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FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



May, 1933 



Field Museum of Natural History 



Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 

 Rooserelt Road and Lake Mlchi^n, Chicago 



THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 



Seweix L. Avery 

 John Borden 

 William J. Chalmers 

 Marshall Field 

 Stanley Field 

 Ernest R. Graham 

 Albert W. Harris 

 Samuel Insull. Jr. 

 Cyrus H. McCormick 



John P. 



William H. Mitchell 

 Frederick H. Rawson 

 George A. Richardson 

 Fred W. Sargent 

 Stephen C. Snois 

 James Simpson 

 Solomon A. Smith 

 Albert A. Spragub 

 Silas H. Straw n 



WlI^ON 



OFFICERS 



Stanley Field Praidenl 



Albert A. SpRAGira First Vice-PreaideiU 



James Simpson Second Vice-Presideni 



Albert W. Harris Third Vice-Prendeni 



Stephen C. Simms Director and Secretary 



Solomon A. Smith. . . Treaturer and Assistant Secretary 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Stephen C. Simms, Director of the Museum EdUor 



CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 



Berthold ItAUFER CurotoT of Anthropoloffy 



B. E. Dahlgren. Acting Curator of Botany 



Oliver C. Farrington Curator of Geology 



Wilfred H. Osgood Curator of Zoology 



H. 6. Harte Managing Editor 



Field Museum is open every day of the year during 

 the hours indicated below: 



November, December, January 9 am. to 4:30 fm. 



February, March, April, October 9 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. 

 May, June, July. August. September 9 A.M. to 6:00 p.m. 



Admis&don is free to Members on all days. Other 

 adults are admitted free on Thtirsdays, 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 Mtiseum. 



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 classiii cations 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 Fib:ld 

 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 wUi 

 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 amount. 



THE VAMPIRE BAT 



By Cous C. Sanbobn 

 Assistant Curator of Mammals 



Ever since the discovery of the vampire 

 bat by the Spanish invaders of the New 

 World there have been incredulous stories 

 told about its habits. Many of these tales 

 persist to the present day. It is only 

 natural, of course, that they should grow 

 up around an animal which lives by sucking 

 blood from animals and men. 



Belief in human vampires — the spirits 

 of dead and living persons who were said 

 to suck the blood of people at night — was 

 very strong in Russia and Poland, and 

 among the Slavonic races of Austria from 

 1730 to 1735. It was undoubtedly this 

 widespread superstition which caused Buff on, 

 about 1750, to name the bloodsucking bat 

 the vampire. 



As Buffon named the bat from descrip- 

 tions and stories by other men it was some 

 time before it was known exactly which bat 

 had the bloodsucking habits, and many 

 of the fruit-eating species were suspected, 

 probably on accoimt of their size. The 

 true culprit was discovered by Charles 

 Darwin while on the voyage of the Beagle 

 in 1832. For some time previously the 

 tales about bloodsucking bats had been 

 regarded with skepticism in England. Since 

 Darwin's discovery, two other bats, much 

 rarer than the common vampire, have been 

 identified with bloodsucking habits. 



The vampires are small, being about 

 three inches long, and have but twenty 

 teeth, the fewest found in any bat. They 

 have very sharp incisors which make a 

 small wound in the skin of their victim. 

 Their bite is not deep, the blood being 

 taken from the capillary vessels of the 

 skin. The bats have a very narrow gullet 

 and a digestive system otherwise especially 

 adapted for a diet of blood. 



Human victims of the vampires are seldom 

 awakened by the attacks and, in spite of 

 what has been written to the contrary, 

 animals do not appear conscious of the 

 bites. Poultry suffer from attacks made 

 on their combs. 



Reports of the effects of the attacks on 

 humans vary greatly, and one is forced to 

 the conclusion that much depends on the 

 individual bitten. In extreme cases a great 

 deal of blood may be lost and the victim 

 may feel weakened. The great danger to 

 animals is in the continued attacks and 

 from flies that deposit their eggs in the 

 wounds and cause infection. 



