FieldJ 




News 



Published Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago 



Vol. 13 



JANUARY, 1942 



No. 1 



PACIFIC ISLES, FOCUS OF ALL EYES, EXTENSIVELY REPRESENTED IN MUSEUM 



By WILFRID D. HAMBLY* 

CURATOR OF AFRICAN ETHNOLOGY 

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, all America 
was electrified by the news flashes from our 
Pacific outposts. As the events of that and 
following days have inevitably occupied first 
place in the thoughts of our people, it seems 
timely to call attention to Field Museum's 
wealth of Pacific islands ethnological 
material. These col- 
lections, obtained over 
the years by many ex- 
peditions, rank among 
the most comprehen- 
sive in the world. Ex- 
hibited here, they pro- 
vide the public with a 
more intimate knowl- 
edge of the places and 
peoples now so promi- 
nently figuring in our 
daily papers. 

Few are they who 
have not thrilled to 
the great romances of 
the South Seas, a 
vaguely defined region 
extending over many 
thousands of miles 
from the Philippines 
to Easter Island. 
Some adventurous 
American youths have 
braved the solitudes 
in small craft under 
sail or power. Others 
have comfortably 
tucked themselves in 
the armchair and gone 
pearl fishing or trading for copra in the pages 
of Jack London, or have dipped into Robert 
Casey's descriptions of the mysterious stone 
images of Easter Island. Pictorial magazines 
have brought us into close touch with unex- 
plored regions of the great island of New 
Guinea, and thousands have traveled vicari- 
ously the vast expanses of the south Pacific 
while attending lectures in the James 
Simpson Theatre at Field Museum. The 
Museum has four large halls (Halls A, F, 
G and H) filled with exceptionally extensive 
exhibits from Polynesia, Micronesia, Mel- 
anesia, the Malay Peninsula, Malay Archi- 
pelago, and the Philippines. 



To the motion picture industry Oceania 
has provided an inexhaustible supply of 
romance, adventure, and tragic fate. Dead 
must be the soul of a boy who could not 
thrill to Mutiny on the Bounty and the ad- 
ventures of Captain Bligh. Sent afloat by 
a mutinous crew, he traversed thousands 
of miles of ocean before landing at Timor 
in the East Indies. Another great epic is 




I'HILIPPINE NAI'IVUS O.-- 



RICE PLANTATION 



♦Because the Museum has had no specialist in the 
Pacific field since the death of Dr. Albert B. L«wis in 
1940, Dr. Hambly, whose own branch of research is 
African ethnology, has made this survey for readers of 
Field Museum News. 



A mural painting by Julius Moessel, in the Museum's Hall of Food Plants (Hall 25) 



Masefield's Victorious Troy which brings 
home the vastness of these seas where 
today raiders prowl on, below, and above 
the surface. For those whose hearts are 
attuned to Hollywood's celluloid products, 
the romance of the Pacific is shown in 
idyllic form, with a background of waving 
palms, a lagoon, and a coral beach whose 
natural beauties are enhanced by the 
presence of Dorothy Lamour, who made an 
American household word of "sarong." 

Strangely enough, the greatest epic of all, 
namely the first migrations of daring 
Polynesian voyagers, has not received its 
due recognition in popular pictures and light 
literature. But happily this has been 
remedied by the book. Vikings of the Sun- 
rise, by Director P. H. Buck of the Bishop 
Museum, Honolulu. This is only one of 



many literary attractions relating to the 
Pacific Ocean that are available in the 
Library of Field Museum. 

One may ask what a museum has to do 
with our modern concerns. Are we not to- 
day wholly engrossed with the value of the 
islands as fueling depots, and the opening 
up of the Pacific to exchange trade goods 
for copra, rubber, oil, and countless other 
things which a hungry 
civilization demands? 
 " The answer to that 

question should be a 
definite negative. 

There is no need to 
advise a glance at a 
map of the Pacific 
Ocean. Men have 
long been studying the 
details of the Pacific 
in the morning papers, 
and not for many 
years has there been 
such a thorough 
brushing-up of our 
school geography. 

But while paying 
due regard to the im- 
portance of strategic 
and economic con- 
siderations, let us not 
forget the claims of 
several million Poly- 
nesians, Melanesians, 
and Indonesians, as 
well as the intrusive 
Malays, Chinese, and 
migrants from India. 
The intermarrying of 
these elements in many places has produced 
a mixed ancestry of "Euronesians." One 
can easily imagine the complex problems of 
health, labor, and social contacts that con- 
front the administrators of regions where 
American and British interests are involved. 
If not convinced of the pressing importance 
of these problems, let us consult in our 
Field Museum Library two more books, 
The South Seas in the Modern World and 
the Statesman's Year Book for 19Jtl, and we 
shall have no further doubt what the present 
conflict means to millions who have become 
dependent on the ruling of what should 
be a kindly and sympathetic government. 
All administrators are agreed that the 
first requisite of successful rule is a deep 
understanding of the history and cultural 
background of those who inevitably are 



Pate 2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



January, 19i2 




SAMOAN-HALL 3* 



to be brought into line with the changes 
imposed by our modern civilization. 

A walk through Field Museum halls con- 
taining a wealth of material from the Philip- 
pine Islands, the Dutch East Indies, Mela- 
nesia, and Polynesia (of which Hawaii is a 
part) will at once 
convince a visitor 
of the rich back- 
ground, the artistic 
skill, and the in- 
finite patience of 
the people who are 
sometimes conde- 
scendingly referred 
to as "primitives" 
or "the natives." 
The Museum has 
on display many 
groups of life-size 
figures of the 
peoples of these places shown engaged in 
occupations typical of their day-to-day 
existence, and miniature replicas of repre- 
sentative native villages. 

RACIAL TYPES SHOWN 

Besides the four halls of material collected 
from the Pacific, the Museum has, in 
Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall (the Races 
of Mankind— Hall 3), eighteen life-size 
sculptures — full figures, busts, and heads — 
of typical representatives of the peoples in- 
habiting Pacific islands. These bronze 
portraits, by the noted sculptor Malvina 
Hoffman, are included in the series of more 
than 100 such works representing the 
principal races of all the world. 
AUSTRALIAN ABORIGINES 

From Australia (Hall A-1) there are the 
ingenious though simple tools and weapons 
of a hunting people. The Australian 
aborigines live in tribes which are still in 
a Stone Age state of development, with no 
agriculture, no domestic animals except 
the dog, and no musical instruments. Most 
unique and well-known device of their simple 
culture is the boomerang. 

POLYNESIA AND MICRONESIA 

One large hall (Hall F) is devoted to 
Polynesia and Micronesia, and one (Hall A — 
Joseph N. Field Hall) to Melanesia. Poly- 
nesia includes such intriguing places as Fiji, 
Tonga, Hawaii, and the 
Society and Marquesas 
Islands. In this collec- 
tion, the craft of the 
Maoris of New Zealand 
is well represented by a 
complete tribal council 
house, 60 feet long and 
14 feet high, richly carved 
and painted, with timbers 
inlaid with mother of 
pearl decorations. It is 

'lUustrations marked with 
■aterisk show sculptures by 
Malvina Hoffman in Chauncey 
Keep Memorial Hall (Races of 
of Mankind — Hall 3), and are 
copyrighted by Field Museum 
of Natural History. 



the only such house in America, and one of 
only six now remaining in existence. From 
these members of the Polynesian stock, who 
are still extant and flourishing, there are 
gorgeous feather cloaks and jade ornaments. 
Polynesians of Mangaia in the Cook Islands 
have contributed exquisitely carved wooden 
axes, and from Samoa there are excellent 
examples of "tapa" or bark cloth. From 
Micronesia, which includes the Gilbert, 
Marshall, and Caroline Islands, the exhibits 
are more primitive, but nevertheless indica- 
tive of a skill and ingenuity well worthy 
of being preserved. 

ANCESTOR WORSHIP IN MELANESIA 

The Melanesian collections (Hall A) are 
unrivaled in America for their comprehen- 
siveness. The hall devoted to them contains 
exhibits from New Guinea, New Britain, 
New Ireland, the Admiralty Islands, the 
Solomons, New 
Caledonia, the 
New Hebrides, and 
many other islands 
and island groups. 
Tall carvings rep- 
resenting mysteri- 
ous ancestral 
figures, and great 
wooden drums, 
typify the cultural 
symbols of these 
peoples. 

The Philippine 
Islands are well 
represented in 
Hall H by models 
of the villages of 
the Tinguian people of northwest Luzon. 
Tribesmen are shown at work in their forges 
making head-axes and spear-points, or plant- 
ing rice on the terraced hillsides. The Igorot 
are represented by a miniature village and 
a life-size group showing the making of 
pottery. A group of six life-size figures 
represents Bagobo weavers engaged in pre- 
paring and weaving Manila hemp. Suits 
of armor, and cannon and other weapons of 
the Moros, are worthy of attention. 

SUMATRA AND JAVA 

In Hall G a large model of a village in 
Sumatra, Dutch East Indies, makes it hard 




IGOROT OF 
PHILIPPINES-HALL 3* 




HAWAIIAN SURF RIDER -HALL 3* 

to realize that such beauty could be shattered 
by one bombing plane in a few moments. 
Javanese handiwork from the same region 
shows what a rich heritage of handicraft — 
brass, dyes, elaborate costumes, and fine 
jewelry — these people possess. Also in Hall 
G are exhibits pertaining to the peoples of 
Madura, Borneo, Formosa, and other parts 
of the Malay Peninsula and Archipelago. 

No matter where his interest may be 
directed in this representative collection 
from the Pacific Ocean, a visitor will realize 
the important work of this and other insti- 
tutions. In small compass is gathered 
undisputed testimony to the skill and 
intelligence of peoples of several races who 
are scattered over an enormous region. 
Here today the rich inheritance is threatened 
by forces of destruction. The future guid- 
ance, even the very existence of the inhabit- 
ants is at stake. 




Meteorites and Miracles 

Superstitious people often associate mete- 
orites with miracles. One such meteorite, 
having an elaborate 
? legendary history as hav- 
ing fallen to earth as a 
block of gold, then hav- 
ing been changed to 
silver, and finally to iron 
as a punishment of God 
visited upon a certain 
tribe of Arabs for their 
avarice, is represented by 
the Tamentit specimen 
in Hall 34. 



MENANGKABAU VILLAGE, SUMATRA -HALL G 



A graphic synopsis of 
facts about the sugar 
industry is presented in 
the Hall of Food Plants. 



Jantiary, 19i2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page S 



TESTIMONIAL VOLUME PUBLISHED IN HONOR OF DR. OSGOOD 



In tribute to the many scientific accom- 
plishments of one of Chicago's, and 
America's, most eminent scientists — Dr. 
Wilfred Hudson Osgood, Curator of Zool- 
ogy Emeritus — Field Museum of Natural 
History published last month a testimonial 
volume of some 400 pages, under the title 
Papers on Mammalogy. The book con- 
stitutes Volume 27 of the Zoological Series 
of publications. 

It opens with two dedicatory articles. 
One is by Mr. Stanley Field, who became 
President of the Museum in 1909 (the same 
year that Dr. Osgood 
joined the staff) and has 
continued at the head of 
the institution's Board 
of Trustees ever since. 
The other is by Major 
Clifford C. Gregg, Di- 
rector. Mr. Field and 
Major Gregg both ex- 
press their appreciation 
of Dr. Osgood, as a man 
and as a scientist, and 
both relate interesting 
reminiscences of the 
zoologist's eminent 
career. In the pages 
that follow the bio- 
graphical sketches ap- 
pear eleven scientific 
articles by mammalo- 
gists on the staff of 
Field Museum, and by 
colleagues of Dr. 
Osgood on the staffs of 
other institutions both 
in this country and 
abroad. The book is illustrated with both 
collotype plates and text-figures, and is one 
of the most elaborate works to be printed 
by Field Museum Press. The volume was 
published on December 8, which was Dr. 
Osgood's sixty-sixth birthday, and it was 
presented to him on that date by President 
Field, simultaneously with the beginning of 
international distribution of the edition 
of several hundred copies to scientific 
institutions and scientists. 

FORTY-FOUR YEARS OF RESEARCH 

Dr. Osgood's scientific career covers a 
span of forty-four years. A graduate of 
Stanford University, Dr. Osgood took his 
Ph. D. degree at the University of Chicago. 
For twelve years prior to coming to Field 
Museum, he was a biologist on the staff of 
the United States Biological Survey. His 
thirty-two years of association with Field 
Museum began July 1, 1909, when he 
joined the staff as an Assistant Curator. 
He became Chief Curator of the Department 
of Zoology in 1921, and continued in that 
capacity until his retirement from active 
service on December 31, 1940. Since 
retirement. Dr. Osgood has retained his 
association with the Museum as Curator 



Emeritus, and has continued the pursuit 
of various important researches with un- 
diminished enthusiasm. 

Contributors of the scientific papers in- 
cluded in the volume dedicated to Dr. 
Osgood are: Glover M. Allen, Curator of 
Mammals, Museum of Comparative Zool- 
ogy, Cambridge, Massachusetts; H. E. 
Anthony, Curator of Mammals, American 
Museum of Natural History, New York; 
Angel Cabrera, Professor of Paleontology, 
University of La Plata, Argentina; 
D. Dwight Davis, Curator of Anatomy and 




Phoiogiiph courtciy ot THE CHICAGO SUN 

TRIBUTE TO AN EMINENT SCIENTIFIC CAREER 
Mr. Stanley Field (left), Museum President, presents testimonial volume to Dr. 
Wilfred Osgood, Curator of Zoology Emeritus, in honor of 44 years of research. 



Osteology, Field Museum; Edward A. Gold- 
man, Senior Biologist, Fish and Wildlife 
Service, United States Department of the 
Interior; E. Raymond Hall, University of 
California Museum of Vertebrate Zoology; 
A. Brazier Howell, Department of Anatomy, 
the Johns Hopkins University; Remington 
Kellogg, Curator of Mammals, United 
States National Museum ; Barbara Lawrence, 
Assistant Curator of Mammals, Museum 
of Comparative Zoology; R. I. Pocock, 
Zoological Department, British Museum 
(Natural History), and Colin Campbell 
Sanborn, Curator of Mammals, Field 
Museum. 

Following are excerpts from the two pre- 
faces to the testimonial volume, the first by 
President Field, and the second by Director 
Gregg: 

THE WORK OF 
WILFRED HUDSON OSGOOD 

The Trustees and Scientific Staff of Field 
Museum of Natural History have felt that 
a volume composed of papers on mam- 
malogical topics and dedicated to Wilfred 
Hudson Osgood would form a testimonial 
to him of their appreciation of his eminence 
as a museum zoologist .... Such a testi- 



monial volume is the more appropriate in 
Field Museum's Zoological Series since this 
series for twenty years has borne the stamp 
of his editorship and thereby of his person- 
ality. This stamp, and the high level of 
editorial conscientiousness it denotes, is 
perhaps best known to the younger members 
of Dr. Osgood's staff. Their papers have 
gone through his hands, and the resulting 
improvements in the form of their scientific 
contributions reflect fundamental improve- 
ments in their very thinking. 

It is not difficult to trace .some of the 
environmental factors which made Wilfred 
H. Osgood a great museum zoologist. He 
grew up in a generation when private 
collections of birds and mammals still pro- 
vided a great stimulus to outdoor natural 
history, and began his career with collecting 
and field observation. His connection with 
the "Biological Survey" began in the year 
1897 while he was still an undergraduate 
at Stanford University. The idea of a true 
biological survey of the North American 
continent was a grand one . . . there could 
scarcely have been a more satisfactory 
background for a career as a systematic 
zoologist. 

The development of the "closet naturalist" 
type is one of the pitfalls of systematic 
zoology which has been largely avoided in 
America. Dr. Osgood's career, with its 
constant alternation of field observation and 
collecting on one hand and critical study of 
the resulting collections on the other, exem- 
plifies the almost ideal correlation of studies 
in nature with studies in museum and 
laboratory toward which we strive. He 
began with collecting expeditions in the 
Pacific northwest — to Alaska in 1899, to the 
Queen Charlotte Islands in 1900, to the base 
of the Alaska Peninsula again in 1902, and 
again to the interior of Alaska in 1903 and 
1904 

AUTHORITY ON SOUTH AMERICA 

Within his career in Field Museum, 
beginning in 1909, Dr. Osgood made himself 
the acknowledged authority on South 
American mammals, his authority being 
based on personal knowledge from repeated 
expeditions to South America, supplemented 
by . . . exhaustive studies .... Other not- 
able expeditions for Field Museum took him 
to Abyssinia in 1926-27 and to Indo-China 
in 1936 

Thus the background of Dr. Osgood's 
career is a broad knowledge of the geography 
of the world, and a special knowledge of 
the geography of birds and mammals. This 
background has been invaluable to Field 
Museum in planning and carrying out the 
Museum's program of exhibition, notably in 
its habitat groups. . . . 

In his administrative relations within the 
Department of Zoology Dr. Osgood has 
been able to combine the respect and the 
friendship of his subordinates, to direct 
them, sometimes without their knowledge, 
and to give them a free hand in their respec- 



Page k 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



January, 19^2 



tive divisions when this would best develop 
their capacities. 

The great growth of Field Museum has 
coincided with Dr. Osgood's regime as Chief 
Curator of Zoology. This growth has been 
two-fold: in the direction of exhibition on 
one hand and in the development of the 
scientific collections and of the researches 
based on them on the other. No one in 
Field Museum's organization has played a 
more active or more effective part in this 
vital developmental period of the Museum 
than has Wilfred Hudson Osgood. 

— Stanley Field 
President, Field Museum of Natural History 

PERSONAL APPRECIATION 

Dr. Osgood's history may be read from 
his successive environments. After a child- 
hood in New England, he moved to Cali- 
fornia at the age of twelve. Ten years were 
spent in California, the next twelve in 
Washington (and in his long expeditions 
to Alaska), and since 1909 he has been a 
member of our staff and thus a Chicagoan. 
His first interest was in birds, beginning 
when, as a child, he was a collector of birds' 
eggs. . . . 

At Stanford University he became satu- 
rated in the traditions of the great Louis 
Agassiz by his association there with one 
of Agassiz' most brilliant pupils, David Starr 
Jordan. . . . 

His professional career began with the 
United States Biological Survey .... In 
the late nineties he made a trip to Alaska 
over White Pass and down the Yukon to 
Bering Sea, collecting and charting as he 
went. His ambition almost got the better 
of him in this particular trip, as his boat 
was so overloaded with specimens that it 
was swamped in the icy waters of the Yukon. 
It is fortunate for zoology that Dr. Osgood 
had become an able swimmer in his earlier 
years. This icy bath did not cool his 
enthusiasm for successive exp)editions to 
Alaska. 

On this eventful trip Dr. Osgood expressed 
the wish that he might traverse in a similar 
manner the other great rivers of the world. 
As the years passed, his hopes were realized 
to a great degree, for his research expeditions 
took him down the Amazon in 1912 and 
down the Nile in 1927. In the course of 
his twenty-two scientific expeditions he has 
visited the mountains of Abyssinia and the 
jungles of Indo-China, although his principal 
interest has been in his repeated expeditions 
to South America. ... 

Dr. Osgood's research and publication 
exhibit the variety of his interests. A 
glance at his bibliography of nearly two 
hundred titles reveals not only many con- 
tributions to the taxonomy and nomencla- 
ture of mammals and many faunistic reports, 
but outstanding works of other kinds. In 
the field of conservation and economic 
zoology, there is his notable report on the 
fur seals of the Pribilof Islands. In mam- 



malian anatomy his monograph on the 
marsupial Caenolestes is a monumental con- 
tribution. The general reader who would 
have an accurate story of what happens on 
an expedition is referred to Dr. Osgood's 
"Artist and Naturalist in Ethiopia. . . ." 

My own acquaintance with Dr. Osgood 
covers the past fifteen years, during which 
time it has been my privilege to witness 
at first hand and in his company the splendid 
development of the Department of Zoology, 
of which he was Chief Curator. In that 
time I have come to know him as a friend 
as well as a colleague .... My appreciation 
of him prompts this brief sketch in the hope 
that others may learn to know him not only 
as the eminent scientist that he is, but also 
as a well-rounded and most likable person- 
ality, a warm friend, and a genial and co- 
operative co-worker. 

