144 THE AMERICAN 
THE spring members’ course of popular 
lectures at the Museum was opened on the 
evening of March 4 by Dr. Wilfred H. 
Osgood in a presentation of the subject, 
the “Fur Seals and Other Animals of the 
Pribilof Islands.” 
A THIRTY-PAGE pamphlet, the Report on 
the Street Trees of New York City published 
by the Tree Planting Association of New 
York City in coédperation with the New 
York State College of Forestry at Syracuse 
University may be secured without cost at 
the sales desk on the first floor of the Museum. 
This report by Mr. H. R. Francis gives the 
results of the survey of the trees of the sev- 
eral boroughs of New York City made by 
him during the summer of 1914, and offers 
suggestions for an organized system of scien- 
tific tree culture especially adapted to New 
York City. 
THERE has recently been installed in the 
Darwin hall an exhibit of the Galapagos 
finches of the genus Geospiza to illustrate 
geographical variation as a result of isolation. 
The Galapagos Islands, made classic through 
the observations and researches of Darwin, 
furnish many types of animal life which are 
not found in other parts of the world, al- 
though in most cases they bear resemblance 
to the corresponding fauna of the mainland 
of South America. Each island of the 
archipelago is the home of a species or variety 
not found elsewhere. While these forms are 
often distinct from those of neighboring is- 
lands, they differ widely from those of the 
mainland. A map of the islands is shown in 
the exhibit together with specimens of the 
various species mounted in such a way as to 
indicate their geographic distribution on the 
archipelago. As the degree in which they 
differ is doubtless correlated with the length 
of time during which the islands have been 
_ separated, a relief map of the archipelago 
showing the deepening of the channel of the 
surrounding waters is introduced to further 
emphasize this correlation. 
THE latest addition to the exhibits in the 
hall of public health is a group showing the 
enemies of the fly. The setting is a section 
of a stable with its stable yard, a corn field 
and orchard showing in the distance. The 
most important enemies are shown in char- 
acteristic activities. A hen is busily engaged 
in picking up fly larve; a toad is waiting 
under burdock leaves for a fly to appear; 
MUSEUM JOURNAL 
swallows are skimming over the yard, catch- 
ing flies on the wing; wasps are abroad on a 
similar quest; while in dusty corners of the 
stable and on the broken window are waiting 
spiders and centipedes, and waiting bats 
hang suspended from the beams. 
ANOTHER shipment of birdskins, including 
seven hundred and four specimens collected 
by Mr. W. B. Richardson in eastern Panama, 
has been received by the Museum. 
Mr. Frank M. Byrruy, who exhibited 
before the faculty of the Museum in January 
a long series of autochrome plates in stereop- 
ticon views of unusual beauty, will give a 
lecture to members of the Museum on the 
evening of March 25. 
Mr. H. E. AnrHony has recently been 
appointed assistant in the department of 
mammalogy. 
Dr. Davin G. Steap, Commissioner of 
Fisheries of New South Wales, recently 
visited the Museum. He is returning to 
Australia from an investigation of the fisher- 
ies of England during the past few months, 
and expects to visit the United States govern- 
ment fish hatcheries at Woods Hole, Massa- 
chusetts, and several other points before 
sailing for home. 
A GENERAL meeting of the New York Acad- 
emy of Sciences and its Affiliated Societies is 
to be held at the Museum Monday, March 22. 
Professor Raymond Dodge of Columbia Uni- 
versity will lecture on the ‘‘Incidence of the 
Effect of Moderate Doses of Alcohol on the 
Nervous System.” 
TurouGcH the courtesy of Dr. Emilie 
Snethlage the Museum is to receive from time 
to time collections of birds and mammals from 
the Museu Goeldi, Pard, Brazil. The first 
shipment contains six hundred and four birds 
and fifty mammals and includes several 
species new to our collections, one of them the 
wonderful opal-crowned manikin, Pipra opali- 
zans, pronounced by Count von Berlepsch 
to be the “ finest bird in the world”’. 
Mr. Francis HarPer has been working 
recently at the Museum, in the preparation of 
a paper on fish material which he collected on 
the expedition sent out in 1914 under the 
Canadian Geological Survey to Great Slave 
Lake. 
