272 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIV. No. 609. 



Lull will pardon us for saying that there 

 seems no good reason to suppose that the 

 enormous occipital crest of Pteranodon was 

 needed to keep the animal head to wind; 

 were this the case it would have inevitably 

 tripped the creature up when it wore ship. 

 There is a slip of the pen in the statement 

 that in birds ' The scapulae and coracoids fuse 

 with each other firmly,' since actual fusion 

 only takes place in birds that do not fly, and 

 not in all of these. The specific name of the 

 flying frog is reinnva/rdtii not reinharti. 



We will also put a note to the quotation 

 from Professor Moseley on page 539 and say 

 that the dropping of the wings by the alba- 

 tross is very likely for steering or balancing 

 and that often one wing only, or the tip of 

 one wing is dropped. 



The authors of the article on the dugong 

 note the lack of good figures of this animal, 

 but fail to entirely remedy this defect, as the 

 accompanying figures are few and not very 

 good. 



The Museums Journal of Great Britain for 

 July contains the address of the president of 

 the Museums Association, Dr. W. E. Hoyle, 

 given at the Bristol meeting. This was de- 

 voted to ' The Education of a Curator,' is 

 both instructive and interesting, and should be 

 widely read. Eirst among the qualifications 

 of a curator Dr. Hoyle places * general cul- 

 ture, tact and courtesy; an ability to suffer 

 fools gladly.' Evidently the experience of Dr. 

 Hoyle has been similar to that of other cura- 

 tors and he has our sympathy. It is inter- 

 esting to note the value accorded to an ac- 

 quaintance with the practical side of museum 

 work, such as planning cases, structure of 

 locks, cataloguing, taxidermy and the prepara- 

 tion of skeletons, since Dr. Hoyle has been so 

 successful as a museum administrator that he 

 is qualified to 'talk by the book.' Eeference 

 is made to the small salaries of museum 

 officers, and in this respect matters are prob- 

 ably better in the United States than in Great 

 Britain. 



Bird Lore for July- August has articles on 

 ' A Kingbird Eamily,' ' My Experience With 



a Blue-headed Vireo,' ' A Bit of Robin His- 

 tory ' and 'The Yellow-breasted Chat.' W. 

 W. Cooke contributes the seventeenth paper 

 on ' The Migration of Warblers ' and in ' The 

 Audubon Societies ' is given a summary of 

 the laws for the protection of birds, or for the 

 abolition of proper protection, likely to come 

 up at the next legislative session in various 

 states. 



The Educational Leaflet, No. 21, is devoted 

 to the scarlet tanager. 



The Zoological Society Bulletin for July 

 is termed the Reptile Number, being mainly 

 devoted to a consideration of the more im- 

 portant reptiles now on exhibition. Under 

 ' Methods of Exhibiting Reptiles ' it is stated 

 that many classes visit the park and that every- 

 thing possible is done to assist them in obtain- 

 ing correct information, children being taught 

 that most snakes are harmless and encouraged 

 to handle certain species. African reptiles 

 are unusually well represented in the society's 

 collections. There is a ,good illustration of 

 the young two-horned African rhinoceros re- 

 cently received, this being the first brought 

 to this country in the last eight years. 



The American Museum Journal for July 

 has for its more important articles a detailed 

 account of ' The Willamette Meteorite,' by E. 

 O. Hovey, a notice of the commencement of 

 work on the new west wing, and the conclu- 

 ding part of Mr. Chapman's ' List of Birds 

 fovmd within Eifty Miles of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, New York City.' 

 This is illustrated and accompanied by a list 

 of the principal papers relating to the birds 

 of the vicinity of New York City. The two 

 parts are published together as Guide Leaf- 

 let No. 22. 



The collection of woods has been embel- 

 lished by the addition of copies of the leaves 

 and flowers of the magnolias, the exhibit il- 

 lustrating the life of the Plains Indians has 

 been installed and a very perfect example of 

 the jaws and head armature of the giant ex- 

 tinct fish Dinichthys placed on exhibition. 

 There are many interesting ■ notes on other 

 work of the museum. 