—Clifford C. Gregg 
Director, Field Museum of Natural History 



CALIFORNIA EXPEDITION OBTAINS 
8,000 CRYPTOGAMIC SPECIMENS 

Field Museum's botanical expedition to 
California, which left Chicago on August 
29, returned recently. La Junta and 
Manitou Springs, Colorado, Great Salt Lake, 
and Reno, Nevada, were visited on the 
journey westward. The members of the 
expedition, Dr. Francis Drouet, Curator of 
Cryptogamic Botany, and Mr. Donald 
Richards, of the University of Chicago, 
spent two weeks in northern California in 
the vicinities of Alturas, Redding, Dunsmuir, 
and Weaverville, collecting largely algae 
and mosses. During a week at Berkeley 
studies were made of specimens in the 
Herbarium of the University of California, 
and algae were collected in and about 
San Francisco Bay. At Palo Alto members 
of the party collected in the foothills in 
company with Dr. D. A. Johansen, of the 
Department of Botany, Stanford University. 
The northern part of the San Joaquin 
valley was then visited, from Los Banos to 
Mariposa and Yosemite, and south as far 
as Fresno. 

Dr. Drouet spent a short time in the 
sandy agricultural region about Selma, and 
then with Dr. M. J. Groesbeck explored, for 
cryptogams, the hills between Porterville 
and Springville. The last two weeks of 
October were devoted to an examination of 
the deserts of southeastern California — 
from the Mojave Desert to Needles, south 
to Blythe, west to Palm Springs, south 
along the Salton Sea to Calexico, and west 
through the mountains along the Mexican 
border to San Diego. Because the state of 
California is too large an area for careful 
exploration in less than two months, the 
collecting became necessarily a matter of 
sampling the flora here and there, chiefly 
in regions where no such collecting had 
been done before. About 8,000 specimens, 
mostly cryptogams, were brought back for 
the Museum's collections. 



Mrs. James Nelson Raymond 
Contributes to Museum 

Mrs. James Nelson Raymond last month 
again made a gift of $2,000 to Field Museum, 
bringing the total of her contributions in 
1941 to $6,000. The gift is for the mainten- 
nance of the varied activities of the James 
Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Founda- 
tion for Public School and Children's Lec- 
tures. Mrs. Raymond established this 
Foundation in 1925, as a memorial to her 
husband, the late James Nelson Raymond, 
and at that time she provided a large endow- 
ment for its support. Every year since she 
has made further liberal contributions for 
the current expenses of conducting its work. 

The Raymond Foundation sends lecturers 
into the schools to provide supplementary 
education in the natural history field for 
the hundreds of thousands of children of 
this city and suburbs; conducts tours of the 
exhibits for groups of children brought to 
the Museum; provides several series of 
motion pictures and other programs every 
year which children may see, free of charge, 
in the James Simpson Theatre of the 
Museum; and engages in many other forms 
of educational endeavor. 



The Wild Life of Illinois 
in Post-glacial Time 

Fossil vertebrates of post-glacial time, 
collected in central Illinois by Mr. Edwin C. 
Galbreath, and presented by him to Field 
Museum, show that the wild life of this 
area was once much more diversified than 
it is now. These fossils were collected near 
Polecat Creek in Coles County. Included 
in the finds were bones of the mastodon, 
the deer-moose, the ground sloth, and the 
giant beaver, all of which are now extinct. 
The cotton-tail, shrew, turtle, and muskrat 
are still with us, as well as an occasional 
raccoon. The coyote has at times been seen 
near Chicago in recent years. Early records 
of white settlers indicate that they found 
deer and wapiti, wolf, bobcat, bison, and 
turkey, but the musk-ox and grizzly bear 
disappeared before the white man came. 
The skull of an Indian, and the jaw-bone of 
an Indian dog, show that at least some of 
these animals were contemporaneous with 
man. The woods found — hickory, elm and 
tamarack — indicate a climate not much 
different from that of the present. 



False Fossils 



Some young men once brought bones 
dug up in a field near Chicago to Field 
Museum for identification. When the 
paleontologist told them the specimens were 
not fossils, but common modern horse bones 
the visitors were dubious, and asked how 
such bones could occur six feet under ground. 
As gently as possible the paleontologist 
inquired what they thought farmers did 
with their dead horses. 



January, 191^2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page 5 



STUDY OF INDIANS PROMOTES 
HEMISPHERE SOLIDARITY 

By ALEXANDER SPOEHR 

ASSISTANT CURATOR OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 
AND ARCHAEOLOGY 

In this time of world crisis we have 
become acutely aware of the importance of 
Latin America for our own defense. As a 
result, the air has been filled with pronounce- 
ments of good-will toward our southern 
neighbors. Yet a policy of well-wishing 
alone can never bridge the gap created by 
the differences in language, culture, and 
tradition between Latin and Anglo-America. 
A more solid basis is necessary for improving 
our relations with the nations to the south. 
A promising approach is an honest attempt 
on our part at finding a wide range of 
interests and problems which we have in 
common with Latin America and on which 
we can work jointly with them. In defining 
these common problems and in promoting 
a sounder understanding of them, anthro- 
pologists can do their bit. 

Among other things, anthropology is con- 
cerned with the study of the American 
Indian. Before the time of Columbus, 
Indians lived in the entire New World, 
from the Arctic to the Straits of Magellan. 
Today there are countries where there are 
few or no Indians left, yet every nation in 
the New World has a certain heritage of 
Indian culture. And in every country of 
North, Central, and South America there 
can be found the ancient remains of Indians 
long since dead. The Indian is therefore a 
sort of common denominator of the New 
World. In studying him we have something 
which concerns both Latin America and our 
own United States. 

The anthropologist is interested both in 
past phases of Indian civilization and in 
the Indian as he is today. The former 
interest is the domain of the archaeologist. 
At the present time the ancient history of 
the New World is being unraveled by the 
efforts of archaeologists of both this country 
and Latin America. From their joint efforts 
we may expect in the future a wider apprecia- 
tion of the history of the Indian civilization. 
In the meantime, the ties between practicing 
archaeologists of the United States and those 
of Mexico, Peru, and other Latin American 
countries become closer. At the present 
time Field Museum is co-operating in such 
a program through the research of Mr. 
Donald Collier, Assistant Curator of Eth- 
nology, who is on an expedition in Ecuador. 
Although archaeologists are only a small 
group, if the same policy is followed in other 
fields of research a much larger body of 
scientists will be involved. Currently, Field 
Museum's Department of Zoology has Mr. 
Colin C. Sanborn, Curator of Mammals, on 
an expedition in Peru; the Department of 
Geology has Mr. Paul 0. McGrew, Assistant 
Curator of Paleontology, in Honduras; and 
the Department of Botany has Dr. Julian A. 
Steyermark, Assistant Curator of the Her- 



barium, in Guatemala, and Mr. Llewelyn 
Williams, Curator of Economic Botany, in 
Venezuela. 

Study of the Indian as he is today perhaps 
carries a wider appeal than study of his 
ancestors. Not only the anthropologist is 
concerned with modern Indian communities 
and in comparing them with our own and 
other societies — there is also the artist 
interested in present Indian arts and crafts, 
and the government official who must 
administer Indian affairs. In respect to 
the latter, one notes with interest the recent 
formation of the Inter-American Indian 
Institute, whose purpose is to further the 
solution of problems relating to the cultural, 
social, and economic progress of the Indian. 
This organization has anthropologists and 
government officials of both the United 
States and the countries of Latin America 
on its board of directors. 

Our ties with Latin America cannot be 
strengthened and improved overnight. A 
sincere attempt at increasing knowledge 
and understanding of common problems in 
many fields of endeavor is a sound way of 
promoting enduring sympathy and good- 
will. Although Indians may seem of only 
academic interest to many people, they still 
serve as one of the many bonds which we 
have in common with the other nations of 
the western hemisphere. 



THINQS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED 



The Hartebeest 

The hartebeest, or kongoni, sometimes 
called the "policeman of the plains," gives 
the impression of being a self-appointed 
guardian of all other animals, often seeming 
to risk its own life to warn other herds of 
approaching danger. Why this protective 
attitude is assumed is not known, but the 




FIELD MUSEUM HONOR ROLL 
Now In the Service 
of their Country: 

Theodore Roosevelt, Trustee — Briga- 
dier-General, U.S. Army. 

Joseph Nash Field, Trustee — Ensign, 
U.S. Navy. 

Clifford C. Gregg, Director— Major, 
U.S. Army. 

Melvin A. Traylor, Jr., Associate, 
Birds — Private, U.S. Marine Corps. 

Patrick T. McEnery, Guard — Master- 
at-arms, U.S. Navy. 

John Syckowski, Guard — Chief Com- 
missary Steward, U.S. Navy. 

George Jahrand, Guard — Chief Water 
Tender, U.S. Navy. 

M. C. Darnall, Jr., Guard — Candi- 
dates' Class, U.S. Marine Corps 
Reserve (Officers' Training Course). 

James C. Mclntyre, Guard — Private, 
U.S. Army, Coast Artillery. 



"POLICEMAN OF AFRICAN PLAINS" 
The hartebeest, a sentinel among the African antelopes 
whose viligance warns other animals of approaching peril. 



kongoni, with its ostensible self-sacrificing 
qualities, would be an ideal hero for an 
animal story. 

The hartebeest exists in large numbers in 
nearly every part of east Africa and is the 
most abundant horned animal to be found 
there. It is readily distinguished from other 
antelopes by its appearance, being a big, 
awkward animal with a long, thin face. The 
face bears an amused, quizzical look, and 
many visitors seeing it for the first time are 
curiously reminded by its expression of some 
friend or acquaintance. The bracket-shaped 
horns are relatively short and thick, and 
are mounted on a pedicel of moderate height. 
The general color is bright rufous fawn with 
the lower portion of the animal paler. It 
is in the horns that the chief differences of 
species lie, with less obvious differences in 
stature and coloring. 

The kongoni, which may be observed in 
small herds of from six to ten, are found on 
the flat open plains in east Africa, near 
practically every other kind of game 
(wildebeests, zebras, elephants, topis, etc.). 
They have unusually keen eyesight, and 
their protection of associated animals by 
their constant watchfulness, together with 
their keen scent for water, make them clearly 
useful as sentinels and guides. Usually 
rather silent animals, their only sound is a 
kind of gasp or sneeze which is used as a 
warning signal. 

Three species of hartebeest may be seen 
in Field Museum. Two of them. Coke's 
hartebeest and Lichtenstein's hartebeest, 
are to be found in George M. Pullman Hall 
(Hall 13 — Hoofed and Horned Mammals), 
and a habitat group of Swayne's hartebeest 
is in Carl E. Akeley Memorial Hall (Hall 22 
— African Mammals). 



Page 6 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



January, 19i2 



Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 

Roosevelt Road and Field Drive, Chicago 

Telephone: Wabash 9410 



THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 
Lester Armour Stanley Field 

Sewbll L. Avery Sauuel Insull, Jr. 

W. McCoRMicK Blair Charles A. McCulloch 

Leopold E. Block William H. Mitchell 

boardhan conover george a. richardson 

Walter J. Cummings Theodore Roosevelt 

Albert B. Dick, Jr. Solomon A. Smith 

Howard W. Fenton Albert A. Sprague 

Joseph N. Field Silas H. Strawn 

Marshall Field Albert H. Wetten 

John P. Wilson 

OFFICERS 

Stanley Field Pretident 

Albert A. Sprague Firs* Vice-President 

Silas H. Strawn Second Vice-President 

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary 

Solomon A. Smith . . . Treasurer and Assistant Secretary 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 

EDITOR 
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum 

ASSOCIATE EDITOR 
WlLPRKD H. Osgood Curator Emeritus^ Zoology 

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology 

B. E. Dahlgren Chief Curator of Botany 

Henry W. Nichols Chief Curator of Geology 

Karl P. Schmidt Chief Curator of Zoology 

MANAGING EDITOR 
H. B. Hartb Public Relations Counsel 



Members are requested to inform tlie Museum 
promptly of changes of address. 



FIELD MUSEUM AND MORALE 

"These are the times that try men's 
souls." 

Confident of ultimate victory though we 
are, and must be, through all the "blood, 
and sweat, and tears," there are periods 
when the fortunes of war for a time, at least, 
may go against us, as for other nations 
engaged in the titanic world struggle. There 
may be times when our morale will be 
tested to the breaking point — times when 
dismay may perhaps nearly engulf us. 

When such times come, your Museum is 
a haven for mental and spiritual rehabilita- 
tion. The morale-building virtues of this 
and kindred institutions are recognized by 
Army and Navy authorities. Groups of 
soldiers, sailors, marines, and coast guards- 
men when on leave or furlough are con- 
stantly directed to the museums by those 
in charge of recreation activities. They 
come in large numbers, and they do enjoy 
their visits. Civilian morale, likewise, can 
derive great benefits if cultural institutions 
are permitted and aided to "carry on" as 
usual in wartime. 

The Museum itself has stood and con- 
tinued its development, a symbol of the 
American spirit, through two previous 
major wars of the United States. In the 
present conflict the administration of this 
institution has full confidence that it, like 
the nation to which it belongs, will come 
through with flying colors, greater than 
ever before. 

Reflecting on this, one is led to new 
courage by the larger concept of the persist- 



ence of the things which the Museum repre- 
sents in the face of all evil and distress. 
Science marches on, Man continues to 
progress. The Museum collections teach 
that the fundamentals of the earth, the 
elements of existence, remain solid despite 
all travail. 

Within the walls of Field Museum we 
have a microcosm of all life through all the 
ages. The things which the Museum col- 
lections stress are the things which are 
eternal — the things that constitute proof 
that we shall survive present and future 
ordeals as we have those of the past, despite 
all destructive forces let loose against us. 
Here, while we may be impressed with the 
fleetness of that instant of geological time 
which we are permitted as individuals upon 
this earth and therefore with our own 
unimportance as single entities, we are 
equally impressed with the gallant obstinacy 
of the life force in the race, all races — 
human, plant, and animal — against all odds. 
Our paleontological collections and the data 
our scientists have deduced from them tell 
us that it took nearly a billion and a half 
years of life before living creatures evolved 
through their many stages from the lowest 
forms of minute one-celled plants through 
the Ages of Fishes, Reptiles and Mammals 
to reach what we regard (perhaps fondly) 
as the ultimate expression of creation — Man. 
And Man, throughout his brief million years 
or so on this planet, and despite his almost 
continuous, illogical and malignant efTorts 
to exterminate his own race, has never 
succeeded. Instead the human race has 
grown tremendously in numbers, and to 
some slight degree, at least, in civilization 
despite the many plague spots of barbarity 
which may seem to belie this fact as we 
gaze around the contemporary world. 

When morale is low, science, like religion, 
offers new courage and new strength. We 
sincerely believe that any despairing person, 
visiting the Museum and allowing himself 
to reflect upon what he sees and learns, 
will be cheered by it and by the thoughts 
it will stimulate in him. He will leave this 
temple of knowledge with restored resolve 
and renewed strength. This in turn will 
be effective in stiffening his determination 
to do his full part in the all-out effort 
required from every citizen, in uniform 
or otherwise, to carry America and the 
principles she stands for to victory over 
those whose creed is based on the lies and 
cruelties and slavery of Nazism and its 
counterparts. 



Staff Notes 
Mr. James H. Quinn, Chief Preparator in 
Paleontology, has gone east to spend some 
weeks in studying preparation and installa- 
tion methods used in other museums. 



reptiles, and fishes in southern Peru, reports 
that his work is progressing favorably. He 
will proceed through two of the coastal 
valleys and revisit the tropical forest in 
southeastern Peru before his return to 
Chicago in March. 



Mr. Rudyerd Boulton, Curator of Birds, 
lectured at Amherst College, Massachusetts, 
on December 8 to the faculty Science Club 
on "Speciation In Birds." He also gave a 
lecture on December 16 before the Humane 
Society of Baltimore County, Maryland, on 
"Darwin's Trail in the Galapagos." 



Mrs. Leota G. Thomas, of the Raymond 
Foundation lecture staff, spoke before the 
general meeting of the Mid-West Section, 
Science-Mathematics Association (N.E.A.) 
on "The Use of Museums in the Teaching 
of Science." 

Mr. Emmet R. Blake, Assistant Curator 
of Birds, recently gave an illustrated lecture 
at the Chicago Academy of Sciences on the 
results of last summer's Field Museum 
Ornithological Expedition to the Southwest. 



The Society for Research on Meteorites 
has appointed Mr. Henry W. Nichols, 
Chief Curator of Geology, as a member of 
the Committee on Legal Ownership of Mete- 
orites and the Committee on Terminology. 



Remarkable examples of lacquer work, 
with pictures recording ancient historical 
events, are included in an Inca exhibit in 
Stanley Field Hall. 



Mr. Colin C. Sanborn, Curator of Mam- 
mals, who is collecting mammals, birds. 



A FEW FACTS ABOUT FIELD MUSEUM 

Field Museum is open every day of the year 
(except Christmas and New Year's Day) during 
the hours indicated below: 

November, December, 

January, February .... 9 A.M. to 4 p.m. 

March, April, and 

September, October. . .9 A.M. to 5 P.M. 

May, June, July, August. 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. 

Admission is free to Members on all days. 
Other adults are admitted free on Thursdays, 
Saturdays, and Sundays; non-members pay 
admission on other days: Established price 25 
cents. Federal tax 3 cents, total 28 cents. 
Children are admitted free on all days. 
Students and faculty members of educational 
institutions are admitted free any day upon 
presentation of credentials. 

The Museum's Library is open for reference 
daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. 

Traveling exhibits are circulated in the 
schools of Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public 
School Extension Department of the Museum. 

Lectures at schools, and special entertain- 
ments and tours for children at the Museum, 
are provided by the James Nelson and .-^nna 
Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School 
and Children's Lectures. 

Free courses of lectures for adults are pre- 
sented in the James Simpson Theatre on Satur- 
day afternoons (at 2:30 o'clock) in March, 
April, October, and November. 

A Cafeteria serves visitors. Rooms are 
availabl? also for those bringing their lunches. 

Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 
busses provide direct transportation to the 
Museum. Service is offered also by Surface 
Lines, Rapid Transit Lines (the "L"), inter- 
urban electric lines, and Illinois Central trains. 
There is ample free parking space for auto- 
mobiles at the Museum. 



January, 191t2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page 7 



NOTABLE WORK ON REPTILES 
NOW IN MUSEUM LIBRARY 

The ambitious project for a North 
American Herpelology to illustrate all of 
the amphibians and reptiles of North 
America was formed by Dr. John Edwards 
Holbrook of Charleston, South Carolina, in 
the eighteen-thirties, and was carried to 
completion in five quarto volumes by 1842. 
The Library of Field Museum has recently 
acquired a set of the rare first edition. 

The work was published by subscription, 
appearing in successive parts beginning in 
1834. It was printed in Philadelphia by 
J. Dobson. The plates were drawn by 
various artists, and Dr. Holbrook seems 
repeatedly to have recalled plates which he 
himself regarded as unsatisfactory, sub- 
stituting new ones. After the completion 
of four volumes (1834-1840), the whole 
work was reissued as a second edition in 
five volumes, dated 1842. 

Holbrook is reputed to have destroyed, 
by bonfire in his backyard, the issues recalled 
from his subscribers. From the rarity of 
the fourth volume, it was long supposed 
that most of the issue of this volume of 
the first edition had not been distributed. 
Inquiry at the principal libraries which 
might be expected to have a first edition 
brings to light only seven complete four- 
volume sets, and not much more than that 
number with the first three volumes. The 
Field Museum set proves to be the one 
reported by Dr. Bohumil Shimek in 1924, 
then apparently only the second complete 
set known. 

A copy of volume five of the second 
edition was included in the .set recently 
purchased by Field Museum. This proves 
to differ in various particulars from the 
corresponding volume in the set of the 
second edition in Field Museum Library. 
Such discrepancies between individual 
volumes are to be expected in view of the 
author's continued attempts to improve the 
work as a whole by remaking individual 
plates and revising parts of the text. 

