MUSEUM NOTES 87 
Culbertson, Nebraska, the gift of Mr. Arthur 
Curtiss James. Neither of these meteorites 
has yet been described. Hight kilograms of 
additional material from the Holbrook stone 
shower of July, 1913, have been obtained 
for use with what the Museum already 
possesses, to arrange a special case in the 
hall of geology to represent the mode of 
occurrence of such a meteoritic fall. There 
have been secured also a slice of the Mt. 
Edith siderite showing particularly excellent 
Widmanstitten lines, and representatives 
of the Rio Arriba, Wairarapa, Elm Creek, 
Aumiéres and St. Marks falls. An interest- 
ing slab and its counterpart of Triassic 
limestone showing footprints and_ ripple 
marks have been obtained from a quarry 
near West Orange, New Jersey; also a slab 
of orbicular granite from Vermont; a series 
of salt and other minerals from Great Salt 
Lake, Utah; and a specimen of native iron 
in basalt from Bihl, Germany. The Albert 
Manufacturing Company has presented to 
the department an interesting series of 
specimens illustrating the occurrence of 
gypsum at its famous quarries near Hills- 
borough, New Brunswick. 
On January 26, Mr. Roy W. Miner of the 
department of invertebrate zodlogy lectured 
before the Linnean Society on “The Fauna 
of Our Tide Pools.’”’ Mr. Miner described 
with the aid of colored lantern slides the 
environmental conditions determining the 
animal life of the tidal zone of our northern 
rocky coast from Nahant to New Brunswick. 
The tide pools of Nahant, Massachusetts, 
with their wonderful flora and fauna were 
then depicted. This is the locality from 
which Mr. Miner has drawn the theme for 
the new tide-pool group which is under course 
of construction for the Darwin hall. Over- 
arched by a natural bridge of rock below the 
high-tide mark at the bottom of a sixty-foot 
cliff, this tide pool with its gorgeous display 
of animal and plant life presents all the as- 
pects of a veritable fairy cavern. It is 
expected that the group will be finished within 
the current year and will form the most 
striking in the series of window exhibits in 
the Darwin hall illustrating the natural his- 
tory of the invertebrates of the North Atlan- 
tic coast. 
AN introductory exhibition of drawings in 
color of ‘Our Common Home Birds” by 
Mr. H. C. Denslow was held at the Museum 
in the west assembly hall from January 15 to 
January 29 inclusive. 
A GrovuP of the California ground squirrel 
has been placed on exhibition in the hall 
of public health. The significance of this 
exhibit is realized when we know that the flea 
carrying the germ of the bubonic plague to 
man, is common to this rodent as well as to 
the rat — for some years recognized as a car- 
rier of the disease. This condition has been 
and still is a serious problem, as the trappers 
who come in contact with the animal become 
infected and in turn transmit the disease to 
other individuals. The plague has spread 
in the West to such an extent through this 
agency that the United States government 
has found it necessary to conduct a strenuous 
campaign to exterminate the ground squirrel. 
Up to September, 1913, nearly two thousand 
squirrels of this species had been found 
infected with the plague bacillus in California 
alone. 
Tue last shipment of South American birds 
and mammals sent north by the Roosevelt 
party, has just arrived in New York. About 
three hundred and fifty mammalian specimens 
and ninety Brazilian birdskins were enclosed. 
Among the specimens new to the Museum 
collections are three birds, the very small 
manikins, two male and one female. 
Tue groups in the Darwin hall are being 
provided with index labels some of which 
have already been installed. Those used in 
connection with the window exhibits which 
represent an extensive and complicated series 
of invertebrates in their natural environment, 
are particularly adapted to aid in identifying 
the forms shown. The label recently com- 
pleted for the Woods Hole group describes 
in a series of five panels the principal marine 
specimens represented and identifies them 
by water-color diagrams placed immediately 
below the portions of the exhibit to which 
they refer. 
AN eight-foot nurse shark (Ginglymostoma 
cirratum) was received from the New York 
Aquarium several weeks ago, and a plaster 
mold of it was made while it was still in good 
form. This is now being prepared in the 
taxidermist workrooms of the Museum, and 
will make a valuable addition to the series 
of large fishes mounted along the walls above 
the cases in the hall of recent fishes. 
