallauer, Miss Edith K. Hammill, George H. Hempe, Lewis W. Hunt, Mrs. I^onard D. Karcher, Ambrose J. Krier, Mrs. S. W. McArthur, J. Ralph Pickell, Edward S. Rogers, Arnold C. Schueren, Frank E. Swanson, Raymond Yatea. Arthur C. Youngberg, Irving Zimmerman. Church Dignitaries Visit Museum A recent visitor to Field Museum was His Excellency, the Archbishop of the Dubuque (Iowa) Diocese, the Most Rev. Francis J. L. Beckman, S.T.D. He was accompanied by Father William G. Kesler, Curator of the Columbia Museum, Dubuque. "The -purpose of the visit was to study the methods of this institution for suggestions in connection with the Dubuque museum which is in process of expansion under Father Kesler's curatorship. New Marsupial Specimens Several new and excellent specimens have been added to the exhibit of mar- supials in the systematic collection of mam- mals in Hall 15. They were received at the Museum as a gift from the Chicago Zoo- logical Society. Notable among them are an example from Australia of the gray kangaroo, largest species, and of the tree kangaroo, a curious variety from New Guinea. PRINTED BV FItLD MUSEUM PRESS News Published Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago Vol. 7 SEPTEMBER, 1936 No. 9 MURAL PAINTING OF MADAGASCAR TRAVELER'S TREE IN HALL OF PLANT LIFE By B. E. Dahlgren Curator, Department of Botany Another painting has been added to the series of murals which Staff Artist Charles A. Corwin is preparing for the Hall of Plant Life (Hall 29). The most recent addition represents the traveler's tree (Ravenala) of Madagascar. This is one of those striking exotic plants that never fail to attract at- tention wherever planted, whether in bo- tanical gardens or elsewhere for ornament. The general habit of growth of the traveler's tree is well shown in the new mural. The rough cylindrical stem of the plant, a foot or more in diameter and often ten to fifteen feet in height, is seen to sup- port a huge fan of some twenty to twenty-five large, sim- ple leaves. The long leaf-stems radiating from the tip of the trunk and compactly and regularly arranged on each side, toward the top of the stem, all in a single plane, give to the traveler's tree a very remarkable appearance, compar- able to that of certain bacaba palms of the Amazon that also have their leaves arranged in one plane. Raven- ala is, in fact, often known as "traveler's palm" because of its general palm-like as- pect, produced by the straight cylindrical trunk bearing relatively few large leaves. The botanical relationship of the traveler's tree is, however, not with the palms. If a single leaf be observed it will readily be seen to be decidedly banana-like in appearance and structure. The large green blade is often torn into narrow strips exactly as banana leaves are torn by the wind. 'This, together with certain characters of the flowers and of the fruit, places the traveler's tree botanically in the banana family, of which it is the largest representative, and the most conspicuous if not the only species with a woody stem. In Madagascar, where it grows commonly in close association with the raffia palm, it is said to exist in enormous numbers, being found from sea level up to 600, and less frequently up to 1,600 feet. Its generic name Ravenala is from the Malagasy ver- nacular, meaning "leaf of the forest." In its native home it is a plant of consider- able utility. The stems are said to be used for the construction of shelters, and the Traveler's Tree of Madagascar Mural painting, by Staff Artist Charles A. Corwin, shows Ravenala madagascariensis as it grows in its native habitat, accompanied in low ground by aquatic aroids, on higher ground usually by raf!ia palms. broad leaves for roofing. The wood, which forms the outer part of the trunk, is pre- pared by spreading and flattening it into plank-like pieces that serve for flooring. The large leaves, like large leaves every- where in the tropics, furnish ready-made wrappers for packages, and coverings and linings for crates and baskets. The rain water which gathers in the leaf axils after trickling down the long petioles, is praised by the English missionary, Wil- liam Ellis, in his book on Madagascar, as being clear and potable, and is responsible for the popular name of the plant. But as water caught in such natural receptacles in the tropics is usually warm and infested by a variety of small aquatic life, and that of the traveler's tree is difficult of access, it may well be suspected that the plant's reputation for yielding comfort to travelers is based mostly on popular fancy. While the flower-clusters and fruit of the usual banana plant are terminal, their ap- pearance marking the end of the life of the plant, in Ravenala they are lateral in the axils of the leaves and do not interfere with the continued growth. It is not unusual to find two, three or four flower-clusters present at one time. They are large and woody, with several large stiff bracts pro- tecting small hands of white flowers that have a curious explo- sive mechanism for the scattering of their pollen. The fruits, on maturing, split length- wise into three parts. Each part has a double row of seeds with a bright blue fringed envelope or aril, of in- terest for its unusual blue color which may be extracted and used as a dye. These also contain a highly com- bustible oil which is utilized by inhabitants of regions where the plant is abundant. The closest relative of the traveler's tree is a similar plant of the Guianas and the mouth of the Amazon, Ravenala guianensis, which is smaller, and does not have a woody stem. It has a bright pink instead of a blue aril. The existence of two such closely related, exceptional species in such widely separated places as Madagascar and the Amazon is not entirely without parallel. It may be interpreted as indicating the former existence of connecting links of much wider distribution. LECTURES FOR ADULTS, FILMS FOR CHILDREN The annual autumn course of free illus- trated lectures on science and travel for adults, and the series of motion picture entertainments for children presented by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Ray- mond Foundation, will both begin in the James Simpson Theatre of the Museum on Saturday, October 3. First of the adult lectures will be "Alone Across Arctic America," by Mr. David Irwin, of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The lecture will begin at 3 o'clock. No tickets are necessary for admission. A section of the Theatre is reserved for Members of the Museum, each of whom is entitled to two reserved seats on request. Applications for these seats may be made by telephone, or by writing to the Museum, in advance of the lecture. Seats will then be held in the Mem- ber's name until 3 o'clock on the day of the lecture. Members may obtain reserved seats also by presentation of their member- ship cards to the Theatre attendant before 3 o'clock on the lecture day. All reserved seats not claimed by 3 o'clock will be avail- able to the general public. The opening program of the Raymond series for children will include the following films: "Indians at a Pow-wow"; "The Fish That Builds a Nest"; "The Indian at Work," and "Whale and Walrus Hunting in Alaska." There will be two showings, one beginning at 10 A.M., and one at 11. Children from all parts of Chicago and suburbs are invited to attend. Eight other lectures for adults, and eight more programs for children, will be given on successive Saturdays. Complete schedules of these will appear in the October issue of Field Museum News. Page 2 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS September, 1936 Field Museum of Natural History Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 Rooserelt Road and Lake Michigan, Chicago THE BOARD Sewbll L. Avery John Borden William J. Chaluers Joseph N. Field Marshall Field Stanley Field Ernest R. Graham Albert W. Harris Samuel Insull, Jr. John P, OF TRUSTEES William H. Mitchell George A. Richardson Fred W. Sargent Stephen C. Simhs Jambs Simpson Solomon A. Smith Albert A. Sprague Silas H. Stkawn Leslie Wheeler Wilson OFFICERS Stanley Field President Albert A. Sprague First Vice-President James Simpson Second Vice-President Albert W. Harris Third Vice-President Stephen C. Simms Director and Secretary Solomon A. Smith . . . Treasurer and Assistant Secretary FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Stephen C. Simhs, Director of the Museum Editor CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Paul S. Martin Curator of Anthropology B. E. Dahlgren Curator of Botany Henry W. Nichols Curator of Geology Wilfred H. Osgood Curator of Zoology H. B. Harte Managing Editor Field Museum is open every day of the year (except Christmas and New Year's Day) during the hours indicated below: Nov., Dec, Jan., Feb., Mar. 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. April, September, October 9 a.m. to 5:00 P.M. May, June, July, August 9 a.m. to 6:00 P.M. Admission is free to Members on all days. Other adults are admitted free on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays; non-members pay 25 cents on other days. Children are admitted free on all days. Students and faculty members of educational institutions are admit- ted free any day upon presentation of credentials. The Museum's natural history Library is open for reference daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Traveling exhibits are circulated in the schools of Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public School Extension Department of the Museum. Lectures for schools, and special entertainments and tours for children at the Museum, are provided by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. Announcements of free illustrated lectures for the public, and special lectures for Members of the Museum, will appear in Field Museum News. A cafeteria in the Museum serves visitors. Rooms are provided for those bringing their lunches. Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 buses go direct to the Museum. Members are requested to inform the Museum promptly of changes of address. MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM Field Museum has several classes of Members. Benefactors give or devise $100,000 or more. Contribu- tors give or devise $1,000 to $100,000. Life Members give $500; Non-Resident Life and Associate Members pay $100; Non-Kesident Associate Members pay $50. All the above classes are exempt from dues. Sustaining Members contribute $25 annually. After six years they become Associate Members. Annual Members con- tribute $10 annually. Other memberships are Corpo- rate, Honorary, Patron, and Corresponding, additions under these classifications being made by special action of the Board of Trustees. Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to free admission to the Museum for himself, his family and house guests, and to two reserved seats for Museum lectures provided for Members. Subscription to Field Museum News is included with all memberships. The courtesies of every museum of note in the United States and Canada are extended to all Members of Field Museum. A Member may give his personal card to non-residents of Chicago, upon presentation of which they will be admitted to the Museum without charge. Further information about memberships will be sent on request. BEQUESTS AND ENDOWMENTS Bequests to Field Museum of Natural History may be made in securities, money, books or collections. They may, if desired, take the form of a memorial to a person or cause, named by the giver. Contributions made within the taxable year not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's net income are allowable as deductions in computing net income for federal income tax purposes. Endowments may be made to the Museum with the provision that an annuity be paid to the patron for life. These annuities are guaranteed against fluctuation in amount, and may reduce federal income taxes. ORIGIN OF THE NAVAHO By Paul S. Martin Curator, Department of Anthropology The study of primitive, unwritten lan- guages may, at first thought, seem far removed from the ken of archaeology or ethnology. But such a study is of supreme usefulness in shedding light on remote cul- tural connections, as has recently been demonstrated by Dr. Edward Sapir, of Yale University, in his study of Navaho language. The Navaho Indians, who are now pas- toral-agricultural people, but who were formerly war-like nomads, are the immediate neighbors of the Hopi Indians, who are a sedentary, agricultural, town-inhabiting peo- ple. The cultural gap between the Navaho and the Hopi has been frequently noted by ethnologists and archaeologists. But it was not until linguists tackled the problem that any explanation for the many diflferences between these two peoples was forthcoming. Careful analysis of Navaho phraseology, construction, root-words, and other gram- matical peculiarities shows that the Navaho language has descended in surprisingly pure form from a large parent stock, known as Athapascan. The Athapascan tongue at present is spoken in the greater part of western Canada, and in portions of Alaska, California, Oregon, New Mexico, Arizona, Texas, and northern Mexico. It has therefore always been assumed that the Athapascan-speaking peoples were originally massed in northern North Amer- ica, because the greatest number of them live there today, and that the Navaho broke away from the main group and migrated southward. Linguistic studies of the Navaho language confirm this inference. Lack of space makes it impossible to illustrate fully the evidences yielded by this detailed study; but, by way of illustration, the buried and primary meaning of two Navaho words will be given. The Navaho word for "gourd" (a plant which does not grow in northwest Canada) and for "gourd dipper" or "ladle" also means "an animal's horn." This same word in the northern Athapascan dialects means "horn" or "horn spoon," the only implement of this type in the Canadian northwest. Therefore, it would seem that the gourd is not part of the original culture of the Navaho and that horn spoons, not now present in their culture, were probably known to the remoter ancestors of the Navaho. This habit of reinterpreting the meaning of words is similar to our custom of referring to our musical instrument as a "horn" which now has no relation to an animal's horn, although formerly the term was applied to a ram's horn which was used for making sounds. Another example of the evidence supplied by internal linguistic structure is found in the Navaho word for "seed lies" or "the seed lies in a row." The original meaning of this word is non-agricultural and means "snow lying on the ground in finely divided particles." This phrase has taken on a transferred meaning and has been secondar- ily applied to an agricultural environment. To summarize: The Navaho Indians are probably of northern origin because (1) their language is a dialect of Athapascan, the geographical center of distribution of which lies in northwestern Canada; (2) their vocabulary yields striking evidence on this point; to wit, the word for "horn spoon," an original element of their culture, was later applied to the gourd ladle, and the term for planting seed, foreign to their original northland culture, was described in terms of a similar process. The date of the Navaho's arrival in the Southwest is placed at about a.d. 1400- 1500. FOLKLORE OF AGATE Of all the folklores surrounding various gems, jewels, and semi-precious stones, that connected with agate is one of the most interesting. In ancient Persia the Magi believed that agates could stop a storm or hurricane. For this purpose the stones were thrown into a boiling cauldron, and if they turned the water cold they were regarded as possessing the necessary magical power. According to the ideas of the Magi, the stones, to be really efficacious, had to be fastened with lion's hair; they rejected hyena's hair as being provocative of family discord. An agate containing only one color was believed by the Magi to render an athlete invincible. In ancient Crete certain varieties of agate were held sacred, and regarded as capable of healing wounds inflicted by spiders and scorpions. This theory was credited even by the ancient scholar Pliny, who took as proof the fact that in Sicily, where many agates are found, scorpions actually do lose their venom. In India, among the Mo- hammedans, there was a widespread belief that agate had the power of stopping the flow of blood, presumably because of its blood-red color. So far as is known, the Sumerians, earliest inhabitants of Mesopotamia, were the first nation in history to recognize the ornamental value of semi-precious stones, and to under- stand and practise the art of stone-cutting for the purpose of making cylinder seals, signet rings, beads, and other jewelry. Great quantities of beads of agate, carnelian and lapis lazuli were excavated several years ago from the ruins of the ancient Sumerian city of Kish by the Field Museum-Oxford University Joint Expedition to Mesopo- tamia. Interesting examples of agate are on view in H. N. Higinbotham Hall (Hall 31, Case 15), and among the mineral collections of the Department of Geology. Change in Visiting Hours Field Museum visiting hours, which have been 9 A.M. to 6 p.m. daily during the summer months, will