ibis AU BOON SB LU LCE TEN a7 
One of them is most interested in the physical aspects of the place, want- 
ing to clean up, paint up, or do carpentry work. One has taken the 
Nature Trail as his special project. A third looks after the welfare of the 
reptiles. 
As time goes on, others will certainly be added to this staff. “There 
are always people anxious to try out for the continuous service we expect 
that enthusiastic staff members will want to give. We usually have more 
help than we can use. 
During the fall, the Museum sponsored a series of fourteen informal 
talks on subjects connected with the life of the Forest Preserves. “Talks 
were given on such subjects as “Wailing Owls,” “Skunks,” “Birds of 
Prey,” “Trees of the Forest Preserves,’ “‘Winter Flowers,” “The An- 
cestry and Structure of Birds.’ “The groups were small enough so that 
these talks could be real demonstrations, where the material could not 
only be seen, but handled, by everyone. Another series is being planned 
for the Spring. . 
Several new exhibits have been opened to the public since fall. Paul 
Ensign has been chiefly instrumental in the preparation of an herbarium 
of fall flowers. It has been found that if each sheet is covered with 
cellophane the whole collection may safely be placed where it can be 
examined by the public. Another interesting botanical collection is an 
exhibit of trees of the Forest Preserve, showing some 48 of the commoner 
species, represented by leaves, fruit, bark, and wood. Mr. George Hill- 
man ot Park Ridge has installed as a permanent loan a fascinating series 
of more than a hundred microphotographs of insects and parts of insects. 
Paul Harris of Chicago presented the Museum with a small collection 
of arrowheads, spears, and other Indian artifacts collected in the Forest 
Preserves. Dr. John R. Ball, of Northwestern University, is at present 
assembling a collection of local fossils, planning to show with each group 
of fossils the nearest modern form. Bertram Wright, of the Junior Staff, 
prepared and placed on exhibit a demonstration of the poison apparatus of 
a rattlesnake. 
The Nature Trail was opened in late October. It is a pathway 
marked by gilded metal diamonds, about a mile and a half long. From 
the Museum it leads south through open woods, crosses a meadow, de- 
scends a steep bank, and circles the slough back of the Museum. From 
the west side of the slough, it follows the bank of the Desplaines River 
northward for nearly three-quarters of a mile, then circles through low 
swampy woodland, up the steep river bank, and through pleasant open 
woods, back to the Museum. ‘Thus it includes most of the types of 
plant habitat to be found in the Preserves, in the course of a half-hour’s 
walk. At present only the trees are marked, to the number of about 
43 species. We hope that before long the Trail will be a botanical gar- 
den, showing along its course representatives of most of the plant life of 
this locality. 
