MUSEUM BULLETIN 



OF THE 



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EDITED FOR THE PUBLICATION COMMITTEE 



BY CHARLES LOUIS POLLARD, CURATOR-IN-CHIEF 



LirjRAt 



No. 48. Published Monthly at New Brighton, N.Y. JULY, 1912.'' 'TANK 

 ' -■ < H OE J 



Mr. Howard H. Cleaves, assistant curator, left Staten Island June 29 for 

 an expedition to Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, where he will study and photograph 

 the birds of that region, and will also make collections of insects and other 

 biological material for the museum. Many of the photographs will doubtless 

 be utilized in the children's lectures to be given next season. 



The museum is making a tentative experiment with children's gardens 

 the present summer. The rear portion of the grounds was spaded up, and a 

 selected body of children from Public School 17 divided it into beds and made 

 plantations of flowers or vegetables as they desired. Some of the beds have 

 been entirely neglected, but others have been watched and tended with care, 

 and are now yielding small but doubtless satisfactory crops of radishes, 

 lettuce and beans. 



If the experiment is justified, the work will be organized each year on a 

 more systematic basis, and the gardens will not be limited to a single school. 

 The advantages of this work are, that it offers occupation to children remain- 

 ing in the city during the summer, that it promotes an interest in agriculture, 

 and by the periodic attention required it fosters the habit of application. In- 

 cidentally the museum gains by attracting an increased attendance during 

 the dull season. 



The attractive collection of Colonial relics lent to the museum by Mrs. 

 D. H. Gildersleeve is one of the features of the central hall on the first floor. 

 It includes old ambrotypes and silhouettes, handsomely illuminated chintz of 

 the variety known as " copperplate," old pewter, etc. 



There is now in the museum a live pine snake, obtained by Mr. Pollard 

 from Lakehurst, N. J. It is full grown, and is slightly over six feet in length, 

 although the species has been known to attain a length of eight feet. Its food 

 consists of birds, birds' eggs and small rodents, which it captures in its coils, 

 being a true constrictor. Our specimen has been fed upon hen's eggs, which 

 it swallows without breaking the shell. The elastic jaws are stretched until 

 they compass the large end of the egg, and the latter is engulfed by powerful 

 suction muscles, and drawn down to the stomach, where it is finally broken 

 and digested, shell and all. The snake refuses, however, to perform the in- 

 teresting operation in the presence of visitors, much to the regret of the 

 juvenile element. 



Accessions were received in June from the following: C. C. Abbott, 

 Howard R. Bayne, C. P. Benedict, Wm. T. Davis, E. C. Delavan, John Rader, 

 L. L. Tribus, John Wort. 



Entered as second-class matter in the Postoffice at New Brighton, N. Y., under Act of Congress of July 16. 1894 



