38 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Congress of Hygiene and Demography to he held in New York September, 

 1912. 



The Executive Committee has created the office of assistant Hbrarian 

 and has appointed Miss Ida Richardson Hood to fill the position. 



The Colombian expedition has thus far sent collections of birds and 

 mammals numbering between three and four thousand specimens, which 

 prove to be exceptionally rich in species new to the Museum collection as 

 well as new to science. Preliminary study of the birds, for example, shows 

 that the wrens and thrushes are represented by eighteen species and sub- 

 species all of which are practically unknown to the Museum collection, 

 while several appear not to have been described. The single family of 

 flycatchers further illustrates the richness of the avifauna of the region in 

 question, the collection containing no less than fifty-nine representatives 

 of this family, or nearly twice as many as are found in America north of 

 Mexico. 



Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan has presented to the gem hall a small but very 

 interesting and valuable collection. It consists of large crystals of beni- 

 toite — the beautiful new gem stone of California, a double colored polished 

 beryl section, a euclase crystal associated with yellow topaz, and three 

 remarkable tourmalines from Madagascar. The most prominent specimen 

 is a really wonderful mass of aquamarine weighing thirteen pounds, which 

 is only a small portion of a crystal that weighed 246 pounds. It is decep- 

 tively like glass, possessing a perfect texture, and having the typical and 

 always fascinating aquamarine tint, delicately blue with interior greenish 

 reflections. 



Among the groups in preparation for the Darwin hall is one illustrating 

 the complex relations of animals to one another and to man, which it is 

 hoped will be on exhibition within a few months. A museum has been 

 likened to an iceberg seven-eighths of which, so far as the public is concerned 

 is not in view. The visitor sees the finished product; he does not see the 

 varied steps that lead up to it from collection in the field through the 

 work of preparation. The public reads with interest of extended explora- 

 tion in Colombia, of fossil hunting in Alberta: a year, or two years after- 

 ward appears a note or an article to the effect that such a group or such a 

 specimen has just })een placed on exhibition. Even the visitor to the 

 workrooms cannot realize how long and tedious much of the preparation 

 really is nor the pains necessary to secure seemingly simple results. 



Dk. p. E. (Joddaud, associate curator of anthropology, has just returned 

 from the Southwest. About a month was spent on the Kiowa-Comanche 