A work of the nature of Holbrook's 
North American Herpetology, in addition to 
its interest to bibliophiles for its rarity and 
its importance in the history of the study 
of its subject in North America, continues 
to be of direct value in the taxonomic 
studies pursued by means of the Museum's 
reference collections. While it is true that 
many of its descriptions and all of its classi- 
fication may prove to be long out of date, 
the improvement of the definition of the 
species already known and the establish- 
ment of the geographic forms known as 
subspecies require constant reference to the 
original descriptions and plates. Exactness 
of method in bibliography is of as much 
importance as in other techniques of science; 
thus the availability of the first edition of 
Holbrook in Chicago is a valuable permanent 
addition to the bibliographic resources of the 
middle west. — K.P.S. 



BOYS AND GIRLS OF "FOUR-H CLUBS" VISIT FIELD MUSEUM 



Again last month, as for many years 
past. Field Museum was host to hundreds 
of visitors who were in Chicago from all 
states of the Union to attend the annual 
International Live Stock Exposition. 

It has always been one of the highest 
rewards of Museum service to welcome the 
selected representatives of America's rural 



its exhibits, and their arrangement was 
given for the groups in the James Simpson 
Theatre by lecturers of the James Nelson 
and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation. 
Following this, especially prepared pictorial 
floor plans of the Museum were given each 
boy and girl. The staff guides were intro- 
duced and stationed in various Museum 




Photograph by C. J. Albrecht 

"HEAD, HEART, HANDS AND HEALTH" - 
— that's what the "Four H's" stand (or, and the ideals of the National Congress of 4'H clubs are well exemplified by 
these young ladies, selected from among America's rural youth. 1,600 4-H girls and boys recently visited Field Museum. 



boys and girls, brought to Chicago by the 
National Congress of 4-H Clubs. They 
represent the cream of all farm youth, and 
upon them rests a substantial part of the 
nation's hopes for the citizenship of to- 
morrow. Of this selected group more than 
700 girls and 900 boys visited the Museum 
on December 2 and 4. It is a privilege for 
the Museum to contribute to the mental 
development of boys and girls of this type. 
In order to make their Museum visit 
more enjoyable and to allow each individual 
to see what he was most interested in, a 
short illustrated explanation of the Mu.seum, 



halls to answer questions as the young people 
spread out among all divisions of the exhibits. 

The comment of one of the boys as he 
left the Museum is expressive of the general 
reaction: "Two weeks would have been 
better than two hours here!" 

As in previous years a loan of eight of the 
traveling exhibits of the N. W. Harris 
Public School Extension was made for dis- 
play in a booth at the Live Stock Exposition 
in the Union Stock Yards. During the stock 
show (November 29 to December 6) these 
exhibits were viewed by thousands — adults 
and children alike. 



A Strange Cultural Coincidence 

Shoe-shaped pots, formerly used by 
Malagasy herb doctors for brewing medi- 
cines, are exhibited in Case No. 7 of the 
Madagascar collection in Hall E of Field 
Museum. These have been found to be 
identical in form with pots discovered across 
the world in the ruins of sites once occupied 
by prehistoric Indians in the southwestern 
United States. However, in the studied 
opinion of Dr. Alexander Spoehr, Assistant 
Curator of American Ethnology and Archae- 
ology, this is pure coincidence — there is not 



the slightest reason to suspect any cultural 
or historical relationship between the peoples 
of these widely separated and wholly 
different geographic and racial origins. 



Sulphides, chlorides, oxides, carbonates, 
silicates, sulphates, phosphates, hydro- 
carbons, etc. — 

Are most of these just names to you? 
You can become acquainted with what they 
are, and what they look like, by a study of 
the exhibits in the Department of Geology's 
Hall of Minerals (Hall 34). 



Page 8 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



January, 1912 



JANUARY SUNDAY LECTURES 
ON PREHISTORIC LIFE 

Go through the halls of Field Museum 
with Mr. Paul G. Dallwig, the Layman 
Lecturer, and live 600 million years in a 
single Sunday afternoon. 

That's the opportunity presented in the 
Layman Lectures on "Nature's 'March of 
Time' " to be presented each Sunday during 
January. Illustrating his subject with the 
vast collections of fossil animals, and the 
restorations in mural paintings and dioramas 
showing them as they appeared in life, Mr. 
Dallwig will carry his audience through the 
principal stages of animal life from the 
earliest fishes, reptiles, and mammals to 
the beginning of Man. In dramatic form 
he will present such features as a trip into 
a luxuriant carboniferous forest of 250 million 
years ago; a fight, typical of the ceaseless 
struggle for existence, between those giant 
dinosaurs, Tyrannosauriis and Triceratops; 
and the stories of actual Museum expeditions 
which collected most of the fossil specimens 
in the collection. 

Because of heavy public demands, it is 
necessary to limit each audience to 100 
adults (children cannot be accommodated). 
Those desiring to attend must make reserva- 
tions in advance by mail or telephone 
(WABash 9410). The Sunday lectures begin 
promptly at 2 P.M. and end at 4:30. Mid- 
way there is an intermission for refreshments 
and smoking in the Cafeteria. 

In February Mr. Dallwig's subject will be 
"Digging Up the Cave Man's Past." 



WEEKDAY LECTURE TOURS 
OFFERED IN JANUARY 

Conducted tours of exhibits, under the 
guidance of staff lecturers, are made every 
afternoon at 2 o'clock except Saturdays, 
Sundays, and certain holidays. Following 
is the schedule for January: 

Thursday, January 1 — no tour, New 
Year's Day {Museum closed); Friday — Men 
of the Old Stone Age (Miss Elizabeth 
Hambleton). 

Week beginning January 5: Monday — 
Animals and the Uses We Find for Them 
(Miss Elizabeth Best); Tuesday — General 
Tour; Wednesday — The Shaping of the 
Earth's Surface (Bert E. Grove); Thursday 
— General Tour; Friday — The Earth's Green 
Mantle (Miss Marie B. Pabst). 

Week beginning January 12: Monday — 
High and Low in the Animal Kingdom 
(Miss Elizabeth Best); Tuesday — General 
Tour; Wednesday — Animals of the Past 
and Present (Bert E. Grove); Thursday — 
General Tour; Friday — Prehistoric Man and 
Modern Races (Mrs. Leota G. Thomas). 

Week beginning January 19: Monday — 
Family Life Among Some of the More 
FamiUar Animals (Miss Elizabeth Best); 
Tuesday — General Tour; Wednesday — The 
Importance of Rocks and Minerals (Bert E. 
Grove); Thursday — General Tour; FViday — 
Plants of the Past (Miss Marie B. Pabst). 



Week beginning January 26: Monday — 
The Variety of Animals in North America 
(Miss Elizabeth Best); Tuesday — General 
Tour; Wednesday — Animals Native to the 
Chicago Region (Mrs. Leota G. Thomas); 
Thursday — General Tour; Friday — Plants 
of the Past (Miss Marie B. Pabst). 

Persons wishing to participate should 
apply at North Entrance. Tours are free. 



H. E. Frizzell, Negritos, Peru — 2 snakes and 
a lizard, Peru. 

The Library : 

Valuable books from Elmer S. Riggs and 
Karl P. Schmidt, both of Chicago; and 
Carnegie Institution of Washington (D.C.). 



GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM 

Following is a list of some of the principal 
gifts received during the last month: 

Department of Anthropolo^: 

From Charles A. Stanley, Tsinan, China 
— 15 sherds and a stone implement, China. 

Department of Botany : 

From Illinois State Museum, Springfield, 
111. — 162 herbarium specimens, Illinois; from 
Professor Ray J. Davis, Pocatello, Idaho — 
49 herbarium specimens, Idaho; from C. C. 
Deam, Bluffton, Ind. — 10 herbarium speci- 
mens, chiefly Indiana; from Paul H. Allen, 
Balboa, Canal Zone — 38 herbarium speci- 
mens, Panama; from Professor J. Soukup, 
Lima, Peru — 135 herbarium specimens, 
Peru; from Dr. Hermann Kleerekoper, Rio 
Grande do Sul, Brazil — 12 specimens of 
algae, Brazil; from Dr. V. W. Lindauer, 
Far North, New Zealand — 29 specimens of 
algae. New Zealand; from Henry S. Dybas, 
Chicago — 73 specimens of Polyporaceae, 
Mexico; from Dr. Lee Walp, Marietta, Ohio 
— 36 specimens of Myxophyceae, Ohio, 
Pennsylvania, and North Carolina; from Dr. 
Walter Kiener, Lincoln, Neb. — 218 speci- 
mens of soil algae, Nebraska. 

Department of Geolo^: 

From Reverend Michael M. Ries, Chicago 
— 5 geodes and parts, Iowa; from James H. 
Quinn, Chicago — skeleton of fossil rhi- 
noceros Teleoceras, Nebraska. 

Department of Zoology : 

From C. M. Barber, Hot Springs, Ark. — 
45 salamanders and a snake, Arkansas; 
from Rockefeller Foundation, Rio de Janeiro, 
Brazil — 11 miscellaneous Brazilian birds; 
from Dr. T. E. Musselman, Quincy, 111. — 
an albino English sparrow, Illinois; from 
Dr. David Davis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — 
4 birds, British Guiana; from Carl F. 
Kauffeld, Staten Island, N. Y.— 2 timber 
rattlesnakes, eastern United States; from 
Boardman Conover, Chicago — a bufflehead 
duck and 3 miscellaneous bird skins; from 
Rupert L. Wenzel, Chicago — 408 beetles, 
Brazil, and 574 insects and allies, Illinois and 
Indiana; from Henry S. Dybas, Chicago — 
159 insects and allies, Illinois and Indiana; 
from Fromm Brothers, Hamburg, Wis. — 5 
foxes, Wisconsin; from Dr. Henry Field, 
Washington, D.C. — 281 insects and allies, 
Illinois, Maryland, Virginia, and Florida; 
from Gordon Gunter, Rockport, Tex. — 
86 fish specimens, Texas; from D. Dwight 
Davis, Naperville, 111. — 50 young garter 
snakes; from Chicago Zoological Society, 
Brookfield, 111. — 8 miscellaneous birds and 
a hog-nosed snake; from John G. Shedd 
Aquarium, Chicago — 4 fish specimens, At- 
lantic coast of the United States; from Mrs. 



NEW MEMBERS 

The following persons became Members 
of Field Museum during the period from 
November 16 to December 15: 

Contributors 

William Benson Storey* 

Associate Members 

Mrs. Eugene W. Kettering, Dr. Elizabeth 
Thompson Koppenaal, David A. Lawson, 
Mrs. John J. Louis, Mrs. Thomas B. 
Marston, Mrs. Helen C. Murphy, Charles T. 
Wegner, Jr. 

Annual .Members 

H. C. Bruhn, Charence P. Clark, Walter 
W. Cruttenden, Joseph H. Czerwiec, Mrs. 
Charles P. Galanti, Dr. John J. Gregory, 
Dr. Ralph C. Hamill, L. Ross Hanawalt, 
Helmer Hansen, Miss Lucy C. Hayes, 
Francis Heisler, G. B. Hurley, Ralph C. 
Jennings, Samuel Kaplan, Philip Lochman, 
James M. Mills, Charles L. Moorman, 
Richard I. Olson, Benjamin Samuels, 
Harry R. Spellbrink, Elmer G. Wellin. 

♦Deceased 



MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM 

Field Museum has several classes of Mem- 
bers. Annual Members contribute $10 annu- 
ally. Associate Members pay $100 and are 
exempt from dues. Sustaining Members con- 
tribute $25 annually for six consecutive years, 
after which they become Associate Members 
and are exempt from all further dues. Life 
Members give $500 and are exempt from dues. 
Non-Resident Life Members pay $100, and \'on- 
Reaident Associate Members $50; both of these 
classes are also exempt from dues. The Non- 
Resident memberships are available only to 
persons residing fifty miles or more from Chi- 
cago. Those who give or devise to the Museum 
$1,000 to $100,000 are designated as Contribu- 
tors, and those who give or devise $100,000 or 
more become Benefactors. Other memberships 
are Honorary, Patron, Corresponding and Cor- 
porate, additions under these classifications 
being made by special action of the Board of 
Trustees. 

Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to 
free admission to the Museum for himself, his 
family and house guests; and to two reserved 
seats for Museum lectures provided for Mem- 
bers. Subscription to Field Museum News is 
included with all memberships. The courtesies 
of every museum of note in the United States 
and Canada are extended to all Members of 
Field Museum. X Member may give his 
personal card to non-residents of Chicago, upon 
presentation of which they will be admitted to 
the Museum without charge. Further informa- 
tion about memberships will be sent on request. 

BEQUESTS AND ENDOWMENTS 

Bequests to Field Museum of Natural His- 
tory may be made in securities, money, books 
or collections. They may, if desired, take the 
form of a memorial to a person or cause, named 
by the giver. 

Contributions made within the taxable year, 
not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's 
net income, are allowable as deductions in 
computing net income for federal income tax 
purposes. 

Endowments may be made to the Museum 
with the provision that an annuity be paid to 
the patron for life. These annuities are guaran- 
teed against fluctuation in amount, and may 
reduce federal income taxes. 



PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS 



Field 




News 



Published Monthly by Field Mv^eum of Natural History, Chicago 



Vol. 13 



FEBRUARY, 1942 



No. 2 



MODEL SHOWS CASSAVA MILL PRODUCING SOUTH AMERICA'S "STAFF OF LIFE" 



By B. E. DAHLGREN 
chiep curator, department of botany 

Cassava is known in the United States 
chiefly as the source of tapioca, a special 
starch product imported generally from the 
Dutch East Indies. It is obtained from the 
starchy tubers of a spurge resembling a 
small-leaved, shrubby castor bean plant. 
The cassava plant is, however, a native of 



America. Its use as food has been adopted 
by the white settlers of that region and has 
become firmly established over large areas 
east of the Andes where, even at the present 
time, it is rivaled in importance only by 
two other indigenous food plants, namely, 
maize and beans. 

Cassava exists in many varieties, especially 
numerous in Brazil, but for practical pur- 



The preparation of this was a regular 
household chore among the Indians. It 
involves several steps or operations: grating 
the tubers, squeezing out the juice, and 
drying, with or without artificial heat — all 
performed with simple implements, and 
sometimes preceded by preliminary macera- 
tion in water. 

The cassava grater of the Indians was 




DIORAMA SHOWING IN MINIATURE A FARINA MILL IN BRAZIL 
A new exhibit in the Hall of Food Plants (Hall 25). In the real mills of this type, the machinery is operated by a horse going around a circular path resembling a merry'gO'round, 
as shown above. In the foreground to the right a man with a mule is delivering fresh tubers brought from a cassava field such as that adjoining the grounds behind the buildings. 



tropical America and was cultivated in pre- 
Columbian times by the Indian inhabitants 
of the Antilles, as well as of Central and 
South America, and was one of their most 
important food plants. Its common name 
in most Spanish speaking countries is 
"yuca," the original Haitian name for the 
plant. In Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay 
it is called "manioc" or "mandioca." The 
botanical name Manihot is aparently a 
derivative of this. Cassava, the West 
Indian name for bread from yuca tubers, 
has become the common English name for 
the plant, which still remains the chief 
food plant of the Caribs, Tupys and other 
Indians of the northern part of South 



poses two main kinds are commonly recog- 
nized and have been described as separate 
botanical species, viz. bitter cassava and 
sweet. They are carefully distinguished by 
growers, the bitter requiring special care 
since it contains a large amount of a poison- 
ous substance, hydrocyanide or prussic acid, 
which is found also in bitter almonds, plum 
and cherry kernels, etc. Fortunately this 
is a volatile compound, readily removed by 
heat, and both kinds of cassava may be 
eaten boiled or roasted, though for such 
purpose white or sweet cassava is preferred. 
Cassava is, however, most commonly con- 
sumed in dry granular form, known as 
farina or farinha. 



usually a piece of wood or board studded 
with small sharp stones set in drilled holes 
and firmly fixed with resin or pitch. This 
has now been displaced almost everywhere 
by a piece of tin perforated with a nail. 
The cassava squeezer, like the sieve and 
baskets for transportation of the dry meal, 
is made of the common tropical American 
basketry material, viz. splints from the 
periphery of the hard smooth stems of a 
marantaceous reed. This material is woven 
into the form of a tube, four to six inches 
in diameter and as many feet long, supplied 
at both ends with a transverse loop. The 
grated cassava pulp is packed tightly into 
this tough and flexible basketwork tube, 



Page 2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



February, ISl^X 



called "matapi," or "tipiti." The tube, 
suspended by one loop on a stout branch of 
a tree, is subjected to traction and conse- 
quent reduction in diameter by means of a 
lever passed through the loop below. The 
pulp, thereby subjected to pressure, gives 
up most of its juice. The liquid, which is 
caught in a suitable vessel, is rendered 
inoccuous and thickened by boiling, and 
finally goes into the pot. 

It has a preservative action important in 
the simple household economy of the in- 
digenes of the tropics, where food not 
immediately consumed remains in the pot as 
stock for the next day's meal. In British 
Guiana this thickened cassava juice may be 
had as "cassareep," serving for the prepara- 
tion of pepperpot; on the Amazon it is known 
as "tucupy," esteemed for the preparation 
of dishes of fish and turtle, and for a highly 
seasoned tapioca broth called "tacacd." 

The squeezed cassava pulp may be dried 
over the fire and smoked for preservation, 
or may be broken up, dried, and passed 
through a sieve. Slightly moistened it may 
be formed into wafer-like cakes, to be dried 
in the sun, often on top of the palm-thatched 
roof, or baked on a hot stove. Usually, 
it is preserved in dry granular state, in wide- 
meshed baskets, lined and covered with 
large leaves, and is marketed locally in such 
receptacles. It is consumed dry, mixed 
with other food, or stirred into water. 

The preparation of farina on a somewhat 
larger, semi-industrial scale may be observed 
in the small farina mills which are common 
in rural districts in northeastern Brazil. 
The essential procedure is the same as that 
practised by the Indians, but the implements 
used are more effective. 

A diorama recently installed in the Hall 
of Food Plants (Hall 25) in Field Museum 
represents a small farina mill in northern 
Ceard. Like all substantial buildings in 
the region, it is constructed of brick and 
tile, generally made on the grounds or near- 
by, and supplemented with trunks of the 
local Brazilian wax palm for rafters. Since 
the factory building is in effect only an 
open shelter, the operations within may be 
watched readily from outside. 

In the foreground to the right a man with 
a mule is delivering fresh tubers brought 
from a cassava field such as that adjoining 
the grounds behind the buildings. Heaps 
of tubers are scraped or peeled by women 
seated on the floor. They are then carried 
to a horse-operated mill in which they are 
rasped or ground to pulp. The pulp is 
placed in stout sacks and subjected for some 
time to pressure in a heavy press made of 
substantial timbers. This operation serves 
to crush the pulp more completely and to 
remove the juice. The contents of the sack 
are then emptied into a box-like sieve which 
retains all fibrous material but allows the 
starchy pulp to pass. This is then trans- 
ferred to a large shallow pan heated by a 
wood or charcoal fire. With constant 



stirring, the drying mass of starchy pulp is 
broken up in this pan into the form of 
dry particles known as farina. In large 
areas of South America where wheat and 
other small grains cannot be grown this 
form of cassava starch may well be said to 
be "the staff of life" and virtually takes the 
place of bread. 

When finely powdered cassava starch is 
desired the tubers, whole or grated, are 
macerated in water, and after some time 
are easily broken up by hand. The fiber 
and coarse particles are then removed by 
repeated straining. The starch contained 
in the liquid settles to the bottom of the 
container after which the water is decanted 
off. It is used in this country chiefly as 
sizing for cotton goods and is said to be 
an excellent laundry starch. 

Cassava flour is not suitable for bread 
making, but in Brazil the addition of a small 
proportion of it to all wheat flour is pre- 
scribed by law as a measure of national econ- 
omy — with not entirely fortunate results. 
Only certain kinds of small cakes called 
"bejus" are made from cassava flour alone. 