change to the autumn schedule — 9 A.M. to 5 p.m. — on Tuesday, September 8, the day after Labor Day. These hours will continue until October 31. On November 1 the winter hours, 9 A.M. to 4:30 P.M., will go into effect, continuing until March 31. During this period, how- ever, the Museum will be open until 5 p.m. on Sundays. Sir Henry Wellcome In the death of Sir Henry Wellcome, which occurred July 25 in London, not only anthropology, but medical and biological sciences in general, lost a devoted benefactor. Sir Henry was 83 years old. He was borii in Wisconsin, and spent his youth in this country. Twenty-five years ago he was engaged in important archaeological work in the Sudan, near Khartoum. He also established and maintained medical research laboratories in that city, and was highly honored for humanitarian work carried on among the natives of Africa. In London Sir Henry founded the magnificent Well- come Research Institution for the advance- ment of medical science. September, 1936 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS ^Z^dD\6^yi ^ Page S CHINESE PANELS ILLUSTRATE IDEA OF TRANSMIGRATION In many a Chinese temple the doctrine of metempsychosis or transmigration of the soul is made easily understandable for the populace by means of vivid, colored paint- mgs and carvings which adorn wall panels. A series of such painted panels and parti- tions from the Lama temple near Taochow, Kansu, China, is on exhibition in Hall 32 (Case 2). Some of these pictures, such as those showing the skins of dead men and animals hung on a line for purification in preparation for the reception of a soul, and one painting in which a mule bears a saddle made from a human skin, are startling in nature. The idea of metempsychosis, or the trans- fer of the soul through a series of animal and human bodies, is a cardinal doctrine of Buddhistic religion. Salvation finally brings to a close the cycle of incarnations, and then the soul reaches the state of "nirvana" in which one's individuality is totally anni- hilated. The pictures are painted directly on the wood, and have been made spectacular for the purposes of popular teaching. One of the panels exhibited at the Museum illus- trates beliefs concerning the soul's ability to enter the body of a horse, a deer, a lion, a camel or an elephant; and shows how the soul dwelling in an animal body eventually may change its abode into that of a man or even a god. The Tibetans do not bury their dead, but expose the corpses in the wilderness to become the food of beasts and birds of prey, while the bodies of the Lamas are cremated. One of the Museum's panels shows the animals devouring a corpse, and in this same picture are seen the skins of dead creatures, mcluding men, folded once and hanging outdoors to be aired before the soul may enter. Equally striking in colors and weird in conception is the painting of the mule of the goddess Lha-mo, saddled with the skin of a human being. It bears a bowl made from a skull, filled with blood. The flank of the mule has an eye, concerning which there is a strange legend. Yama, the deity of death, was supposed to have shot an arrow into the mule, but Lha-mo trans- formed the wound into this additional eye. W. H. DUNHAM HERBARIUM RECEIVED BY MUSEUM Mr. William H. Dunham, of Evanston, Illinois, has presented to Field Museum his private herbarium, consisting of 2,000 mounted sheets of plants. This collection is of much local historical interest, because many of the specimens were gathered in the Chicago area, principally along the north shore, beginning about fifty years ago. Many of them are from areas now covered by buildings, where all natural vegetation disappeared long ago. The herbarium also contains many plants from other parts of the United States, especially from California and the Rocky Mountain states, Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, and some of the eastern states. It includes, in addition, many specimens from various parts of Europe, and from Palestine, Turkey, and the Madeira Islands. Nearly all of the speci- mens were collected by Mr. Dunham, and the collection well illustrates how much material of permanent value may be gathered by one who enthusiastically de- votes his leisure time to serious study of one of the branches of natural science. CHANGES IN INSTALLATION IMPROVE BENGAL TIGER GROUP By Wilfred H. Osgood temperate Asia, north to Manchuria and Curator, Department of Zoology ^gst to Persia. It does not reach Africa or Arabia. Although it is found in Sumatra and Java, it does not extend far into the East Indies and has never reached Ceylon. Within its range, several varieties may be distinguished. "The Bengal tiger is the variety of India, a good-sized animal of rich color, with a short smooth coat. The north- ern or Manchurian tiger, now compara- tively rare, is large, pale, and soft-coated. Another variety occurs in Persia, and smaller ones in Sumatra, Java, and Bali. Although unpleasant tragedy is the in- variable accompaniment of wild life, it is not usually emphasized in museum groups. Among predacious animals, however, death- dealing is a daily occurrence and, in the case of such a rapacious beast as the tiger, it can scarcely be omitted if a truthful repre- sentation is to be made. In the Museum group, therefore, the male tiger is shown standing over its kill, snarling and tense, The group of Bengal tigers, illustrated in Field Museum News for November, 1934, has recently been subjected to alteration in which the male tiger has been remounted and placed in a slightly different position. Although the change is not very great, it is in the direction of less strained and dramatic pose for the animal, giving it better con- formity with subjects of other groups in William V. Kelley Hall (Hall 17). As previously stated, the animals for this group were collected by the James Simpson- Roosevelts Asiatic Expedition during a special hunt in northern India organized after the main route of the expedition had been covered in the heights of the Hima- layas, Pamirs and Thian Shans. Participat- ing, besides the Roosevelt brothers, were their wives, Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt and Mrs. Kermit Roosevelt. This hunt was of the exciting and spectacular kind, usually Bengal Tiger Group as Reinstalled A comparison of this picture with that of the same group which appeared in the November, 1934, issue of Field Museum News will make clear the contrast in effect produced by certain changes in installation. reserved for royalty, in which trained ele- phants are used and large numbers of native beaters are employed to surround and harass the game. It was quite successful, and two fine tigers were secured for the Museum. The tiger, contrary to general belief, is a relatively recent immigrant into India from the north, where it ranges over most of while the female stands at one side, half- crouched and ready to slink away if trouble should develop. The kill is a wild pig, an animal common in Asia, and one fre- quently preyed upon by the tiger. The group was prepared by Staff Taxi- dermist C. J. Albrecht, and the background is by Staff Artist Charles A. Corwin. OITICICA OIL The introduction of chinawood or tung oil from an Oriental tree of the spurge family almost revolutionized the varnish industry. For reasons such as disturbances in China, and possibly also speculative manipulation, the supply has not always been as constant or as abundant as might be desired by con- sumers, and another vegetable drying oil, practically unknown to the world at large until a few years ago, has come into promi- nence as a partial substitute. This is oiticica oil, which is expressed from the dry, pecan- shaped fruits of a sturdy oak-like tree (Licania rigida Benth.) of the drought area of northeastern Brazil. In that country its oil has long been known for local or domestic use, though it has only recently been avail- able in commercial quantities. The name oiticica is of Tupy Indian origin and means "white resin." The tree belongs to a division of the rose family represented in the United States only by the pigeon and gopher plums of the Florida shore, but in the tropics by a considerable number of species which include some large and handsome trees yielding edible fruit, and sometimes planted as shade trees. Specimens of oiticica fruits and oil are in- cluded in the vegetable oils exhibit in Hall 28. Page U FIELD MUSEUM NEWS September, 1936 SENEGALESE DRUMMER IN BRONZE BY MALVINA HOFFMAN One of the finest sculptures by Malvina Hoffman in the Races of Mankind series in Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall (Hall 3) is that of a Senegalese drummer (shown in accompanying illustration). This work is conspicuous both for its realism and its graceful quality. The artist selected for portrayal a moment when the musician was completely absorbed in his performance. With flexed knees he firmly holds the tubular drum. In his right hand is a drumstick for producing the sharper notes, while his left hand is poised for striking the lower undertones. These two rhythms are blended with unerring accuracy. For hours at a stretch the notes boom forth providing measure for the agile dancers, who sway to and fro, circling around the drummer, far into the night, intoxicated with their own rhythm, and oblivious to fatigue. The drummer himself, as depicted, has obviously reached the stage of semi-con- scious perform- ance— his eyes are closed, his head thrown back. Mentally and physically he is in unison with the rhythms of his instru- ment. Negroes are of different physi- cal types, vary- ing from sturdy individuals of medium or small stature to those of slender pro- portions. This drummer is not a typical west African Negro, but one whose physique has been modified by some unknown racial element. His lips are not so thick and everted as those of the Negro, and his nose is not so broad. Like the true Negro, however, the hair of his chin and upper lip is very sparse. He is a type found in the French possession of Senegal, in far west Africa. But his musicianship, especially his com- plete absorption in his rhythms, is typical of Negro players in many parts of the con- tinent. There are available at the Museum photo- gravure post cards of this and nearly all of the other racial sculptures in this series. Larger photographs may also be purchased. Orders are filled by mail, if desired. Under special arrangement institutions or individ- uals may obtain reproductions in bronze, either full or reduced size. Those interested may communicate with the Director of the Museum on this subject. Spices Spices, like perfumes, have been eagerly sought since ancient times and were a prominent factor in the establishment of early trade routes between the east and west. Voyages in quest of them led to the first Photof^aph copsrright Field Mui Senef^alese Drummer Bronze sculpture, by Mal- vina Hoffman, in the Races of Mankind Series in Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall. voyage around the Cape of Good Hope, to the colonization of the East Indies, and to the discovery of America. Most of the spices, namely, pepper, cardamon, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace, cloves, and ginger, are native to tropical regions of the Old World, while vanilla, red pepper, and pimento belong to the American tropics. Coriander, cumin, caraway, and mustard are found in the temperate zone of Europe and Asia. In Hall 25, in the section devoted to food products, there is a representative collection of the more important spices and condi- ments. Wallaby Specimen Presented Through the courtesy of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus on its recent Chicago engagement. Field Museum has received a specimen of black- tailed wallaby. This Australian animal may be described as one of the larger of the smaller varieties of kangaroos. It had been in the menagerie of the circus. Made help- less by the accidental breaking of its leg, the animal was shot for humane reasons. The circus management presented the speci- men to the Museum, and it was found to be of a species lacking in the institu- tion's collections, and one which had long been desired. SPECIAL NOTICE All Members of Field Museum who have changed their residences or are planning to do so are earnestly urged to notify the Museum at once of their new addresses, so that copies of Field Museum News and all other com- munications from the Museum may reach them promptly. MODEL OF OIL FIELD A model of an oil field, showing how an oil well is drilled, how one already bored is pumped, and how the various strata of the earth between the surface and the oil deposit thousands of feet below are ar- ranged, is exhibited in Hall 36 (Case 10) of the Department of Geology. The model repre- sents part of the oil field at Lawrenceville, Illinois. To insure accuracy in every detail. Curator Henry W. Nichols, who supervised the construction of the model, made field studies and notes at Lawrenceville before the model was built. The model shows the subterranean strata in which the oil was made by nature during millions of years through the decomposition of fossils, and still lower the oil-sands where the oil floats on salt water along a fold of the rock shaped like an inverted trough. Also represented is the space above the oil surface, filled with natural gas. Ebony The true ebony woods of commerce emanate from Africa, Ceylon, and the Dutch East Indies. The common conception of ebony is a wood of charcoal blackness, but the colors vary from jet black or purplish- black to streaked or patchy. The wood is very hard, heavy, fine-textured and durable. It takes a high polish, and holds its place well when finished. Among the many uses to which it is applied are handles of cutlery and instruments, bridges of violins, piano keys, brush backs, umbrella handles, and for inlay and marquetry. Among the exhibits of foreign woods in Hall 27 are planks of Gaboon ebony from Africa, and Macassar from the Malay Peninsula. SEPTEMBER GUIDE-LECTURE TOURS Conducted tours of exhibits, under the guidance of staff lecturers, are made every afternoon at 3 p.m., except Saturdays, Sundays, and certain holidays. Following is the schedule of subjects and dates for September: Tuesday, September 1 — General Tour; Wednesday — Animal Life in the Orient: Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Indians of North America. Week beginning September 7; Monday — Labor Day holiday, no tour; Tuesday — General Tour; Wednes- day— Plants and Their Blossoms; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Fish and Reptiles. Week beginning September 14: Monday — Egypt; Tuesday — General Tour; Wednesday — Moon, Meteor- ites and Minerals; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Chinese Exhibits. Week beginning September 21: Monday — Plants Native to America; Tuesday — General Tour; Wednes- day— Life in the Far North; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Bird Habitats. Monday, September 28 — Trees and Their Uses; Tuesday — General Tour; Wednesday — Jade and Gems, Persons wishing to participate should apply at North Entrance. Tours are free and no gratuities are to be proffered. A new schedule will appear each month in Field Museum News. Guide-lecturers' services for special tours by parties of ten or more are available free of charge by arrangement with the Director a week in advance. Gifts to the Museum Following is a list of some of the principal gifts received during the last month: From J. H. Wood — 2 necklaces (one of turt^uoia and silver wire, the other of gold plaited silver filigree disks surmounted by inscribed pieces of jade), Chma; from Works Progress Administration Federal Art Project — 24 enlarged plaster reproductions of Near East stamp seals and cylinder seals; from Professor J. Douglas Hood — 24 herbarium specimens, Peru; from William H. Dunham — 2,000 herbarium speci- mens. United States and Europe; from Dr. A. Ginz- berger — 43 herbarium specimens, Brazil; from Dr. Earl E. Sherfl — 91 herbarium specimens, Hawaiian Islands; from G. Klug — 23 herbarium specimens, Peru; from Robert Darrow — 40 herbarium specimens, eastern United States; from Museo Nacional — 1,603 herbarium specimens, Costa Rica; from Mrs. Fred Banke, C. F. Samuelson, Paul Schreiber, Mrs. Elmer Roberts, Karl Plath, Miss Beatrice Levy, Mrs. P. F. Fullmer, R. D. Hildebrand, and Chicago Zoological Society — 54 birds for skeletons; from Leslie Wheeler — a turkey vulture and 2 rough-legged hawks, Utah; from Pat Romeo — a juvenile night hawk, Illinois; from Dr. Malcolm Goddard — 3 bird skins, British Cameroons; from Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey — a kangaroo; from Robert Bruce — a small brown bat, Illinois; from Mrs. Carrie Wilborne — ■ a monkey; from Kjel von Sneidern — 2 bird skins, Colombia; from Dr. Earl E. Sherff apd from H. H. Bartlett — valuable books for the Library. NEW MEMBERS The following persons were elected to membership in Field Museum during the period from July 16 to August 15: Associate Members George A. Hughes, Frank D. Mayer, Dr. Paul A. Kosborough, Theodore Rubovits. Annual Members Mrs. Joseph E. Callender, Dr. Henry Christiansen, Mrs. James Doherty, Dr. Raymond F. Elmer, Mrs. Ernst H. Hoffman, Willard L. King, Edward P. Knight, Oliver M. Knode, Carl Koch, George B. Kurtzon, Dr. John W. McLaughlin, C. A. Metz, Erwin A. Meyers, Dr. J. William Parker, Eli M. Straus, Mrs. H. Foster Straw, C. D. Sturtevant, Arthur C. Trask, J. M. Ullman, Olaf Westcrling, P. P. Willis, Edward Wray, Mrs. Stanley L. Yonce. Field Museum Botanist in Vienna Mr. J. Francis Macbride, Assistant Curator of the Herbarium, who has been engaged since 1929 in obtaining photographs of type specimens of tropical American plants in European herbaria, recently transferred his activities from Geneva, Switzerland, to the Natural History Mu- seum of Vienna. It is expected his current work will hold him in the Austrian capital until the end of this year. PRINTKO BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS News Published Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago Vol. 7 OCTOBER. 