174 
he has been seized amidships by the 
angry guard, although how well he is to 
be finally punished for his misdeed the 
scene does not tell us. Young salaman- 
ders are to be seen foraging along the 
bottom, and the red, land form of the 
newt is out on the bank of the river to 
serve as astandard of size for comparison 
with the giant species. 
Another group, which I have never had 
the good fortune to observe in the natural 
state, is that showing some of the rep- 
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
tilian life of the desert. Looking sea- 
ward on an island in the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia, appears to be this scene, the red 
voleanic rock, the cactus life, saguaro, 
ocotillo and palo-verde, being prominent 
in the stage setting. Under a volcanic 
fissure is the lair of a great rattler of the 
desert, he is just raising his head from his 
coils to look over the possibilities of prey 
outside. Small highly colored desert liz- 
ards are there for the catching, and an 
iguana is climbing up over the spines of 
a great cactus to sleep in the sun at the 
top. 
lizards of the North American continent 
Various chuckwallas, as the largest 
are called, sport among the rocks or 
dig in the sand, while two black chuck- 
wallas are fighting for the possession of a 
cactus blossom, suggesting that their 
food is vegetable. It is a wild, stern 
land, where water is not and men die 
of thirst, a land of the agony of black 
protruding tongue and_ alkali-scorched 
throat. Nevertheless, it has a fascina- 
tion for all of us, it is so strange, so differ- 
ent, one of those typical bits of American 
wilderness scenery with which all of us 
ought to be better acquainted. 
One is loath to close without some 
The pickerel frog (Rane palustris), with head above the surface of the pond (photograph from 
the Toad Group), and old egg mass and hatching tadpoles. 
The portion of decayed stump and 
sphagnum moss beside it (at the left) are real, the frog, tadpoles and marsh marigolds are wax, the 
egg mass is blown glass 
