MUSEUM NOTES 



479 



American deer — other than the moose, 

 wapiti and reindeer — are both probably 

 descendants of an extinct group with antlers 

 of the same general type, which flourished 

 in Europe during the latter portion of the 

 Tertiary epoch. 



The archaeological expedition to the valley 

 of the Zuni River, conducted by Mr. Leshe 

 Spier, of the Museum staff, has returned with 

 collections and data from the oldest ruins 

 known, to that captured by the Spanish in 

 1540. This makes possible a historical 

 reconstruction of the occupation of the valley. 

 The method used is a new one and consists 

 in locating the ash heap of any ruin — usually 

 found to the southeast of the ruin — sinking 

 a trench into it, and collecting pottery frag- 

 ments from the top to the bottom of a se- 

 lected section. The types of pots and the 

 proportions of these at different levels show 

 the changes in ceramic art in the progress 

 of time, and it is believed that the sequence of 

 pottery types can be used as a temporary 

 scale for the chronology of the ruins. The 

 sherds at the bottom of a pile indicate the 

 date of the foundation of the village, those 

 at the top the date of its abandonment for 

 some other site, and the time, duration, and 

 manner of occupation of the different villages 

 can be determined in relation to other vil- 

 lages. It is planned to carry this historical 

 investigation throughout the Southwest. 



Through the generosity of the Honorable 

 George Shiras, 3d, the Museum was able 

 to send Mr. H. E. Anthony into the field in 

 Ontario during the latter part of the summer. 

 Mr. Shiras planned the trip primarily for 

 the purpose of obtaining photographic 

 studies of the region north of Lake Superior 

 and secondarily for the study of moose. The 

 party was in Ontario about three weeks and a 

 good male moose specimen was secured for 

 the Museum's study series. 



Mr. Carl E. Akeley was elected president 

 of the Explorers Club of New York City at a 

 business meeting of the council of the club 

 held November 10. Rear Admiral Robert 

 E. Peary was made honorary president of 

 the club at the same meeting. 



The Jesup lectures, under the auspices of 

 Columbia University in cooperation with 

 the American Museum, will be given at the 



Museum on Friday evenings at 8.15, be- 

 ginning November 10 and lasting through 

 December 29. The subject of these lectures 

 will be "Dynamic Psychology," and the lec- 

 turer will be Dr. Robert S. Woodworth, pro- 

 fessor of psychology in Columbia University. 



A HABITAT group of African monkeys 

 (Colobus) has been installed opposite the 

 entrance to the Primate hall on the third 

 floor of the Museum. These monkeys, dis- 

 tinguished by their long, silky, black and 

 white coats, and by the absence of a thumb, 

 are restricted to the African continent, where 

 they live in the dense tropical forests from 

 Gambia and Abyssinia in the north to Angola 

 and Nyassaland in the south. The young 

 of this species is born white, but the color 

 changes so rapidly that this fact was long in 

 doubt. Animals from two localities, selected 

 to show various stages in coloration from 

 youth to old age, are included in the group. 

 They were mounted by Mr. Frederick 

 Blaschke in the Museum's taxidermy studio. 

 The leaves, vines, and air plants used in the 

 setting were made from specimens obtained 

 in Africa by Messrs. Herbert Lang and 

 James L. Clark. 



A CURIOUS example of primitive armor, 

 made of coarsely woven maguey fiber and 

 found in a prehistoric grave at Chiuchiu, 

 Chile, has been presented to the Museum 

 by Messrs. Guggenheim Brothers, having 

 been collected by Mr. Harry F. Guggenheim. 

 The specimen, which is extremely rare and 

 unusual, is made like a poncho, with the sides 

 closed, leaving openings for the head and 

 arms. It is decorated with pile knots made 

 of human hair. 



The unusual spectacle afforded this past 

 summer by three American egrets which 

 spent the greater part of three months in 

 the neighborhood of Van Cortlandt Park, 

 New York, has considerable ornithological 

 interest. One of the shyest and rarest of 

 American birds, and one whose persecution 

 by plume hunters has rendered it necessary 

 to protect it by law, the egret has been very 

 rarely reported in the north for many years. 

 That these specimens should have elected 

 to frequent a flooded swamp so near the city, 

 surrounded on all sides but one by constant 

 and noisy traffic, is nothing short of remark- 

 able, in spite of the fact that the pond affords 