1936 No. 10 HUGE ARMORED CREATURE OF PREHISTORIC TIMES INSTALLED IN GRAHAM HALL By Elmer S. Riggs Associate Curator of Paleontology The fossil skeleton of a strange prehistoric animal, designated by the scientific name Eleiitherocercus, was added last month to the exhibits in Ernest R. Graham Hall (Hall 38). This animal is related to the armadillo family, and its kind are often called the "giant armadillos" as well as by the name glyptodonts. Its striking feature is the bony armament which covered body, head and tail. Although armored like a battle- tank for defence, the creature was doubtless quite inoffensive in its habits. Members of the family were com- mon in South America from forty million years ago to within the last few thousand years. An innovation in connection with this exhibit is a miniature restoration in half relief, modeled by Mr. Phil C. Orr of the Museum staff, who also assembled the skeleton. This model, one-fourth natural size, shows the animal as it must have appeared in life. The skeleton of this glyptodont was dis- covered and excavated in Argentina by the Marshall Field Paleontological Expedition, led by the writer. The animal was more than ten feet long, and in addition to the great shell which covered its body, had a helmet to protect its head, and a heavy sheathing composed partly of overlapping rings over its tail. The tail was a mobile Skeleton and Model of Glyptodont A new exhibit in Ernest R. Graham Hall showing fossil remains of armadillo-like creature known asEleuther- ocercus, and a miniature restoration of the animal as it is believed to have appeared in life. weapon which ended in a war-club studded at the end with horny knobs. Despite this fighting equipment, the animal apparently was peaceful and unaggressive, and was thus armed purely for protection against pre- dacious creatures. The front feet each had four toes, and the hind feet three. Each toe was covered with a short blunt hoof. Eleutherocercus fed upon plants, grinding them up between rows of prismatic teeth. It had no tusks or other front teeth fitted for seizing food, and most likely gathered with thrust-out tongue the plants and leaves upon which it fed. The earli- est known specimen of the animal was dis- covered and named by an Argentinian scien- tist. Abundant fossil remains have since been found in South America, but only a few species are known to have found their way into the northern hemisphere. All of the glypto- donts are now extinct, and it is believed that some of the later mem- bers of the family were probably exterminated by early man. They belonged to the great order of Edentata, which includes also the armadillos, anteaters and sloths, both extinct and modern species. DEATH OF MRS. GEORGE T. SMITH MOURNED AT FIELD MUSEUM News of the death on September 8 of Mrs. George T. Smith (Frances Ann Gaylord Smith), of Chicago, was received with deep regret at Field Museum. Mrs. Smith had been a good friend and supporter of this institution for years, and in recognition of her generous contributions of funds and valuable material had been elected a Patron, a Contributor, and a Corporate Member. In her honor, and in memory of her late husband, George T. Smith, Hall 24, devoted to the archaeology of China, was given the name George T. and Frances Gaylord Smith Hall by action of the Board of Trustees in 1931. Mrs. Smith was especi- ally interested in the Chinese collections, being herself the possessor of an excellent private collection of Orientalia, and she made many important additions to the Museum's material in this field. At a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Museum, held on September 21, the names of Mr. and Mrs. Smith were added to the roll of the Museum's Benefactors (which includes all persons who have contributed $100,000 or more to this institution). In the settlement of Mrs. Smith's estate. Field Museum receives a most notable col- lection of several hundred items of rare and beautiful Chinese objects of jade, porcelain, ivory, tapestry, embroidered silks, and other materials. The jades in this bequest, when added to the large number already on exhibition in Hall 30, will, it is believed, make Field Museum's collection the fore- most one of its kind in the world. METAMORPHIC ROCKS COLLECTED A series of geological specimens of a kind very difficult to obtain, and of great im- portance for demonstrating the phenomena connected with progressive metamorphism or changes occurring in rocks, has been received at the Museum as the result of a collecting trip made last month by Mr. Sharat K. Roy, Assistant Curator of Geol- ogy. Mr. Roy gathered the material in Duchess County, southeastern New York, one of the few localities where suitable specimens are obtainable. The collection will be used in a new exhibit. An exhibit of this type is difficult to assemble because there are so few localities where rocks extend uninterruptedly, show- ing gradations of increasing metamorphism. The specimens collected make clear the change of sedimentary clay through the stages of shale, slate, and phyllite into mica schist. The causes of these changes are heat and pressure, the former due to the intrusion of various kinds of magmatic matter (i. e., molten material from the in- terior of the earth), and the latter due to mountain folding. QUININE TREES DISCOVERED IN CENTRAL AMERICA Cinchona trees of the coffee family have long been famous as the source of the drug quinine, well known as a remedy for malaria, worst plague of the tropics. The trees have been supposed to be confined to South America, chiefly to the Andes, except for the extensive plantations made of them in the East Indies. It is of considerable scientific interest to be able to report the discovery of wild cinchona trees in Central America. In a col- lection of plants received recently at Field Museum from the National Museum of Costa Rica is a specimen of Cinchona pub- escens, the tree from which commercial quinine is obtained. It was collected in the wet forests near San Ramon, Costa Rica, by Professor Alberto Brenes, a well known Costa Rican botanist. The quinine of commerce is now obtained wholly from plantations of the trees made in the East Indies, where the trees were introduced with great difficulty and expense about eighty years ago. Because of the ruthless manner in which the wild trees were long exploited in the Andes, being cut by thousands or millions in order to strip them of their bark, they are now almost or wholly extinct in many of the regions where once they were extremely abundant. — P.C.S. Page 2 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS October. 1936 Field Museum of Natural History Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 Roosevelt Road and Lake Michigan, Chicago THE BOARD Sewell L. Avery John Borden William J. Chalmers Joseph N. Field Marshall Field Stanley Field Ernest R. Graham Albert W. Harris Samuel Insull, Jr. John P. OF TRUSTEES William H. Mitchell George A. Richardson Fred W. Sargent Stephen C. Simhs James Simpson Solomon A. Smith Albert A. Spragub Silas H. Strawn Lesue Wheeler . Wilson OFFICERS Stanley Field Pregident Albert A. Spragub First Vice-President Jambs Simpson Second Vice-President Albert W. Harris Third Vice-President Stephen C. Simms Director and Secretary Solomon A. Smith . . . Treasurer and Assistant Secretary FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Stephen C. Simms, Director of the Museum Editor CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Paul S. Martin Curator of Anthropology B. E. Dahlgren Curator of Botany Henry W. Nichols Curator of Geology Wilfred H. Osgood Curator of Zoology H. B. Hartb Managing Editor Field Museum is open every day of the year (except Christmas and New Year's Day) during the hours indicated below: Nov., Dec, Jan., Feb., Mar. 9 a.m. to 4:30 P.M. April, September, October 9 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. May, June, July, August 9 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Admission is free to Members on all days. Other adults are admitted free on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays; non-members pay 25 cents on other days. Children are admitted free on all days. Students and faculty members of educational institutions are admit- ted free any day upon presentation of credentials. The Museum's natural history Library is open for reference daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Traveling exhibits are circulated in the schools of Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public School Extension Department of the Museum. Lectures for schools, and special entertainments and tours for children at the Museum, are provided by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. Announcements of free illustrated lectures for the public, and special lectures for Members of the Museum, will appear in Field Museum News. A cafeteria in the Museum serves visitors. Rooms are provided for those bringing their lunches. Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 buses go direct to the Museum. Members are requested to inform the Museum promptly of changes of address. MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM Field Museum has several classes of Members. Benefactors give or devise $100,000 or more. Contribu- tors give or devise $1,000 to $100,000. Life Members give $500; Non-Resident Life and Associate Members pay $100; Non-Resident Associate Members pay $50. All the above classes are exempt from dues. Sustaining Members contribute $25 annually. After six years they become Associate Members. Annual Members con- tribute $10 annually. Other memberships are Corpo- rate, Honorary, Patron, and Corresponding, additions under these classifications being made by special action of the Board of Trustees. Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to tree admission to the Museum for himself, his family and hotise guests, and to two reserved seats for Museum lectures provided for Members. Subscription to Field Museum News is included with all memberships. The courtesies of every museum of note in the United States and Canada are extended to all Members of Field Museum. A Member may give his personal card to non-residents of Chicago, upon presentation of which they will be admitted to the lluseum without charge. Further information about memberships will be sent on request. BEQUESTS AND ENDOWMENTS Bequests to Field Museum of Natural History may be made in securities, money, books or collections. They may, it desired, take the form of a memorial to a person or cause, named by the giver. Contributions made within the taxable year not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's net income are allowable as deductions in computing net income tor federal income tax purposes. Endowments may be made to the Museum with the provision that an annuity be paid to the patron for life. These annuities are guaranteed against fluctuation in amount, and may reduce federal income taxes. MALVINA HOFFMAN WRITES STORY OF HER LIFE AND WORK Heads and Tales, a unique book by the noted sculptor, Malvina Hoffman, com- bining her autobiography and the story of the creation of the Hall of the Races of Mankind (Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall) in Field Museum, was published September 28 by Charles Scribner's Sons. It is a beautiful volume of 416 pages, and contains 278 illustrations of the sculptor's work, and of scenes and people encountered on her around-the-world travels during the years she was engaged in the execution of the Field Museum commission — -the making of nearly a hundred sculptures of representa- tive types of the principal races of man. The story, written in an arrestingly inti- mate and vivid style, is full of fascination from cover to cover. One section, under the subtitle, "The Making of a Sculptor," tells of Miss Hoffman's youth in New York, her beginnings as an artist, her studies in Paris under the great Rodin, and her earlier triumphs and disappointments in the world of art. Almost all the rest of the book is concerned with the Field Museum com- mission (probably the most extensive ever undertaken by any sculptor, man or woman), and the travels into far places in connection with it — the adventures among wild peoples in remote jungle fastnesses far off the beaten paths of ordinary globe-trotters — the host of remarkable personalities met throughout the world. The book is on sale at Field Museum. Price $5. Postage additional on mail orders. SIX SPECIES OF PENGUIN IN NEW EXHIBIT An exhibit of six different species of pen- guins was added recently to the systematic collection of birds in Hall 21. While related basically, sharp contrasts are apparent be- tween these varieties of one of the world's most grotesque families of winged (though in this instance, flightless) inhabitants. There are only twelve known species of penguins in existence, and the Museum exhibit includes the more characteristic kinds. This new exhibit supplements the large habitat group of emperor penguins from "Little America" in the south polar regions, recently placed on exhibition in Hall 20. Like the specimens in the habitat group, three of the penguins in the new display were collected by Rear-Admiral Richard E. Bjrrd on his most recent expedition to the Antarctic. These three, and one other, are gifts to the Museum from the Chicago Zoological Society. One curious species shown is the jackass penguin, which is found only at the southern tip of Africa. It gets its name from its loud braying call which resembles that of the familiar four-footed domestic animal. Another species included is the Galapagos penguin, which is found only in the equa- torial Galapagos Islands near Middle America, thus living farther north than any other penguin. Other species displayed are the king penguin from islands of the Ant- arctic, and the Adelie penguins of adjacent habitat, which nest in huge colonies some- times containing thousands of birds. The exhibit is completed by a specimen of the least penguin, smallest of all species, which is found along the southern coasts of Aus- tralia and New Zealand; and the largest of all species, the emperor penguins which often stand as much as four feet high and weigh up to 94 pounds. With the emperor pen- guin is shown its pale green egg, mounted so as to illustrate the bird's curious method of incubating it by holding it on the feet where a fold of abdominal skin descends to enclose it as in a warm muff. The new exhibit, like the habitat group, was prepared by Staff Taxidermist John W. Moyer. DANGER IN MUSHROOMS By Leon L. Pray It is necessary to warn of the danger of eating mushrooms gathered by persons who have little knowledge of these plants, but depend upon so-called "tests" of edibility. There can surely be no doubt about the folly of risking life to experiment with a food that may be poisonous and has only the nutritive value of cucumber, lettuce, or cabbage, when the markets offer commer- cially grown mushrooms that are perfectly safe. Without positive knowledge of mush- rooms, collecting them for the table is dangerous. The popular distinction between mushrooms and toadstools is based on fallacy or fancy. Tests supposed to prove a fungus dangerous or safe, such as "caps peeling easily," or "cooking with silver," are useless. To gather mushrooms for food, it is nec- essary to familiarize oneself with the detailed characters of several kinds commonly found and known to be edible, and then confine one's collecting to those — only thus is it safe to gather mushrooms for eating. All doubtful mushrooms should be considered dangerous. The poisons of some of the gilled mush- rooms are terrible in their manner of dealing death. Poisons formed from aging or de- composed mushrooms of many kinds may prove as deadly. Mushrooms growing near poisonous amanitas or near decaying mushrooms should be shunned, for transmitted amanita or decay poison may be as dangerous as its original source. One decaying mushroom or one cap of Amanita phalloides in a basket of harmless kinds may render the entire lot unfit for consumption. {The above is quoted from the introduction to the Field Museum leaflet "Common Mush- rooms," of which Mr. Pray is author. The booklet of 68 pages, with 66 illustrations, describes twenty-seven varieties of edible mush- rooms and six poisonous species. Copies are available at the Museum at 50 cents, plus S cents for postage on mail orders.) RARE ALBINO BAT RECEIVED Albinism, or lack of pigmentation, occurs in nearly all kinds of animals. Among the