When the plant was introduced into the 
East Indies the process long in use there 
for the preparation of sago from palm starch 
was applied to cassava. The product ob- 
tained by the agglutination in moist state 
of small masses of swollen cassava starch, 
separated and rounded by being shaken or 
agitated during drying and a light roasting, 
became known as pearl tapioca. The exact 
procedures used in different localities, e.g. 
Java and Singapore, differ in details. The 
Straits Settlements and Java have long 
been the main exporters of this starch 
product, while Brazil, the largest grower, 
adheres chiefly to the production of farina 
for home consumption. 

The new diorama in Hall 25 is supple- 
mented in a near-by case (Case 24) by an 
exhibit showing cassava tubers and various 
cassava products prepared by South Ameri- 
can Indians. A reproduction of a sweet 
cassava plant is found in Case 867 in 
Martin A. and Carrie Ryerson Hall (Plant 
Life — Hall 29). The diorama was prepared 
in part by WPA workers, and completed 
by Mr. Emil Sella, Chief Preparator of 
Exhibits. The background was painted by 
Mr. John Conrad Hansen, an artist who has 
also made many paintings restoring prehis- 
toric animals for the Department of Geology. 



FIELD MUSEUM HONOR ROLL 
Now In the Service 
of their Country: 

Theodore Roosevelt, Trustee — Briga- 
dier-General, U.S. Army. 

Joseph Nash Field, Trustee — Lieu- 
tenant, J. G., U.S. Navy. 

Clifford C. Gregg, Director — Major, 
U.S. Army. 

Melvin A. Traylor, Jr., Associate, 
Birds — Private, U.S. Marine Corps. 

Dr. John Rinaldo, Associate, South- 
western Archaeology — Private, U.S. 
Army. 

Patrick T. McEnery, Guard — Master- 
at-arms, U.S. Navy. 

John Syckowski, Guard — Chief Com- 
missary Steward, U.S. Navy. 

George Jahrand, Guard — Chief Water 
Tender, U.S. Navy. 

M. C. Darnall, Jr., Guard — Candi- 
dates' Class, U.S. Marine Corps 
Reserve (Officers' Training Course). 

James C. Mclntyre, Guard — Private, 
U.S. Army, Coast Artillery. 

Clyde James Nash, Guard — Chief 
Gunner's Mate, U.S. Navy. 



RAYMOND FOUNDATION OFFERS 
PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN 

A special program commemorating the 
birthday of George Washington will be pre- 
sented for children at Field Museum on 
Saturday morning, February 21, under the 
auspices of the James Nelson and Anna 
Louise Raymond Foundation for Public 
School and Children's Lectures. Other 
children's programs will be given by the 
Raymond Foundation, in its regular spring 



series, each Saturday morning throughout 
March and April. 

The special program on February 21 is 
presented under the general title "Glimpses 
of Our Country Today." The films to be 
presented, mostly with sound effects, and 
including two in natural colors, are: "Wash- 
ington, D.C.," "Ohio River Steamboats," 
"Colorful California," "America's High 
Spots," and "Pledge of Allegiance." 

The opening program in the spring series, 
to be given on March 7, is "Family Afoot 
in the Yukon Wilds." This presents, in 
natural color motion pictures, the story of 
the pioneer-like travels of Billy and Jo- 
Evelyn Albee, aged 8 and 5 respectively. 
With their father and mother, Mr. and Mrs. 
William Albee, they "hiked" for hundreds of 
miles in northern Canada and Alaska, 
during which they had many adventures 
with animals and Indians. The films will 
be accompanied by a vivid narration by Mr. 
and Mrs. Albee who will appear personally 
on the program. 

Both the special Washington's birthday 
program, and all the regular spring programs, 
will be given in the James Simpson Theatre 
of the Museum, and there will be two 
showings of each, one at 10 a.m., and one 
at n. A full schedule of the spring series 
will appear in the next issue of Field 
Museum News. Children from all parts 
of Chicago and suburbs are invited. The 
Museum is prepared to receive large groups 
from schools and other centers, as well as 
individual children coming either alone or 
accompanied by parents or other adults. 
Teachers are urged to notify their classes 
about these programs. No tickets are 
needed for admission. 



February, 19^2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Pages 



HOW WAR-TORN CHINA (A.D. 1035) 
SAVED TREASURES FOR POSTERITY 

By C. martin WILBUR 

CURATOR OF CHINESE ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY 

If Chicago were threatened by imminent 
invasion and enemy looting, conceivably 
Field Museum might try to save some of 
its treasures and important scientific records 
by piling them into an obscure storeroom 
which would then be plastered over and 
camouflaged. It is a trick that has been 
used ever since man has kept treasures and 
made war. It was due to just such a 
situation that the Museum recently was 
able to acquire a Chinese manuscript on 
paper that had lain hidden for nearly nine 
centuries in a forgotten storeroom of a 
Buddhist temple. This ancient roll of paper, 
a century older than the earliest papers 
made in Europe, is now exhibited in a case 
devoted to two of China's great inventions — 
paper and printing (Hall 32, Case 27). 

The manuscript is a scroll about five and 
one-half feet long and one foot wide, and 
on it a pious scribe named Chang copied a 
Buddhist sutra or religious text. The paper 
is a sturdy rag stock, with a grain which 
visibly betrays its hand-made origin. There 
are four sheets, each about one and one- 
half feet long, pasted end to end to make 
the type of "book" which was prevalent in 
China as elsewhere in the Middle Ages. 
The sheets were neatly ruled by lead pencil 
with a top and bottom margin and vertical 
columns. The text was copied in black ink 
with a brush. There is no date on the 
Inscription, but probable limits are set by 
the first translation of this particular text 
in the latter part of the tenth century, and 
by the sealing up of the storeroom about 
A.D. 1035. 

"vault" carved in rock 

The scroll is only one of many thousands 
of books, paintings, and miscellaneous papers 
ranging in date from A.D. 406 to 1035, that 
were piled into the small depository which 
was carved out of solid rock as an adjunct 
to one of the "Caves of the Thousand 
Buddhas" near Tun-huang in the far north- 
western part of China. The room may have 
been bricked up and plastered over to con- 
ceal the documents from the warlike 
Tanguts, who over-ran the area between 
1034 and 1037. The arid climate of the 
semi-desert region helped to preserve the 
contents in nearly perfect condition until 
by chance, in 1900, a priest discovered the 
hidden room while making restorations. 

Measuring only about nine feet square, 
that little cache contained an inestimably 
valuable collection of documents written in 
many different languages besides Chinese — 
Tibetan, Sanskrit, Sogdian, Eastern Iranian, 
Uigur (Turkish) and even Hebrew — and 
referring to several religions other than 
Buddhism. The paintings found there have 
become a cornerstone of our knowledge of 
Chinese painting and of Central Asian art 
in general. The secular documents — census 



records, deeds and wills, calendars, contracts, 
copy books, compendiums of maxims, and 
fragments of literature — are gradually being 
translated, revealing fascinating details of 
the life of that outpost of China during the 
brilliant T'ang dynasty. 

EARLEST PRINTED BOOK ALSO FOUND 

The historical value of the collection was 
not appreciated until 1907, when the noted 
explorer Mark Aurel Stein (now Sir Mark) 
acquired an important part of it, including 
the earliest extant printed book (a.d. 868), 
for the British Museum. The next year Dr. 
Paul Pelliot, the renowned Sinologist, ac- 
quired a similar collection for the Biblio- 
theque Nationale of Paris. Not until an im- 
portant part of the horde had gone abroad, 
where it has been safely preserved and care- 
fully studied, did the Chinese government 
order the remainder to be transported to 
Peking. Field Museum's exemplar, one of 
the few in America, was probably one of 
those which "fell off the back of the cart" 
at the time of that removal. 



THINQS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED 



A Parrot That Preys on Sheep 

Nature, no less than human society, 
places a high premium upon resourcefulness 
or innate flexibility which enables an in- 
dividual or species to cope with new situa- 
tions. History records the fates of peoples 




"PRETTY POLLY'S" A PREDATOR 
Because its natural food is scarce in its New Zealand 
habitat, this aggressive parrot, the kea, preys upon sheep. 

who have failed to adapt themselves to 
powerful trends, and the story of once numer- 
ous birds and animals which have become 
extinct for similar reasons is known to all. 
Not so well known, perhaps, is the story 
of the kea, a sturdy New Zealand parrot 
which not only survived changes in its 
environment but even altered its food habits 
and prospered to the extent of becoming a 
serious economic problem. When first dis- 
covered in 1856, keas inhabited relatively 
limited areas in the rugged mountains of the 
interior of South Island where they subsisted 



upon mixed vegetable matter, insects, and 
worms. Scarcity of natural food in this 
bleak habitat doubtless limited the distribu- 
tion and abundance of keas at that time. 

Permanent European settlements were 
established on South Island in 1839. Sheep 
ranching became the principal occupation 
and soon vast flocks grazed over the high- 
land valleys and plateaus. The aggressive 
keas were not long in utilizing this new 
source of food. In 1867 wounds were found 
in the loins of many sheep of Otago Province 
and in some instances even the entrails 
were seen hanging from the ripped sides 
of the abdomen. Within a year investi- 
gators discovered keas attacking flocks of 
sheep which were snowed in. They were 
amazed by the strength and ferocity of the 
birds, which they saw literally tearing the 
flesh from living animals. 

The kea population thrived upon this 
unaccustomed diet and extended its territory 
as new sheep ranges were opened. Fortu- 
nately, the carnivorous tendency of an 
otherwise harmless and interesting bird is 
an acquired rather than a hereditary habit. 
In recent years depredations by keas have 
been reduced by adequate care of sick sheep 
and the removal of carcasses from the open 
range so that the parrots have less oppor- 
tunity to develop their perverted taste. 

A specimen of the kea is exhibited in the 
Museum's systematic collection of birds in 
Hall 21. — E.R.B. 



MUSEUM ATTENDANCE IN 1941 
EXCEEDED 1,350,000 

During 1941, 1,358,147 persons visited 
Field Museum. This compares favorably 
with the attendance in other years, and 
indicates that the institution is continuing 
to flll an important community need. 

Paid admissions numbered 86,535, free 
admissions 1,271,612. The latter figure 
includes children, students, teachers. Mu- 
seum Members, and other classifications of 
visitors who are admitted free on all days. 
The ratio of paid to free admissions is in 
accord with the trend of recent years. 

The institution's benefits were extended 
also to many additional hundreds of thou- 
sands outside the Museum, through travel- 
ing exhibits circulated by the N. W. Harris 
Public School Extension to schools with a 
total enrollment of approximately half a 
million, and through the extension lectures 
provided in the schools by the James Nelson 
and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation for 
Public School and Children's Lectures. 

It is encouraging to note that despite the 
increasing demands made upon the public 
purse by taxes, war bonds, and other con- 
tributions for war needs, a modest gain was 
made in Museum memberships. There were 
4,313 names of Members on the Museum 
rolls as of December 31, 1941, compared 
with 4,225 on the corresponding date of 
the previous year. 



Page i 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



February, 19^9 



, GIANT FLIGHTLESS BIRDS 

By BRYAN PATTERSON 

ASSISTANT CURATOR OF PAI.EONTOIXXiY 

A new exhibition case installed in Ernest 
R. Graham Hall of Paleontology (Hall 38) 
is devoted to giant flightless birds. It 
contains skeletons of a New Zealand moa 
and a South American phororhacoid. 

The large ground birds, represented today 
by the ostriches of Africa and the Near 
East, the rheas of South America, and the 
emus and cassowaries of the Australian 
region, are of interest from several points 
of view. They represent an extreme of 
specialization in the bird world, one in which 
gradual adaptation to a completely terrestrial 
existence led to the loss of the power of 
flight which in turn made possible great 
increase in bulk. They are now, and were 
in the past, very few in number compared 
with the hosts of flying birds, a fact which 
suggests that evolution of such types was 
possible only under exceptional conditions. 
Finally, they afford a glimpse of a world 
that might have been — of the sort of beings 
that might have dominated the land surfaces 
if mammals had never existed. 

ISOLATED ON TWO CONTINENTS 

The past history of the living groups is 
not well known. Emus and cassowaries are 
known from the Pleistocene of Australia, 
ostriches from the early Pliocene of Europe 
and Asia, and rheas from the early Miocene 
of South America. These fossil forms are 
practically as specialized as their living 
relatives, indicating that the history of each 
group began long before its first appearance 
in the geological record. With the exception 
of that of the ostriches, it is almost certain 
that these histories have run their courses 
in the regions which the living forms inhabit. 
This belief is based on a wealth of evidence 
indicating that South America was, and that 
Australia has been, isolated from the rest 
of the world for extremely long periods of 
time, the former from the end of the Age 
of Reptiles to almost the end of the Age 
of Mammals, a stretch of more than fifty 
million years, and the latter probably from 
an even earlier date. 

Inhabiting South America together with 
the rheas were the phororhacoids, perhaps 
the most spectacular birds of all time. A 
group of flesh-eaters ranging in height from 
less than three feet to over eight, they must 
have preyed on a wide variety of animals 
from creatures of mouse size to the larger 
herbivorous mammals. They were discussed 
at length in the March, 1941 issue of 
Field Museum News. 

That a group of birds should have played 
so notable a part in the animal life of a 
large region is altogether exceptional and 
seems to have been one of the biological 
results of the isolation of South America. 
The fauna of the continent at the time that 
it was cut off from North America did not 
include any true carnivorous mammals, 
their places being partially filled by flesh- 



eating marsupials, relatives of the opossum 
which were much less intelligent and effective 
animals. These evidently failed to become 
the dominant predators of the region, and 
the rise of the phororhacoids accordingly 
became possible. The extinction of the 
group appears to have roughly coincided 
in time with the reunion of the two Americas 
and the invasion of the southern continent 
by cats, dogs, and other true carnivores 
which came down from the north. This 
seems to indicate that the phororhacoids 







Drawing by John Conr.ul ILniscn 

RESTORATION OF A MOA 
These giant birds flourished and grew fat during 
millions of years in their isolated home in New Zealand, 
but became extinct after the arrival of Man. Their island 
sanctuary was invaded centuries ago by those hardy 
voyagers, the Polynesians, who crossed vast expanses of 
the South Pacific Ocean in frail primitive open boats. 

might not have come into existence had 
they been faced with effective competition 
from the start. 

The lack of true carnivores in South 
America takes on added significance when 
it is realized that the Australian region, 
home of the emus and cassowaries, likewise 
contained none of these mammals until they 
were introduced by man. This at once 
suggests a correlation between a lack of 
true carnivores in a region and the evolution 
there of large flightless birds. 

The large island of Madagascar has evi- 
dently been separated from Africa for many 
millions of years. Certainly until compara- 
tively recent times the island was inhabited 
by giant plant-feeding ground birds, similar 
to the ostrich in general appearance but 
much more heavily built. They appear 
to have been forest dwellers, resembling in 
this respect the living cassowaries. Here 
again enemies were few, being limited to 
some small civets and a primitive relative 
of the cats. The ancestors of these mammals 
evidently reached Madagascar about the 
middle of the Age of Mammals, by accidental 
means — probably by flotation on natural 
rafts of vegetation. By that time the 
evolution of the ground birds must have 



been too well under way to be materially 
affected by these newcomers. The extinction 
of the group dates from the human period 
and there is evidence that man had a hand 
in the process. Aepyomis, the best known 
form, enjoys the distinction of having laid 
the largest eggs of any known bird. The 
biggest egg yet discovered has a length of 
almost fourteen inches, and a greater circum- 
ference exceeding three feet. It is believed 
that these eggs may have come to the 
attention of the early Arabian navigators, 
and thus have contributed to the legend 
of the Roc which is so prominent a feature 
in the story of Sinbad the Sailor. 

New Zealand is unique among the land 
masses and larger islands of the world not 
only in having no carnivorous mammals but 
in having no native land mammals of any 
kind. In this natural bird sanctuary a 
number of avian orders evolved ground- 
dwelling forms, many of which completely 
lost the ability to fly. The giants among 
these were a group known collectively as 
moas. Extremely abundant and diversified, 
they ranged in height from about ten feet 
to less than two and a half feet. In general 
appearance they resembled the ostriches 
and rheas but were heavier, especially in 
the legs, and probably less speedy. Their 
isolation and safety came to an end when 
Polynesian peoples, exploring the South 
Pacific in open boats, began to colonize 
New Zealand. These invaders found in 
the moas a readily available source of food 
and appear to have killed off the last 
survivors by about a.d. 1300. 

MAMMAL INVASIONS ENDED ERA 

It would appear from this record that 
freedom from the destructive activities of 
true mammalian carnivores is a prime 
requisite for the evolution of giant flightless 
birds. The occurrence of a few such groups 
in the northern hemisphere during the early 
epochs of the Age of Mammals also supports 
this view. At the time these were living 
the modern carnivores had not yet evolved, 
their places being occupied by the related 
but less specialized creodonts. After cats, 
dogs, weasels, etc. appeared on the scene, 
no more flightless giants are known to have 
arisen in areas to which they had access. 
Isolation in parts of the world to which 
these beasts of prey did not penetrate 
evidently made possible the rise and long 
survival of the birds discussed here. 

After the passing of the dinosaurs and 
other giant reptiles some sixty million years 
ago, the mammals dominated the land and 
the pressure of their superior competition 
kept the birds largely confined to an aerial 
existence. Had no mammals existed, how- 
ever, it is very likely that many bird groups 
would have reverted to terrestrial habits, 
and that giant forms would have been 
varied and widely distributed instead of 
being confined to a few areas where fortui- 
tous combinations of circumstances made 
their development possible. 



February, 1H2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page 5 



IF OUR LITTLE WARRING WORLD IS TOO MUCH WITH YOU, 
PONDER ON TWO BILLION YEARS OF THE WHOLE UNIVERSE 



By henry W. NICHOLS 

CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY 

Not all research based on specimens in 
Field Museum's study collections is con- 
ducted by members of the staff. Sometimes 
specimens from the collections preserved in 
large museums are essential to important 
research conducted in other institutions. 
One such research, based on specimens from 
Field Museum, may be of general interest. 

Researches that not so many years ago 
would have been laughed at as visionary, 
and that are still in progress, have led to 
estimates, widely accepted, as to how many 
years have passed since the material sub- 
stance of the earth was created. Naturally 
this discovery leads to another problem: 
Was all the substance of the universe created 
at the same time, or may the substance of 
the earth be younger or older than that of 
some other parts of the universe? 

It has already been discovered, through 
study of the radio-active content of the 
rocks and their disintegration products, 
that the atoms composing terrestrial rocks 
were formed about two billion years ago. 
No one knows whether they were actually 
created then, or whether profound changes 
in their nature were made by the influence 
of some universal force of a character 
we cannot even imagine; but it is generally 
accepted that they were all formed at that 
distant time. It is, of course, impossible 
to break ofif a piece of star or planet and bring 
it into our laboratory to test its age, but 
we have in meteorites, which may well be 
fragments of broken up celestial bodies, 
actual material substance from extra- 
terrestrial space. Although earlier studies 
have demonstrated similarities in a number 
of meteoritic and terrestrial atoms, leading 
to the inference that they were of the same 
age, further research for confirmation is 
nevertheless needed. 

NEW RESEARCH METHODS 

Dr. Robley D. Evans and his colleagues 
in the research laboratories of the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology devised 
methods more accurate than those hitherto 
employed for comparing the age of certain 
atoms from different sources. They believed 
that if they could apply these methods to 
the study of material that came from 
beyond the solar system the results would 
be of great interest. The Pultusk meteorite, 
which fell in Poland as a shower of small 
stones in 1868, appeared to be such a 
meteorite, as a calculation of its orbit made 
by Galle in that year indicated that it came 
from without the solar system. Field 
Museum was able to supply a sufficient 
quantity of this meteorite for the research 
by Dr. Evans and his associates. 

