Dr. Fritz Haas, Curator of Lower Invertebrates, has continued 

 the revision of his division's collections, with a by-product of taxo- 

 nomic and other interesting notes. 



Thirteen articles were prepared by the staff of the Department 

 for Field Museum News. Chief Curator Schmidt continued as 

 Herpetological Editor of Copeia, and as consulting editor for the 

 American Midland Naturalist. Mr. Schmidt also took part in the 

 preparation of a handbook of the Pacific for the use of the armed 

 forces, to appear under the title The Pacific World. 



Installations and Rearrangements— Zoology . . . 



A habitat group of gibbons in the Hall of Asiatic Mammals 

 (William V. Kelley Hall — Hall 17) was completed early in the year. 

 An old male, an adult female, and three youngsters of assorted sizes 

 compose one of the tree-top family parties characteristic of the 

 "social life" of the gibbon. The species shown is the Indo-Chinese 

 Hylobates concolor gabriellae, in which the males are black and the 

 females pale brown. Aside from the interest of their family life, 

 the gibbons represent a peak of adjustment to life in trees, corres- 

 ponding in their powers of tree-top locomotion to the spider monkeys 

 of tropical America. The background of the group is by Staff Artist 

 Arthur G. Rueckert; the vegetation and various other accessories 

 are by Preparator Frank H. Letl, aided by Assistant Taxidermist 

 Frank C. Wonder and Mr. Rueckert. The gibbons, obtained by 

 Curator Emeritus Osgood on his expedition to Indo-China in 1936, 

 were mounted by Staff Taxidermist W. E. Eigsti (see Fig. 2). 



In Hall 15 (mammals systematically arranged) a case of North 

 American foxes was installed to show the extremely interesting color 

 varieties of the red fox, and of the Arctic fox, that are of so much 

 importance to the fur trade. The large-eared desert fox is also 

 included; the gray fox, which is very different from the true 

 foxes, may be seen in an adjoining case. The foxes are arranged on a 

 natural base with ground work and vegetation, including a patch of 

 snow for the Arctic foxes, in the style of the cases of North American 

 cats, bears, and mountain sheep. The skins of the silver, black, cross, 

 and red foxes were supplied by the Fromm Brothers from their re- 

 markable fur farm at Hamburg, Wisconsin, where the fox has been 

 added to the list of man's domestications. Mounting of the animals 

 is the work of Staff Taxidermist W. E. Eigsti. 



An important addition to the same hall is a wall case contain- 

 ing bats. Because they are the only mammals that fly, bats are of 



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