M 



useum 



Notes 



81NCE the last issue of the .Ioi'kxal, the 

 following persons have heconie nienihers of 

 the Museum : 



Life Members, Messrs. James H. Bark 

 and MoREAU Delano. 



Annual Members, Mrs. Augustine J. 

 Wilson, the Rev. James B. Nies, Ph.D., Dr. 

 H. R. Hardtmayer and Messrs. James 

 Lane Allen, Leroy V. Allen, T. B. De 

 ViNNE, G. Pagenstecher, Philip B. Rice, 

 Chas. J. Stevenot and Emil Winter. 



Dr. Edmx'ND O. Hovey, curator of the de- 

 partment of geology and invertebrate palaeon- 

 tology, has returned to the American Mu- 

 seum after an absence of two years in the 

 Arctic with the Crocker Land Expedition, 

 which he joined In 1913. During his resi- 

 dence in the north Dr. Hovey carried on a 

 valuable series of observations on the action 

 of glaciers and the sea ice; on the physiog- 

 raphy of the country, particularly of the 

 region from Cape York to Etah; and on the 

 geology of Parkersnow Bay and the vicinity 

 of Cape Parry. Five months and two days 

 were consumed in the return trip from Etah 

 to New York City, although every possible 

 means was used to hasten the journey. De- 

 lays Avere due wholly to weather and war 

 conditions. Dr. Hovey arrived in this city 

 on the same day that the "Neptune," com- 

 manded by Captain Robert A. Bartlett, 

 reached Sidney, Nova Scotia, bringing the 

 remainder of the exploring party and the col- 

 lections from Etah. The four hundred lioxes 

 of specimens were forwarded by rail from 

 Sidney to New York, where they are now in 

 process of distribution in the American Mu- 

 seum. They comprise a rich series of zoolog- 

 ical, botanical, ornithological, ethnological, 

 and archaeological specimens. 



At a meeting of the executive committee 

 of the board of trustees of the American Mu- 

 seum held on June 20, Captain Robert A. 

 Bartlett was made a life member of the 

 American Museum of Natural History, in 

 appreciation of his contributions to science 

 through his Arctic work. Captain Bartlett 

 has brought to a successful and speedy ter- 

 mination the hazardous voyage of the "Nep- 

 tune," which was undertaken early in July as 

 a third attempt to rescue the members of the 



Crocker Land Expedition, so long marooned 

 at Etah. 



Except for some prospecting work in a 

 new section of the great quarry at Agate, 

 Nebraska, no field expeditions were under- 

 taken this summer by the department of ver- 

 tebrate palaeontology. In lieu of field work 

 preparation and researches upon the collec- 

 tions were continued through the summer. A 

 fine series of skeletons of duck-billed dino- 

 saurs has been prepared and the specimens 

 are being made ready for installation, to add 

 to the exhibit of this group. Mr. Barnum 

 Brown's recent explorations in the Cretaceous 

 formations of Alberta and Montana have 

 brought to light an unsuspected diversity of 

 types among the dinosaurs belonging to this 

 group. The common duck-billed dinosaur 

 Traehodon had long been known to science, 

 and is represented in our exhibits by the 

 group of tAvo skeletons and the "dinosaur 

 mummy." Eight different genera of this 

 group, very diverse in the shape of the skull, 

 are represented in the skeletons and skulls 

 now being prepared or already on exhibition. 



A census of the skeletons of extinct ani- 

 mals in the Museum shows that there are at 

 present on exhibition ninety-three original 

 complete skeletons of fossil vertebrates ex- 

 clusive of fish besides five casts of skeletons. 

 There are in preparation or ready for 

 mounting forty-six additional complete skele- 

 tons, besides others that have not yet been 

 extracted froiu the matrix but are believed 

 to be more or less complete. Of these 144 

 skeletons, 91 are extinct mammals, 40 are 

 extinct reptiles, 10 are extinct birds, and 3 

 are amphibians. 



Mr. Rollo Beck, who has been in charge 

 of the Brewster-Sanford Expedition, has just 

 returned from South Amei-ica, where he has 

 been collecting birds since the fall of 1912. 

 Nearly eight thousand bird specimens were 

 secured, including some rare species not pre- 

 viously collected. Among his many photo- 

 graphs, a series of the shearAvater, a bird 

 common off the coast of California and as 

 far north as the Aleutian Islands, Avas taken 

 near Cape Iloin. 



A NEW habitat group just placed on exhi- 

 bition portrays a buck, a doe, and a faAvn at 



419 



