MUSEUM NOTES 



137 



Stuart and Messrs. Morris K. Jesup, Darius 

 Ogden Mills and William H. Vanderbilt were 

 added to the class of Benefactors; those of 

 Messrs. James M. Constable, Henry O. 

 Havemeyer, Oswald Ottendorfer, Percy R. 

 Pyne, 1st., Charles E. Tilford and Cornelius 

 Vanderbilt, 1st., to the class of Associate 

 Founders; those of Mrs. Martha T. Fiske 

 and Messrs. Hugh Auchincloss, Benjamin P. 

 Davis, William E. Dodge, 2nd., Henry Iden 

 and William R. Sands to the class of Associate 

 Benefactors; those of Miss S. M. Hitchcock, 

 Mary E. Rogers, Frederika Gade, and Messrs. 

 Samuel D. Babcock, Joel Goldenberg, Solo- 

 mon Loeb and Edward S. Russ to the class 

 of Patrons, and that of Leonidas A. Van 

 Praag to the class of Fellows. 



The Museum is now publishing Professor 

 Bashford Dean's bibliography of fishes. 

 This is a compilation which aims to be of 

 constant use to all who seek to learn what is 

 known of a large and important series of the 

 backboned animals. It is the more neces- 

 sary since the literature of this subject has 

 become so vast and is so widely scattered 

 that even specialists remain in ignorance of 

 important papers which concern their work. 

 To give an idea of the scope of the present 

 bibliography we need only mention that it 

 refers to about 50,000 books and scattered 

 papers in all languages, and deals with the 

 entire subject of fishes, fossil as well as living, 

 — their distribution, structure, physiology, 

 development, their parasites and diseases and 

 their evolution. In this sense, it is believed 

 to be the most complete bibliography which 

 has hitherto been attempted of any major 

 group of animals. 



The present work has been in preparation 

 off and on for twenty-five years, and repre- 

 sents a large amount of detailed research. 

 From 1910 to 1913, Dr. Louis H. Hussakof 

 cooperated in the work; since that time 

 it has been enlarged and edited by Dr. 

 C. R. Eastman and during the past few years 

 numerous authors have given their time 

 generously in revising their special bibli- 

 ographies. It should also be recorded that 

 the National Museum generously con- 

 tributed a manuscript on the bibliography of 

 fishes — mainly dealing with the kinds of 

 fishes and fisheries — which the death of 

 Professor G. Brown Goode left unfinished. 



The volume now in press gives the names 

 of authors who have written upon fishes, 



listing their works in chronological order. 

 It includes all references dating from the 

 middle of the eighteenth century down to 

 the year 1914. Earlier literature of the fishes 

 will be published as an appendix to Volume I. 

 Volume II, which will probably be in press 

 in 1917, will provide an elaborate index for 

 Volume I, digesting all titles, and telling the 

 reader what books or papers he should consult 

 for any particular subject. 



The J. Leon Williams collection, and other 

 exhibits illustrating fossil man and his 

 ancestry, were exhibited during 1915 at the 

 Panama-Pacific International Exposition . 

 They have now been returned to the Museum 

 and are installed in the hall of the age of 

 man. This collection should be studied m 

 connection with Men of the Old Stone Age, 

 the recent book, by Professor Henry Fair- 

 field Osborn. 



Four cock pheasants, illustrating partial al- 

 binism to a complete degree of albinism, have 

 been presented to the American Museum by 

 Mr. Walter Winans of Surrenden Park, 

 England. These, with two normal pheasants 

 also presented by Mr. Winans, are being 

 mounted for a group showing gradations 

 from the normal to the albino bird. 



A RECENT addition to the exhibits in the 

 North American mammal hall of the Museum 

 is a group illustrating the seasonal change in 

 color of the varying hare (Lepus americanus 

 virginianus) . Like the ermine and some 

 other northern mammals, this animal changes 

 its coat, being brown in summer and pure 

 white in winter — a good example of protec- 

 tive adaptation. For many years it was 

 supposed that the actual hair of this animal 

 changed color, but it has been conclusively 

 demonstrated by Dr. J. A. Allen, curator 

 of mammalogy at the American Museum, 

 by examination of many series of specimens 

 in all stages of the change, that there occurs 

 an actual shedding of the darker hairs and a 

 new growth of white ones. This process is 

 gradual, usually occupying several weeks. 

 The specimens in the group show a few of 

 the stages passed through by the hare in 

 changing from the brown of summer to the 

 white of winter. The group has been ar- 

 ranged by Mr. A. E. Butler in the Museum's 

 taxidermy studio. 



