January-February, 19^5 



CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN 



Page 7 



MUSEUM PUBLISHES HANDBOOK OF CHICAGO AREA REPTILES 



Amphibians and Reptiles of the Chicago 

 Area, a 275-page book illustrated with both 

 color plates and half-tones, was published in 

 December by the Chicago Natural History 



COURTSHIP IN THE BOGS 



Female swamp tree frog approaching a calling male. An illustration from "Amphibians and 



Reptiles of the Chicago Area," drawn by Staff Taxidermist Leon L. Pray from a flashlight 



photograph taken in Homewood, Illinois, by Staff Taxidermist C. J. Albrecht. 



Museum Press. Clifford H. Pope, Curator 

 of Amphibians and Reptiles, is the author. 

 The publication is a handbook for laymen, 

 in which technical terms and scientific jargon 

 have been avoided. It is intended for the 

 guidance of those already interested in 

 natural history, and to arouse interest in the 

 reptiles and amphibians of this area on the 

 part of others, states Mr. Pope. By means 

 of its illustrations and the detailed descrip- 

 tions anyone should be able to identify the 

 fifty-two kinds of reptiles and amphibians 

 which live in the Chicago area (including, 

 for the purpose of this book, fifteen counties 



in Illinois and Indiana, three in Wisconsin, 

 and one in Michigan.) 



"It is surprising that so many reptiles and 

 amphibians live in this area, along with 4 per 

 cent of the entire 

 country's human pop- 

 ulation," comments 

 Mr. Pope. "Only six 

 states are inhabited 

 by such a large num- 

 ber of people. 



"For a region with 

 little variation in alti- 

 tude, our local area is 

 unusually interesting. 

 This is largely because 

 it lies at the transition 

 zone between hard- 

 wood forest and 

 prairie. Many of the 

 local animals found to 

 the west are unknown 

 farther east, and vice 

 versa." 



Pictures and de- 

 scriptions are included 

 of the local salaman- 

 ders, frogs, and toads, 

 lizards, snakes and turtles. The illustrations 

 include a map, five full-page color plates, 

 seven full-page black and white plates and 

 forty-nine text figures (zinc reproductions of 

 drawings). A decorative cover is the work 

 of Miss Peggy Collings, artist on the 

 Museum staff, who also prepared many of 

 the drawings. Other drawings were con- 

 tributed by Leon L. Pray, staff taxidermist; 

 photographs are the work of D. D wight 

 Davis, Curator of Anatomy on leave in 

 Army service, and color plates are by 

 Albert A. Enzenbacher. The book is on sale 

 at the Museum — price $1.75. 



JANUARY SUNDAY LECTURES 

 ON "CAVE MAN'S PAST" 



To meet undiminished demands, Paul G. 

 Dallwig, the Layman Lecturer of the 

 Museum, will present again one of his most 

 popular subjects — "Digging Up the Cave 

 Man's Past" — on each Sunday afternoon 

 during January. 



This lecture has three main divisions: (1) 

 Tracing man's physical evolution; (2) visits 

 to prehistoric groups; (3) the dramati- 

 zation of a prehistoric murder as it might 

 have occurred according to deductions made 

 from the "corpus delicti," the Museum's 

 skeleton of a Magdalenian young woman, 

 together with the weapon that killed her. 



Lectures begin at 3 p.m. (an hour later 

 than in pretious seasons) in the lecture hall. 



The heavy demand by the public, and 

 the necessary limitation of audiences to the 

 accommodations, make it essential to re- 

 quire advance reservations. Lectures are 

 restricted to adults, and children cannot be 



admitted. Persons desiring to attend are 

 advised to apply several weeks in advance by 

 mail or telephone (WABa.sh 9410). 



During February, Mr. Dallwig will be 

 on a lecture tour in other cities. How- 

 ever, he will resume lectures at the 

 Museum in March, when his subject 

 will be: "Who's Who in the Jungle Zoo." 



Snake Rattle Studies 



At the invitation of Dr. Arnold A. Zim- 

 mermann, of the University of Illinois 

 School of Medicine, Mr. Clifford H. Pope, 

 Curator of Amphibians and Reptiles, recent- 

 ly attended a regional meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Association of Anatomists at the Uni- 

 versity of Wisconsin to give a demonstration 

 of work on the growth of the rattle of the 

 rattlesnakes. Certain aspects of this have 

 but recently been worked out by Messrs. 

 Zimmermann and Pope, although anato- 

 mists have studied the sound producing 

 organ for about a hundred years. 



HENRY W. NICHOLS RETIRES 

 AS GEOLOGY CHIEF 



Although long since eligible for retire- 

 ment, and suffering from illness for the 

 past several years, Mr. Henry W. Nichols, 

 Chief Curator of the Department of Geol- 

 ogy, has remained faithfully at his post, 

 feeling that in the 

 present manpower 

 shortage it was his 

 patriotic duty to 

 do so. He was 

 motivated by loy- 

 alty to the cause 

 of science, and to 

 the Museum. He 

 is the dean of the 

 Museum staff, hav- 

 ing been a member 

 of it for more than 

 the past fifty years. 

 The state of Mr. Nichol's health has 

 finally made his retirement essential, and 

 he left the active service of the Museum on 

 December 31, 1944. He is in his seventy- 

 eighth year. 



Mr. Nichols joined the staff in 1894, as 

 Curator of Economic Geology. Since 1936 

 he has been Chief Curator. He has con- 

 ducted sixteen expeditions in North and 

 South America for the Museum, collecting 

 a wide variety of material now on exhibition. 

 Mr. Nichols is the writer of many papers 

 in his field of science. He is a graduate of 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and 

 was a member of the faculty before coming 

 to the Museum. 



Dr. Paul O. McGrew, Assistant Curator 

 of Paleontology, has been appointed Acting 

 Chief Curator of the department. 



He 



W. Nichols 



Two Contributors Elected 



In recognition of notable gifts to the 

 Museum, Mr. Stuart H. Perry, has been 

 elected to the class of membership des- 

 ignated as Contributors (those whose 

 gifts range in value between $1,000 and 

 $100,000); and the late William F. E. 

 Gurley of Chicago has been posthumously 

 elected a Contributor. 



Mr. Perry's gifts have been principally 

 to the Department of Geology and consist 

 of notable meteorite specimens. 



Mr. Gurley's gifts, to the Department of 

 Anthropology, include some 3,000 archaeo- 

 logical specimens from various localities. 



Technical Publications Issued 



The following technical publications have 

 been issued by the Chicago Natural History 

 Museum Press during the last two months: 



Zoological Series, Vol. 29, No. 14. A New 

 Harvest Mouse from Wisconsin. By Harold 

 C. Hanson. Oct. 26, 1944. $ .10. 



Botanical Series, Vol. 23, No. 4. Studies 

 of Central American Plants— VI. By Paul 

 C. Standley and Julian A. Steyermark. 

 Nov. 27, 1944. $ .35. 



