MUSEUM NOTES 151 



buted in the Mississippi Valley and the Eastern States, and interesting as the only 

 survivor of a very ancient family of fishes once widely distributed in the northern 

 hemisphere. The second group represents the shovel-nose sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus 

 platorhynchus) , a fish of considerable commercial value both for its flesh, which is 

 "sturgeon," and the roe, which is made into caviar. A school of these fish is repre- 

 sented in the group, swimming, as is their wont, near the sandy bottom in search of 

 food. The third group represents spawning fish, nest and eggs of the long-nosed 

 gar pike (Lepidosteus osseus). These groups were planned by Professor Bashford 

 Dean. The studies for them, made possible through the Cleveland H. Dodge fund, 

 were carried out by Mr. Dwight Franklin in the spring of 1912 in Wisconsin. 



The collections in the hall of North American archaeology have been readjusted 

 to occupy the new wall cases and to make room for the expansion of the European 

 exhibit. The mural series of palaeolithic cavern paintings has been completed and 

 will soon be open to the public. 



Mr. Daniel Moore Fisk has recently been appointed assistant in the depart- 

 ment of invertebrate zoology. Mr. Fisk is a graduate of Columbia University. 



A buffalo-hide shield and a war shirt have been added to the historical exhibit 

 in the Plains Indian hall. These were taken from the body of an Indian by Alfred 

 Rochefort Calhoun after an engagement in 1868. The tribe cannot be certainly 

 determined but judging from the shield, the owner was a Cheyenne. This historical 

 section now contains two scalps, objects owned by the famous Sitting-bull, and also 

 a personal medicine bag from the equally distinguished Red-cloud. Among the 

 older pieces are a war shirt and two feather headdresses collected by Colonel Sword 

 in 1838. 



A delegation of Indians mostly from the Plains area, who had attended the break- 

 ing of the ground for the new monument to the American Indian at Fort Wadsworth, 

 came to the Museum recently and were received by members of the department of 

 anthropology. The most distinguished members of the Crow delegation among the 

 visitors were Plenty-coups and ^Medicine-crow. Both rank as chiefs by the old 

 Indian way of reckoning according to martial deeds, and Plenty-coups has the addi- 

 tional prestige of being recognized as tribal chief by the United States government. 

 Medicine-crow not only enjoys an unusual record for warlike achievement but is 

 also famous for his ceremonial activity. He is the owner of a medicine-pipe bundle 

 and has founded a new branch of the Tobacco order, the greatest of Crow ceremonial 

 organizations. Another of the visitors, White-man-runs-him, has the distinction 

 of being one of the surviving Custer scouts. 



Dr. J. A. Allen represented the American Museum at the meeting of the Inter- 

 national Zoological Congress at Monaco. Some of the important work of the 

 Congress was done by the International Commission on Nomenclature. Meetings 

 were held for ten days both morning and afternoon, for five days by the Commission 

 and later by a section of the Congress, during which an attempt to break down the 

 law of priority was met and handled in such a way that in the end the authority 

 of the International Commission was strengthened and the outlook for harmony 

 on questions of nomenclature improved. From Monaco Dr. Allen goes to London 

 for comparative work at the British Museum on mammals from South America and 

 Africa. 



