MUSEUM NOTES 



211 



the Cretaceous, iu the same way that \\c, 

 have traced, or are tracing, the evokition of 

 American mammals in the Tertiary period. 



The second expedition, in charge of Mr. 

 Walter Granger, will search for mammals of 

 the Eocene or older Tertiary. A number 

 of promising localities scattered through the 

 Rocky Mountain region from New Mexico 

 to Wyoming will be investigated, with the 

 hope of securing additional or better speci- 

 uiens of the rarer fossil mammals. The 

 general problem here is the derivation and 

 early history of these ancient races of quadru- 

 peds, to find out when they first appeared, 

 and whence, and to secure skulls and skele- 

 tons of those which are known only by jaws 

 and teeth, and whose exact relationships are 

 often doubtful. W^e may hope to find, or to 

 recognize, ancestors of various later Tertiary 

 or modern animals whose descent has not 

 been traced back so far as this. 



The third expedition, in charge of Mr. 

 Albert Thomson, will devote itself to the later 

 Tertiary mammals, and its field of work will 

 be in central Nebraska. Its especial aim is 

 to secure more complete material from the 

 Upper Miocene and Pliocene formations, and 

 to bridge the gap between the well-known 

 faimas of the Oligocene and older Miocene 

 below, and the Pleistocene above. By sup- 

 plying skulls and skeletons representing the 

 Pliocene stages in the ancestry of various 

 mammalian races — horses, camels, deer, 

 mastodons, etc., it will clear up various puz- 

 zling problems and disputed points in the 

 geologic history of each race. 



A NEW group has recently been installed 

 among the habitat bird groups on the third 

 floor of the American Museum, showing 

 three representative specimens of the whoop- 

 ing crane in winter habitat. These beautiful 

 migratory birds, the largest and most striking 

 of all North American species, formerly 

 ranged from northern Mackenzie in Canada, 

 ( hrough the eastern half of the United States 

 as far south as central Mexico. The beauty 

 of their feathers and the fact that the young 

 birds are exceedingly good to eat, have caused 

 them to be hunted until they are now almost 

 extinct, their size and white plumage render- 

 ing them an inevitable mark. A few still 

 exist in certain parts of Canada, migrating 

 to Texas; but the many flocks that yearly 

 used to leave their northern breeding places 

 to winter in the southern states are, like the 



passenger pigeon and I^abnidor duck, a mem- 

 ory of the past. Audubon describes these 

 birds as arriving in the south "about the 

 middle of October or beginning of November, 

 in flocks of twenty or thirty individuals, 

 sometimes of twice or thrice that number, 

 the young by themselves, but closely followed 

 by their parents." They wintered in the 

 south "seldom returning northward until 

 about the end of April or beginning of May." 

 "They are found on the edges of large ponds 

 supplied with rank herbage, on fields or 

 savannahs, now in swampy woods and again 

 on extensive marshes." ..." While migrating 

 they appear to travel both by night and by 

 day, their power of flight being such as to 

 render them regardless of the winds." 



The two adult birds and one young bird 

 composing the Museum's grouj) were obtained 

 twenty-five years ago by Mr. Carl E. Akeley 

 at Carrington in North Dakota and were 

 presented by him to the Museum. Mr. 

 Akeley describes a flock of these birds on the 

 wing as a most beautiful sight, with white 

 plumage opalescent in the sun, while their 

 wild calls fill the air. The yoimg birds are 

 reddish brown in color changing to bluish gray 

 and ultimately to white, a circumstance which 

 at one time caused them to be regarded as a 

 different species. Specimens of the young 

 bird are now rare. 



The group has been built in the Museum's 

 taxidermy studio under the direction of Dr. 

 Frank M. Chapman and Mr. Carl E. Akeley. 

 Mr. Louis Agassiz Fuertes, the well-known 

 painter of birds, has directed the grouping, 

 posing and setting of the specimens, while 

 the background was painted by Mr. Hobart 

 Nichols. Since the birds are represented in 

 an autumn scene it has been possible to make 

 use entirely of natural herbage for the setting, 

 instead of having recourse to wax as is gen- 

 erally necessary. 



The American Museum has been presented 

 by Mr. Archibald Harrison with a pure albino 

 Virginia deer, recently obtained by him at 

 Bull's Island, South Carolina. The animal 

 is to be mounted by Mr. James L. Clark and 

 will form a valuable addition to the Museum's 

 series illustrating color variation. 



The C. H. Roberts collection of aquatic 

 Coleoptera, which is one of the best in this 

 country, has recently been purchased by the 

 Museum, wath the aid of local entomologists 

 who contributed to a fund for this purpose. 



