MUSEUM BULLETIN 



OF THE 



€>tatnt Jalaufc AHBoriatton of Arta and &mm£B 



EDITED FOR THE PUBLICATION COMMITTEE 



BY CHARLES LOUIS POLLARD, CURATOR-IN-CHIEF 

 No. 55. Published Monthly at New Brighton, N.Y. FEBRUARY, 1913. 



THE NEXT MEETING OF THE ASSOCIATION 



will be held in the assembly hall of the museum, 154 Stuyvesant Place, St. 

 George, on Saturday evening, February 15, 1913, at 8:15 o'clock. Dr. Arthur 

 Hollick will deliver an illustrated lecture on the "BIG TREES OF 

 CALIFORNIA." After the meeting refreshments will be served. 



ARTHUR HOLLICK, 



Secretary. 



Our museum is fortunate in having the Children's Museum of Brooklyn as a friend 

 and ally. Last year its staff cooperated with us in the matter of children's lectures, Miss 

 Mary D. Lee, Asst. curator of that museum, delivering four lectures here, while Mr. Cleaves 

 gave four at the Brooklyn institution. A like plan was effected this winter, the dates and 

 subjects of Miss Lee's talks (open to all pupils above 3rd grade) being as follows: Feb. 7 — 

 " Indians of Yesterday and To-Day " ; Feb. 14 — " Early Days on Manhattan Island " ; Feb. 21 — 

 " The Life of George Washington " ; Feb. 28 — " Important Battles of the Revolutionary War." 



INTERESTING LIVE STOCK. 



The adult red-shouldered hawk, Buteo tineatus L., found in a physically poor state 

 near the Clove Lakes by the Boy Scouts of Troop 1, St. George, and brought to the Museum 

 on Jan. 11. 1913, has been sent to the Bronx Park, owing to our lack of means here for his 

 proper care. After his stay of over three weeks with us he became almost normal, although 

 he never learned to eat of his own volition, owing to our lack of mice and other live food. At 

 feeding time it was necessary to catch the hawk, hold him under one's arm and force six or 

 eight pieces of raw beef down the bird's throat. During these forced meals the feeder had 

 constantly to be on guard lest the hawk make a successful strike with his powerful talons. 

 The writer still bears three small blue scars resulting from wounds inflicted on an occasion 

 when he was imprudent enough to take hold of the bird with bare hands instead of protecting 

 them with heavy gloves. 



A less vicious and more entertaining member of the feathered tribe is still receiving 

 food and shelter at our hands, although he, like the hawk, is too large to be placed on exhibition. 

 He is a great black-backed gull, Larus marinus L., and on different parts of the coast flies 

 under the various names of minister gull, saddle-back and coffin-carrier, by reason of the slaty 

 black which covers not only the back but the upper surface of the wings in adult birds. 



The minister gull is a much larger and more northern species than the harbor or herring 

 gull, Larus argentatus Pont., seen in such numbers in New York Harbor during winter, and 

 nests only as far south as Nova Scotia in America and 50° north latitude on the European 

 coasts. In winter, however, the black-back moves southward along the Atlantic seaboard, be- 

 coming common on the south shore of Long Island and at other localites during severe cold 

 spells while stragglers occasionally get as far down as Chesapeake Bay and even Florida, 

 and some may be seen regularly off the south shore of Staten Island and in New York Harbor. 



The museum specimen is an adult bird and was caught by the writer at Long Beach, L- 

 I., on Jan. 26 last. The gull had received a shot wound in the side of the head near the bill, 

 could fly but a short distance and would likely have perished of hunger and exposure had he 

 been left on the open shore. He now seems much improved in health and is surprisingly 

 tame. He eats fish and raw meat, for both of which his capacity is startling. Already (Feb. 8) 

 he has consumed a pound of eels, three pounds of cod steaks, a pound of smelts and much 

 raw beefsteak. It is a mere trifle for him to gulp down a 17-inch eel whole or to put away 

 about a half-pound of cod steaks at a single meal. Fish that are tossed to him he catches in 

 mid-air as a dog would catch a piece of meat. We expect if we retain the black-back as 

 a live specimen long that keepers of fish markets and meat shops hereabouts will prosper 

 exceedingly. 



H. H. C. 



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



