368 



NATURE 



[July ii, 191 8 



light in the central space on bright , days, and 

 for illuminating the cases at night or on dark 

 days. 



The general results of the system thus employed 

 may be judged from the photographs here repro- 

 duced. The animals occupy the foreground of the 

 case, and are grouped among the "shrubs, trees, 

 flowers, rocks an3 other objects such as make up 

 a bit of the scenery which surrounds them in the 

 region where they are found in Nature." Some of 

 these surroundings are specimens of actual vege- 

 tation, which has been arranged as the result of a 

 cai;eful study of a definite place, and the picture 

 is completed by means of a curved, painted back- 



a few individuals only, the species was saved fron> 

 extinction by the enlightened action of the late 

 Henry Miller, who in the early 'seventies took 

 measures for protecting the remnant of the herds,, 

 which have since increased to such an extent that 

 they now flourish in a dozen or more reservations 

 in California. In the actual exhibit several indi- 

 viduals of this deer are seen- standing or crouch- ; 

 ing in the grass at the margin of a piece of water 

 surrounded by small trees, with low hills in the , 

 distance. 



Another group (Fig. 2) illustrates Steller's sea 

 lion {Eumetopias stelleri), a species which still 

 visits the famous seal-rocks off San Francisco, al-i 



t emale. 

 -Kentish Plover (Aegialitis alexandrind). British 



(Natural History). 



ground, " which connects so perfectly with the real 

 objects in front as to make it difficult, if not im- 

 possible, to tell where the real ends and the painted 

 begins." The best artists are employed for the 

 preparation of these backgrounds, which are so 

 effective as to complete the illusion that a piece of 

 actual country, with its animal population, has 

 been transferred to the museum. 



Among the objects shown in the Californian 

 museum attention may be directed to the group 

 (Fig. i) of the San Joaquin Valley "elk" {Cervus 

 nannodes), a species which formerly occurred in 

 vast numbers in the San Joaquin-Sacramento 

 Valley, California. After having been reduced to 

 NO. 2541, VOL. lOl] 



j though it no longer breeds there. The animals 

 ! are mounted on a ledge of rocks just emerging 

 j from the sea, which is represented with a fidelity 



making it appear like an actual coast-scene. The 

 i great difference in size of the two sexes is well 

 i brought out by the individuals selected, the adult 

 j male being at least twice as large as the adult 

 I female. A bird-group (Fig. 3) representing a 

 I scene in a desert region of southern California is 



particularly effective in bringing out the general 



features of the birds frequenting this region, as 

 : well as the aspect of the desert itself. It may be 



inferred from the descriptive label of the exhibit 

 [ that the photograph fails to do justice to what is 