Calculation of meteorite orbits is based 
upon observation of the path of a meteorite 
as it passes through the air in the shape of 



a fireball. As a meteorite fall is a startling 
event, coming without warning, and finished 
in a few seconds, and since most of those 
who see it are not skilled observers, these 
observations cannot have a high degree 
of scientific accuracy and the orbits deduced 
from them cannot be more dependable than 
the observations. In recent years it has 
been found that observations of falling 
meteorites are subject to psychological errors. 
These to a large extent can be evaluated, 
and allowance made for them. 

After Dr. Evans' work was under way, 
revised calculations gave an orbit for the 
Pultusk meteorite entirely within the solar 
system so that Dr. Evans' work shows the 
age only of matter within our solar system 
and not of any from the outer spaces beyond. 
Dr. Evans attacked his problem by deter- 
mining, through methods too complex to be 
detailed here, certain properties of the 
minute quantity of radio-active matter in 
the meteorites. 

EXPLANATION OF "ISOTOPES" 

Most chemical elements are not, as was 
once believed, made up of identical atoms — 
they are really mixtures of two or more kinds 
called isotopes, so nearly alike that they 
cannot be distinguished by ordinary means, 
but only by special treatments devised for 
the purpose. The radio-active element 
uranium contains two such isotopes, one 
of which is much more active than the other. 
As there is reason to believe that all uranium 
when first formed was made up of the two 
kinds in identical proportions, and as the 
more radio-active kind is destroyed by its 
radio-activity more rapidly than the other, 
there will be, as time passes, less and less 
of the more active kind present and thus, 
when uranium from different sources con- 
tains the same relative quantities of these, 
the two uraniums must be of the same age. 

Dr. Evans determined the relative pro- 
portions of the two kinds of uranium in 
the Pultusk meteorite and in the older 
terrestrial rocks and found them the same, 
indicating that the atoms in the meteorite 
and in terrestrial rocks were of the same 
age. This research is described in detail 
in a Field Museum Publication (Geological 
Series, Volume VII, No. 5). In order to 
make certain that his results were correct. 
Dr. Evans repeated his work, using the com- 
mon element potassium from the meteorite 
and from terrestrial rock. 

Potassium, although not usually regarded 
as radio-active, consists of two kinds of 
atoms — isotopes, one of which is slightly 
radio-active and hence slowly disappears 
in time. Dr. Evans found that the propor- 
tion of radio-active to ordinary potassium 
is the same in the Pultusk meteorite as in 
terrestrial rock. These results show that 
some, if not all, matter in the solar system 
was created at the same time as that of the 



earth. The question of whether some of 
the matter in the more distant parts of the 
universe may be older or younger must await 
the time, which may never come, when the 
orbit of some meteorite from without the 
solar system may be determined with 
sufficient accuracy. 



Trustee Albert B. Dick Jr., Elected 
Museum's 3rd Vice-President 

At the Annual Meeting of the Board of 
Trustees of Field Museum, held January 19, 
Mr. Albert B. Dick, Jr., was elected Third 
Vice-President, filling the vacancy caused 
by the recent resignation of Mr. Albert W. 
Harris. Mr. Dick has been a member of 
the Board since December 21, 1936. 

Mr. Stanley Field was re-elected Presi- 
dent, and in 1942 will serve his thirty-fourth 
consecutive year in that office. Other 
officers who served in 1941 were re-elected. 
They are: Colonel Albert A. Sprague, First- 
President; Mr. Silas H. Strawn, Second 
Vice-President; Major Clifford C. Gregg, 
Director and Secretary, and Mr. Solomon A. 
Smith, Treasurer and Assistant Secretary. 



"Scepter of Good Luck" 

In all times, and among all peoples, super- 
stition has endowed various objects as 
harbingers of good luck. While its power to 
bring felicity is doubted, a beautiful example 
of such an object is the Chinese scepter of 
good luck, carved from sandalwood, on 
exhibition in Stanley Field Hall, Case 12. 



KNOW YOUR SNAKES 

EVEN IF YOU SHUN THEM 




^i»^:^-.--, •^^'f'^-rifft;!^- 



A conspicuous gap in Putnam's 
famous series of pocket nature guides 
is closed with publication of The Field 
Book of Snakes of the United States 
and Canada, by Karl P. Schmidt and 
D. Dwight Davis, Chief Curator and 
Curator of Anatomy respectively at 
Field Museum. "Few handbooks are 
written with such care and thorough- 
ness, and few are so profusely illus- 
trated," says Clifford H. Pope, 
Curator of Reptiles. "It has already 
taken its place as a standard work, 
indispensable to scientists, amateurs, 
and laymen interested in snakes." 

On sale at THE BOOK SHOP of 
FIELD MUSEUM— $3.50. Mail 
orders accepted. 



Page 6 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



FebriMry, 19iS 



Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 

RtHMCvelt Road and Field DiiTe, Chlcafo 

Telefhone: Wabash 9410 



THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 
Lester Armour Stanley Field 

Sewbll L. Avery Samuel Insull, Jr. 

W. McCoRMicK Blair Charles A. McCulloch 

Leopold E. Block William H. Mitchell 

Boardman Conovbr George A. Richardson 

Walter J. Cuhmings Theodore Roosevelt 

Albert B. Dick. Jr. Solomon A. Smith 

Howard W. Fenton Albert A. Sprague 

Joseph N. Field Silas H. Strawn 

Marshall Field Albert H. Wbtten 

John P. Wilson 

OFFICERS 

Stanley Field Prendent 

Albert A. Sprague Firtt Viet-Pretidtnt 

Silas H. Strawn Steond Vict-Prendent 

Albert B. Dick, Jr Third Vice-Presidenl 

CuPFORD C. Gregg Director and Secretary 

Solomon A. Smith. . .Treaturtr and Attittant Secretary 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 

EDITOR 
CuPFORD C. Gregg Director •/ the Mueeum 

ASSOCIATE EDITOR 
WiLPRED H. Osgood Curator Emeritut, Zoology 

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anlhropoloty 

B. E. D AHLGREN Chief Curator of Botany 

Henry W, Nichols Chief Curator of Geology 

Karl P. Schmidt Chief Curator of Zoology 

MANAGING EDITOR 
H. B. Harte Public Relatioru Counttl 



Members are requested to Inform the Museum 
promptly of changes of address. 



NEW PLANT FOR GARDEN USE 
DISCOVERED BY EXPEDITION 

By JULIAN A. STEYERMARK 
assistant curator OP the herbarium 

While conducting the Field Museum Ex- 
pedition to Guatemala in 1939-40, the 
writer visited some densely forested jungles 
in the hills across the bay from Puerto 
Barrios, the country's Atlantic port of entry. 
The hills in this area are covered by a heavy 
rain forest composed of many species of 
trees, shrubs, and lianas. Orchids, brome- 
liads, aroids, and many mosses and hepatics 
bedeck the branches and vines. Numerous 
mountain streams run rapidly down the 
slopes, everywhere hemmed in by dense 
vegetation. Many species of palm trees, and 
some mahogany and chicle comprise part 
of the forest cover. 

In the shade of this forest occur numerous 
shrubs of the madder, melastome, and 
pepper families. On the floor of the forest 
are low species of palms, intermingled with 
various herbaceous plants. While collecting 
this flora, I observed a plant with lily-like 
leaves scattered over the forested slopes. 
Digging away the surface of the soil, a 
large bulb was discovered. Although no 
flowers were obtainable, a specimen was 
collected for the Museum's Herbarium, as 
well as several bulbs for Chicago's Garfield 
Park Conservatory. 

FLOWERS DEVELOPED AT CONSERVATORY 

At Garfield Park the plants soon developed 
a magnificent cluster of leaves. For a year 
and a half these leaves grew satisfactorily. 



but no blossoms appeared. Meanwhile, 
study of dried specimens revealed that the 
plant was probably a species new to science, 
although this could not be certain until a 
careful study of the flowers had been made. 
Finally, on November 5, flowers appeared 
on one of the plants, and an examination 
of these showed the plant to be a member of 
the group commonly known in the United 
States as spider-lilies (Hymenocallis or 
Pancratium). 

Several more flowers appeared at the top 
of a thick stalk more than two feet high. 
The large flowers are very showy and deli- 
cately fragrant. They are white with re- 
curved curly perianth segments and measure 
one foot in total length. Comparison of 
the plant with known species of its kind 
showed it to be undescribed, and a technical 
description was therefore prepared for publi- 
cation. Garfield Park Conservatory thus 
has the unique distinction of having the 
only plants of this species in cultivation, 
so far as is known. 

The plant is of interest not only because 
it represents an additional species of spider- 
lily, but also because it is worthy of intro- 
duction into conservatories and gardens. It 
is one of the showiest and stateliest members 
of the group yet discovered, with white 
flowers as bright as those of the Easter lily. 

ARTIFICIAL POLLINATION ATTEMPTED 

Steps have already been taken to pollinate 
the flowers artificially, and it is hoped that 
seeds may eventually be produced. One of 
the bulbs has produced an offshoot, and, 
no doubt, the future will witness successful 
propagation of this species. From just such 
small beginnings other plants, now well 
established as garden favorites, have come 
into cultivation. The famous Kew Gardens 
in England have, since their beginning, cul- 
tivated and propagated plants which were 
sent in as seeds or roots. Many such plants 
are now among producers of the best-loved 
flowers known to man. It is stimulating 
to realize that to this day, and even in the 
future, many new plants still may be brought 
into cultivation for man's pleasure. 



4 LATIN-AMERICAN EXPEDITIONS 
REPORT ON PROGRESS 

Four of the five expeditions which Field 
Museum currently has in operation in Latin- 
American countries have recently sent re- 
ports on the progress of their work to Major 
Clifford C. Gregg, Director. 

Mr. Paul O. McGrew, Assistant Curator 
of Paleontology, who is leader of an expedi- 
tion in Honduras, reports that he has exca- 
vated a specimen of a large and rare dog 
which lived some 7,000,000 years ago and 
is similar to a rare type of about the same 
period that inhabited the North American 
plains. He has found also a dwarfed type 
of Pliocene horse which resembles prehistoric 
North American horses in all characters 
except size. Its stunted growth may have 



been due to the unfavorable habitat afforded 
by the tropics. He states that the dog is a 
species almost "certainly new to science, and 
of great importance." He also writes: "I 
am amazed and pleased at the high opinion 
in this country of anything pertaining to 
Los Estados Unidos." 

Mr. Colin Campbell Sanborn, Curator of 
Mammals, who is conducting a zoological 
expedition in Peru, reports that he has 
collected a large number of animals for the 
Museum. He is engaged in visiting localities 
of special zoological interest, especially in 
the valleys of some of the more remote 
tributaries of the Amazon. 

From Cuenca, Ecuador, Mr. Donald 
Collier, Assistant Curator of South American 
Ethnology and Archaeology, sends a pre- 
liminary report about explorations on mule- 
back in little known regions, and archaeo- 
logical excavations on sites once the seats 
of prehistoric Indian communities. The 
Museum shares in this expedition with the 
Institute of Andean Research, of New York. 

Dr. Julian A. Steyermark, Assistant 
Curator of the Herbarium, who is in charge 
of an expedition in Guatemala, reports that 
he has been so busy collecting thousands of 
plant specimens that Christmas had passed 
by two days before he realized its arrival. 
He is working in difficult mountain regions, 
living largely with native Indians, and 
enjoying the meat of coatis, wild turkeys, 
and opossum. 

The Museum's fifth Latin-American ex- 
plorer is Mr. Llewelyn Williams, Curator of 
Economic Botany, who is making a botanical 
survey in Venezuela. 



A FEW FACTS ABOUT FIELD MUSEUM 

Field Museum is open every day of the year 
(except Christmas and New Year's Day) during 
the hours indicated below: 

November, December, 

January, February .... 9 A.M. to 4 P.M. 

March, April, and 

September, October ... 9 A.M. to 5 p.m. 

May, June, July, August . 9 A.M. to 6 p.m. 

Admission is free to Members on all days. 
Other adults are admitted free on Thursdays, 
Saturdays, and Sundays: non-members pay 
admission on other days: Established price 25 
cents. Federal tax 3 cents, total 28 cents. 
Children are admitted free on all days. 
Students and faculty members of educational 
institutions are admitted free any day upon 
presentation of credentials. 

The Museum's Library is open for reference 
daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. 

Traveling exhibits are circulated in the 
schools of Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public 
School Extension Department of the Museum. 

Lectures at schools, and special entertain- 
ments and tours for children at the Museum, 
are provided by the James Nelson and Anna 
Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School 
and Children's Lectures. 

Free courses of lectures for adults are pre- 
sented in the James Simpson Theatre on Satur- 
day afternoons (at 2:30 o'clock) in March, 
April, October, and November. 

A Cafeteria serves visitors. Rooms are 
available also for those bringing their lunches. 

Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 
busses provide direct transportation to the 
Museum. Service is offered also by Surface 
Lines, Rapid Transit Lines (the "L"), inter- 
urban electric lines, and Illinois Central trains. 
There is ample free parking space for auto- 
mobiles at the Museum. 



February, 19U2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page 7 



RESEARCH COLLECTION PREPARED 
FOR STUDENTS OF PREHISTORY 

The development of man and his cultures 
during the past 250,000 years is shown by 
means of eight dioramas and twenty-three 
cases in the Hall of the Stone Age of the 
Old World (Hall C). 

In addition to more than a million visitors 
annually, students from the University of 
Chicago, Northwestern University, Uni- 
versity of Illinois, and Notre Dame Uni- 
versity regularly use this hall in pursuit of 
studies prescribed for certain courses in 
their curricula. 

After twelve years the study collection 
pertaining to the same subjects as the hall 
is now catalogued and arranged for the use 
of students. Several representative series 
have been sent to other institutions. The 
Department of Anthropology at the Uni- 
versity of Chicago has received by exchange 
an especially selected series of stone and 
bone tools. As a direct result of war con- 
ditions in Europe, the selected objects on 
exhibition and the large series of specimens 
in the study collection have acquired a 
more marked significance and a greatly aug- 
mented cultural value. 

In order to obtain representative examples 
of stone and bone tools, prehistoric human 
remains (originals and casts), and animal 
bones of each period and sub-period, it was 
necessary for Field Museum to dispatch 
several expeditions. Specimens were ob- 
tained in England, Scotland, France, Bel- 
gium, Holland, Germany, Denmark, Czecho- 
slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, 
Italy, Spain, Syria, Palestine, Trans-Jordan, 
Iraq, Iran, and the U.S.S.R. 

With the assistance of the Abb6 Henri 
Breuil, Professor at the College de France 
and Corresponding Member of Field Mu- 
seum, the majority of the 75,000 specimens 
were purchased in France. Several small 
excavations in England and France were 
sponsored by the Museum in order to obtain 
specimens from special areas or sub-periods. 
Representative series of cultural periods in 
Africa, India, Mongolia and China were 
obtained by gift, purchase, or exchange. 
The Museum already possessed a nucleus 
of several important collections of pre- 
historic objects presented to the institution 
at the conclusion of the World's Columbian 
Exposition in 1893. — H.F. 



A VISIT WITH CAVE MAN ON FEBRUARY SUNDAY LECTURES 



The light of Egypt is represented by an 
exhibit of pottery lamps and jars from the 
Roman period (second to fourth century 
A.D.) in Hall J. Most have single burners, 
but one with two and one with eight burners 
are also shown. 



Facts about the geological history of the 
Chicago region are demonstrated by a 
series of relief maps, and various other 
physical geology exhibits in Clarence Buck- 
ingham Hall (Hall 35). 



A personal introduction to, and an inti- 
mate visit with various races of prehistoric 
man, are offered on Sunday afternoons dur- 
ing February by Mr. Paul G. Dallwig, the 
Layman Lecturer. Mr. Dallwig will drama- 



and various sculptured objects which have 
survived through the ages. 

Because of heavy public demands, it is 
necessary to limit each audience to 100 
adults (children cannot be accommodated). 




"MR. AND MRS. 1942 -MEET THE CHELLEAN BROTHERS OF 250,000 B.C." 
Some of the prehistoric men to whom Layman Lecturer Paul G. Dallwig will introduce his audiences. 



tize typical incidents in the lives of pre- 
historic human beings from about a quarter 
of a million years ago down to the dawn 
of recorded history, at the same time con- 
ducting his audience through the Hall of 
the Stone Age of the Old World where they 
may study the life-size dioramas of the 
various peoples under discussion. Mr. 
Dallwig devotes special attention to various 
phases of prehistoric art as represented by 
paintings and carvings on ancient cave walls, 



Those desiring to attend must make reserva- 
tions in advance by mail or telephone 
(WABash 9410). The Sunday lectures begin 
promptly at 2 P.M. and end at 4 :30. Midway 
there is an intermission for refreshments and 
smoking in the cafeteria. 

In March Mr. Dallwig's subject will be 
"The Parade of the Races," illustrated by 
Malvina Hoffman's comprehensive Races of 
Mankind sculptures in Chauncey Keep 
Memorial Hall. 



WEEKDAY LECTURE TOURS 
OFFERED IN FEBRUARY 

Conducted tours of exhibits, under the 
guidance of staff lecturers, are made every 
afternoon at 2 o'clock except Saturdays, 
Sundays, and certain holidays. Following 
is the schedule for February: 

Week beginning February 2: Monday — 
Designs in Wood (Miss Marie B. Pabst); 
Tuesday — General Tour (Miss Elizabeth 
Hambleton); Wednesday — People of the 
South Seas and East Indies (Miss Elizabeth 
Hambleton) ; Thursday — General Tour (Miss 
Elizabeth Best); Friday— Food Plants Na- 
tive to America (Mrs. Leota G. Thomas). 

Week beginning February 9: Monday — 
Animals Throughout the World (Miss 
Elizabeth Best); Tuesday — General Tour 
(Miss Elizabeth Hambleton); Wednesday — 
The Geology of Our National Parks (Bert E. 
Grove); Thursday — General Tour (Mrs. 
Leota G. Thomas); Friday — Plants of 
Pacific Lands (Miss Marie B. Pabst). 



Week beginning February 16: Monday — 
Animals of Land and Sea (Miss Elizabeth 
Best); Tuesday — General Tour (Miss Eliza- 
beth Hambleton); Wednesday — The Im- 
portance of Rocks and Minerals (Bert E. 
Grove); Thursday — General Tour (Miss 
Marie B. Pabst); Friday— The Near East, 
Cradle of Civilization (Miss Elizabeth 
Hambleton). 

Week beginning February 23: Monday — 
Animals Large and Small (Miss Elizabeth 
Best); Tuesday — General Tour (Miss Eliza- 
beth Hambleton) ; Wednesday — The History 
and Adventure of Life (Bert E. Grove); 
Thursday — General Tour (Miss Elizabeth 
Best); Friday — Native Life of the Philip- 
pines (Mrs. Leota G. Thomas). 

Persons wishing to participate should 
apply at North Entrance. Tours are free. 



Horned and hoofed mammals — game 
animals from all parts of the world — are 
exhibited in George M. Pullman Hall. 



Page 8 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



February, 1H2 



FAR EASTERN WAR ZONES 
IN MUSEUM LECTURE 

Singapore — Malaya — Java — the Philippines 
— Hawaii — Guam — Hongkong — Shanghai 
— and Japan — the vital spots figuring in 
today's, yesterday's, and tomorrow's news, 
all will be shown in colored motion pictures 
accompanying the lecture "Circle of Fire" 
to be presented at Field Museum on Satur- 
day afternoon, March 7. This lecture 
opens the institution's annual spring course 
for adults. 

.Thenceforth, throughout March and April, 
lectures will be given each Saturday after- 
noon, at 2:30 o'clock, in the James Simpson 
Theatre of the Museum. Engaged for the 
series are outstanding scientists, explorers, 
and naturalists. Topics of the day will 
figure in some of the talks, while others will 
afford total relief from current turmoil by 
their restriction to the things in nature and 
science not related to the war. All of the 
lectures will be illustrated with motion 
pictures or stereopticon slides, many in 
natural colors. 