mammals, however, it is notably rare in bats. Field Museum has been fortunate in re- ceiving, as a gift from Mrs. John Hinaus, of Bruce, Wisconsin, an albino specimen of the species called little brown bat {Myotis lucifugus). It was recently caught near the donor's home. It is a young male, and is pure albino, even the ears and the wing and tail membranes being white. Only a few other specimens of albino bats have been recorded anywhere — three or four from South Africa, two from Japan, and one from Kentucky. — C. C. S. A reproduction of a Utah gypsum cave is a feature of Clarence Buckingham Hall (Hall 35, Case 14). An undersea scene, showing a swordfish, shark and rays, is represented in a habitat group in Albert W. Harris Hall (Hall 18). October, 1936 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Page 3 RAYMOND FOUNDATION PRESENTS PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN Nine free motion picture programs for children are offered in the autumn series provided by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. The pro- grams will be presented on successive Satur- day mornings during October and Novem- ber, beginning with October 3. There will be two showings of the films on each pro- gram, one commencing at 10 a.m., and one at 11, in the James Simpson Theatre of the Museum. In all, thirty-one different motion pictures will be shown during the course of these programs. Children from all parts of Chicago and suburbs are invited to attend. They may come alone, in groups from schools and other centers, or with parents, teachers or other adults. No tickets are required for ad- mission. Following is a schedule of the dates and titles of the films to be presented: October 3 — Indians at a Pow-wow; The Fish That Builds a Nest; The Indian at Work; Whale and Walrus Hunting in Alaska. October 10— The Coral Polyp and Its Work; The Adventures of Columbus. October 17 — Blowing Soap Bubbles; The Friendly Elephant Seal; Sea Shells and Their Uses; Palms and Cacti; Charming Ceylon. October 24— The Parade of Comic Bal- loons; A Visit to a Rubber Plantation; Glass Blowing; Glimpses of Java. October 31 — Ship Ahoy; Leading a Dog's Life; Children of Holland; Chumming With Animals. November 7 — Trailmates. (The story of Wrongstart, a dog, and his master in Alaska) November 14— Our Neighbors, the White- tailed Deer; Where Pineapples Grow; The Story of Sulphur; Strange Salt Workers of Formosa. November 21 — In the Days of Chivalry; Armor of Horse and Man; Where Os- triches and Rhinos Meet; Beautiful Iguassu. November 28 — Forest Folk; Winter Scenes in Crater Lake; The Pilgrims. HIPPOPOTAMUS AND RHINOCEROS PLACED IN AKELEY HALL BABY TAPIR FOR GROUP Word was received at the Museum last month that a specimen of baby tapir, needed for completion of the Museum's habitat group of South American tapirs in Hall 16, has been obtained in the jungles of Matto Grosso, Brazil. Sascha Siemel, of New York, well-known as the "tiger man" because he hunts jaguars, armed only with primitive spear, bow and arrow like the native Indians, is the collector. Mr. Siemel is on a hunting trip in which he is accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. John F. Jennings, of Chicago. The party reports that they have collected also eight jaguars, two ocelots, and several deer. Mr. and Mrs. Jennings do their hunting with rifles rather than with the spears used by Mr. Siemel. Tracks of prehistoric reptiles found in Massachusetts can be seen in the Museum's paleontological exhibits. Field Museum's exhibits of hippopotamus and white rhinoceros, formerly in the sys- tematic collection of mammals in Hall 15, have been reinstalled among the series of African animals in Carl E. Akeley Memorial Hall (Hall 22). Formerly exposed on plain bases in the open, they now appear in en- closed glass cases, and the bases are of the habitat type with shrubbery and reeds to suggest the characteristic home of the animals. Both of these animals are of kinds which, once dead, cannot be made, by ordinary methods of taxidermy, to appear as lifelike as is desirable, because of peculiarities of their skins. The Museum's exhibits have been made satisfactory, however, by repro- ducing the original specimens in a celluloid- like material. This is an instance where synthetic goods are superior to genuine, but it must be remembered that, to begin with, a real animal goes into the making of a synthetic one of this type. The reproductions were made by Staff Taxidermist Leon L. Walters, who is the inventor of a special process employing other animals. It has also been used in the preparation of one hairy animal, an orang, by imbedding the original hair of the animal in the celluloid reproduction of the skin (see Field Museum News, March, 1933). The method was applied to the hippo- potamus and the white rhinoceros because their dried skins lose their life verisimilitude both in condition and color. Plaster casts of the actual skins were made, and from these, after natural colors were applied from the inside, the final celluloid repro- ductions were made. Among advantages of exhibits of this type are the facts that they are easier to keep clean than mounted original skins, and that whereas the skins deteriorate with age, these reproductions may be expected to last for hundreds of years — probably long after the hippopotamus and rhinoceros families will have become extinct. The original specimen used in making the hippopotamus exhibit was a resident of the zoo of the Cincinnati Zoological Park Association, which presented it to the Museum upon the animal's death. The New Taxidermy on Big Scale The cellulose-acetate method of preparing zoological specimens, invented and developed at Field Museum, was applied in the making of this hippopotamus exhibit. It is the largest animal thus reproduced. cellulose-acetate in taxidermy. This method has been most largely used in the reproduc- tion of reptiles, the wholly naked parts of the faces of certain monkeys, and the nose- pads, lips and similar hairless areas of certain original specimen of the white rhinoceros, which was pictured (as previously installed in Hall 15) in the July, 1930, issue of Field Museum News, was obtained by the Con- over-Everard African Expedition. The economic uses and products of various plants are illustrated by exhibits in two halls of the Department of Botany. Jute Jute is the fibrous inner bark of two species of plants of the genus Corchorus, belonging to the basswood family and native in the East Indies. The fiber is separated from the woody stems by steeping the plants in water and beating to remove resinous mat- ter. After separation, the fiber is washed in water, dried in the sun, and pressed into bales for exportation. "The best grades of jute have a brownish yellow tint and a silky luster. Although jute has been used in India since remote times, it is only within the last one hundred years that it has become an im- portant article of commerce. Its chief uses are for the manufacture of gunny sacks, cotton baling, cordage, and twine, and the waste material resulting from these manu- factures is employed for paper making. An exhibit of jute fiber is installed along with other textile fibers in Hall 28. SEA FISH IN FRESH WATER, AND VICE VERSA Not widely known except among pro- fessional zoologists is the fact that certain salt water fishes spend their winters in fresh water, while some fresh water fish go into salt water for a season. While in Labrador and Baffin Land on the Rawson-MacMillan Subarctic Expedition of Field Museum some years ago, Mr. Alfred C. Weed, Assistant Curator of Fishes, caught a number of fishes usually regarded as strictly fresh water species, such as brook trout and pickerel, in salt water. Like- wise, in fresh water streams and lakes of the region, he caught such salt water inhabit; nts as cod and jellyfish. At other seasons he found these same creatures in the kinds of waters to which they are native. A large sea trout caught in fresh water is on exhibition in Albert W. Harris Hall (Hall 18). Page U FIELD MUSEUM NEWS October, 19S6 AUTUMN LECTURE COURSE BEGINS OCTOBER 3 The Sixty-sixth Free Lecture Course to be presented by Field Museum will be given on Saturday afternoons during the months of Octoiser and November, the opening date being October 3. In all there will be nine lectures, on science, travel and exploration, illustrated with motion pictures, stereop- ticon slides, or both. Eminent naturalists and explorers have been engaged for the course. All lectures will begin at 3 p.m. and will be given in the James Simpson Theatre of the Museum. The complete schedule of dates, subjects and speakers is as follows: October 3 — Alone Across Arctic Amer- ica Mr. David Irwin, Grand Rapids, Michigan October 10 — Real Australia — the Land That Is Different Rev. James Marshall, Turramurra, Sydney, N.S.W., Australia October 17 — Sun and Silence in Death Valley Mr. John Claire Monteith, Hollywood, California October 24 — Siam and Java — Oriental Wonderlands Mr. Branson De Cou, New York City October 31 — Awakening of Iran Mr. Herricic B. Young, New York City November 7^ — Recent Discoveries in the Maya Field Dr. Sylvanus G. Morley, Carnegie Institution, Washington, D. C. November 14 — Some Wonders of the Plant World Mr. Arthur C. PiUsbury, Berkeley, California November 21 — Ceylon, the Island of Spice Mr. H. C. Ostrander, Jersey City, N. J. November 28 — Into the New World Under the Sea Mr. J. E. Williamson, Lake Worth, Florida No tickets are necessary for admission to these lectures. A section of the Theatre is reserved for Members of the Museum, each of whom is entitled to two reserved seats on request. Requests for these seats may be made by telephone or in writing to the Museum, in advance of the lecture, and seats will then be held in the Member's name until 3 o'clock on the day of the lecture. Members may obtain seats in the reserved section also by presentation of their membership cards to the Theatre attendant before 3 o'clock on the lecture day, even though no advance reservation has been made. All reserved seats not claimed by 3 o'clock will be available to the general public. A TAMIL OF SOUTH INDIA PORTRAYED IN BRONZE Among the peoples of India represented in the Races of Mankind sculptures by Mal- vina Hoffman in Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall (Hall 3) is a Tamil shown in the act of climbing a large palm tree — a feat which he performs with unusual grace and skill. The Tamils, belonging to the great Dravidian group, live in South India and occupy the northern half of Ceylon. They serve as coolies in Mauritius and the West Indies. In Burma, the Straits Settlements, and Siam the so-called Klings are all Tamils. There are Tamil settlements in East and South Africa. With regard to their physical characters they are smaller in stature and lighter in build than Europeans. In general they possess long heads and medium broad noses. The skin color ranges from light brown to dark chocolate brown. The color of the hair and of the eyes is dark brown or black. Tamil, which is still the principal language of the Madras Presidency, is the oldest, richest and most highly organized of the Dravidian languages. There is no information from archaeologi- cal or traditional sources as to the periods when the Dravidian-speaking peoples of South India separated from one another. The earliest reference to the ancient races of southern India occurs in the Aitareya Brahmana about the Andhras, who are men- tioned as occupying the land near the mouth of the Godavari River. According to Tamil photograph copyright Field Museum of Natural History Tamil Climber This Tamil, as represented in bronze, is climbing a tree known as a "toddy palm" to extract the juice for use in the making of a potent native beverage. traditions the ancient kingdom of Tamilkan, occupying the greater part of Southern India, was essentially the land of Tamil race and speech. There are available at the Museum photo- gravure post cards of this and nearly all of the other racial sculptures in this series. Larger photographs may also be purchased. Orders are filled by mail, if desired. Under special arrangement institutions or individ- uals may obtain reproductions in bronze, either full or reduced size. Those interested may communicate with the Director of the Museum on this subject. What goes on inside a sprouted coconut from which a young coconut palm tree is about to grow is represented by a series of cut-section models in the Hall of Plant Life (Hall 29, Case 818). An extremely ancient human skull, and the primitive lamp and other crude im- plements used by early man which were found beside it, are on exhibition in Ernest R. Graham Hall (Hall 38). They were found in a cave on the island of Crete. OCTOBER GUIDE-LECTURE TOURS Conducted tours of exhibits, under the guidance of staff lecturers, are made every afternoon at 3 p.m.. except Saturdays, Sundays, and certain holidays. Following is the schedule of subjects and dates for October: Thursday, October 1 — General Tour; Friday — Marine Life. Week beginning October 5: Monday — Races of Mankind; Tuesday — Plants and Their Fruits; Wednes- day— Prehistoric Life; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Egyptian Art. Week beginning October 12: Monday — Eskimo Life; Tuesday — Birds at Home; Wednesday — Rocks and Their Formations; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Palms and Cereals. Week beginning October 19: Monday — Makers of Totem Poles; Tuesday — Animal Families; Wednesday — Native Life in the Philippines; Thursday — General Tour; Friday— Story of Coal. Week beginning October 26: Monday — Mexico: Tuesday — Hall of Plant Life; Wednesday — African Animal Life; Thlusday — General Tour; Friday — Crystals and Their Uses. Persons wishing to participate should apply at North Entrance. Tours are free and no gratuities are to be proffered. A new schedule will appear each month in Field Museum News. Guide-lecturers' services for special tours by parties of ten or more are available free of charge by arrangement with the Director a week in advance. Gifts to the Museum Following is a list of some of the principal gifts received during the last month: From Dr. Earl E. Sherff — 94 herbarium specimens, Hawaii; from Henry Field — 95 herbarium specimens, 64 specimens invertebrate fossils, minerals, and rocks, 2 snakes, 9 salamanders, 11 lizards, 20 bats, and 20 mammal skulls and skeletons, Iraq and Europe; from Museo Nacional — 1,494 herbarium specimens, Costa Rica; from Professor J. Soukup — 176 herbarium speci- mens, Peru; from Mrs. Josepli W. Work — 7 precious opals, Mexico; from Miss Janet Davis — 3 salamanders, 27 frogs, and a turtle, Wisconsin; from Tarleton Smith — 4 snakes, Texas; from Fred Cagle — 75 leopard frogs, Illinois; from Chicago Zoological Society — 3 monkeys and a serval, Africa, and a fox skull, 2 hare skulls, and a silver-haired bat, Greenland and Nova Scotia; from E. F. Vacin — 3 trout, Wyoming; from Zoological Society of San Diego — 12 shells of Galapagos tortoises, Gala- pagos Islands. NEW MEMBERS The following persons were elected to membership in Field Museum during the period from August 17 to September 15: Associate Members Edward Alexander, Alfred B. Geiger, Mrs. Caryl B. Young. Sustaining Members Thomas J. Carney Annual Members Miss Caroline Bender, Frank B. Calmeyn, Derwood S. Chase, George C. Clark, Jr., Mrs. Harold A. Clark, P. G. Dallwig, Edward F. Deacon, Milford F. Henkel, Irving L. Hertzman, John Irwin, Nate Jacobs, H. R. King, Nicholas Knol, Frank J. Lewis, Fritz Mayer, Dr. Sarah C. O'Connell, R. H. Ritchie, Mrs. William A. Ryan, Walter I. Uden, Henry N. Wyzanski. Cinnamon Cinnamon is the aromatic bark of a small tree {Cinnamomum zeylanicum) of the laurel family. It is cultivated extensively in Ceylon, India and Malaysia. The straight young willow-like shoots furnish the finest cinnamon. Longitudinal incisions are made in the thin bark which separates readily from the wood and rolls up in the form of pipes. It is then dried in the sun and tied in bundles. Cinnamon depends for its aroma and properties upon the presence of a volatile or essential oil, oil of cinnamon. It is used chiefly for flavoring. A specimen of cinnamon bark is on dis- play in the exhibit of condiments in Hall 25 and of cinnamon oil among the essential oils installed in Hall 28. PHINTCD BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS News Pvblished Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago Vol. 7 NOVEMBER, 1936 No. 11 ODD CUCUMBER TREES ON ISLE OF SOCOTRA REPRESENTED IN MURAL PAINTING By B. E. Dahlgbbn Curator, Department of Botany Among the murals painted for the Hall of Plant Life (Hall 29) by Staff Artist Charles A. Corwin is a landscape from Socotra with a sparse but most unusual and remarkable type of vegetation. Socotra is a small mountainous island, 200 miles off the southern coast of Arabia, but situated somewhat nearer to the most easterly point of the African mainland, Cape Guardafui or the northern tip of Italian Somaliland. It has a core of archean gneiss and granite moun- tains, the highest peaks reaching almost to 5,000 feet. The granite is overlaid in part with Eocene lime- stone. The island would be completely arid but for the mois- ture brought down by the mountains from the prevailing north- east monsoons. It has