106 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
COLD SPRING HARBOR GROUP 
Hk group shown in the photograph on page 107 is being installed 
in the Darwin Hail of Invertebrate Zodlogy and represents a 
typical association of animal life, such as may be seen between 
tides on the Long Isiand shore. ‘The scene is laid at Coid Spring Harbor, 
and the studies were made during the month of April. 
A crowded mussel bed (Modiolus plicatula), rather thiniy covered with 
sprouting ‘spartina” grass, is overrun by fiddier crabs of two species 
(Uca pugillator and Uca pugnax). At the extreme right of the group are 
two sections of fiddier-crab burrows, occupied by their tenants. ‘The 
water is shown at haif-ebb tide, while underneath its surface are clusters 
of the edible mussei (Mytilus edulis) and of the common oyster (Ostrea 
virginica). Upon one of the oysters is its arch enemy, a starfish (4 sterias 
forbesii). With arms extended over the shell of the oyster and with 
innumerable tube feet firmly attached and in a state of tension, the 
starfish is steadily straining to pull apart the valves of its gradually 
weakening victim. Scattered about on the sea bottom are those scaven- 
gers of shallow water, the sea snail (Nassa obsoleta) and the hermit crab 
(Eupagurus longicarpus). ‘lwo of the crabs are fighting over a dead 
fish, while lurking here and there may be seen the mud crab (Panopeus 
herbstii). In the center, adhering to an oyster sheil, are several speci- 
mens of the tube worm (/7ydroides dianthus) with expanded gili circlets 
of briliiant color. At the lowest part of the group in the foreground, 
the mud of the sea bottom is cut in vertical section to show the long 
or soft clam (Mya arenaria) upright in its burrow, its protruded siphon 
reaching upward to the water. 
The background of the group gives a good effect of distance pro- 
duced by an arrangement of colored photographic transparencies show- 
ing an actual view of the harbor. The materials were collected and 
the field studies made by Dr. F. E. Lutz. The group was mounted by 
Mr. Ignaz Matausch, with the assistance of Mr. Dwight Franklin and 
under the direction of the Department of Invertebrate Zodlogy. 
toy W. MINER. 
