50 



Museum Bulletin 

 ESCAPED 



Aug. 8 

 TEN INCH AFRICAN SPINY LIZARD 

 FINDER PLEASE NOTIFY MUSEUM 



The above notice, in the form of a placard, may be seen 

 posted on the bulletin board in front of the Museum, and it tells 

 its own story. This was the senior member of our live stock col- 

 lection, having been in our possession for some five years. On the 

 morning of August 8 the cage door was found open and at date 

 no trace of the animal has been discovered. 



The proposed location of a garbage plant on the shore of 

 Staten Island Sound has resulted in many inquiries regarding 

 Lake's Island. Several visitors have spent considerable time ex- 

 amining our old maps and files of old newspapers, in search of 

 information on the subject, and have purchased copies of our 

 Proceedings in which references to the locality are to be found. 



Supplying facilities for local historical research has appar- 

 ently developed into one of the best appreciated of our museum 

 functions, not only by those who are interested as amateur or 

 professional historians but also by those who wish information 

 for practical business purposes ; and in this connection it is amus- 

 ing to note that one of our own members journeyed all the way up 

 to the rooms of the New York Historical Society in search of a 

 certain item of information and was there referred to our library 

 as the place to obtain it. 



In order to encourage the pursuit of nature study among 

 our youthful visitors a portion of the Annex has been set aside 

 for those who are sufficiently interested to bring in material for 

 identification, where they are given elementary instruction in label- 

 ing, arranging and cataloging specimens which they have person- 

 ally collected, and every effort is made to explain, incidentally, how 

 such material can be made to have a real educational value. The 

 mother of one young boy took occasion to call at the Museum for 

 the special purpose of expressing her appreciation of this line 

 of work and the hope that her son was not " giving us too much 

 trouble." With better facilities and more attractive quarters this 

 could be made a far more important feature of our museum ac- 

 tivities than is possible under existing conditions. 