long been separated from the continent, and possesses a vege- tation which, as might be expected, has the general aspect of its region but in large part is distinctive and different from that of the neighboring main- lands of Africa or Arabia. Socotra has been visited by various well- known botanists, among them the Scotchman, Balfour, the German, Schwein- furth, and the famous Austrian, Wettstein. The extraordinary appearance of some of the vegetation of the island became generally known through the photographs made by the last named and published in the familiar collection of Karsten and Schenck. It is from these photographs, and from available descriptions, that Mr. Corwin has painted the scene shown in the accompanying illustration, which represents a landscape from the northeast part of the island at an elevation of about a thousand feet. "Approaching the island from the north," says Schweinfurth, "as soon as one can make out some detail of the bush-covered mountain banks the attention of the observer is captured by a remarkable sight. In- numerable white pillars stand out every- where from the moss green of the vegeta- tion. They glitter like marble forms in the bright sunlight, and as far as the eye can reach one appears to be confronted with Trees Adapted by Nature to Seml-drougbt Conditions The columnar trunks in the center are those of the Cucumber Trees, Dendrosicyos socotrana; the thicker, branched one at the left is a Fran^pani relative, Adenium socotranum; the gloi)ular stem near the lower right corner is that of a Dorstenia. Branches, leaves, and fruit in all these have become secondary in importance to the development of the bole for water storage. The trees in the background are Euphorbias. a vast Campo Santo where a forest of gravestones mingles conspicuously with a forest of solemn cypress." At close range the tombstones are seen to be trees, and on botanical examination these are found to be of the cucumber family and of a genus peculiar to the island, not closely related to any other but with its nearest allies in the New World. Ten to twelve feet high, with a gray-white tapering stem, spongy and soft like a turnip, they are practically water storage reservoirs, surmounted by a few branches, short and crooked, bearing some sparse, gray-green foliage. Growing on stony ground with very little soil, all their characters are an evident adaptation to a semi-drought condition. Among the cucumber trees there are thicker, multiple stems, unshapely and tapering even more rapidly. These are of a widely different species suggesting a West Indian frangi- pani tree, grossly mal- formed, and like it they belong to the In- ■ dian hemp or oleander family. They have somewhat longer branches than the cucumber trees, thick- er and larger leaves, and light red flowers, but they also consist mostly of stem. Branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit have all become secondary in importance to the development of the bole for water storage. A curious flask- shaped stem on the ex- treme lower right in the picture is that of a giant Dorstenia, a genus well-known on this continent as tropical herbs of the mulberry family. The Socotra species is modified out of all resemblance to the ordinary appearance of this genus. The cypress-like trees are a kind of candelabrum Euphorbia. Green though leafless, particularly bushy and compact, they are stunted and cropped like the top of a windblown conifer. Cactus-like Eu- phorbias are common in Africa, but this species has its nearest relative in Teneriffe, one of the Canary Islands. AUTUMN LECTURES CONTINUE THROUGH NOVEMBER Four more lectures in the Museum's autumn course for adults remain to be given on Saturday afternoons during No- vember. All begin at 3 p.m., and are given in the James Simpson Theatre of the Mu- seum. They are illustrated with motion pictures and stereopticon slides, and eminent explorers and naturalists have been engaged. Following are the dates, subjects and speakers: November 7 — Recent Discoveries in the Maya Field Dr. Sylvanus G. Morley, Carnegie Institution, Washington, D. C. November 14 — Some Wonders of the Plant World Mr. Arthur C. Pillabury, Berkeley, California Novemiber 21 — Ceylon, the Island of Spice Mr. H. C. Ostrander, Jersey City, N. J. November 28 — Into the New World Under the Sea Mr. J. E. Williamson, Lake Worth, Florida No tickets are necessary for admission to these lectures. A section of the Theatre is reserved for Members of the Museum, each of whom is entitled to two reserved seats on request. Requests for these seats may be made by telephone or in writing to the Museum, in advance of the lecture, and seats will then be held in the Member's name until 3 o'clock on the day of the lecture. Members may obtain seats in the reserved section also by presentation of their membership cards to the Theatre attendant before 3 o'clock on the lecture day, even though no advance reservation has been made. All reserved seats not claimed by 3 o'clock will be available to the general public. Diamond in Meteorite Among the many specimens collectors con- stantly refer to the Museum for identification there occurred recently one of unusual inter- est. It is a slice of iron meteorite with a small diamond projecting from its surface. Page 2 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS November, 19S6 Field Museum of Natural History Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 Roosevelt Road and Lake Michigan, Chicago THE BOARD Seweix L. Avery John Bobdes William J. Chalmers Joseph N. Field Marshall Field Stanley Field Ernest R. Graham Albert W. Harris Samuel Inslix, Jr. John P, OF TRUSTEES William H. Mitchell George A. Richardson Fred W. Sargent Stephen C. Simms James Simpson Solomon A. Smith Albert A. Spragub Silas H. Straws' Leslie Wheeler Wll^ON OFFICERS Stanxey Field Prmdent Albert A. Spragub Firtt VUe-PraUietU Jambs Simpson Second Vice-Pretideni Albert W. Harris Third Vite-Prendeni Stephen C. Sdois Dinetor and Seentary Solomon A . Smith . . . T'rnmirer and Attitiant Seeretam FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Stephen C. Sqims, Director 0/ the Muteum Editor CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Paul S. Martin CutoIot of Anthrovolon B. E. Dahlgren Curator 0/ Botann Hen-ry W. Nichols Curator of Geology Wilfred H. Osgood Curator of Zooion H. B. Harte Manatint Editor Field Museum is open every day of the year (except Christmas and New Year's Day) during the hours indicated below: Nov., Dec., Jan., Feb., Mar. 9 AJi. to 4:30 pji. April, September, October 9 A.M. to 5:00 pjl. May, June, July, August 9 AJf. to 6:00 PJI. Admission is free to Members on all days. Other adults are admitted free on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays; non-members pay 25 cents on other days. Children are admitted free on all days. Students and faculty members of educational institutions are admit- ted free any day upon presentation of credentials. The Museum's natural history Library is open for reference daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Traveling exhibits are circtilated in the schools of Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public School Extension Department of the Museum. Lectures for schools, and special entertainments and tours for children at the Museum, are provided by the James Kelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. Announcements of free illustrated lectures for the public, and special lectures for Members of the Museum, will appear in Field Musel'M News. A cafeteria in the Museum serves visitors. Rooms are provided for those bringing their lunches. Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 buses go direct to the Museiun. Members are requested to inform the Museum promptly of changes of address. MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM Field Museum has several dasses of Members. Benefactors give or devise $100,000 or more. Contribu- tors give or devise $1,000 to $100,000. Life Members give $500; Non-Resident Life and Associate Members pay $100; Non-Resident Associate Members pay $50. All the above classes are exempt from dues. Sustaining Members contribute $25 annually. After six years they become Associate Members. Annual Members con- tribute $10 annually. Other memberships are Corpo- rate, Honorar>-, Patron, and Corresponding, additions under these dassitications being made by special action of the Board of Trustees. Each Member, in all dasses, is entitled to free admission to the Mtiseum for himself, his family and house guests, and to two reserved seats for Musetun lectures pro\ided for Members. Subscription to Fim.D MlSElM News is induded with all memberships. The courtesies of every museum of note in the United States and Canada are extended to all Members of Field Museum. A Member may give his personal card to non-residents of Chicago, upon presentation of which they will be admitted to file Museum without charge. Further information about memberships will be sent on request. BEOLXSTS A.ND ENDOWMENTS Bequests to Field Museum of Natural History may be made in securities, money, books or ct^ections. They may, if desired, take the form of a memorial to a person or cause, named by the giver. Contributions made within the taxable year not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's net income are allowable as deductions in computing net income for federal income tax purposes. Endowments may be made to the Museum with the proTsion that an annuity be paid to the patron for life. These annuities are guaranteed against fluctuation in amount, and may reduce federal income taxes. THE FOREIGN TRADE OF ANCIENT KISH By Richard A. Martin Archaeological evidence from the Field Museum-Oxford University Joint Expedi- tion to Kish has added to our knowledge of the early foreign contacts of Sumer with the Indus Valley, Elam, and Anatolia. Among the objects found at Kish are two stamp seals which depict the urus-ox before a symbolic standard, and are inscribed with the as yet undecipherable Indus script. These are undoubtedly imported pieces from the later phase of the Harappa culture in the Indus Valley. They are identified with the Early Dynastic Period III (circa 2700-2530 B.C.). Another evidence of contact at this time is the occurrence of many etched camelian' beads so characteristic of Indus sites, and probably of Indian manufacture. During this same pre-Sargonoid period, relation with the north is shown by a rare find at Kish, a stone ax of typical Anatolian type. In the Early Dynastic Period I {circa 3000-2800 B.C.), Kish was also at least in indirect touch with the early Harappa culture, as fragments of decorated steatite bowls similar to those of Susa have been found at Kish and Mohenjo-daro. Twin cosmetic jars of alabaster and beak-spouted stone vessels are also links respectively between Elam and Anatolia. The earliest contact, in the Jemdet Nasr Period (before 3000 B.C.), is northward as indicated by the presence of highly polished fine black ware identical to the Chalcolithic of Anatolia and North Syria. Change in Visiting Hours Effective November 1, and continu- ing until March 31, winter visiting hours — 9 A.M. to 4:30 P.M. — will be observed on weekdays at Field Mu- seum; 9 A.M. to 5 P.M. on Sundays. THE "GOD OF BARBERS" An imperial sUk robe used to drape during periodic ceremonies the image of a strange and ancient Chinese god — the god of bar- bers, actors, jugglers and magicians — is on exhibition among the Chinese collections in Hall 32 (Case 36). It is believed to be the only robe of its kind ever brought from China to the United States, and was pre- sented to the Museum jointly by Messrs. Henry M. Wolf and Martin C. Schwab, of Chicago. The robe is made of the finest silk, woven exclusively for the emperors of old China. It is purple, with a black border, and a lining of Chinese imperial yellow. The purple is decorated in tapestry weave with an orna- mental form of the character "shou" denot- ing "long life." This design is repeated about a thousand times. The lining is stamped with four characters which translate into "made for the palace of Lii Tsu." Lii Tsu is the god for whom the robe was made. He was a sort of patron saint of Chinese barbers, actors and others, his godhood resulting from the deification of the Patriarch Lii or Lii Tung-pin, a histor- ical personage of the eighth century A.D., famed as a sage, recluse and performer of miracles. After his death Lii was worshipped by many people, but according to custom his deification required official recognition by an emperor. "This did not come until several centuries later, when an emperor who had suffered much at the hands of careless bar- bers was visited by the shade of Lii and given a painless shave, according to a legend. In gratitude the emperor extended recognition of Lii as a god, and he became one of the "Eight Immortals" of Taoist religion, and the patron of the Chinese ton- sorial profession. The robe which the Museum now possesses was used to drape his statue for his birthday festivals in the temple erected for him at Peking (Peiping). Lii's temple is even today frequented as a shrine by the sick. The patients shake a receptacle filled with bamboo rods, each numbered, until one drops out of the con- tainer. The number of this rod corresponds to a printed prescription which the priest in attendance hands to the supplicant. The latter has it filled by an apothecary. There are a hundred prescriptions for men, a hundred for women, and a hundred for children, displayed on the wall of the temple, and they are supposed to include remedies for all diseases. BABASSU Babassu "nuts," and the oil obtained from them, have recently attracted some atten- tion in the daily press due to economic and political discussions. The so-called "nuts" are the kernels of a large feather-leaved palm of northern and central Brazil, especially of the state of Maranhao where they exist in large quantities. For the last twenty years the kernels have been gathered for their oil content and exported, mostly to Europe. Germany and Holland have been the chief consumers, presumably using the edible fat in the preparation of soap and of butter substitutes, for both of which purposes it is said to excel coconut oil. The United States has until recently taken very little of the supply, but the rapid increase in its importation would indicate that the excellent qualities of this vegetable oil are becoming well known. An entire bunch of the fruit of a babassii palm, dried fruits collected last year in the state of Piauhy and cut in various ways to show their structure, variation in size and number of kernels, as well as a sample of babassu oil, are displayed by the Depart- ment of Botany in the palm collection in Hall 25 on the second floor. Staff Appointments Mr. C. Martin Wilbur has been appointed Assistant Curator of Sinology in the Depart- ment of Anthropology. Mr. Wilbur, a graduate of Oberlin College, holds a master's degree from Columbia University for ex- tensive studies and research in Sinology and anthropology. He has spent a large part of his life in the Orient, and is highly qualified in the Chinese language, and in Oriental archaeology and ethnology. As a fellow of the Social Science Research Council he gained practical experience in museum work at the United States National Mu- seum. Last summer he was engaged in field work with a University of Chicago expedition making archaeological excava- tions in southern Illinois. Field Museum's Oriental collections and researches, de- veloped so notably by the late Dr. Berthold Laufer, will be placed in Mr. Wilbur's hands for continuation. Miss Marie B. Pabst has been appointed as a guide-lecturer on the staff of the James Nelson and Anna Liouise Raymond Founda- tion for Public School and Children's Lectures. This appointment brings the number of lecturers to five, the maximum ever employed. November, 1936 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Page S ANCIENT PROMISSORY NOTE REVEALS SEVERE USURY By Paul S. Martin Curator, Department of Anthropology An ancient Egyptian promissory note, accompanied by its literal translation, was recently added to the exhibits in Hall J (archaeology of Egypt). The specimen, which dates from 109-108 B.C., is not very well preserved, but in spite of this difficulty Dr. Nathaniel J. Reich, of Philadelphia, has been able to decipher most of the hiero- glyphics. Quite startling is the usurious rate of interest, 100 per cent. The harsh terms of the note make their own com- mentary on the social conditions of the time. A brief interpretation of the note follows: "I, the peasant-slave Ensnakhomneu, belonging to the Zemi cemetery, have bor- rowed from the woman Nekhutes 22 3^^ artabas of wheat. I promise to repay this loan with 100 per cent interest, making the total due 45 artabas of wheat. Further, I promise to repay this loan with good, unadulterated, chaffless seed-wheat, measured by the same standard as was used in making me this loan ; and I further promise to deliver the said wheat to the house of the woman Nekhutes in the Zemi cemetery without transportation charges, by the last day of the ninth month of the year 9 with no extensions of time to be granted. Further, whatever I do not repay in wheat by the aforesaid date I will repay within the following month at the rate