Speaker for the opening lecture on the 
outposts of the Pacific is Mr. Francis 
Raymond Line, of Ontario, California, who, 
after graduating from the University of 
Michigan with Phi Beta Kappa honors, has 
devoted his time to studies of all phases 
of life in the Far East, traveling 25,000 
miles by clipper plane, automobile, horse, 
and ship to virtually every "hot spot" in 
the Pacific area. His motion pictures made 
inside Japan are the last of professional 
caliber to come out of that country. In 
all of the places he visited — Dutch East 
Indies, possessions and territory of the 
United States, Straits Settlements, Malay 
Archipelago and Peninsula, and Asiatic 
mainland, Mr. Line's films show not only 
the life of the peoples seething restlessly in 
this circle, but the natural features such as 
spectacular volcanoes, the luxuriant jungles, 
and the prolific wild animal life. 

The March issue of Field Museum News 
will contain a complete schedule of all eight 
lectures in the course. 

No tickets are necessary for admission 
to these lectures. A section of the 
Theatre is reserved for Members of the 
Museum, each of whom is entitled to 
two reserved seats. Requests for these 
seats should be made in advance by tele- 
phone (WABash 9410) or in writing, and 
seats will be held in the Member's name 
until 2:30 o'clock on the day of the lecture. 
All reserved seats not claimed by 2:30 p.m. 
will be made available to the general public. 



GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM 

Following is a list of some of the principal 
gifts received during the last month: 

Department of Anthropology : 

From Colonel Wallis Huidekoper, Twodot, 
Mont. — 26 specimens of ethnological material 
from Sioux, Crow, Arapaho, and Cheyenne 



Indians, northern plains of the United 
States; from Wesley R. Hurt, Jr., Albu- 
querque, N. M. — 2 Navaho pottery bowls, 
Arizona. 

Department of Botany: 

From Professor Bernardo Rosengurtt, 
Montevideo, Uruguay — 15 herbarium speci- 
mens, Uruguay; from Richard A. Schneider, 
Kankakee, 111. — 16 herbarium specimens, 
Illinois; from Harry Hoogstraal, Urbana, 
111. — 982 herbarium specimens, Mexico; from 
Dr. E. S. Deevey, Houston, Tex.— 40 
specimens of algae, Mexico and Texas; 
from Donald Richards, Chicago — 125 speci- 
mens of mosses, North America; from 
University of Chicago, Chicago — 7,285 speci- 
mens of fungi; from Weyerhauser Timber 
Company, Longview, Wash. — trunk, wheel 
section, and a plank of Sitka spruce, Wash- 
ington; from Howard Scott Gentry, Ann 
Arbor, Mich. — 29 herbarium specimens, 
Mexico; from Paul H. Allen, Balboa, 
Canal Zone — 47 herbarium specimens, 
Panama. 

Department of Geolo^: 

From Claron Hogle, Duluth, Minn. — 
a specimen of thomsonite, Lake Superior 
region. 

Department of Zoology: 

From Dr. Charles H. Seevers, Chicago — 
154 histerid beetles, 14 scorpion flies, and a 
Hemerobiid, Mexico, Indiana, Illinois, and 
Tennessee; from WiUiam J. Gerhard, Chi- 
cago — 51 beetles and allies, Indiana, Penn- 
sylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, and 
Illinois; from Chicago Zoological Society, 
Brookfield, 111. — 32 birds, a waterbuck, an 
orang, and 2 eggs of African wood ibis; 
from Donald M. Smith, Chicago — 205 in- 
sects, northwestern United States; from 
Boardman Conover, Chicago — 5 quail, 3 
wood rails, and one Hawaiian honey-creeper, 
Paraguay, Hawaii, and Virgin Islands; from 
Professor Angel Maldonado, Lima, Peru — 
80 specimens comprising 2 species of shrimps 
and freshwater snails, western Peru; from 
Leslie Hubricht, St. Louis, Mo. — 4 sala- 
manders, Missouri; from Karl F. Kauffeld, 
Staten Island, N. Y. — 2 rattlesnakes. New 
York and New Jersey; from Museum of 
Vertebrate Zoology, University of Cali- 
fornia, Berkeley, Calif. — 5 kangaroo rats, 
Nevada. 

The Library: 

Valuable books from Dr. Henry Field, 
Washington, D.C. 



Staff Notes 



Mr. Loren P. Woods, Assistant Curator 
of Fishes, lectured at Earlham College, 
Richmond, Indiana, January 15, on the 
accomplishments of last year's Leon Mandel 
Expedition to Galapagos for Field Museum. 



Dr. C. Martin Wilbur, Curator of Chinese 
Archaeology and Ethnology, read a paper 
on "Industrial Slavery in the Han Period, 
China" before a session of the American 
Historical Association which held its annual 
meeting in Chicago recently. 



NEW MEMBERS 

The following persons became Members 
of Field Museum during the period from 
December 16 to January 15: 

Associate Members 
George D. Cherones, Joseph Y. Grade, 
Albert Maling. 

Non-Resldent Associate Memt>er8 

Harry G. Dalzell 

Annual Members 

Mrs. M. S. Anzel, Kenneth Aranoff, 
Zedrick T. Braden, Miss Sophia C. Came- 
nisch, Don L. Davis, Robert T. Drake, 
Walter H. Gabel, Chester G. Gifford, Louis 
G. Glick, Watson D. Harbaugh, Samuel J. 
Hirschberg, Mrs. David E. Hokin, Dr. J. A. 
Kerr, W. K. Kruse, Miss Frances Lasker, 
Walter A. Mack, Julian Mero, George W. 
Murison, Marshall E. Neuberg, James J. 
O'Connor, Price A. Patton, Edward Vilas 
Piatt, Walter J. Preston, Griswold A. Price, 
Owen Vinson. 



A Counterfeit That Became 
Better Than Real Money 

As relative values change with time, 
counterfeits and fraudulent imitations once 
profitable may become the reverse. An 
example is the counterfeit of a Spanish gold 
coin shown in H. N. Higinbotham (Hall 31). 
It was made by gilding platinum, a metal 
now more valuable than gold. 



MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM 

Field Museum has several classes of Mem- 
bers. Annual Members contribute $10 annu- 
ally. Associate Members pay $100 and are 
exempt from dues. Sustaining Members con- 
tribute $25 annually for six consecutive years, 
after which they become Associate Members 
and are exempt from all further dues. Life 
Members give $500 and are exempt from dues. 
Non-Resident Life Members pay $i00, and Non- 
Resident Associate Members $50; both of these 
classes are also exempt from dues. The Non- 
Resident memberships are available only to 
persons residing fifty miles or more from Chi- 
cago. Those who give or devise to the Museum 
$1,000 to $100,000 are designated as Contribu- 
tors, and those who give or devise $100,000 or 
more become Benefactors. Other memberships 
are Honorary, Patron, Corresponding and Cor- 
porate, additions under these classifications 
being made by special action of the Board of 
Trustees. 

Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to 
free admission to the Museum for himself, his 
family and house guests; and to two reserved 
seats for Museum lectures provided for Mem- 
bers. Subscription to Field Museum News is 
included with all memberships. The courtesies 
of every museum of note in the United States 
and Canada are extended to all Members of 
Field Museum. A Member may give his 
personal card to non-residents of Chicago, upon 
presentation of which they will be admitted to 
the Museum without charge. Further informa- 
tion about memberships will be sent on request. 

BEQUESTS AND ENDOWMENTS 

Bequests to Field Museum of Natural His- 
tory may be made in securities, money, books 
or collections. They may, if desired, take the 
form of a memorial to a person or cause, named 
by the giver. 

Contributions made within the taxable year, 
not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's 
net income, are allowable as deductions in 
computing net income for federal income tax 
purposes. 

Endowments may be made to the Museum 
with the provision that an annuity be paid to 
the patron for life. These annuities are guaran- 
teed against fluctuation in amount, and may 
reduce federal income taxes. 



PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS 



Field! 




seuWNews 



Published Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago 



Vol. 13 



MARCH, 1942 



No. 3 



WHY WORRY ABOUT SUGAR? PEOPLE LIVED WITHOUT ANY FOR CENTURIES 



By PAUL C. STANDLEY 

CURATOR OF THE HERBARIUM 

From the national concern about a sugar 
shortage that daily occupies so much space 
in the newspapers one would suppose that 
man could not exist without sugar! Perhaps 
this is almost true nowadays, for last year 
the people of the 
United States each 
consumed about 96 
pounds of cane and 
beet sugar, and food 
habits are hard indeed 
to change. 

But it was not al- 
ways so, and even to- 
day sugar is not 
regarded as so import- 
ant in all countries as 
it is in ours. As re- 
cently as forty years 
ago the Russians used 
no more than two 
pounds per capita an- 
nually; and for thou- 
sands of years highly 
civilized peoples of 
Europe and the Near 
East managed to live 
healthfully and 
happily, if we may 
judge by their litera- 
ture, without any such 
sugar at all. 

It is difficult to 
comprehend the 
radical changes that 

have taken place in the diet of civilized 
man during only the past few hundred 
years. In Shakespeare's day the English 
existed almost wholly upon meat and 
bread. Sugar was unknown to the ancient 
Greeks and Romans, except the few legion- 
naires who in their campaigns had traveled 
to the extreme Orient. The fabulous 
Lucullan banquets of Rome's epicures were 
graced by no sugar except that obtained in 
honey, and in dates and other fruits. 

Cane sugar actually was introduced into 
England about 1466, but was long restricted 
to occasional feasts of the rich, or to use as 
a medicine! It did not come into common 
use in that country until about 1580, when 
importations began from Brazil by way of 
Portugal. Naturally enough, once obtain- 



able, it increased rapidly in popularity; and 
by 1790 the English consumption was 20 
pounds annually per person. In quite recent 
years its use has taken a sharp upturn. 
In Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, and 
the United States about 100 pounds per 
person have been consumed each year, and 



>v'xf //^^.) > 





^m^ji 



COLONIAL SUGAR PLANTATION IN BRAZIL 
A mural painting by Julius Moesscl. in the Museum's Hall of Food Plants (Hall 25) 



in some other European countries almost as 
much was eaten (prior to the war). 

Sugar cane is believed to be or to have 
been native in southeastern Asia and must 
have been utilized there from man's earliest 
days of existence, but it was not for hundreds 
of years after the beginning of the Christian 
era that it or its product (first called "sweet 
salt") became well known in China and 
northeastern Africa. It was taken to Spain 
by the Arabs about a.d. 700, and for a 
long time was grown along the Mediter- 
ranean coast. About 1420 it was introduced 
into Madeira by the Portuguese, later into 
the Canaries, thence to Santo Domingo, and 
to Brazil early in the 16th century. It is 
said to have reached Mexico in 1563. 

Cane sugar can be produced in all or 



most tropical and subtropical regions, and 
in almost unlimited amounts in the Latin- 
American countries. That it has not been 
exported in larger amounts recently from 
South and Central America has been due 
to low prices and especially to competition 
with countries having preferential tariffs or 
sugar quotas. It is a 
crop that yields 
heavily and quickly. 
It requires much less 
labor than many other 
«||m^^|^^H field crops. 
M^^^^^^^M In 1940 this country 

used about 5,712,000 
tons of sugar. Of this 
huge quantity it ob- 
tained about one-third 
from cane or beets 
grown within the con- 
tinental United States. 
Most of another third 
was imported from 
Cuba, and the greater 
part of the remaining 
third came from the 
Philippines, Hawaii, 
and Puerto Rico. Of 
these formerly de- 
Iiendable sources of 
supply, the one-sixth 
furnished by the 
Philippines is now 
definitely out of reach, 
and the approximately 
one-sixth furnished by 
Hawaii is likely to be 
curtailed by lack of transportation. It 
would seem reasonable that much of this 
shortage could be compensated by increased 
cultivation in Louisiana, Florida, Cuba, 
and Puerto Rico, and by importation from 
Brazil and other Latin-American countries. 
They doubtless would be glad to sacrifice 
part of their own sugar consumption to 
increase trade balances, if their product 
were permitted entry to the United States 
on equitable terms. 

CANE AND BEET SUGAR INDISTINGUISHABLE 

Much of the sugar used in the United 
States and Europe is obtained from sugar 
beets, whose sugar is indistinguishable from 
that of cane except by complicated labora- 
tory tests. There is no difference whatever 
in chemical composition, taste, .solubility in 



Page 2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



March, 1H2 



coffee or tea, or ultimate result in products 
cooked with either of these two kinds of 
sugar, despite the firm conviction to the 
contrary held by millions of housewives 
and professional cooks. Beet sugar is of 
comparatively recent development, the 
industry dating back only to 1820. 

As a food, sugar is really pretty much of 
a luxury, as evidenced by man's long success- 
ful existence without it. However, in our 
country and time it has been plentiful and 
not expensive, and the liking for sweet foods 
has become a well fixed habit. The absence 
of sweets certainly makes the diet more 
monotonous, as one may prove during a 
visit to any of the Latin-American countries, 
whose desserts are much less lavish than 
those of the United States. North American 
Indians learned to use the sweet sap and 
.sugar of the sugar maple, which although 
very popular still are obtainable only in 
limited amounts. Other American abo- 
rigines made use of the sweet sap of the maize 
plant. The modern corn sirup, a very 
different article, is an important by-product 
in the manufacture of starch and other 
maize derivatives. 

Another sirup popular in some parts of 
the south and southwest is that of sorghum, 
a giant grass well known in those regions 
and grown as feed for stock and poultry. 
If an acute sugar shortage should develop 
in the United States as a result of war 
conditions, those least affected would be 
the hill people of the south who still use 
in their coffee "long sweetnin'," their term 
for molasses and sirup. 

SUGAR EXHIBITS AT MUSEUM 

In the Hall of Food Plants (Hall 25) at 
Field Museum, various forms of sugar from 
the native markets of many countries are 
shown. There are also detailed exhibits 
representing the steps in the manufacture 
of cane and beet sugar. Included in the 
series of large mural paintings in this hall, 
the work of Julius Moessel, well-known 
Chicago artist, is a painting showing the 
gathering of sugar cane on a Brazilian 
plantation back in the days when Negro 
slaves were used for this work. 



FACES OF ALL PEOPLES 

In these days of racial confusion it is well 
to pause and reflect on the racial composition 
of mankind. Anthropologists have divided 
the two billion inhabitants of the world into 
groups on the basis of physical differences. 
A visual presentation of the result, as deter- 
mined by the late Dr. Viktor Lebzelter, of 
the Museum fiir Volkerkunde in pre-war 
Vienna, forms a special exhibit in Case 6 in 
Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall (the Hall of 
the Races of Mankind — Hall 3). Here may 
be studied the facial expressions of the 
various peoples of the world. 

The suggested relationship between the 
most important racial groups has been indi- 
cated by colored lines. While physical 



anthropologists would undoubtedly disagree 
upon some features of this diagrammatic 
presentation of the most complex of all 
anthropological problems, the general trends 
can be accepted. For example, in the Old 
World the Negro blood is, in general, con- 
centrated in a band extending from the west 
coast of Africa eastward through southern 
India into Melanesia. 

The photographs were selected from about 
200,000 prints in museums or in the files of 
photographic services both in the United 
States and in Europe. The visitor who 
stands before this exhibit cannot fail to 
visualize the differences between racial 
groups, and at the same time he will appre- 
ciate the true unity of mankind. — H.F. 



CLOTHING OF FAMOUS INDIANS 

By PAUL S. MARTIN 

CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY 

Two handsome examples of Plains Indian 
clothing, part of a larger collection of 
Indian specimens, have recently been pre- 
sented to Field Museum by Colonel Wallis 
Huidekoper of Two Dot, Montana, and 
are being prepared for exhibition in Mary D. 
Sturges Hall (Hall 5). One of these is a 
dress of buckskin, made by the Dakota 
tribe; deeply fringed, it is distinguished by 
a massive yoke of beads in blue, red, yellow, 
and other colors. Beads also adorn the 
skirt, and examination indicates that these 
were of later manufacture than the beads 
composing the yoke. Thus it may be 
concluded that the skirt of the dress had 
worn out first, so that a new skirt was sewn 
to the original yoke. 

This dress was once worn by the wife of 
Red Cloud, a famous chief. She is believed 
to have been his only wife, although many 
Dakota men married more than once. Red 
Cloud's position was not hereditary, but 
was rather attained by virtue of his wisdom 
and his courage as a warrior. He was born 
near the Platte River of Nebraska, about 
1822. During his lifetime the hunting 
territory of the Dakota was encroached upon 
increasingly by the westward movement of 
white settlers. The buffalo herds, chief 
food source of the Plains Indians, threatened 
to become greatly reduced in number, and 
for this reason bloody encounters took 
place in 1866 and 1867 between Dakota 
warriors and detachments of the United 
States Army. Red Cloud was a leader in 
these battles, and in 1868 he signed on 
behalf of his tribe a treaty guaranteeing 
that the United States government would 
withdraw garrisons from three important 
military posts within Dakota territory. 
Red Cloud apparently took no further part 
in hostilities against the white men. He 
died in 1909 on the Dakota reservation at 
Pine Ridge, South Dakota. 

The second garment, which is shortly to 
go on display, is a buckskin shirt that 
Colonel Huidekoper obtained directly from 
Plenty Coups, a chieftain of the Mountain 



Crow. Like the Dakota dress it is fringed 
and beaded, but is further trimmed with 
ermine tails and strands of human hair. 
Its original owner. Plenty Coups, was born 
in 1848, not far from the present town of 
Billings, Montana. He came into promi- 
nence during that difficult time when the 
Indians could no longer live by hunting, 
and had no alternative to living on the 
reservations. Plenty Coups was a leader of 
the Crow during this trying period, and 
often served as their representative in deal- 
ings with the government. 

After the first World War, at the cere- 
monies for the Unknown Soldier at Arling- 
ton, he represented the Indians of the 
United States and in their behalf laid a 
wreath on the tomb. In the last war, 
although Indians were not subject to the 
draft, more than 8,000 entered military 
service. Many of them received citations 
for bravery. Today, more than 4,000 
Indians are already in the Army, including 
Brigadier-General Clarence L. Tinker, com- 
mander of the Army air forces in Hawaii. 



In a world currently in turmoil, it is of 
more than passing interest to study relics of 
past civilizations such as those of Babylonia, 
Egypt, and ancient Rome. The halls at 
Field Museum devoted to exhibits of 
antiquities offer great opportunities to per- 
sons with a reflective turn of mind. 



FIELD MUSEUM HONOR ROLL 
Now In the Service 
of their Country: 

Theodore Roosevelt, Trustee — Briga- 
dier-General, U.S. Army. 

Lester Armour, Trustee — Lieutenant- 
Commander, U.S. Navy. 

Joseph Nash Field, Trustee — Lieu- 
tenant, J. G., U.S. Navy. 

Clifford C. Gregg, Director — Major, 
U.S. Army. 

Melvin A. Traylor, Jr., Associate, 
Birds — Private, U.S. Marine Corps. 

Dr. John Rinaldo, Associate, South- 
western Archaeology — Private, U.S. 
Army. 

Dr. Alexander Spoehr, Assistant Cur- 
ator, North American Ethnology 
and Archaeology — Private, U.S. 
Army. 

Bert E. Grove, Guide-Lecturer — 
American Field Service, in North 
Africa. 

Patrick T. McEnery, Guard — Master- 
at-arms, U.S. Navy. 

John Syckowski, Guard — Chief Com- 
missary Steward, U.S. Navy. 

George Jahrand, Guard — Chief Water 
Tender, U.S. Navy. 

M. C. Darnall, Jr., Guard — Candi- 
dates' Class, U.S. Marine Corps 
Reserve (Officers' Training Course). 

James C. Mclntyre, Guard — Private, 
U.S. Army, Coast Artillery. 

Clyde James Nash, Guard— Chief 
Gunner's Mate, U.S. Navy. 