Protection against bats is much easier 

 than against mosquitoes, and in some places 

 lights are placed in barns to protect domestic 

 animals. A few years ago, while in Brazil 

 as a member of the Marshall Field South 

 American Expedition, I found that by tying 

 my horses to a picket line and hanging a 

 powerful gasoline lantern over them, they 

 were safe from the bats. 



The true vampire bats are found from 

 Mexico south to central South America. 

 There are bats in other parts of the world 

 called vampires but they do not have 

 bloodsucking habits. 



At present the only bats exhibited at 

 the Miiseum are the harmless ones of the 

 Chicago area, but an exhibit of other 

 species, including the vampire, is planned. 



African Clalrvoyancy 



When one considers that even some 

 educated people are unable to resist fortune 

 tellers and similar charlatans, it is not sur- 

 prising that primitive man strives to peer 

 into the future. In Africa many methods 



are followed; for example, throwing bones 

 and noting their arrangement when they 

 fall; writing in the sand; examining the 

 entrails of animals; and shaking a divination 

 basket. 



In Case 22, Hall D, is such a basket used 

 by the Ovimbundu of Angola. This kind of 

 divinatory apparatus is still employed, and 

 two of the baskets from Angola are among 

 the material collected by the Frederick H. 

 Rawson-Field Museum Ethnological Ex- 

 pedition in 1929. 



To the accompaniment of a friction drum 

 the diviner shakes his basket, then pauses 

 to observe what trinkets have come to the 

 top. Two little wooden figures with their 

 mouths close together may appear promi- 

 nently. At once the diviner says that two 

 people are whispering, plotting to kill by 

 poison. A round piece of wood comes to 

 the top. This is an open human mouth; 

 someone, probably a woman, has been 

 gossiping too freely. A little wooden snake 

 appears at the top — the limbs of some 

 imfortunate person will be twisted with 

 pain. So the forecast proceeds with remedies 

 suggested by the diviner. — W.D.H. 



Report of Director Printed 



The Annual Report of the Director of 

 Field Museimi to the Board of Trustees 

 for 1932 has been printed by Field Museum 

 Press, and copies will be distributed to all 

 Members of the Museum at an early date. 

 In the book, which contains 141 pages and 

 nine photogravxire plates. Director Stephen 

 C. Simms reviews in detail all activities 

 carried on during the year by the institution. 



Traces of Glacial Period Iceberg 



A large specimen of glaciated sandstone 

 in Clarence Buckingham Hall (Hall 35) 

 shows on its surface, besides the usual 

 glacial striations, other markings made by 

 a nearly stranded iceberg of the glacial 

 period. These are scratches and gouges 

 which cross the surface as interrupted lines. 

 They were made by the cutting action of 

 boulders imbedded in the bottom of the 

 berg. When the slowly moving berg fell 

 in the trough of a wave these boulders 

 dragged across the rock and cut a line which 

 was interrupted whenever the berg lifted 

 to the crest of a wave. 



Hopi Textiles 



The P*ueblo Indians of the Southwest 

 have cultivated cotton for more than fifteen 

 hundred years. At present, the Hopi of 

 northeastern Arizona are the only American 

 Indians who still grow it. Cotton was and 

 is used for ceremonial robes, kilts, scarfs, 

 sashes, and belts. After the white colonists 

 introduced sheep into the country, the 

 Hopi began to weave blankets from wool 

 obtained from their own flocks. 



In Hall 7, examples of Hopi textiles, both 

 cotton and wool, are on exhibition. 



Persimmons 



The persimmons form a small family of 

 tropical and subtropical trees and shrubs, 

 especially numerous in Indo-Malaya, but 

 also found elsewhere in both hemispheres. 

 Several are cultivated for their edible 

 fruits and some are esteemed for their 

 black heart wood, ebony. 



A fruiting branch of the wild persimmon 

 of the southern United States, also various 

 products of the persimmon family, are 

 shown in the Hall of Plant Life (Hall 29), 

 and the principal kinds of ebony may be 

 seen in the Hall of Foreign Woods (Hall 27). 