of 60 pieces of silver per artaba. Further, as long as this note is in Nekhutes' possession I cannot claim, unless I can show a receipt, to have made full or partial payment. Further, everything that I now possess or shall acquire is herewith pledged to Nekhutes until I shall have discharged my debt in full. Further, if Nekhutes brings suit against me for failing to meet my obligation, I admit additional liability for any damages. Further, the agent of Nekhutes is hereby authorized to deal with me and I promise to follow his instructions at all times promptly and unreservedly." A UNIQUE BOOK ON ETHIOPIA BY OSGOOD AND FUERTES Under the title Artist and Naturalist in Ethiopia, a new book has just appeared from the press of Doubleday Doran and Company. The authors are Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood, Curator of Zoology at Field Museum, and the late Louis A. Fuertes, noted artist. The book gives a "day-by-day record of actual experiences" during the Field Museum- Chicago Daily News Ethiopian Expedition of 1926-27. As stated in the preface it is a "unique type of book in which the same journey is seen through two different pairs of eyes," and its intention is "to present a view of the life of the traveling naturalist as seen by himself and spontaneously recorded on the spot, not as colored and selectively presented ex post facto under the influence of prospective excitement of a reader's wonder and admiration." Besides vivid accounts of hunting and collecting, it details various meetings with Haile Selassie, ruler of the country, and chiefs of outlying provinces, giving an intimate view of life in the ancient feudal kingdom as it existed before the recent war with Italy. The book is in rather sumptuous form, in small quarto size, and illustrated with sixteen large plates beautifully lithographed in full color from paintings by Fuertes. It is obtainable at Field Museum; price $5 plus postage. EXHIBIT SHOWS THE VESTIGIAL HIND LIMBS OF WHALES By d. Dwight Davis of the right whale. The adults are hairless and devoid of teeth, but both hair and teeth are present for a time before birth. There has been a great deal of argument and speculation among anatomists as to just which of the three pairs of pelvic bones is represented in whales. This question probably never will be answered satis- factorily, since the remaining bones are so reduced that all clews by which they might have been identified have vanished. There may be some question as to why the pelvis has not disappeared completely, instead of leaving these fragments. In answer to this, it has recently been pointed out that some of the muscles of the rectum still attach to them. These important muscles demand some point of attachment, and the pelvic vestiges have persisted to provide that anchorage. Hind limbs are absent in many other animals, notably in snakes. Many fish, a Assistant in Osteology Mammals that have taken to life in the water have undergone greater alteration than those living in any other type of environment. This is particularly true of whales, which are more completely aquatic than any other existing mammals. They spend their whole lives in the water, and are completely helpless on land. Although often assumed to be fishes, they are really highly modified mammals. Their fish-like appearance is a part of their adaptation to life in the sea. The right whale, which is one of the largest and best known of whales, illustrates the extent of these adaptations very well. Its ancestors were four-footed beasts that walked on land, although one of the most notable features of the external appearance of modern whales is the complete absence of hind limbs. The combined effect of the Skeleton of Right Whale Inset at left shows one of the small bones which lie below the vertebrae in the animal's flesh, entirely dis- connected from skeleton in the modern animals. These represent the vestiges of hind legs which ancient ancestors of the whale once possessed. They still serve as a point of attachment for certain muscles. streamlining of the body and the develop- ment of a powerful tail have made hind limbs useless, or even detrimental, and con- sequently they have disappeared. In the meantime the fore limbs have developed into powerful paddles, which aid the fish- like tail in propelling the body through the water. Buried deeply in the muscles of the body, however, is a pair of small bones, less than a foot long. These relatively insignificant bones are not connected with the rest of the skeleton, but "float" unattached in the softer tissues of the body. They are all that is left of the hind legs that formerly were present, for the muscles that once attached to the pelvis and legs have long since disappeared. These pelvic remnants are thus excellent examples of what are known as "vestigial structures" — the last useless remnants of organs that once were well developed and functional. Other similar vestiges are present in the embryo salamander (Siren), the curious burrowing caecilians, and certain limbless lizards also lack them. The 45-foot right whale skeleton in Hall 19 was exhibited for many years without these interesting vestiges of the hind limbs. These have recently been added, however, and may now be seen in the position they occupied in life, below the backbone near the base of the tail. Interesting for comparison with modern evergreens is a collection of fossil cones and branches of extinct South American ever- green trees in Ernest R. Graham Hall (Hall 38). Rare and elaborately decorated textiles woven by tribes of Madagascar from banana fiber, the inner bark of trees, raffia, hemp, cotton, and the silk of wild silkworms, are on exhibition in Hall E. PageU FIELD MUSEUM NEWS November, 19S6 RAYMOND FOUNDATION OFFERS FOUR CHILDREN'S PROGRAMS During November there will be presented four more free programs of motion pictures for children, provided by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. These entertainments are given on Saturday mornings in the James Simpson Theatre of the Museum. There are two showings of the films on each program, one beginning at 10 A.M., and one at 11. Children from all parts of Chicago and suburbs are invited. The following schedule shows the titles of the films to be shown on each date: November 7 — Trailmates. (The story of Wrongstart, a dog, and his master in Alaska) November 14 — Our Neighbors, the White- tailed Deer; Where Pineapples Grow; The Story of Sulphur; Strange Salt Workers of Formosa. November 21 — In the Days of Chivalry; Armor of Horse and Man; Where Os- triches and Rhinos Meet; Beautiful Iguassu. November 28 — Forest Folk; Winter Scenes in Crater Lake; The Pilgrims. HAWAIIAN SURF-BOARD RIDER TYPIFIES POLYNESIAN RACE Chief representative of the Polynesian race among the sculptures by Malvina Hoffman in Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall is a full length figure showing a young Hawaiian speeding toward the beach on his surf-board. The race is also represented by two other bronzes, a head of a Hawaiian, and a bust of a Samoan (the latter pictured in the June, 1933 issue of Field Museum News). Surf-board riding, while not as common as in former times, is still one of the favorite sports of the Hawaiians, as well as of many other islanders throughout the Pacific. In the old days it was practised by all, from the lowest to the highest — men, women, and children. The most daring and skillful devotees favor the heaviest surf, and when huge rollers are coming in they sometimes swim out as much as half a mile with their boards, diving under each wave. Choosing the largest swell, they balance themselves on their boards just behind the crest, and so are carried to shore. It takes great skill to keep the proper position to prevent sliding back or falling over in front. The boards are carefully made of light wood, about one and a half inches thick, eighteen inches wide, and eight feet long, rounded at one end. This is a splendid exercise for developing a good physique, and the Hawaiians are a well-built muscular people. They are rather tall, the men averaging nearly five feet eight inches in height. They are light brown in color, with dark or black hair varying from straight to wavy or even curly. The head is rather broad, the forehead low but well- shaped with rather thick lips. They are typical representatives of the Polynesian race which is scattered over the islands of the eastern Pacific from Hawaii to New Zealand. The origin of the Polynesians is a problem still to be solved. They are undoubtedly a mixed race that has reached its present loca- tion in a wave, or more likely several waves, of migration, probably from southeastern Asia. The movement, however, was doubt- less gradual, with stopping places on the way. In spite of a certain amount of variation, there is a general resemblance between the inhabitants of the different islands in language and culture, as well as in physical appearance. Heads and Tales, the recently published book by Malvina Hoffman telling the story of her life and of the creation of the Races of Mankind sculptures, is on sale at the Museum. It is a volume of 416 pages, profusely illustrated. Price $5, plus postage on mail orders. Also available at the Museum are photogravure post cards of nearly all the racial sculptures, and, for those who desire them, larger photographs. Under special arrangement, institutions or Photograph copyright Field Musenm of NaturmI History Speed and Balance A splendid example of Malvina Hofifman's skill in capturing motion is presented by the sculpture of a Hawaiian riding his surf-board. individuals may obtain reproductions in bronze, either full or reduced size. Those interested should communicate with the Director of the Museum. NEW MEMBERS The following persons were elected to membership in Field Museum during the period from September 16 to October 15: Corresponding Members Dr. Karl Keissler Associate Members Mrs. Charles H. Alsip, Clay Judson, James G. McMillan, Mrs. E. A. Smith. Sustaining Members John L. Mclnerney Annual Members Jerome G. Abeles, Mrs. Oscar E. Aleshire, Mrs. Harrold A. Bachmann, Theodore S. Chapman, Mrs. Charles King Corsant, Mrs. Willa Thurman Doubson, Mrs. W. A. Fairlie, Peter J. Feipel, C. Herrick Ham- mond, George D. Hardin, J. R. Harmon, J. W. Harmon, Robert B. Harper, Ewart Harris, Mrs. H. G. Hart, Joseph F. Hejna, Fred M. Heller, Mrs. Burton W. Henderson, Alfred Herz, P. S. Howard, Miss Millie C. Johnson, Webster B. Kay, Henry J. Lalley, Mrs. John Henry Liebenthal, Telfer MacArthur, William J. MacKenzie, Walsh B. MacPherson, Guy E. Manning, Z. E. Martin, Elmer William Marx, John H. McGill, Thomas J. McKearnan, Dr. Eugene J. O'Neill, Mrs. Fred B. Orr, Miss Tillie Oswald, Mrs. C. L. Patterson, William E. Poore, Miss Hattiemae Quick, Mrs. Paul Rilling, Shepherd M. Roberts, Reginald Victor Robin- son, Frank P. Roeach, William J. Ross, Miss Helen Valerie Ryan, Mrs. Walter A. Shaw, Mrs. J. W. Staples, Robert Trier, Miss EUa C. Wubbena, H. T. Yeaton. NOVEMBER GUIDE-LECTURE TOURS Conducted tours of exhibits, under the guidance of staff lecturers, are made every afternoon at 3 p.m., except Saturdays, Sundays, and certain holidays. Following is the schedule of subjects and dates for November: Week beginning November 2: Monday — Woodland Indians; Tuesday — Plant Fibers and Their Uses; Wednesday — Animals and Plants of Long Ago; Thurs- day— General Tour; Friday — North American Animal Life. Week beginning November 9: Monday — Chinese and Tibetan Art; Tuesday — Birds of Prey; Wednesday^ Moon and Meteorites; Thursday— General Tour; Friday — Copal, Turpentine and Rubber. Week beginning November 16; Monday — Ancient Burials; Tuesday — Reptiles Through the Ages; Wednes- day— South America; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Plant Ecology. Week beginning November 23: Monday — Animals of Plains and Mountains; Tuesday — Egypt; Wednesday — Men of the Stone Age; Thursday — Thanksgiving holiday, no tout; Friday — Mexico. Monday, November 30 — Valuable Fur-bearers. Persons wishing to participate should apply at North Entrance. Tours are free and no gratuities are to be proffered. A new schedule will appear each month in Field Museum News. Guide-lecturers' services for special tours by parties of ten or more are available free of charge by arrangement with the Director a week in advance. Gifts to the Museum Following is a list of some of the principal gifts received during the last month : From Clarence Burley — a rabbit fur blanket, Cree Indians, Canada; from Joseph Lazzar — 4 painted pot- sherds, Iraq; from Phillips Academy — 52 pieces of pottery. New Mexico; from Henry Field — 2 skulls of modern Arabs, Iraq, 17 herbarium specimens, Scotland, and 154 fishes, 109 lizards. 27 frogs, 4 goldfinches, a stork, and 126 lower invertebrates, Iraq and Europe; from University of Texas — 366 herbarium specimens, Texas and New Mexico; from School of Forestry, Yale University — 17 herbarium specimens. Dominican Republic; from Dr. E. E. SherfT — 32 herbarium speci- mens, Hawaii; from Museo Nacional — 1,166 herbarium specimens, Costa Rica; from Rev. Brother Elias — 75 herbarium specimens, Colombia; from Prof. L. A. Higley — a septarium and 50 manganese-silica con- cretions. South Dakota; from O. J. Salo — 25 crystals, Montana; from Edwin B. Faber — jaw of Thryptacodon (creodont), Colorado; from Edwin C. Galbreath— 3D fossil vertebrates, Illinois; from Miss Margaret M. Cornell — a pearl on clam shell, Wisconsin; from Harold Hansen — a badger, Illinois; from Prof. W. P. Kennedy — a crustacean, Iraq, and 17 fishes, near Bagdad; from L. M. Klauber — 2 leaf-nosed snakes, California; from Tarleton Smith — 5 snakes, 2 toads, and a lizard, Texas; from William Beecher — a toad, a garter snake, and a painted turtle, Illinois; from Miss Emily Clark — 26 frogs, snakes, and lizards, Nigeria; from Mrs. Vanderslice — a Tovi parrakeet; from H. B. Conover — 12 birds, Manchuria; from Chicago Zoological Society — 145 birds, 17 fishes, and 19 invertebrates: from Colorado Museum of Natural History — a red wolf skeleton, Brazil, and a head of Derby's guan, Guate- mala; from Lincoln Park Zoo — a crocodile lizard and a giant ant-eater. South America; from Leslie Wheeler — 51 hawks and 28 owls, southwest Africa, Manchukuo, Honduras, and Paraguay; from Prof. F. Martin Brown — a butterfly, Canada; from Sascha Siemel — a tapir, Brazil; from Karl Plath — 2 birds; from George K. Cherrie — 29 rodents, Texas; from C. I. Westbrook — a white-throated sparrow, Illinois; from Glenn A. Packer — a hog-nosed snake, Michigan; from Miss Anna Schweitzer — a milk snake, Illmois; from Donald C. Lowrie — a bull snake, Illinois; from Dr. T. C. Schneirla — a marine toad. Canal Zone; from Charles W. Gray — ■ a spider "tarantula," Missouri; from R. Marlin Perkins — a Spix'a coral snake, Brazil; from Arthur Mallon — a fox snake, Illinois; from Mrs. Lina Petersen — a sea horse, Mississippi; from H. C. Benke, from Joseph N. Field, from Dr. E. E. Sherff, and from Carnegie Institution of Washington — valuable books for the Library. Museum Honors Vienna Scientist Dr. Karl Keissler, Director of the Botanical Division of the Natural History Museum of Vienna, was elected a Corresponding Mem- ber of Field Museum at a recent meeting of the Board of Trustees. This honor was con- ferred in recognition of Dr. Keissler's eminent services to the Museum in connec- tion with the institution's botanical work in Europe. PRrNTCD BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS News Published Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago Vol. 7 DECEMBER, 1936 No. 12 THE GRACEFUL AMERICAN ELM, A TREE WHICH HAS WON A NATION'S AFFECTION By Samuel J. Record Research Associate in Wood Technology The American elm is known to more people, and has a deeper hold on their affection, than any other tree of the western hemisphere. Its natural range includes the entire eastern half of the United States, extending from the Great Plains to the Atlantic, and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico. Though a tree of the primeval forest, it did not dis- appear with the clear- ing of the land for agriculture; rather it remained or emerged to cast its massive shadow on farmsteads, pastures and country roads, or to form cathedral-like arches over village streets. It has been planted and cherished from earliest colonial days, commanding respect for its stature and pliant strength, and stirring admiration for its graceful beauty — qualities rarely found in such harmonious combination. Many important events and personages are associated with individual trees. It was in the shade of the "Cambridge Elm" that General George Washington took com- mand of the Conti- nental Army on July 3, 1775; the tree sur- vived until 1923, and cuttings from it are growing in such widely separated places as Boston and Seattle. At Berkeley Springs, West Virginia, there is still standing a great elm tree, twenty-one feet in circum- ference, which was planted in 1747 by Washington, then a young surveyor, to mark a corner of the estate of the Right Honorable Thomas Lord Fairfax. Other elms associated with the "Father of his Country" are to be found on the grounds of the Capitol at Washington, D.C., at Palmer, Massachusetts, and near the army headquarters at Valley Forge. The first constitution of the state