MUSEUM NOTES 199 



The Museum has been fortunate enough to receive through Mr. Joseph M. Bell a 

 fine example of the best class of stone work plowed out in a field one-half mile east of 

 Bassett, Mississippi County, Arkansas. The implement is one of the so-called 

 ceremonial celts and has received a very high polish. It is an unusual form, the use 

 of which is problematic. 



Through the bequest of the late Edward Russ, a life member, the Museum has 

 received one thousand dollars. 



The Museum is designated as one of ten residuary legatees under the will of 

 the late Morris Loeb. According to the terms of the bequest it must be used for the 

 illustration of the industrial use of natural products in ancient and modern times. 



Miss Mary Cynthia Dickerson has been promoted from assistant curator to 

 associate curator in the department of ichthyology and herpetology, this appoint- 

 ment taking effect May 1, 1913. 



The material collected by the third African expedition, under Dr. W. S. Rains- 

 ford, has been received at the Museum. It contains specimens of black rhinoceros, 

 East African buffalo, eland, leopard, cheetah, antelope and monkey. 



Professor T. T. Waterman, assistant professor of anthropology in the Univer- 

 sity of California will spend the summer in New York, in part to study the collections 

 in the American Museum. 



The Museum series of cave paintings has been extended by a series from the 

 caves of South Africa. On the end wall of the African hall are four panels presenting 

 the best known examples of Bushmen art. These are not of great antiquity but 

 seem to belong to a state of culture somewhat analogous to that of the cave men of 

 Europe. The most interesting panel is that representing a running fight between a 

 party of Bushmen cattle thieves and a pursuing posse of Kaffirs. 



Mr. Max Schrabisch has brought his rock-shelter collections and reports to the 

 Museum for the season of 1912-13. Seven sites were explored. The most important 

 was one near Stony Point, New York. This proved to be a large granite boulder 

 under the shelter of which the Indians camped. The ancient fireplaces were uncovered 

 and several refuse pits filled with bones of the animals used for food. 



Mr. A. J. Mutchler has been appointed assistant in the department of in- 

 vertebrate zoology, this appointment taking effect May 1, 1913. 



The collection of local birds is once more open to the public after having been 

 retired for some months on account of its removal to new quarters and the installation 

 of the exhibits of the department of public health on the third floor. The local birds 

 may now be found in the west corridor, second floor. 



The California gray whale (Rhachianectes glaucus) which Mr. Roy C. Andrews 

 secured on his last cruise was the subject of an interesting communication by him to 

 the May meeting of the Section of Biology, New York Academy of Sciences. He 

 showed that in many points of its skeleton Rhachianectes is the most primitive living 

 whalebone whale and that it is probably the little-changed descendant of the early 



