NOTES FROM THE flUSEUM 



This is the first issue of the Bulletin to go out from the new 

 Museum building. The workrooms and offices were occupied in 

 June and during the summer the Hbrary was installed. Fall 

 plans provide for the opening of the public reading room on Octo- 

 ber 31st; the arrangement of the study collections; the installa- 

 tion of the seasonal collection of local birds and continuation of 

 the work of the Natural History Society ; the mounting of a mod- 

 el of Charleston harbor in connection with the first of a series of 

 commercial exhibits ; and the transfer of much material from the 

 old building. 



The collection of living reptiles has increased during the sum- 

 mer both by the addition of several new varieties and by the 

 birth of a number of young. The smaller of our handsome Dia- 

 mond Rattlesnakes distinguished herself on August 17th by pro- 

 ducing the unusually large number of eighteen young which now 

 form one of the most interesting of the snake families, especially 

 when catching mice for food. The big rattlers have delighted 

 their keepers by eating rats, since this species seldom eats in cap- 

 tivity. On August 16th the Red-beUied Water Snake produced 

 fifteen young. The Common Water Snake added twenty-one 

 members to the collection about the same time and in September 

 four Pilot Black Snakes hatched from eggs. The temporary 

 cases in which this collection is now housed will soon be replaced 

 by permanent exhibition cases. 



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