March, 1H2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page S 



ECUADOR EXPEDITION RETURNS 

Mr. Donald Collier, Assistant Curator of 
South American Archaeology and Eth- 
nology, has recently returned from five 
months of archaeological exploration and 
excavation in Ecuador. The expedition 
was a co-operative venture of the Institute 
of Andean Research (of New York), Field 
Museum, and the University of Chicago. 
Mr. Collier was accompanied by Mr. 
John V. Murra, from the University of 
Chicago, and an Ecuadorean student who 
joined the expedition through the co-opera- 
tion of the Ecuadorean government. The 
party explored a two hundred mile stretch 
of the archaeologically unknown mountain- 
ous region of southern Ecuador, and dug in 
a number of important ruins dating from 
before the occupation of Ecuador by the 
Incas in the fifteenth century. As a result 
of the information and archaeological 
material collected, it is possible to confirm 
the already suspected important relation- 
ships between the early cultures of Ecuador 
and those of northern Peru. The expedition 
was fortunate in uncovering a deep refuse 
deposit in which one type of culture overlay 
an earlier type. Only one other authentic 
case of cultural stratification has so far been 
found in Ecuador. 

A good part of the very rugged country 
traversed was covered on mule back. Mules 
are preferable to horses in the Andes because 
they have more endurance, particularly in 
high altitudes, and are more sure-footed — 
important qualities when one misstep would 
plunge the rider over a thousand-foot cliff 
or into a foaming mountain torrent. Travel 
was particularly difficult in the province of 
Loja, which was cut off from the outside 
world because of Ecuador's border conflict 
with Peru. As a result, mules and food were 
very scarce, and the expedition went with- 
out its supper on more than one occasion. 
"ghost guards buried treasure" 
One site excavated at a place called 
Narrio consisted of a large hill containing 
burials, remnants of houses, and debris left 
by the Indians who lived there a thousand 
years ago. A considerable number of gold 
ornaments have beeii found in graves in 
this vicinity, and there are many local 

i beliefs and legends about Inca treasure. 

^ The Narrio Indians believe that a ghost, 
said to be the spirit of a dead king, haunts 
the hill and guards the treasure buried there. 
Several of the expedition's Indian workers 
claimed to have seen the ghost on their 
way home at dusk, but he failed to reveal 
himself to the American archaeologists. 
Because of the zeal of the local treasure 
hunters, it was necessary to guard the 

* excavations with two Indians armed with 
large and murderous-looking machetes. 

The Indians living in this country in pre- 
historic times were called the Canaris. 
When the Incas invaded Ecuador in the 
middle of the fifteenth century, the Canaris 



put up a determined fight but were finally 
conquered by the superior army of the in- 
vaders. In accordance with their usual 
practice of absorbing conquered territory 
into their empire, the Incas removed 15,000 
Canaris to Bolivia and southern Peru, and 
replaced them with loyal Inca subjects. 
This incident offers a strange parallel to 
conquest practices of Hitler Germany. 

The expedition collected a large number 
of potsherds, pottery vessels, and tools and 
ornaments of bone, stone, shell, and metal. 
This collection is being shipped to Field 
Museum for study. 



THINOS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED 



Magicians' Staffs With "Powers" 
Derived from Slain Captives 

Magicians' staffs, regarded by certain 
wild tribesmen of Sumatra as possessing 
miraculous powers, are exhibited in the 
Dutch East Indies ethnological collections 




SUMATRAN MAGICAL WANDS 
Their victims become "slaves after death" 

of Field Museum (Hall G, Case 6). Accord- 
ing to the data obtained by the Museum's 
Department of Anthropology, the following 
is the formula prescribed by the priests of 
the Toba Batak tribes of north central 
Sumatra for making such magic wands: 



Capture a member of an enemy tribe, or 
select a captive from among those in the 
compound. Bury him in the sand up to his 
neck, and keep him there for a protracted 
period, starving and torturing him all the 
while. At last, after the most horrible 
cruelties to which you can submit him with- 
out killing him, he will in desperation agree 
to do your bidding. As soon as he has made 
this promise, kill him and feed his brains 
to the carved figures on the pole which you 
have chosen to be your magician's wand. 

Thereupon, in the belief of the Toba 
Batak practitioners of magic, the victim's 
spirit will be transferred to the staff, he 
will thus have been brought under complete 
control of the magician, and he may be 
forced to perform such deeds upon others 
as may be demanded. 



HIS RESEARCH PUBLISHED, 
CURATOR ENTERS ARMY 

Just before Dr. Alexander Spoehr, Assist- 
ant Curator of North American Ethnology 
and Archaeology at Field Museum answered 
his call to service with the United States 
Army (he was inducted on February 21), 
Field Museum Press published his book. 
Kinship System of Ike Seminole, which no 
doubt will be his last research publication 
for the duration of the war. 

The book contains the results of his studies 
while living among the Seminole Indians of 
Oklahoma during a period of five months, 
on a research project sponsored by the 
Department of Anthropology of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago. The Seminoles are one 
of five Indian tribes whose members were 
moved bodily from the southeast to Indian 
Territory (now part of Oklahoma), and 
given status as independent nations under 
treaties with the United States which con- 
tinued in force until 1903. They have a 
matrilineal form of descent governing family 
relationships and inheritance of property, 
and many strange customs which are 
revealed in Dr. Spoehr's book. 

One of these customs was the existence 
of "joking relationships" which prevailed 
between cahacawa, a Seminole term designat- 
ing all of the following: the wife of a man's 
brother, the wife of his sister's son, the 
wife of his mother's brother, and the sisters 
of his own wife — the man himself was like- 
wise cahacawa to all these women. Between 
people bearing this relationship to each 
other an absolute maximum of joking, 
teasing and familiarity was encouraged; 
between other relatives a most serious 
mien was usually maintained. 



British Ambasador Visits Museum 

Viscount Halifax, British Amba-ssador to 
the United States, and Lady Halifax were 
visitors at Field Museum on February 11, 
and made a tour of some of the more im- 
portant exhibits, escorted by Mr. Stanley 
Field, President of the institution. 



Page i 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



March, 19iZ 



SATURDAY AFTERNOON LECTURES FOR ADULTS BEGIN MARCH 7; SOME ON PACIFIC WAR AREA 



Eight lectures, illustrated with motion 
pictures and slides, will be presented in the 
spring course of Field Museum on Saturday 
afternoons throughout March and April. 
Outstanding scientists, explorers, and natu- 
ralists have been engaged for the series, 
which will be notable especially for several 
lectures dealing with regions very much in 
the current news of the day — the Philippines 
and other islands of the Pacific, China, and 




HUMAN AND ANIMAL SKULL TROPHIES, PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 
Captain John D. Craig's Lecture, April 18 

Latin America. Most of the pictures accom- 
panying the lectures will be in colors. 

The lectures are to be given in the James 
Simpson Theatre of the Museum, and each 
will begin at 2:30 p.m. The Theatre en- 
trance will be open at 2 o'clock each Satur- 
day. The demand for seats makes it neces- 
sary to restrict admission to adults; but 
on the mornings of the same Saturdays the 
James Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond 
Foundation will present free motion pictures 
especially for children. 

Following are the dates, subjects, and 
speakers for the adult programs: 

March 7 — Circle of Fire. 

Francis R. Line. 

This lecture, and the accompanying 
colored motion pictures, aim to present a 
survey indicating the significance of the 
whole vast Pacific area. Mr. Line's film 
includes what are probably the last profes- 
sional colored motion pictures to be brought 
out of Japan. He shows also "close-ups" 
of life in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, 
Java, the Philippines, Guam, and Hawaii. 
To produce his film and gather the data for 
his lecture, Mr. Line spent months in the 
Orient and traveled 25,000 miles by Clipper 
plane, automobile, on horseback, and by 
ship. The natural features of the countries 
covered, as well as the life of the peoples, 
are portrayed in the motion picture, with 



striking views of awesome volcanoes, and a 
rich panorama of the plant and animal life 
thronging the luxuriant jungles. 

March 14 — Color in the Southwest. 
Alfred M. Bailey. 

Mr. Bailey, a former member of Field 
Museum's zoological staff, and now Director 
of the Colorado Museum of Natural History 
in Denver, has made some of the finest 
colored pictures ever to 
come out of the South- 
west. The films he will 
show include air views of 
the great Meteorite 
Crater of Arizona, and 
land shots of the vast 
desert in that state, in 
bloom with its many 
curious types of flowers. 
There are also many in- 
teresting views of the life 
of the birds and reptiles 
which inhabit this region. 

March 21 — Living With 
the Chinese. 
Karl Robinson. . 
A most active and far 
reaching avenue of inter- 
national trade is the oil 
business, and for nearly 
a decade Mr. Robinson 
lived and traveled in Asia 

in the interests of "oil for the lamps of 

China." This brought him into intimate 

contact with the Chinese, and gave him an 

exceptional insight into 

the lives of a people living 

close to "the good earth." 

In this ancient country 

he has found a phase of 

Chinese life the Japanese 

can neither dominate nor 

destroy — China's great 

agrarian civilization. 

Mr. Robinson's lecture 

and the slides illustrating 

it comprise a personal 

narrative of living with 

the Chinese, together 

with the story of the 

Chinese peasant, 

his character and his 

philosophy. 



trapping their prey, and hornets building 
paper nests and feeding their young, have 
attracted widespread attention and acclaim 
from both scientists and laymen. 

April 4 — Scientific Diversions in Plant 
Life. 

Arthur Pillsbury. 

Mr. Pillsbury is noted for making some of 
the most unique investigations of plant life 
ever attempted. He will demonstrate his 
findings by means of unusual motion pictures 
in full color. His films show in a few 
minutes, by means of "time lapse" photog- 
raphy (a specialized form of "slow motion 
technique"), what takes place during several 
months' growth and development of plants. 
Included also are fascinating studies of 
plants made with microscopic cameras, and 
the results of many other remarkable ex- 
periments in fields in which Mr. Pillsbury 
has pioneered. 

April 11 — Peru Today. 

William B. Holmes. 

William Blodgett Holmes' latest photo- 
graphic adventure has carried him through 
the mountains and jungles of Peru. The 
result is a spectacular documentary study 
in natural color motion pictures. There are 
scenes on beautiful Lake Titicaca, the 
loftiest navigable lake in the world, where 
the balsa reed boats appear as golden 
skiffs in the rising sun. Likewise shown 
are colorful vistas among Peru's mountains, 
some of which reach altitudes of more than 
19,000 feet. Mr. Holmes also pictures the 



March 28 — America's 

First Insect Zoo. 

Brayton Eddy. 

As Director of the In- 
sect Zoo at Goddard Park 
in Rhode Island, and 
later of the Insect Zoo at Detroit, Mr. 
Eddy has had unprecedented opportunities 
for taking motion pictures of both insects 
and insect eaters. His films of butterflies 
emerging from their ca.ses, doodle bugs 




A FILIPINO FAMILY AND THEIR HOME 
Captain John D. Craig's Lecture, April 18 



vestiges of the ancient glorious civilization 
when Peru was the land of the Incas. He 
shows the deserted city of Machu Picchu, 
city of a thousand stairs; the jungles in the 
Amazon basin region where native tribes 



March, 191,2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page 5 



still hunt and fish with bows and arrows; 
the old Inca trail that leads through the 
heart of the country; and modern industrial 
Peru of today, rich in resources — co£Fee, 
copper, oil. 

April 18 — The Philippines. 

Captain John D. Craig. 

Captain Craig, one of the outstanding 
personalities among present-day lecturers, 
obtained much of the data for this illuminat- 
ing lecture about our currently endangered 
Pacific outposts directly from General 
Douglas MacArthur, hero of Bataan. He 
also interviewed High Commissioner Sayre, 
President Quezon of the Philippines, and a 
host of other people who have lived in the 
islands for years. Not only has Captain 
Craig filmed the color and life of the acces- 
sible areas — he has also studied and photo- 
graphed many unknown sections, some of 
them still marked "unexplored" on the 
newest maps. 

April 25 — Adventures With Birds. 

Martin Bovey. 

Mr. Bovey, noted for his film studies of 
wild life in America, will show, in conjunc- 
tion with this lecture, films made in and 
around Concord, Massachusetts. Included 
are studies in color of such nesting birds as 
crested flycatcher, tree swallow, red-eyed 
vireo, indigo bunting, chestnut-sided war- 
bler, piping plover, etc. The rest of the 
film deals largely with waterfowl, notably 
ducks and geese in Louisiana and elsewhere. 
There are intimate revelations of the life of 
pelicans, pied-billed grebes, Florida galli- 
nules, and egrets. 



No tickets are necessary for admission 
to these lectures. A section of the 
Theatre is reserved for Members of the 
Museum, each of whom is entitled to 
two reserved seats. 

Requests for these seats should be made 
in advance by telephone (WABash 9410) or 
in writing, and reservations will then be 




CHUNCHU JUNGLE INDIANS, PERU 
William B. Holmes' Lecture, April 11 

held in the Member's name until 2:30 
o'clock on the day of the lecture specified. 
All reserved seats which have not been 
claimed by 2:30 p.m. will be made available 
to the general public. 



MUSEUM LIBRARY CO-OPERATES 
IN VICTORY BOOK DRIVE 

The Library of Field Museum has been 
designated as one of the centers for the 
collecting of books in the Victory Book 
Campaign. The personnel of the Museum 
has begun contributions of books for men 
in the armed services of the United States 
through this medium, and the Library's 
facilities for this purpose are now extended 
to the several thousand Members of the 
Museum as well. Some Members may desire 
to make their contributions of books through 
the Museum Library, especially because of 
the commodious parking arrangements at 
this institution which would facilitate 
delivery of bundles of books brought in 
automobiles. Others may find it more 
convenient to deliver their gifts to the 
main building of the Chicago Public Library 
down-town (to which contributions received 
at the Museum are forwarded) or to the 
branches of that institution in various parts 
of the city. 

The campaign is sponsored by the United 
Service Organizations, the American Red 
Cross, and the American Library Associa- 



tion. One million books has been set as 
the quota expected from the Chicago area. 
These, with the contributions from other 
parts of the country, will be systematically 
divided so as to give each fort, camp, post, 
ship, and recreation center for soldiers, 
sailors, and marines a diversified selection 
of reading matter. Librarians on the 
Museum staff will assist those of the Public 
Library and other institutions in the huge 
task of sorting the books. The cla.sses of 
books especially requested are those on 
travel, current affairs, history, psychology, 
fiction (particularly of the mystery, western 
and adventure varieties), copies of the 
classics, technical books, and works on 
photography and other hobbies. The books 
should be in good condition; no magazines 
are desired. 



Visiting Hours Change March 1 

Beginning March 1, spring visiting hours, 
9 A.M. to 5 P.M., will replace the winter 
schedule of 9 to 4. The new hours will 
continue in effect until April 30, after which 
the Museum will be open from 9 a.m. to 
6 P.M. until September 7 (Labor Day). 



FREE PROGRAMS FOR CHILDREN 
IN MARCH AND APRIL 

The James Nelson and Anna Louise 
Raymond Foundation for Public School and 
Children's Lectures will present its annual 
spring series of free motion picture programs 
for children at Field Museum on Saturday 
mornings during March and April. 

The first program, on March 7, "Family 
Afoot in the Yukon Wilds," tells the story 
of the far north as explored by a boy of 
eight and a girl of five. The films to be 
shown will be accompanied by a narrative 
given in person by Mr. and Mrs. William 
Albee, the father and mother of the child 
explorers. The films on the April 4 program, 
about birds, will be accompanied by a talk 
by Mr. Karl Plath, of the .staff of the 
Brookfield Zoo, who will also show some of 
his own paintings of birds which have won 
him a notable place in the art world. In 
addition to the regular features, animated 
cartoons will be shown on several programs, 
and the closing presentation on April 25 
will be composed entirely of Walt Disney's 
amusing films. 

Following is the schedule of the entire 



March 7- Family Afoot in the Yukon 
Wilds. 
The far north explored by a boy of 8 and 
a girl of 5 (told by their mother and dad) 
— William and Ruth Albee. 

March 14 — The Hawaiian and Philippine 
Islands. 
A cartoon included. 

March 21 — How Animals Defend Them- 
selves. 
A cartoon included. 

March 28 — Spring in North America. 
A cartoon included. 

April 4 — From Penguins to Paradise 
Birds. 
Story of birds illustrated with motion pic- 
tures and paintings — by Karl Plath, 
Brookfield Zoo. 

April 11— Middle America. 
A cartoon included. 

April 18 — African Stories. 
A cartoon included. 

April 25 — A Walt Disney Program. 
Composed of a series of cartoons. 

There will be two showings of each 
program, one at 10 a.m. and one at 11. 
Children from all parts of Chicago and 
suburbs are invited. The Museum is pre- 
pared to receive large groups from schools 
and other centers, as well as individual 
children coming either alone or accompanied 
by parents or other adults. Teachers are 
urged to notify their cla.s.ses about these 
programs, to be given in the James Simpson 
Theatre. No tickets are needed. 



Page 6 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



March, 191^2 



Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded bv Marshall Field, 1893 
Roosevelt Road and Field Drive, Chicago 

Telephone: Wabash 9410 



THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 
Lbster Aruour Stanley Field 

Sewell L. Avery Samuel Insull, Jr. 

W. McCoRHicK Blair Charles A. McCulloch 

Leopold E. Block William H. Mitchell 

Boardhan Conover George A. Richardson 

Walter J. Cummincs Theodore Roosevelt 

Albert B. Dick, Jr. Solomon A. Smith 

Howard W. Fenton Albert A. Sprague 

Joseph N. Field Silas H. Strawn 

Marshall Field .\lbert H. Wetten 

John P. Wilson 

OFFICERS 

Stanley Field President 

Albert A. Sprague First Vice-President 

Silas H. Strawn Second Vice-President 

Albert B. Dick, Jr Third Vice-President 

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary 

Solomon A. Smith . . . Treasurtr and Assistant Secretary 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 

EDITOR 
CUFFORD C. Gregg Director ej the Museum 

ASSOCIATE EDITOR 
Wilfred H. Osgood Curator Emeritus, Zoology 

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology 

B. E. Dahlgren Chief Curator of Botany 

Henry W. Nichols Chief Curator of Geology 

Karl P. Schmidt Chief Curator of Zoology 

MANAGING EDITOR 
H. B. Harte PuWic Relations Counsel 

Members are requested to Inform the Museum 
promptly of changes of address. 



LUCKILY FOR STRATEGIC NEEDS 
U. S. HAS PLENTY OF FLUORITE 

By HENRY W. NICHOLS 
chief curator, department of geology 

In the economic geology collection in 
Hall 36 and Frederick J. V. Skiff Hall 
(Hall 37) the minerals are so classified that 
the group in which a mineral appears sug- 
gests its principal use. Although some are 
perfectly obvious — iron comes from iron 
ore, copper from copper ore, and, as most 
people understand, bricks and pottery are 
made from clay — there are other minerals, 
as for example sulphur, with such diverse 
uses that a grouping according to use is 
impractical. Fluorite is such a mineral. 
Although large quantities of fluorite are 
consumed annually in the production of 
objects in familiar use, many people have 
no idea of what it is, how it is used, or for 
what purposes. 

Few minerals exceed fiuorite in beauty 
and variety of color, and its transparency 
and luster leave little to be desired. The 
gorgeous blue, green, yellow, and violet 
colors of the choicer crystals displayed in 
the mineral collection in Hall 34 suggest 
that fiuorite is a gem, but strictly speaking 
it is not, for while it possesses the necessary 
brilliancy and color, it lacks two other 
essential qualities — durability and rarity. 
The crystals are so soft that they scratch 
and mar readily, and their cleavage is so 
well developed that they break easily. They 
are not scarce. Hundreds of pounds of 
fine crystals were included in the more than 
182,000 tons of fiuorite consumed in the 



United States in 1939. The beautiful gem 
that fluorite could be, were it not for these 
defects, is demonstrated by several cut 
stones placed among the gems in H. N. 
Higinbotham Hall (Hall 31). 

In spite of these defects it is used to some 
extent as an ornamental stone. In England 
a deep purple, fibrous variety called "blue 
John" is frequently carved into a variety of 
ornamental objects. 

