MUSEUM NOTES 



475 



New York City in December, has accepted 

 the invitation of the trustees and scientific 

 staff of the American Museum for the eve- 

 ning of December 26. An address by the 

 retiring president of the Association, Dr. W. 

 W. Campbell, of Lick Observatory, will be 

 given in the auditorium, followed by a re- 

 ception in the hall of the Age of Man. In 

 connection with this meeting of the Associa- 

 tion, arrangements are being made for a spe- 

 cial exhibition by the National Research 

 Committee of the Association, in coopera- 

 tion with the American Chemical Society, 

 showing the application of scientific research 

 in chemistry to pure science, industrial prog- 

 ress, and national defense. 



Two rare specimens of horses have been 

 secured by Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn 

 for the horse collection of the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History. They have been 

 sent to this country by Professor J. Cossar 

 Ewart of the University of Edinburgh and 

 are now at the New York Zoological Park. 

 One of them, a yellow-dun animal, represents 

 the type of horse known and described by 

 Linnaeus in 1766, and is a result of breeding 

 back; the other, a gray-dun specimen, is 

 a true Celtic pony, the same species as that 

 depicted in the caves of France and Spain 

 thirty thousand years ago by the artists of 

 the Old Stone age. This pony was selected 

 by Professor Ewart out of a herd of five 

 hundred sent from Iceland. 



On July 20 of this year the library of the 

 American Museum became possessed of 

 three more of the stupendous works on birds 

 written by that able English naturalist and 

 master of taxidermy, John Gould, F. R. S. 

 The volumes represent the generous and 

 timely gift of Mr. Ogden Mills and are 

 entitled: The Birds of Europe, (5 vols. 

 London [1832-]1837); The Birds of Great 

 Britain, (5 vols. London [1862-]1873); and 

 The Birds of New Guinea and the Adjacent 

 Papuan Islands, (5 vols. London 1875-1888). 

 The books are folio in size, handsomely 

 bound, and profusely illustrated with color 

 plates. Their acquisition is greatly appre- 

 ciated by the ornithologists of the Museum, 

 and outside readers have already consulted 

 them frequently. The matter, moreover, 

 becomes a cause of justifiable pride in that 

 the library's collection of Gould is now, with 

 a Jew exceptions, on a par with that of the 



British Museum. Finally, it is gratifying 

 to note that the many artists and designers 

 who have lately discovered in the library's 

 files on textiles and primitive art a new well 

 of inspiration, are beginning to grow equally 

 enthusiastic over the bird plates in Mr. 

 Mills's latest gift. 



The arrival of the steamer "Danmark," 

 which was chartered to bring back the mem- 

 bers of the Crocker Land Expedition to this 

 country, is expected daily. The "Danmark" 

 received her instructions and left her winter 

 quarters in south Greenland on July 18, 1916, 

 and was reported off Upernivik on August 3, 

 1916. From earlier reports it would appear 

 that the "Kap York" and the "Danmark" 

 were both probably in the vicinity of Cape 

 York about the middle of August. The 

 Crocker Land Committee has no information 

 of the cause of the unexpected delay in the 

 return of the "Danmark." No anxiety need 

 be felt, however, for the safety of the party, 

 even though the vessel should have been 

 unfortunately caught in the ice. The 

 "Danmark" is a very staunch wooden vessel 

 of four or five hundred tons and is thoroughly 

 equipped for her work. A mail is due from 

 Greenland the latter part of November. 



The skeleton of a gigantic and very re- 

 markable fossil bird was the most important 

 discovery made by the field parties from the 

 department of vertebrate palaeontology last 

 summer. It was found in the Lower Eocene 

 of Wyoming by Mr. William Stein. Fossil 



birds are excessively rare in any of our west- 

 ern fossil fields, and this discovery was wholly 

 unexpected. The bird was much larger than 

 an ostrich, although not so tall, and had a 

 huge head with high compressed beak, unlike 

 any living bird. Its size and remarkable 

 proportions are well shown in the illustration 