of Indiana was framed in the shade of a big elm near Corydon in June, 1816. And there is the "Liberty Elm" in Pennsylvania; the "Logan Elm" at Circleville, Ohio; "Lafayette Elms" at Ware, Massachusetts, and Kennebunk, Maine; the "Whittier Elm" at Haverhill, Massachusetts; and many others, serving as monuments to a nation's heroes. Most recent addition a fine specimen of America' excellent photograph which Mural of American Elm in Hall of Plant Life to the series of paintings of botanical subjects by Staff Artist Charles A. Corwin shows 's most loved tree in a typical New Hampshire scene. The painting is based upon an appeared some years ago in the magazine Garden and Forest. Were the American elm to meet the fate of the chestnut and gradually succumb to the attack of a foreign disease, the injury to the timber trade would be substantial, but it would seem small compared to the greater loss to the country in the passing of a stately and charming tree. The senti- mental value of the American elm far out- weighs the economic. And so, because a few shipments of diseased logs with knotty and contorted grain were brought from Europe to supply fancy veneers, a costly fight is being waged to stop the spread of the infection. The outcome is still in doubt. Unlike the black walnut and the white oak, two other cherished relics of the virgin forest, the elm has no appeal to the makers of fine furniture. There is little of beauty beneath the bark, and the very qualities that make the wood so serviceable to the living tree unfit it for most of the wants of man. The secret of the elm's litheness and grace resides in the toughnessofits timber. A thin cross section, when highly magnified, suggests a piece of lacework, with alternating layers and festoons of coarse and fine meshes. These finer parts are verit- able thongs of sinewy fiber rendered flexible by the porous layers between. The pliable nature of the wood adapts it for bent work, and its strength and tough- ness fit it for articles that must withstand rough usage. These are qualities sought for in the cooperage industry, piore espe- cially the general utility class of barrels for which elm supplies not only staves and heading but also the hoops. Other woods may serve well enough for the splints of baskets, but for the more durable types there is no satisfactory substitute for elm for rims and handles. There are innumerable instances where it serves, always humbly and inconspicuously, to provide a framework or reinforcement for various other weaker but more attractive materials. As a living tree the American elm has been called "the most beautiful plant of the temperate zone"; but in respect to its timber it is unquestionably one of "the Marthas of the wood world." BOTANICAL-ORNITHOLOGICAL MYSTERY DEFIES SOLUTION By Paul C. Standley Associate Curator of the Herbarium In October, 1935, Mrs. H. I. Steffa, of Chicago, while dressing a duck shot in southern Wisconsin, found in its stomach four white seeds. Out of curiosity she planted them in a flower pot, and all germinated. Last spring she forwarded to Field Museum a leaf of one of the seed- lings, but, because of the primitive form of the leaf, it was impossible to determine the plant it represented. The young plants have continued to grow, and further material was forwarded this fall by Mrs. Steffa. From the new material it was recognized that they are the tropical papaya {Carica Papaya). One of them has been placed in Garfield Park Conservatory. It is almost incredible that seeds of this plant, which grows out of doors no nearer than southern Florida, should be found in the stomach of a duck killed in the north in autumn when presumably the birds are traveling southward. Papaya fruits, con- sidered a great delicacy in tropical regions where they grow, reach northern markets, very rarely, and it is hard to believe that a fruit shipped north could have been thrown in some place where it might have been eaten by a wild duck. It has, indeed, been quite impossible to offer a plausible explana- tion of the manner in which the papaya seeds reached this Wisconsin bluebill. Give Museum Memberships for Christmas -see page 2. Pages FIELD MUSEUM NEWS December, 19S6 Field Museum of Natural History Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 RooseTelt Road and Lake Michigan, Chicago THE BOARD SEn-Eix L. A\'ERY John Borden William J. Chalmebs Joseph N. Field Marshall Field Stanley Field 'Ernest R. Graham Albert W. Harris Samuel Insull, Jr. John P, OF TRUSTEES William H. Mitchell George A. Richardson Fred W. Sargent Stgfhen C. SIMMS Jambs Simpson Solomon A. Smith Albert A. Spragub Silas H. Stkawn Lesue Wheeler . Wilson OFFICERS Stanley' Field Pretident Albert A. Spragub Firs! Vice-President Jambs Simpson Second Vice-President Albert W. Harris Third Vice-Presidertt Stephen C. Simms Director and Secretary Solomon A. Smith. ..Treasurer and Assistant Secretary *Deeeased FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Stephen C. Sdois, Director of the Museum Editor CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Paul S. Martin Curator of Anthropoloty B. E. D AHLGRBN Curator of Botany Henry W. Nichols Curator of Geology Wilfred H. Osgood Curator of Zoology H. B. Hartb Managing Editor Field Museum is open every day of the year (except Christmas and New Year's Day) during the hours indicated below: Nov., Dec., Jan., Feb., Mar. 9 aj«. to 4:30 pjf. April, September, October 9 a.m. to 5:00 pji. May, June, July, August 9 A.M. to 6:00 PJI. Admission is free to Members on all days. Other adults are admitted free on Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays; non-members pay 25 cents on other days. Children are admitted free on all days. Students and faculty members of educational institutions are admit- ted free any day upon presentation of credentials. The Museum's natural history Library is open for reference daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. Traveling exhibits are circulated in the schools of Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public School Extension Department of the Museum. Lectures for schools, and special entertainments and tours for children at the Museum, are provided by the James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School and Children's Lectures. Announcements of free illustrated lectures for the public, and special lectures for Members of the Museum, will appear in Field Museum News. A cafeteria in the Museum serves visitors. Rooms are provided for those bringing their lunches. Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 buses go direct to the Museum. Members are requested to inform the Museum promptly of changes of address. MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM Field Museum has several classes of Members. Benefactors give or devise $100,000 or more. Contribu- tors give or devise $1,000 to $100,000. Life Members give $500; Non-Resident Life and Associate Members pay $100; Non-Resident Associate Members pay $50. All the above classes are exempt from dues. Sustaining Members contribute $25 annually. After six years they become Associate Members. Annual Members con- tribute $10 annually. Other memberships are Corpo- rate, Honorary, Patron, and Corresponding, additions under these classifications being made by special action of the Board of Trustees. Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to free admission to the Museum for himself, his family and house guests, and to two reserved seats for Museum lectures provided for Members. Subscription to Field Museum News is included with all memberships. The courtesies of every museum of note in the United States and Canada are extended to all Members of Field Museum. A Member may give his personal card to non-residents of Chicago, upon presentation of which they will be admitted to the Museum without charge. Further information about memberships will be sent on request. BEOL'ESTS .^^■•D ENDOWME.VTS Bequests to Field Museum of Natural History may be made in securities, money, books or collections. They may, if desired, take the form of a memorial to a person or cause, named by the giver. Contributions made within the taxable year not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's net income are allowable as deductions in computing net income for federal income tax purposes. Endowments may be made to the Museum with the provision that an annuity be paid to the patron for life. These annuities are guaranteed against fluctuation in amount, and may reduce federal income taxes. GIVE MUSEUM MEMBERSHIPS AS CHRISTMAS GIFTS Christmas gift problems are reduced to the irreducible minimum of effort and time by the plan which Field Museum again offers, as for several years past, to its Members. Give Museum memberships to your friends and relatives. Enclosed with this issue of Field Museum News is everything you need for this simple solution of that often difficult question of what to give. All you need do is fill in on the application form the name and address of the person to whom you wish to present the membership, your own name and address, and send it with check to the Museum in the accompanying postage-prepaid addressed envelope. Your part is completed when you drop this envelope in the mailbox. All other details will be handled for you by the Museum. You do not have to battle your way through throngs of Christmas shoppers. You do not have to fuss and fume over the packing, weighing, mailing and insuring of parcel. To whomever you designate, the Museum will send an attractive Yuletide card bearing notification that a membership has been taken out in his or her name as a gift from you. It will also inform the recipient of the privileges the membership conveys. As this is the sort of gift that implies a high estimate on your part of the intellectual capacities of the recipient, it is highly com- plimentary to him. It indicates your belief that he possesses the qualities which would make him appreciate association with a scientific and cultural institution. It is further a gift that will recall you to the recipient's mind many times a year, as the monthly issues of Field Museum News reach him, and as he obtains his reserved seats for Museum lectures, and avails him- self of other membership privileges. Sit down now and write in the names — save yourself many weary steps, hours of brain cudgeling, and the necessity of enter- ing the tournament of elbows and voices over shop counters and at postoffice windows. To assure delivery by Christmas Day of the greeting and notification cards to the recipients of your Field Museum member- ship gifts, it is advisable to send in applica- tions not later than December 17. INTERNATIONAL BIRD PROTECTION By Rudyerd Boot-tos .\ssistant Curator of Birds The Migratory Bird Treaty with Canada, ratified by the American and British govern- ments in 1916, has been the most effective large-scale conservation measure ever en- acted. Of the eight hundred odd species of birds that occur in North America, north of the Rio Grande, about six hundred are given international protection, while the remaining two hundred are either non- migratory and local residents, or are de- finitely of no economic value. The United States Senate in 1913 authorized the President to negotiate treaties with "other countries." The treaty with Canada, made effective in 1918 through the passage of enabling acts by the United States and Canada, was the first. In Febru- ary, 1936, a treaty was concluded with Mexico embodying the same principles. The importance of international coopera- tion in matters pertaining to the conservation of migrants can hardly be over-emphasized. It is hardly worth the effort to protect a bird in the United States during part of the year if it is exposed to the abuses of market hunting on its wintering ground. Only through concerted measures can certain American birds be maintained at their present numbers. Canada, the United States and Mexico are jointly concerned in the protection of ducks, geese, and cranes, as well as many other non-game species that nest in Canada, migrate through the United States, and winter in northern Mexico. A very large number of shore birds — curlews, plovers, sandpipers and so on — spend the winter in southern South America. To the end that these birds may receive adequate protection throughout their range, Dr. T. Gilbert Pearson, Chairman of the International Committee for Bird Preservation and President Emeritus of the National Associa- tion of Audubon Societies, is active in efforts to aid in the successful conclusion of treaties with Argentina and other South American countries. The Audubon Societies have been largely responsible for the development of an international conscience towards bird conservation. Results are beginning to be felt, and the sympathies and resources of all true con- servationists are definitely in alignment with Dr. Pearson's efforts. TRUSTEE E. R. GRAHAM DEAD News of the death of Mr. Ernest R. Graham, for many years a Trustee of the Museum, and one of the architects who designed the Museum building, was re- ceived just as this issue of Field Muselti News went to press. Mr. Graham was one of this institution's most ardent friends and benefactors. A more fitting tribute to him will appear in the January News. OPPORTUNITY FOR COLLECTORS OF BIRDS' EGGS Recently, in the task of classifying Field Museum's collection of birds' eggs, more than 1,500 specimens, most of them North American in origin, were segregated for disposal. These are chiefly specimens duplicated in the collection, and single eggs upon which exact data is lacking, or which for other reasons are of insufficient scientific value to be preserved in the Mu- seum. They are, however, all well prepared and in good condition, and present a large variety including some rare species. It is believed therefore that they might meet the needs of private collectors of eggs. This lot of single eggs and incomplete sets will be sold to the highest bidder for delivery at the Museum; if to be delivered elsewhere, costs of packing and shipment will be added to the amount of the bid. Persons interested should communicate with the Director. Doctorate Conferred on Hambly The degree of doctor of science was con- ferred last month by Oxford University on Mr. W. D. Hambly, Assistant Curator of African Ethnology at Field Museum. This was in recognition of a vast amount of research, including Mr. Hambly's work on the Frederick H. Rawson-Field Museum Ethnological Expedition to West Africa, and various books he has written which have been published by Field Museum Press. Field Museum Methods Studied Dr. Axel Gauffin, Director of the National Museum of Stockholm, Sweden, \isited Field Museum last month to study the the illumination of exhibition cases. He was especially interested in developments made here in lighting from concealed sources. December, 1936 FIELD MUSEUM NEWS Page 3 MRS. F. D. ROOSEVELT INSPECTS WPA PROJECT AT MUSEUM Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt, wife of the President of the United States, was a visitor at Field Museum on November 16. She spent a large part of the afternoon observing the accomplishments of the Works Progress Administration project in which 176 persons are employed at this institution. She inspected many of the Museum shops, and saw WPA workers engaged in such widely varied tasks as repairing archaeo- logical objects and ancient textiles, cleaning animal skulls, repairing and rebinding books in the Library, printing, and making repro- ductions of leaves for use as accessories in exhibits. Mrs. Roosevelt expressed to Director Stephen C. Simms the most enthusiastic approval of the ways in which this institu- tion has supplied truly useful and valuable work for the men and women assigned by the WPA, and indicated that the project ranked among the most successful she has seen. Keen appreciation of the Museum exhibits was also displayed by Mrs. Roosevelt, who made a tour of a number of the principal halls. She was especially interested in the Races of Mankind sculptures by Malvina Hoffman. Mrs. Roosevelt was accompanied on the Museum visit by Mrs. Mary Gillette Moon, State Director of Women's and Professional Projects, and Mr. Charles E. Miner, Deputy State Administrator of the Works Progress Administration. HOPI INDIAN SECRET SOCIETIES By Paul S. Martin Curator, Department of Anthropology The desirability of belonging to or being identified with some group or organization is very strongly felt by human beings in all societies, both folk and sophisticated — in fact, is psychologically almost funda- mental. Secret fraternities exist not only in modern colleges, but also among many primitive tribes. In Hall 7 (Archaeology and Ethnology of the Southwest) are ex- hibited some of the insignia, masks, and other ceremonial paraphernalia of a few of the Hopi Indian (Arizona) esoteric societies. Some of the resemblances between the Hopi fraternities and those of American colleges are astonishing as well as amusing. For example, the Hopi Indians perform their secret rites in a specially constructed room, called the kiva, from which all non- members are rigidly excluded. The kiva is roughly analogous to the collegiate fraternity "chapter-room" or "tomb." Ad- mittance to a Hopi Indian society is by initiation which is rigorous. One of the