480 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIX. No. 1273 



Indians for the purpose of making ethnolog- 

 ical studies and collections. Dr. Herbert J. 

 Spinden returned in December from an ex- 

 pedition of eighteen months in Central Amer- 

 ica and the United States of Colombia. His 

 work was entirely successful, especially along 

 the lines of decorative art, in which con- 

 nection he secured important archeological 

 and ethnological collections. 



In marine zoology, during the summer, Mr. 

 Roy W. Miner and other members of the 

 Department of Invertebrate Zoology spent 

 several weeks at Woods Hole, Mass., making 

 field studies for the Bryozoan Group for the 

 Darwin Hall. 



In paleontology, Mr. Walter Granger com- 

 pleted the exploration of the Huerfano Basin, 

 Colorado, and secured a very interesting 

 fauna, which links up the Lower Eocene and 

 the Middle Eocene. Three months were spent 

 by Mr. Albert Thomson in exploration of the 

 Snake Creek deposits in western Nebraska, 

 where he obtained a considerable number of 

 fossil mammals, including skulls of a very 

 large rhinoceros and a rare and interesting 

 rodent. 



It is an auspicious coincidence that the 

 first volume of the publications of the Amer- 

 ican Museum Congo Expedition appears at 

 the time of the release of Belgium from the 

 oppression of war, and that the museum is in 

 a iK5sition to send to the Belgian government 

 a report on the achievements of the Congo 

 Expedition, which, it will be recalled, was in- 

 stituted with the financial and political sup- 

 port of the Belgian government in 1908. It 

 is proposed to publish these reports under the 

 general title. Zoology of the Belgian Congo, 

 and to issue a series of eight to ten volumes 

 composed of articles contributed to current 

 numbers of the American Museum Bulletin 

 by members of the museum staff and by other 

 foremost naturalists and specialists of this 

 country. When the various groups of animals 

 are fully reported on, the rejiorts will be 

 gathered into volumes according to their 

 taxonomic groups, that is, the papers on mam- 

 mals will be published together, the papers on 

 birds, and so fortL 



The statistics of the niunbers reached by 

 the museum through its extensional system 

 show a total of 1,528,523, a falling off of ap- 

 proximately 500,000 since 1914 owing to war 

 conditions. The museum has become a center 

 for all the natural history work carried on by 

 various organizations in the ^sTew York area; 

 it supplies materials for all grades of educa- 

 tion, from the pupils of the kindergarten to 

 the most advanced investigators in the re- 

 search departments of Coltunbia and other 

 universities. Among the societies and organ- 

 izations that visited or held meetings at the 

 museum in 1918 were : 



American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, Section E. 



American Ethnological Society. 



American Nature Study Society. 



American Ornithologists' Union. 



American Scenic and Historic Preservation So- 

 ciety. 



Angle School of Orthodontia, Eastern Association 

 of Graduates. 



Aquarium Society. 



British Educational Mission to the United States. 



Catherine Abbe Club. 



Chautauqua Bird and Tree Club. 



City History Club. 



Columbia University, Classes in Anthropology, 

 Zoology and Paleontology. 



Department of Education, New York City, free 

 public lecture courses. 



Elsie Rutgers Club. 



DeWitt ainton High School. 



Galton Society for the Study of the Origin and 

 Evolution of Man. 



Horticultural Society of New York. 



Inkowa Club. 



Joan of Arc Club. 



Keramic Society of Greater New York. 



Linnsean Society of New York. 



Massachusetts Normal Art Alumni Association, 

 New York Chapter. 



Mission of French Scholars. 



New York Academy of Sciences. 



New York Bird and Tree Club. 



New York Entomological Society. 



New York Microscopical Society. 



New York Miueralogioal Club. 



School Nature League. 



Torrey Botanical Club. 



