MUSEUM NOTES 



47 



their thick hides and protecting coats of hair. 

 The lion is closely related to the lions and 

 tigers of to-day, but of much larger size, 

 comparing in this particular with the great 

 brown bears of Alaska, the largest living 

 Carnivora. It seems to have been much like 

 the modern lion in appearance and habits, 

 although it is not known whether it had a 

 mane. The horse is also a near relative of the 

 living species and about as large as an average 

 domestic carriage horse. 



This gigantic extinct lion is comparatively 

 rare among the asphalt fossils and the horse 

 is not very common. The selection of these 

 fine specimens for our collections by the Uni- 

 versity of California is therefore very highly 

 appreciated. The skulls and skeletons are 

 among the finest of their kind that have been 

 secured from the La Brea deposits. 



A WIRELESS receiving set has been secured 

 and is now being used daily at the Museum 

 for getting the noontime signal from the 

 Naval Observatory at Washington through 

 the great radio station at Arlington. 



On January 26 Mr. Fay-Cooper Cole will 

 give an illustrated lecture on "The Wild 

 Tribes of Mindanao" before the American 

 Ethnological Society and the Section of 

 Anthropology and Psychology of the New 

 York Academy of Sciences. 



Although the Museum through its public 

 lectures reaches a large number of people, it 

 does not perhaps reach in this way the stu- 

 dents who are in search of more technical 

 knowledge in those fields which do not lend 

 themselves readily to popular presentation 

 and illustration by lantern slides. To those 

 students the Museum opens its library, its 

 study collections, its exhibition halls and 

 renders assistance by guide leaflets, hand- 

 books and scientific writings but in order to 

 be of more service a course of lectures which 

 are not illustrated and which are intended for 

 those especially interested along the lines of 

 social organization of primitive people has 

 been arranged. On January 8 and 15, Dr. 

 Robert H. Lowie will speak on "Social 

 Organization"; on January 22, Dr. Pliny E. 

 Goddard will speak on "Religious Observ- 

 ances" and on January 29, on "Religious 

 Beliefs." 



The American Museum of Natural History 

 and the American Scenic and Historic 



Preservation Society announce a lecture to be 

 given January 14 at the Museum by Dr. 

 Douglas Wilson Johnson on "The Scenery 

 of the Atlantic Coast and its Answer to the 

 Question: Is the Coast Sinking?" 



On January 27 in the east assembly hall 

 of the Museum, Mr. Alanson Skinner will 

 speak before the Linntean Society of New 

 York on the Cree and O jib way Indians of 

 Saskatchewan. Mr. Skinner visited these 

 tribes in 1913 securing valuable information 

 along the lines of folklore and material 

 culture. 



Several interesting fishes have recently 

 been mounted in the Museum laboratories by 

 Mr. Thomas Bleakney, and placed on exhibi- 

 tion in the systematic collection. Among 

 these is a peculiar spotted South American 

 catfish with much flattened head and very 

 long barbels (Brachyplatystomafilamentosum). 

 South America is the home of many different 

 catfishes. Some have the appearance of the 

 whiskered horned pout of North America; 

 others are variously encased in coats of mail, 

 while still others are especially adapted to 

 clinging to the beds of swift mountain tor- 

 rents. Another abundant South American 

 family, the Characins, is in some respects 

 intermediate between catfish and carp, but 

 the typical representatives look and act more 

 like large-scaled trout. Erythrinus erythrinus 

 is an Amia-\ike Characin which has recently 

 been placed on exhibition, as has also Stern- 

 archorhynchus curvirostris, with elephant-like 

 snout or trunk. This latter species belongs 

 to an allied group of eel-like fishes. Two 

 specimens of the swellfish common in salt 

 water near New York, have likewise been 

 prepared. One shows the fish in its normal 

 condition, the other as it appears after having 

 inflated itself, a strange habit doubtless use- 

 ful in intimidating its enemies. 



Additions and rearrangements now under 

 way will notably increase the interest of the 

 exhibit of South American extinct mammals 

 (fourth floor, south pavilion) . To the ground 

 sloth group is added a fifth skeleton of Sceli- 

 dotherium, the long-skulled ground sloth. 

 It differs from the more common Mylodon in 

 that the head is long and narrow, probably 

 prolonged in life into a slender snout as in the 

 modern anteaters, while the body is peculiarly 

 short and almost globular. The new glypto- 



