THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



fornia, collected for the Museum by Mr. Batty ; and a fine speci- 

 men of the Siberian Elk, obtained by purchase, and the first 

 known to have been brought to this country. 



The Andrew J. Stone Alaska Expedition of 1903 was notably 

 successful, and the collections arrived at the Museum in excellent 

 condition. They include, besides a large series of the small 

 mammals and birds of the Alaska and Kenai Peninsulas, twelve 

 specimens of the great Alaska Brown Bear, taken on the Alaska 

 Peninsula ; a fine series of White Sheep, and a number of exception- 

 allv fine specimens of the Alaska Moose, from the Kenai Penin- 

 sula. As the Sheep and Moose were killed late in the fall, they 

 are in fine condition for mounting. They complete our material 

 for groups of these large and striking animals. 



At the time of Mr. Stone's lecture, February 25, in the Mem- 

 ber's Course, an exhibit was made in Hall No. 206 of some of the 

 remarkable skins which he has obtained for the Museum on his 

 extended travels in i\laska and Arctic America. The skin of one 

 Kodiak Bear is eleven feet long. 



Mr. Henry Hales, of Ridgewood, N. J., has presented to 

 the Museum, for its collection of Auduboniana, a specimen of 

 the common Woodchuck mounted by John J. Audubon. It 

 was given by Mr. Audubon to a ^Irs. Dunlap, a friend and next- 

 door neighbor of his at Washington Heights, who in May, 1865, 

 gave it to Mr. Hales, in whose possession the specimen has re- 

 mained until the present time. The history of the specimen is 

 thus beyond question. 



The background for the group of San Joaquin Valley birds 

 has been received. It depicts a broad flat valley, formerly a des- 

 ert, but now transformed by irrigation into a region of w^onderful 

 fertility, behind which rise the mountains of the Coast Range. 

 The purple haze characteristic of arid districts rests upon the dis- 

 tant view. This pictorial background, the work of a California 

 artist, Mr. Charles J. Hittell, will be merged into the foreground 

 of the case, which will consist of a group representing the rich 



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