features of their initiation consists of whipping (which corresponds to the "pad- dling" of the fraternity novices), after which the secrets of the society are revealed to the new members. Disclosure of any of these secrets is a serious offense, and the whipping or "paddling" perhaps serves to impress the novices with the importance of the occasion and of the secrets. The history or archives of the college fraternity find their parallel in the Hopi myths concerning the origin and history of the society. Oftentimes, the story of the founding of a fraternity begins to take on a legendary character, and the founders themselves are revered as super-men, corre- sponding to the culture heroes of primitive groups. The various fraternity chapters of a given college are sometimes characterized by various activities which may keep the college and community interested, amused or scandalized. In a Hopi town, the secret societies are ordinarily characterized by certain activities such as bringing rain, stimulating the growth of maize, curing diseases, and "compelling" the sun to return (after December 22) in order to have summer again. But some groups specialize in amusing the people by acting as "clowns," though their activities often scandalize the missionaries, just as fraternity initiation pranks sometimes do the community. In place of fraternity pins, the chief of a Hopi society has a badge of office which, during ceremonies, is exhibited in the kiva or "chapter-room." During public cere- monies the members also wear a distinctive costume in many cases. Just as certain college fraternities impress their new members by telling them that the President of the United States or Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is a "brother," so do the Hopi proudly claim as "brothers" and founders or organizers various animal gods, the Sun God, the Corn God, and the like. It is entirely possible, too, that a Hopi fraternity could be praised or damned simply because some of its members might be characterized as "grinds," athletes, or "rounders," though in such a case it would be for an entirely different reason than among ourselves. A Hopi who tries to put himself "forward" in any way is condemned — -their ideal fraternity man would be the willing but unobtrusive one. AMERICAN INDIAN TYPES BY MALVINA HOFFMAN About 10,000 to 12,000 years ago the ancestors of the American Indians migrated from Asia to this continent. Careful students of this subject generally agree that the New World derived its inhabitants from north- Photographs copyrig:ht Field Museum of Natural History Sioux Pueblo Woman eastern Asia by way of Bering Strait. Since the land connection of earlier geological eras probably no longer existed, the newcomers must have come across the Strait in boats or afoot over the ice. It should be emphasized that the Americas were not settled within a short period, or by one group of people. The immigration was a slow, prolonged dribbling and spread- ing of successive waves of people of varied Asiatic origins. After arrival on the Ameri- can shores these people multiplied and scattered widely to the east and the south. Since they were of diverse racial types, it is not surprising to find racial variations among their descendants, the American Indians. These differences in types are demonstrated by ten bronzes in the Races of Mankind series of sculptures by Malvina Hoffman, exhibited in Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall (Hall 3). Three of them, the Pueblo, Apache, and Sioux, are shown in the accompanying illustrations. Repro- ductions of photographs of five others have appeared in previous issues of Field Museum News — the Blackfoot in June, 1933; the Navaho and Carib in November, 1934; and the Eskimo man and woman in June, 1936. Two remaining ones, a Yuca- tecan Maya, and a Tehuelche of Patagonia, will be shown in a future issue. The Pueblo Indians of the southwestern United States are represented by a bust of a woman of San Ildefonso Pueblo, New Mexico. The Pueblo Indians are moderately round-headed and of medium stature. For many centuries, these people, who were more highly civilized than any other tribe north of Mexico, have dwelt in community houses. Agriculture was and still is ex- tensively practised, although the coun- try is arid. The Athapascan peoples, the bulk of whom dwell in Canada, are repre- sented in the South- west by the Navaho Indians and the Apaches. The Apaches are long-headed people, and are slightly above medium height. Formerly they were nomads subsisting chiefly on the products of the chase, and roots and berries. Today they live on a reservation and are forced to practise agriculture. Their only art worthy of the name was basket-making. They lived in crude shelters of brush. The Sioux or Dakota Indians are tall people whose head form lies half way be- tween round heads and long heads. Their faces are long, and clear-cut with an eagle nose and prominent cheek bones. They are related to the Winnebago Indians of central Wisconsin in language and perhaps in physical type. The Sioux were considered to be of the highest type physically and mentally. "Heads and Tales," the recently published book by Malvina Hoffman telling the story of her life and of the creation of the Races of Mankind sculptures, is on sale at the Museum. It is a volume of i.16 pages, profusely illus- trated. Price $5, pltts postage on mail orders. Also available at the Museum are photo- gravure post cards of nearly all the racial sculptures, and, for those who desire them, larger photographs. Under special arrange- ment institutions or individuals may obtain reproductions in bronze, either full or reduced size. Those interested should communicate with the Director of the Museum. Pliotograph copyright Ficlil Mu: Jicaiilla Apache Lignum-vitae Lignum-vitae, one of the heaviest, hard- est, and toughest of woods known, is ob- tained from the West Indies and the west coast of Central America. It was the first timber of the New World to enter the Euro- pean market. For two centuries it was reputed to have marvelous curative powers — hence its name, which means the "wood of life." Its principal uses now are for caster wheels, and, because of self-lubricating qual- ities, for steamship propeller shaft bearings. A plank of lignum-vitae is exhibited among the miscellaneous tropical lumber series in the Hall of Foreign Woods (Hall 27) . Page U FIELD MUSEUM NEWS December, 1936 CORALS AND JELLYFISH A collection of sponges and corals of many kinds is on exhibition in Albert W. Harris Hall (Hall 18). From these specimens Museum visitors may obtain a hint of the beauty of form found in submarine gardens and on coral reefs of the warmer seas, as well as an idea of the animal forms con- cerned in their production. The dried sponges, whether more or less homy like our common bath sponges, or calcareous, or siliceous like the delicate glass-rope sponges such as "Venus' flower basket" from the depths of the ocean, are the skeletons or rigid supporting tissue of simple marine animals. The dried corals of many kinds, the sea-fans and sea-feathers, likewise represent skeletal remains of the animals which produced them . The sponges, much more primitive than the corals, illustrate the beginnings of a "body" and of "tissue" among animals. Small coral skeletons are sometimes the remains of a single individual, but larger ones are usually the product of whole colonies. Many are robust and hard enough to stave holes in the bottom of a ship; others are fragile and easily broken. The Museum collection contains many specimens of the latter kind in a perfect state of preservation. The animals responsible for their existence belong to a group in which the living tissue is almost always exceedingly delicate and perishable. It becomes so altered by any attempt at preservation, that away from the ocean only pictures or models can give an idea of the appearance of these animals in life. While alive, many are transparent and have a beauty of texture, of radial symmetry and of color, which is lost in the dried specimens. Further, they present characteristics of structure and appearance of which the dried material gives no idea. The exhibit fortunately includes a number of the famous Blaschka glass models which serve to illustrate some of the characters of the invertebrate animals concerned. Col- lectively these may be called the Polyi)s. Some of them are simple, transparent, hydra-like forms or small thimble-like medusae; others are stalked like minute flowers in branched clusters, forming colonies which are fixed or may be floating, supported by an inflated bladder in the Portuguese man-of-war, by a disk like a tiny watch glass in Porpita, or by a float with a little sail in Velella. Others are jellyfish, large and small, free-swimming or attached, many with a complicated life history. To those who have lived on the seashore, these are as well known as are the related sea anemones, large polyps attached to the rocks and often flower-like when expanded, but contractile, stinging, and disagreeable on contact. Most widely known, and most important from a practical standpoint since they act as geological agents, are the colonial forms which take up lime and other substances from the sea, combine and redeposit this material within their tissue, and thus form coral. Of these, various kinds are included in the collection. The simplest are the so- called Millepores or stinging corals — erect, foliaceous, brittle clumps which cannot be handled with impunity when alive. They generally grow associated with the Madre- pores or stony corals. Under favorable conditions of tem|)erature and currents such as are found frequently in tropical seas, these grow in such abundance as to form enormous reefs which are often serious barriers to navigation. At times they also produce harbors and islands. Brain-corals, star-corals, stag-horn-corals, butterfly-corals, rose-corals, etc., are common collective names applied to various well-known genera of reef-corals. The organ-pipe corals, storied batteries of small carmine-red tubes, each housing a single polyp, are found only in the Pacific. A few horny black corals with a tough axial skeleton, the "dead- men's fingers," handsome in life but most unattractive when dried, the sea-fans which keep their appearance fairly well on drying, and the sea-feathers, Gorgonians, usually twisted and dilapidated in dried state, all have a horny axial skeleton clothed with a tissue full of lime spicules. Closely related to all these is the red coral, which actually is often pink or white, with a hard skeleton capable of being carved, and esteemed for ornament since antiquity. To the zoologist, the material and geological importance of corals and other polyps is of secondary interest, their signifi- cance residing rather in their simple struc- ture, their often complicated life history, their biological relationships with Algae and Crustacea, the instances they afford of vegetative multiplication, of alternation of generations, of division of labor and special- ization of function. Multicellular animals with a mouth but without a head or sense organs and without alimentary tract, they occupy a unique and isolated position low in the animal kingdom. — B.E.D. MUSEUM TO CLOSE CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR'S DAY In order to permit as many employes as possible to spend Christmas and New Year's Day with their families, Field Museum will be closed on those days. Only such watchmen as are necessary for safety will remain on duty. In other years, when the Museum has been open on these holidays, there have been so few visitors that it is believed the closing will cause little if any inconvenience to the public. Distinguished Visitors Among recent distinguished visitors to Field Museum were M. Jean Delacour, the noted FVench ornithologist, and Mr. E. G. Boulenger, Director of the London Aquarium. A group of members of the National Academy of Sciences visited the Museum November 18. NEW MEMBERS The following persons were elected to membership in Field Museum during the period from October 16 to November 15: Associate Members Miss Jane Adams, W. J. HoUiday, Mrs. Paul S. Magnuson. Harold W. Norman, Allen S. Pearl, Walter Swiecinski. Sustaining Members Richard H. Feel Annual Meml>er8 Mrs. Herbert W. Becker, Charles D. Bradley, H. W. Campbell, Mrs. Robert Carpenter, Barret Conway, Charles H. Cooper, Mrs. Joseph H. Defrecs, Dr. J. E. Fitzgerald, Ettore Gengevi, S. R. Harrington, H. Rea Hixson, C. W. Hoff, Frank G. Hough, Miss Laura E. Jackson, William S. Keck, Philip C. Klohr, Lawrence B. Lehman, Mrs. W. A. Llewellyn, Miss Charlotte G. Lovely, John R. Magill, S. A. McMurray, Mrs. Fred- erick D. Montgomery, Dwight S. Parmelee, Miss Mary L. Patrick, C. J. Peterson, Mrs. Holman D. Pettibone, Mrs. C. Eugene Pfister, A. A. Pitt, Athol E. Rollins, Dr. Edward V. Schulte, Miss Lucille Shurtleff, Mrs. Halsey Steins, Mrs. John Sheppard Stone, Paul W. Tatge, Ernest H. Thompson, Mrs. Lawrence H. Vilas, Eric M. Wallgren, Mrs. E. W. Weast, Samuel Weiner, Miss Bertha Wright. DECEMBER GUIDE-LECTURE TOURS Conducted tours of exhibits, under the guidance of staff lecturers, are made every afternoon at 3 P.M., except Saturdays, Sundays, and certain holidays. Following is the schedule of subjects and dates for December: Week beginning November 30: Monday — Valuable Fur-bearers; Tuesday — Plants of Untisual Interest; Wednesday — Animal Life in the Orient; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — North American Indians. Week beginning December 7: Monday — Peoples of the South Seas; Tuesday— Story of Coal; Wednesday — Chicago Winter Birds; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Egyptian Hall. Week beginning December 14: Monday — The Story of Plant Life; Tuesday — Fish, .\mphibians and Rep- tiles; Wednesday — Man Through the A^es; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Trees and Their Uses. Week beginning December 21: Monday — Marine Life; Tuesday — Hall of Races of Mankind; Wedn^ay — Rocks and Minerals; Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Christmas holiday. Museum chsed. Week beginning December 28; Monday — Eskimo Life; Tuesday — African .Animal Life; Wednesday — Prehistoric Plants and .Animals; Thursday — Genera] Tour; Friday — New Year's holiday. Museum closed. Persons wishing to participate should apply at North Entrance. Tours are free and no gratuities are to be proffered. A new schedule will appear each month in Field MusEtiM News. Guide-lecturers' services for special tours by parties of ten or more are available free of charge by arrangement with the Director a week in advance. Gifts to the Museum Following is a list of some of the principal gifts received during the last month: From Miss Agnes A. Wood — a Zulu cattle whip of plaited buck hide with carved handle. South Africa; from Museo Nacional — 667 herbarium specimens, Cost-a Rica; from Rev. Brother Elias — 65 herbarium specimens, Colombia; from School of Forestrj-, Yale University — 77 herbarium specimens, Costa Rica and Colombia; from Professor Manuel Valerio — 65 her- barium specimens, Costa Rica; from Bailey Hortorum, Cornell University — 172 specimens of plants, Mexico: from University of Texas — 203 herbarium specimens, Mexico; from Professor J. Soukup — 47 herbarium specimens, Peru; from Professor A. O. Garrett — 69 herbarium specimens, L'tah; from James Zetek — 16 herbarium specimens, Canal Zone; from Frank Von Drasek — 6 specimens of minerals, Arkansas: from Utica Hydraulic Cement Company — 4 specimens of cement rock and products, and 2 of vermiculite, Illinois and North Carolina; from Sharat K. Roy — a specimen of fluorescent agate, .\rizona; from Dr. Calvin W. McEwan — 2 wild boar skins and skulls, and 40 speci- mens of frogs, turtles, lizards, and snakes, northwest Syria; from Dr. Alfred E. Emerson — 33 termites, Galapagos and Solomon Islands; from Leslie Wheeler — 5 hawk skins. Paraguay; from Chicago Park Com- missioners— an orang-utan and a green tree snake; from Chicago Zoological Society — one specimen each of black bear, binturong, gibbon, rattlesnake, sand snake, water-dragon lizard, and green tree boa, and 4 specimens of birds; from Donald Culroas Peattie — 2 salamanders and 2 lizards. North Carolina; from Sam D. Sakin — 7 frogs, Michigan; from T. P. Haines — 6 snake skulls; from Dr. Jay F. W. Pearson — 142 bats, Bahamas; from Henry Field — 5 bats, England; from Robert and Richard Baldwin — a black rail and a black rail egg, Indiana. Cane and Beet Sugar Sugar cane is a tall grass of ancient cultivation in southern Asia, now established in almost all other tropical regions. For the extraction of sugar, the cane is crushed between rollers, and the juice ex- pressed is mixed with lime to aid in the separation of impurities. The clarified juice is then boiled until it thickens and the sugar crystallizes out. Beet sugar, obtained from a variety of the common garden beet, is chemically identical with cane sugar. To extract the sugar, the beets are cut up and treated with hot water. The impurities are removed with the addition of lime and carbonic acid. The juice is then concentrated by boiling and the sugar allowed to crystallize. The various stages in the manufacture of cane and beet sugar are shown in Hall 25. PRINTCO BY riSLD MUSCUU PRCSS