412 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



majority of whom the subject matter was 

 new as well as important, the lectures were 

 especially valuable and fruitful, and several 

 delegations of teachers have since visited the 

 Museum to examine the lantern slides and 

 other aids afforded. Arrangements have 

 already been made by many teachers for 

 systematic borrowing during the winter. 



The annual fall exhibition of the Horti- 

 cultural Society of New York will be held 

 in the American Museum of Natural History 

 November 9-12. It will be open to mem- 

 bers of the American Museum on Thursday 

 November 9, from 7 to 10 p. m. and to the 

 general public on the remaimng days. It 

 will also be open to the public on Friday and 

 Saturday evenings, November 10 and 11. 



The Museum has had three expeditions 

 for fossil vertebrates in the western United 

 States during the past summer. All report 

 a fair degree of success, especially in the dis- 

 covery of new and interesting fossil faunas. 

 Mr. Barnum Brown, in charge of the expedi- 

 tion for Cretaceous dinosaurs in Montana, 

 reports the discovery of Cretaceous dino- 

 saurs distinct from those of the localities 

 hitherto explored by the Museum, and per- 

 haps representing an older stage in their 

 evolution. Mr. Walter Granger reports the 

 discovery in a new locality in New Mexico 

 of numerous remains of small mammals of 

 an age intermediate between the Torrejon 

 and Wasatch horizons. Mr. Albert Thomson 

 has continued work in the Agate quarry, se- 

 curing additional material needed for the 

 group planned to represent this quarry fauna 

 and has also secured interesting material from 

 the Pliocene beds farther south. Dr. W. D. 

 Matthew was with Mr. Thom,son's party 

 during the early part of the season, engaged 

 chiefly in an extensive reconnaissance of the 

 later Tertiary fossil beds in western Nebraska. 

 Professor H. F. Osborn has since joined the 

 party for a short time, visiting on his way 

 some of the more important localities in 

 Nebraska. 



The attention of t( achcrs of Ijiology in our 

 higher schools is called to the synoptic series 

 of mammals on the third floor, which has 

 been developed with a view to making it 

 instructive to the student while at the same 

 time interesting to the general visitor. 

 Although still far from completion, the 

 exhibit is in usable shape and gives a fairly 



comprehensive view of the great class of 

 mammals. It comprises not only examples 

 of every family of existing mammals, illus- 

 trating in many cases their structure and 

 origin in point of time, but includes also 

 exhibits illustrating various points in the 

 evolution of mammals, principles of classi- 

 fication, and interesting, or peculiar, habits. 

 The specimens are accompanied by detailed 

 descriptive labels giving information about 

 the various orders and families of mammals, 

 the series being an example of that defini- 

 tion of a museum, which makes it "a collec- 

 tion of labels illustrated by specimens." 

 The casual visitor, by merely walking around 

 the gallery however, may get an idea of the 

 range of mammals in form and size, and of 

 their more apparent characters. There are 

 albinos and melanos, exhibits illustrating 

 modifications for locomotion, variations of 

 the brain in vertebrates, and the influence 

 of environment, or adaptation of mammals 

 to their surroundings. An introductory ex- 

 hibit, showing the distinctive characters and 

 evolutionary rank of mammals, is in course 

 of preparation. 



Mr. Charles Dawson, F. S. A., F. G. S., 

 the discoverer of the Piltdown skull which 

 proved so important a connecting link be- 

 tween modern man and the anthropoid apes, 

 died recently at Lewes, England, at the age of 

 fifty-two years. The skull was found by Mr. 

 Dawson in a chalk pit on Piltdown Common 

 where it had been thrown aside by laborers 

 who were digging out flints for road mending. 

 It proved to be one of the oldest skulls of 

 human type ever found, dating from an early 

 glacial epoch, when the North Sea and Eng- 

 lish Channel were dry land. It is believed 

 to be that of a female belonging to a nomadic 

 race without knowledge of fire and living upon 

 uncooked roots, vegetables, and flesh. As 

 bearing upon the problem of the relationships 

 of early European races this discovery was 

 one of the most important in the history of 

 science. Mr. Dawson was well known as a 

 geologist and author of many important 

 papers on geology and palaeontology. 



A MODEL of a cave, showing the common 

 brown bat of Virginia, Myotis Incifiigus, is 

 now on exhibition in the American Museum. 

 It is thought that bats play an important 

 part in keeping down mosquitoes, and for 

 this reason bat towers are erected in some 

 localities for their accommodation. 



