2U 



TEE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Dr. Frank M. Chapjian was elected an 

 honorary member of the British Ornithol- 

 ogists' Union, at the annual meeting of the 

 society, held on March 14, in London. The 

 membership of the Union, according to its 

 printed rules, includes "ordinary members," 

 elected by ballot of the society; not more 

 than ten "honorary members," to be recruited 

 from eminent ornithologists residing abroad ; 

 "colonial members" from the British Colonies 

 and India, also not to exceed ten; and 

 "eminent foreign ornithologists," not to ex- 

 ceed twenty. Before his election as an hon- 

 orary member. Dr. Chapman had been one 

 of the twenty in the last-mentioned group. 



The bay of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, shown 

 on the cover of the present Journal, is 

 one of the most beautiful in the world. Tall, 

 barren rocks rise from the bottom of the 

 ocean, and tower above the waves, like giant 

 monoliths. One of them, the famous Pao 

 d'Azucar, or Sugar Loaf Rock (at the right 

 in the picture), attains a height of tAvelve 

 hundred feet, and from its top, reached by 

 means of an aerial cable car, one has a 

 splendid view of the surrounding country. 

 All ships entering the harbor must sail 

 through the narrow passage in the center. 

 A number of forts, some of which are 

 clearly shown in the picture, protect the 

 entrance and the approach to it. On the 

 opposite side of the bay rise the Organ 

 Mountains, one of the oldest ranges in 

 South America. The peaks have Aveathered 

 into splendid spires and pinnacles of fan- 

 tastic shapes, and the entire range is much 

 lower than in bygone ages. Dr. Frank 

 M. Chapman and Mr. Leo E. Miller, of the 

 South American Expedition of the American 

 Museum, spent a short time in this region 

 in the fall of 1916, and secured a collection 

 which throws much light on the changing 

 fauna of the Organ Mountains. 



Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn, 

 president of the American Museum, has ap- 

 pointed an American Museum "public in- 

 formation committee," consisting of Dr. 

 Frederic A. Lucas and Messrs. George E. 

 Sherwood, George N. Pindar, and John W. 

 Harrington. This committee will cooperate 

 with the heads of the various departments 

 for the purpose of supplying suitable matter 

 for publication, regarding science and the 

 activities of the American Museum, to news- 



pajjers and the technical and scientific pub- 

 lications of the country. 



AiiONG recent notable additions to the 

 library of the American Museum are six 

 volumes on costume, Le Costume Historique, 

 published at Paris in 1888 under the direc- 

 tion of A. Racinet. The volumes are pro- 

 fusely illustrated, many plates being in color. 

 The books take up the noteworthy types of 

 dress, but also add details on interior furnish- 

 ing, utensils, conveyances, and the like. Other 

 interesting acquisitions are Iconcs Ornithop- 

 terorum : A Monograph of the Papilionine 

 Tribe Troides of Hubner, Volumes I and 

 II, London, 1898, by Robert H. F. Rippon, 

 and British Coleoptera, Volumes I to VI, 

 London, 1887 to 1913, by the Reverend W. 

 W. Fowler. The library has also acquired the 

 Lepidoptera Britannica by A. H. Haworth, 

 London, 1803, which is rarely found com- 

 plete, and Volume II of The Iconography of 

 Manhattan Island, 1498-1909, by I. N. 

 Phelps Stokes, New York, 1916, a beautiful 

 volume compiled from original sources and 

 illustrated by photo-intaglio reproductions 

 of maps, plans, views, and documents in pub- 

 lie and private collections. 



The department of anthropology has ac- 

 quired by purchase from P. N. Breton a 

 fine wampum belt from the Oka reser- 

 vation in Canada. This belt had long been 

 in the possession of the fathers of the Semi- 

 uaire de Saint Sulpiee, of Oka, Quebec, mis- 

 sionaries to the Iroquois and Algonquin 

 Indians, and is probably the record of some 

 land cession or treaty betAveen the Indians 

 and the missionaries. The belt is made of 

 regular and beautiful shell beads, which may 

 be of Dutch manufacture, and is ornamented 

 with crosses and other geometric designs in 

 white beads. It is in a state of preserva- 

 tion unusual for specimens of this kind. 



In exchange for American reptile material 

 for exhibition, the American Museum has 

 recently received from the Albany Museum, 

 GrahamstoAvu, South Africa, a collection of 

 nineteen frogs and toads, twenty-seven liz- 

 ards, and six snakes. Most of the species 

 are neAv to the collections of the American 

 Museum, and some are rare and little known, 

 for instance, the gecko Lygodactylus ocel- 

 latus, and Natalobatrachus bonebergi, a 

 frog belonging to a recently described 

 genus. The Grahamstown collection sup- 



