70 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



in acknowledgment of his invaluable aid to 

 the Asiatic Zoological Expedition and his 

 continued interest in the development of the 

 American Museum. Dr. William Diller 

 Matthew also was elected to life membership 

 in recognition of his many services to the 

 Museum and of his scholastic attainments. 



The American Museum has offered to 

 the National War Work Council of the 

 Young Men's Christian Association the 

 choice of any of its thousands of miscella- 

 neous lantern slides which may be found 

 suitable for the entertainment of soldiers in 

 camp, either in this country or abroad. A 

 cable received from France by the War 

 Work Council asked for as many colored 

 slides as possible, with a range of subjects 

 embracing architecture, art, science, war, 

 and the scenery of various countries. The 

 Museum is preparing also a series of lectures 

 to be circulated among the camps. Four of 

 these now in course of preparation are: 

 "Hunting Elephants and Other Big Game in 

 Africa," by Carl E. Akeley; "Whale Hunt- 

 ing with Gun and Camera," by Eoy C. An- 

 drews; "Down the Eiver of Doubt with 

 Colonel Eoosevelt," by George K. Cherrie, 

 and "Bird Life on an Antarctic Island," by 

 TJobert Cushman Murphy. The manuscript 



f each lecture will be accompanied by 

 about one hundred slides. The lecture, pre- 

 ])ared in the first person, may be read before 

 the soldiers with the same effect as if given 

 at first hand. Another plan of the American 

 Museum for providing relaxation and rec- 

 reation for the soldiers, is the loan of some 

 of the best of its motion picture films, such 

 as the Crocker Land material and the travel 

 films of Japan and China taken by Eoy C. 

 Andrews. These will be so fully titled and 



captioned that they will be self-explanatory. 



Many copies of the American Museum 

 Journal are now being distributed to the 

 libraries of forty-five army and navy camps. 



At a recent meeting of the New York 

 Academy of Sciences the following members 

 of the American Museum scientific staff were 

 elected Fellows in the Society : Dr. Thomas 

 G. Hull, of the department of public health, 

 Dr. F. E. Lutz, associate curator of inverte- 

 brate zoology, and Mr. Barrington Moore, 

 associate curator in woods and forestry. Dr. 

 C. C. Mook, Avho is engaged on special re- 

 search work in the department of vertebrate 

 palaeontology, was also elected Fellow. 



Mr. C. William Beebe, curator of birds 

 in the New York Zoological Park, has 

 returned from the Tropical Eesearcli Station 

 established last year in British Guiana by 

 the New York Zoological Society. While the 

 intention of Mr. Beebe's short trip was prin- 

 cipally to salvage books and instruments 

 until after the war, and to seek rest from an 

 airplane accident, yet opportunity was found 

 for a month of investigation. Several thou- 

 sand specimens, ranging from mammals to 

 insects, were collected, and more than eighty- 

 five representatives of various groups Avere 

 brought back alive. Among these were a 

 young tapir, an imperial Amazon parrot, and 

 a silky anteater {Cyclopes didactylus) , the 

 latter species brought north for the first time. 

 More than ninety paintings and sketches of 

 zoological subjects were obtained by the di- 

 rector's assistant, Mr. John Tee Van, and by 

 Miss Isabel Cooper. The list of known birds 

 of Bartica District was increased to more 

 than four hundred species. 



Mr. Leslie Spier has returned from a 

 journey to Zuni, Arizona, undertaken the 

 latter part of October to continue archae- 

 ological investigations begun in the summer 

 of 1916. His researches indicate that the 

 Zuni at one time disappeared from the Zuni 

 Valley, to return later. Just where they 

 went during the period of their absence from 

 the valley is the object of the present inves- 

 tigation. As no trace of their wanderings 

 had been discovered in the north and east by 

 former expeditions, Mr. Spier confined his 

 explorations to the western and southern 

 parts of the territory. 



The department of anthropology of the 

 American Museum has installed a neAv ex- 

 hibit of rare Indian baskets in the Southwest 

 hall of the Museum. There are Mission bas- 

 kets wortli almost their weight in gold. 

 These are made of the stems of California 

 grass sewed together with juncus reed, or 

 the shoots of the sumac, in their natural 

 colors. The reed imparts mottled variations 

 of yellow, brown, and green. The black 

 shades are produced by dyeing the juncus 

 stems with elder. These colors are arranged 

 in horizontal bands of simple and artistic 

 geometric designs. Soft-toned Tlingit bas- 

 ketry of the Northwest shows the great skill 

 of the Tlingit Indians in the selection and 

 blending of colors. 



