THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



of this ])rizc is five hundred doUars, but in view of the high 

 character of your investigations it was further voted to increase 

 the amount to one thousand dollars. 



"1 am verv glad to have the privilege of conveying to you 

 the official announcement of tliis jniVjlic recognition of the ex- 

 ce])tional value of your services to science, which I hope you may 

 continue to render for a long time." 



Prank M. Chapman, Associate Curator of Mammalogy and 

 Ornithology, is in CaHfornia collecting material for making 

 a grou]) on the Cadwalader fund. He has an artist with him, 

 who will make a study of the region in which the birds are 

 found from which groups along the same lines as the new Cobb's 

 Island group, described in the last number of the Journal, will 

 be constructed. One of the proposed groups will represent the 

 bird-life of the irrigated portions of the San Joaquin valley, and 

 will include Stilts, Avocets, Cinnamon Teal, Coots, all breeding 

 or with \-oung, Forster's and Black Terns, Pintail and Redhead 

 Ducks, Great Blue Heron and Yellowheaded and California Red- 

 winged Blackbirds. The background will show a great stretch 

 of green irrigated country with the mountains of the Coast Range 

 in the distance. 



The ]>lans of the Department of \'ert citrate Palaeontology 

 for field work this season are now being carried into execution. 

 Walter Granger, accompanied by Albert Thomson, has gone into 

 the old and much-explored beds in the region of Fort Bridger, 

 southwestern ^^'\•oming. Desjiite the fact that the Yale, Prince- 

 ton and American Museums have already made rich collections 

 from this region, there is reason to believe that as " there are still 

 more fish in the sea," so there are still fossils to be found in the 

 Bridger region which will settle some of the most important and 

 interesting jiroblems in the descent of mammals. Chief among 

 these problems is perhaps the origin of tlie rhinoceroses. W'e 

 also especially desire to secure tlie Middle Eocene stage in the 

 evolution of the horse in such complete form that it can be 

 mounted in tlie remarkable series which is now being collected 

 with the aid of the William C. Whitney fund. Another object 



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