Field 



News 



Published Monthly by Field Mtiseum of Natural History, Chicago 



Vol. 4 



JANUARY, 1933 



No. 1 



ALASKAN CARIBOU ADDED TO HALL OF AMERICAN MAMMAL HABITAT GROUPS 



By Wilfred H. Osgood 

 Curator, Department of Zoology 



By coincidence rather than design, a 

 group appropriate to the season was com- 

 pleted and opened for exhibition in Hall 16 

 in December just before the holidays. This 

 is a habitat group of Alaskan caribou or 

 reindeer. That the American caribou are 

 really reindeer is perhaps not generally 

 known. They are, in fact, so closely related 

 to the Old World species from which the 

 domestic reindeer was derived, that in early 

 classifications they were regarded as the 

 same species. In other 

 words, there are wild 

 species of reindeer in 

 both the Old World 

 and the New, but it 

 was only in the Old 

 World that a domestic 

 variety was produced. 

 The name "caribou" is 

 of French-Canadian 

 origin and has become 

 so established for the 

 American animals that 

 it is now almost uni- 

 versally used. 



The Museum's 

 group was obtained in 

 consequence of the 

 T h orne-Graves-Field 

 Museum Arctic 

 Expedition, sponsored 

 and led by Bruce 

 Thome of Chicago, 

 and George Coe 

 Graves II of New 

 York. To this expedi- 

 tion the Museum is 

 also indebted for its 

 group of Pacific 

 walrus. The speci- 

 mens of caribou were 

 not actually collected 

 by Messrs. Thorne 

 and Graves but it was 

 through their intervention that they were 

 obtained by Alaska Guides, Inc., of which 

 Mr. Thorne is a vice-president, under permit 



from the United States Biological Survey 

 and the Alaska Game Commission. 



Five animals are shown, two large bulls, 

 two adult females, and a young male. They 

 stand rather close together, in keeping with 

 their well-known gregarious habits, on a 

 moss-grown ledge of rock, overlooking a 

 wide panorama of treeless mountain tops. 

 The specimens were collected near Rainy 

 Pass in the general region of Mount 

 McKinley, and the scene in which they 

 appear is characteristic of many mountains 

 in the interior of Alaska. 



The Reindeer of America 



Group of caribou, installed last month in Hall 16, completing the series of twenty-four North and South 

 American mammal habitat groups. The scene is typical of the mountains of the Alaskan interior. 



Caribou belong to the deer family, all 

 the members of which shed and renew 

 their horns annually. As compared with 



the others, however, they have many 

 peculiarities. Among these is the fact that 

 the females have horns as well as the 

 males. The feet, also, are unusual, the 

 "dew-claws" being large and the hoofs 

 very heavy and broad to prevent sinking 

 in snow and swampy ground. The muzzle 

 is very wide and entirely hairy. A peculiar 

 habit is that of migration, which is rare 

 among mammals. In passing from one 

 feeding ground to another, especially in 

 the fall, caribou often gather in very large 

 herds, sometimes numbering thousands. 



The caribou group 

 marks the completion 

 of the Museum's Hall 

 of North and South 

 American Mammal 

 Habitat Groups, being 

 the twenty-fourth and 

 last of the series repre- 

 senting the principal 

 large mammals of the 

 New World. The 

 other North American 

 species included in this 

 hall are: Virginia deer 

 (in four groups show- 

 ing seasonal changes), 

 mule deer, Olympic 

 elk, Alaska moose, 

 musk-ox, bison, moun- 

 tain goat, mountain 

 sheep, prongbuck, 

 grizzly bear, Alaska 

 brown bear, glacier 

 bear, polar bear, 

 mountain lion, and 

 beaver. South Ameri- 

 can subjects are: 

 guanaco, tapir, ant 

 bear, marsh deer, 

 jaguar and capybara 

 (the last two in one 

 group). 



The caribou were 

 prepared by Taxider- 

 mist Julius Friesser, assisted by Arthur G. 

 Rueckert and W. E. Eigsti. The background 

 was painted by Staff Artist Charles A. Corwin. 



TO FIELD MUSEUM MEMBERS: 



Field Museum takes this opportunity to 

 thank its thousands of Members for the 

 support they have so loyally given during 

 the trying times which it, like other institu- 

 tions, has had to face as a result of the 

 worldwide business depression. The mem- 

 bership plays an important part in main- 

 taining the Museum and in making it 

 possible to carry on successfully its educa- 

 tional and scientific missions. Under present 

 conditions, the revenue obtained from mem- 

 bership fees is more than ever a vital factor 

 in the budget of the Museum. 



While the stress of the past few years 

 has naturally brought some decline in the 

 number of Members on the rolls, the great 

 majority have continued their support, and 

 this is deeply appreciated by the Museum's 

 Trustees and Officers. On their part the 



Trustees and Officers have instituted econo- 

 mies wherever possible, in order that the 

 full service of the Museum to the public 

 might be maintained at the most reasonable 

 level of expense. Many projects and 

 activities which would normally be con- 

 sidered necessary have been postponed or 

 suspended pending economic improvement, 

 but the curtailments have been of a character 

 which causes the least interference with the 

 Museum's primary functions as an educa- 

 tional institution. 



With full recognition of the loyalty shown 

 thus far by the Members, it is felt that it 

 is now permissible to make a special appeal 

 for further continuation of the Members' 

 support. Likewise, Members are requested 

 to propose the names of possible new 

 Members who might take the places of 

 some of those who, because of financial 

 difficulties, have been forced to resign. 



COFFEE PLANTS STUDIED 



Field Museum recently received on loan 

 from European herbaria two valuable collec- 

 tions of tropical American plants of the 

 Rubiaceae or coffee family. The Botanical 

 Museum of Berlin forwarded more than 300 

 sheets. From the Museum of Natural 

 History of Paris there were received 1,850 

 sheets. 



All this material has been determined by 

 Associate Curator Paul C. Standley. Several 

 new species were discovered in it. A large 

 part of the Paris sending consisted of plants 

 collected in Brazil by Auguste de Sainte- 

 Hilaire in 1816-21, and of others gathered 

 in Colombia by Jos6 Triana in 1851-57. 

 It was remarkable to find also a specimen 

 collected in Uruguay by Commerson in 

 1767. It had waited 165 years for study 

 and identification. 