USED IN ALUMINUM SMELTING 

The value of fluorite to industry depends 
not on its appearance or physical qualities 
but on its chemical composition. It is a 
combination of calcium and fluorine, with 
fluorine the useful component. When 
fluorite is substituted for part of the lime- 
stone flux in iron and steel smelting and 
other metallurgical furnaces, its fluorine 
content improves production. More than 
two-thirds of all the fluorite mined is con- 
sumed in this manner. Although this is 
the greatest it is not the most important 
use of fluorite. Fluorite or cryolite, an- 
other fluoride mineral mined only in 
Greenland, is absolutely essential for 
smelting aluminum. Without fluorite 
or cryolite, no aluminum is available 
except at prohibitive cost. Fluorite for 
this reason may be considered a 
"strategic mineral" essential in na- 
tional defense, but fortunately there 
are abundant deposits of this mineral 
in the United States, enough to supply 
any possible need. Fluorine from fluorite 
or cryolite is incorporated into the electrolyte 
through which the aluminum passes from 
ore to metal. Much fluorite is consumed 
by makers of translucent and opaque glass. 

Another important use of fluorite is in 
the manufacture of enameled metals of 
which the familiar enameled iron kitchen- 
ware is an example. Perhaps the optical 
applications of fluorite call for smaller 
quantities and higher qualities of this 
mineral than does any other important use. 
Scientists have found that with lenses made 
of fluorite they can conduct important 
microscopic and optical researches that 
would be impossible with glass lenses. 
AN IMPORTANT ACID 

If you visit a chemical laboratory you 
may see among the bottles of chemicals a 
bottle made of wax. This bottle contains 
hydrofluoric acid made from fluorite, an 
acid which cannot be stored in ordinary 
bottles because it dissolves glass. Advan- 
tage is taken of this corrosive action to 
etch patterns or inscriptions on glass. 

Fluorides and other compounds made 
from the acid have varied important applica- 
tions. Freon, an organic liquid containing 
fluorine, is widely used in mechanical 
refrigerators. Fluorides and silico-fluorides 
of sodium are coming into increasing use as 
insecticides replacing arsenic, for moth- 
proofing furs and woolens and for other 
purposes depending upon their disinfectant 
qualities and their destructive action on 



insect life. Fluorides are also used in other 
diverse industries ranging all the way from 
the manufacture of dye stuffs to the bond- 
ing of grinding wheels. 

Fluorspar is usually found in veins, often 
accompanied by ores of zinc, lead, and other 
metals. It is mined in many countries, but 
the largest deposits in the world are those 
in southern Illinois and western Kentucky, 
and there are other large deposits ,in the 
United States. 



Wartime Guide-lectures 

Among the March guide-lecture tours 
offered at Field Museum (a complete 
schedule of which will be found elsewhere 
in this issue) are two of special significance 
in the present emergency. On Friday, 
March 6, at 2 P.M., Mrs. Leota G. Thomas 
will discuss "Conservation as a Part of 
National Defense"; on Wednesday, March 
23, Miss Miriam Wood will talk on "Sources 
of Materials Strategic to America." 



Folklore of Garnets 

Although every garnet in H. N. Higin- 
botham Hall of Gems and Jewels (Hall 31) 
is a genuine garnet, not one of them would 
pass the drastic test described by Johannis 
de Cuba in the fifteenth century. The 
owner of a garnet ring, while wearing the 
ring, was to disrobe and after smearing his 
body with honey lie down where there were 
wasps and flies. If flies or wasps refused to 
light on his body for the honey the garnet 
was genuine. Anyone who knows anything 
about wasps and flies knows there was little 
chance of thus proving garnet genuine. 



A FEW FACTS ABOUT FIELD MUSEUM 

Field Museum is open every day of the year 
(except Christmas and New Year's Day) during 
the hours indicated below: 

November, December, 

January, February ... 9 A.M. to 4 p.m. 

March, April, and 

September, October .9 A.M. to 5 P.M. 

May, June, July, August. 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. 

Admission is free to Members on all days. 
Other adults are admitted free on Thursdays, 
Saturdays, and Sundays; non-members pay 
admission on other days: Established price 25 
cents. Federal tax 3 cents, total 28 cents. 
Children are admitted free on all days. 
Students and faculty members of educational 
institutions are admitted free any day upon 
presentation of credentials. 

The Museum's Library is open for reference 
daily except Saturday afternoon and Sunday. 

Traveling exhibits are circulated in the 
schools of Chicago by the N. W. Harris Public 
School Extension Department of the Museum. 

Lectures at schools, and special entertain- 
ments and tours for cllildren at the Museum, 
are provided by the James Nelson and .\nna 
Louise Raymond Foundation for Public School 
and Children's Lectures. 

Free courses of lectures for adults are pre- 
sented in the James Simpson Theatre on Satur- 
day afternoons (at 2:30 o'clock) in March, 
April, October, and November. 

A Cafeteria serves visitors. Rooms are 
available also for those bringing their lunches. 

Chicago Motor Coach Company No. 26 
busses provide direct transportation to the 
Museum. Service is offered also by Surface 
Lines, Rapid Transit Lines (the "L"), inter- 
urban electric lines, and Illinois Central trains. 
There is ample free parking space for auto- 
mobiles at the Museum. 



March, 19i2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page? 



SURVIVAL OF DROUGHT BY FISHES 

By ALFRED C. WEED 

CURATOR OF FISHES 

Many fishes are able to survive under 
conditions of extreme drought. The East 
African lungfish lives in muddy pools in a 
region where heavy rains alternate with 
prolonged periods of dry weather. When 
the dry season begins, this fish seeks refuge 
in the mud at the bottom of a pool. As the 
water disappears the fish burrows deeply 
into the mud. By moving around, it shapes 
a cell just large enough to contain its body. 
This cell keeps its shape as the mud dries. 
It becomes lined with a thin layer of dried 
mucus from the skin of the fish, forming a 
sort of cocoon. 

In some way the fish manages to keep 
open a small hole from its cell to the surface 
of the mud. This allows for the small 
amount of breathing the fish does during 
the dry season. Under the intense heat of 
the sun the mud dries to the hardness of a 
brick and may be quarried out in blocks, 
each containing a living lungfish in its cell. 
The fish may exist in this dry condition for 
many years. Such specimens have been 
transported from eastern Africa to Chicago. 
If, through any accident, the block of dried 
mud should happen to be broken and the 
cocoon torn the fish would die unless it 
could be placed in water at once. 

Lungfishes brought from Africa to the 
United States were kept in dry storage for 
more than five years and then revived by 
being placed in water. The water softened 
the mud and reached the fish, which began 
to drown. The discomfort caused them to 
struggle to the surface of the water where 
they could breathe. These lungfishes can- 
not obtain a sufficient amount of oxygen 
from the water by means of their gills, and 
must therefore make frequent trips to the 
surface to fill their lungs with air. Lung- 
fishes in the intermittent swamps of central 
Africa seem to find this sort of occasional 
burial in dried mud a very simple way of 
surviving the dry seasons. 

FISHES THAT SEEK FOOD ON LAND 

Catfishes belonging to the genus Clarias, 
called "harmouth" by French-speaking 
people in the Sudan, live in the pools with 
the lungfish. When dry weather comes 
they, like the lungfishes, retire to the bottom 
and make holes in which they hide. It is 
reliably reported that they use these holes 
simply as retreats where they can have 
refuge from the heat of the sun. Many 
investigators have reported that various 
species of Clarias leave the ponds at night 
or on rainy or cloudy days to search for food 
on land. In cultivated districts they catch 
insects and are said to break down stalks 
of millet so they may eat the heads of grain. 

Canon H. B. Tristram, who studied the 
fishes of eastern Africa and western Pales- 
tine, records that one day when he was 
traveling along the shore of the Lake of 



Galilee near Semakh he saw a procession of 
Clarias following the course of a small 
brook that formed the outlet of a spring pool. 
There was hardly enough water to moisten 
the sand, which was quite dry in places. 
These large catfishes (each about a yard 
long) followed the course of the hidden 
stream. Canon Tristram took several 




FARMERS PLOW THEM UP 
Mud minnows (Umbra) found in midwest fields in spring 

specimens to his encampment, where some 
were killed and cooked for the evening meal. 
Others were used on the following days. 
Later, the survivors were returned to the 
water where they seemed in no way injured 
by the hardships they had suffered. 

Leon Vaillant, in 1895, published an 
account of some experiences of Dr. Suard, 
a French naval surgeon, who had been 
attached to an expeditionary force in 
Senegal. After his return with the expedi- 
tion to Nioro he had time to study the fishes 
of the region. He found that he could keep 
Clarias alive in a tin biscuit box, feeding 
them a small amount of millet occasionally. 
It was necessary to close the box very 
carefully to prevent the fishes from hopping 
out and going to the fields at night. Dr. 
Suard carried his fishes alive in their tin 
box from Nioro to the port of embarkation 
(about 800 kilometers). On the ship, the 
box was stored in the boiler room, where 
the heat killed all the fishes. Dr. Suard 
preserved the specimens in alcohol and 
carried them to Paris where there was great 
disappointment that they could not have 
been brought back alive. 

MUD DWELLERS OF THE AMERICAS 

In the Gran Chaco of Paraguay and 
northern Argentina, a region of alternating 
savanna and marsh, there is found a pretty 
little fish, Cynolebias bellottii, known to 
aquarists as the "Argentine pearl fish." At 
the beginning of the dry season these fishes 
lay their eggs in the mud at the bottom of 
the pools. Strong dry winds quickly take 
away the water, leaving the fishes to die. 
Karl Thomas told in The Aquarium for 
September and October, 1933, how he took 
home a bit of dried mud from one of these 
ponds and put it in an aquarium, which he 
then filled with water. After about a week, 
approximately a hundred young fishes ap- 
peared, hatched from eggs that had been in 
the dried mud. These little Cynolebias all 
died because he did not have the proper 
food for them. Later, he tried the experi- 
ment again, with success. 

In North America we have species of fishes 
that are able to live buried in the dried mud 



at the bottom of a pond. About two years 
ago I helped fill a lily pool with mud from 
the bottom of a pond that had held water a 
few weeks earlier. Finding mosquito fish, 
Gambusia, in the pool the next day, I put a 
few handfuls of the mud in some water in a 
bucket. In less than an hour three Gambusia 
had come out of the mud and were swimming 
around in the bucket. When the pond 
dried up these small fishes burrowed down 
into the mud to wait for the summer rains 
to give them water in which to swim. 

FISH PLOWED UP BY MIDWEST FARMERS 

In the flat lands of the Middle West, 
farmers often find low parts of their fields 
too wet to plow in the spring. Later in the 
season they prepare these fields for other 
crops. Sometimes their plows turn up small 
fishes that, from their general appearance, 
they call "young dogfish." These are mud 
minnows. Umbra, more closely related to 
the pike than to the dogfish of our muddy 
rivers and ponds. 

The mud minnow and Gambusia are 
essentially like ordinary fishes in the struc- 
ture of their breathing apparatus and can- 
not survive long periods of drought unless 
they happen to bury themselves in ground 
that will remain slightly moist until the 
next rainy season. Clarias can stay away 
from the water for many days because it 
has on each side of its body a pocket in 
which it can carry water to moisten an 
extra breathing organ. The two species of 
African lungfishes have their air bladders 
developed as a lung-like organ with which 
they breathe slowly while encased in their 
cocoons in cells of hardened mud. 

Besides the two lungfishes in Africa, 
there is a similar one in South America, 
especially abundant in the swamps of the 
Gran Chaco. We do not know whether its 
habits are similar to those of its African 
relatives. The other known species of lung- 
fish is a native of the Mary and Burnet 
Rivers of southeastern Australia. This 
lungfish does not appear to make any special 
provision for protecting itself from drought. 



Botany Chief Collects Cuban Palms 

Dr. B. E. Dahlgren, Chief Curator of the 
Department of Botany, is spending several 
weeks in various parts of Cuba, making a 
survey of the palms of that island, which 
are very large in number and variety. Dr. 
Dahlgren is collecting specimens of import- 
ant species required to fill out the exhibits 
of palms at the Museum. 



Superstitious people often associate mete- 
orites with miracles. One such meteorite, 
having an elaborate legendary history as 
having fallen to earth as a block of gold, 
then having been changed to silver, and 
finally to iron as a punishment of God 
visited upon a certain tribe of Arabs for 
their avarice, is represented by the Tamentit 
specimen in Hall 34. 



Page 8 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



March, 19^2 



SUNDAY LECTURES IN MARCH 
PRESENT RACIAL STUDIES 

With practically the entire world at war, 
and nearly all races of mankind involved, 
the lecture "Parade of the Races" to be 
presented on Sunday afternoons during 
March by Mr. Paul G. Dallwig, the Layman 
Lecturer of Field Museum, has special in- 
terest and significance. This lecture is 
illustrated with the 100 notable sculptures 
by Malvina Hoflman of the principal races, 
primitive and civilized, living in all parts 
of the world today. Mr. Dallwig will 
emphasize for his audiences the physical 




Copynghi Field Museum o( Natural History 

ITURI FOREST PYGMIES, BELGIAN CONGO 
Sculpture by Malvina Hoflrtnan 

characteristics that differentiate the races 
of mankind, and will also entertain his 
hearers with human interest stories concern- 
ing many of these peoples. 

Because of heavy public demands, it is 
necessary to limit each audience to 100 
adults (children cannot be accommodated). 
Those desiring to attend must make reserva- 
tions in advance by mail or telephone 
(WABash 9410). The Sunday lectures 
begin promptly at 2 p.m. and end at 4:30. 
Midway there is an intermission for refresh- 
ments and smoking in the cafeteria. 

In April Mr. Dallwig's subject will be 
"Romance of Diamonds from Mine to Man." 



WEEKDAY LECTURE TOURS 
OFFERED IN MARCH 

Conducted tours of exhibits, under the 
guidance of staff lecturers, are made every 
afternoon at 2 o'clock except Saturdays, 
Sundays, and certain holidays. Following 
is the schedule for March: 

Week beginning March 2: Monday — 
Animals of the Six Continents (Miss Eliza- 
beth Best); Tuesday — General Tour (Miss 
Elizabeth Hambleton); Wednesday — Men of 



the Old Stone Age (Miss Miriam Wood); 
Thursday — General Tour (Mi.ss Marie B. 
Pabst); Friday — Conservation as a Part of 
National Defense (Mrs. Leota G. Thomas). 

Week beginning March 9: Monday — The 
Indians of Latin America (Miss Elizabeth 
Hambleton); Tuesday — General Tour (Miss 
Elizabeth Best); Wednesday — Animals 
Found Round the World (Miss Elizabeth 
Best) ; Thursday — General Tour (Mrs. Leota 
G. Thomas); Friday — Life Usually Unseen 
(Miss Marie B. Pabst). 

Week beginning March 16: Monday — 
Food Plants America Has Given the World 
(Miss Miriam Wood); Tuesday — General 
Tour (Miss Elizabeth Hambleton); Wednes- 
day — The Variety of Animals in North and 
South America (Miss Elizabeth Best); 
Thursday — General Tour (Miss Marie B. 
Pabst); Friday — The Races of Mankind 
(Mrs. Leota G. Thomas). 

Week beginning March 23: Monday — The 
Animal Exhibits and the Stories Behind 
Them (Miss Elizabeth Best); Tuesday — 
General Tour (Miss Elizabeth Hambleton); 
Wednesday — Sources of Materials Strategic 
to America (Miss Miriam Wood); Thursday 
— General Tour (Mrs. Leota G. Thomas); 
Friday — Our Native Trees (Miss Marie B. 
Pabst). 

Week beginning March 30: Monday — 
The World's Housing Problem (Miss Eliza- 
beth Hambleton); Tuesday — General Tour 
(Miss Elizabeth Best). 

Persons wishing to participate should 
apply at North Entrance. Tours are free. 



GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM 

Following is a list of some of the principal 
gifts received during the last month: 

The Library: 

Valuable books from Stanley Field, Lake 
Forest, 111.; and from Fessenden National 
Memorial Association, Manteo, N. C. 

Raymond Foundation: 

From Santa Fe Railway Company, 
Chicago — 2 cabinets with screens for filing 
lantern slides; from John W. Moyer, Chicago 
— 20 kodachrome slides (bound). 

Department of Anthropolotly : 

From Max Kiehne, Frisco, N. M. — a stone 
ax and a string of stone beads. New Mexico; 
from Mrs. Benton S. Rogers, Reserve, N. M. 
— a toy pot, 3 stone implements, and a string 
of stone beads. New Mexico; from Jose 
Armijo, Frisco, N. M. — a stone ax and a 
San Francisco Red jar. New Mexico. 

Department of Botany: 

From Felix Woytkowski, Lima, Peru — 
20 herbarium specimens, Peru; from Joseph 
Daston, Childersburg, Ala. — a palm speci- 
men, a wood specimen, and 37 cryptogamic 
specimens, Alabama; from Jardim Botanico 
de Belo Horizonte, Minas Geraes, Brazil — 
52 herbarium specimens, Brazil. 

Department of Zoology: 

From Boardman Conover, Chicago — a 
huron (weasel-like mammal) skin and skull, 
Peru; from John G. Shedd Aquarium, 



Chicago — a specimen of carpet shark, Aus- 
tralia; from Chicago Zoological Society, 
Brookfield, 111. — 4 mammals and 6 birds; 
from Dr. Angel Maldonado, Lima, Peru — 
20 fish specimens, Peru; from Pedro Willim, 
Colonia Nueva Italia, Paraguay — 169 in- 
sects, Paraguay. 



NEW MEMBERS 

The following persons became Members 
of Field Museum during the period from 
January 16 to February 16: 

Associate Meml>ers 

C. H. Coyle, Louis EtsHokin 

Annual Meml)ers 

Edward M. Bronsky, Charles S. Burdick, 
Edward E. Carstens, Jr., Howard Mix 
Dancer, A. W. Edmonds, Mrs. Walstein C. 
Findlay, Jr., J. W. Floto, W. J. Foell, Martin 
S. Gordon, Edward Gudeman, Mrs. Arthur 
R. Hansen, Robert A. Heyden, Mrs. M. J. 
Isselhard, Dr. Maclyn M. Kamins, Arthur A. 
Lorenze, Robert K. Mielenz, Earl W. 
Nelson, Mrs. John K. Notz, Dr. Charles W. 
Olsen, Miss Edith P. Parker, Mrs. George B. 
Petty, Charles W. Pflager, John A. Sauer- 
man. Dr. J. E. Smuk, Mortimer D. Stein, 
Abraham M. Streicher, Ernest G. Sundin, 
Mrs. Theodore J. Ticktin, Miss Theresa A. 
Weismantel. 



Allied plants and animals of both recent 
and ancient times are contrasted in a synop- 
tic exhibit in Stanley Field Hall (Case 17). 



MEMBERSHIP IN FIELD MUSEUM 

Field Museum has several tJassea of Mem- 
bers. Annual Members contribute $10 annu- 
ally. Associate Members pay $100 and are 
exempt from dues. Sustaining Members con- 
tribute $25 annually for six consecutive years, 
after which they become Associate Members 
and are exempt from all further dues. Life 
Members give $500 and are exempt from dues. 
Non-Resident Life Members pay $100, and Non- 
Resident Associate Members $50; both of these 
classes are also exempt from dues. The Non- 
Resident memberships are available only to 
persons residing fifty miles or more from Chi- 
cago. Those who give or devise to the Museum 
$1,000 to $100,000 are designated as Contribu- 
tors, and those who give or devise $100,000 or 
more become Benefactors. Other memberships 
are Honorary, Patron, Corresponding and Cor- 
porate, additions under these classifications 
being made by special action of the Board of 
Trustees. 

Each Member, in all classes, is entitled to 
free admission to the Museum for himself, his 
family and house guests; and to two reserved 
seats for Museum lectures provided for Mem- 
bers. Subscription to Field Museum News is 
included with all memberships. The courtesies 
of every museum of note in the United States 
and Canada are extended to all Members of 
Field Museum. A Member may give his 
personal card to non-residents of Chicago, upon 
presentation of which they will be admitted to 
the Museum without charge. Further informa- 
tion about memberships will be sent on request. 

BEQUESTS AND ENDOWMENTS 

Bequests to Field Museum of Natural His- 
tory may be made in securities, money, books 
or collections. They may, if desired, take the 
form of a memorial to a person or cause, named 
by the giver. 

Contributions made within the taxable year, 
not exceeding 15 per cent of the taxpayer's 
net income, are allowable as deductions in 
computing net income tor federal income tax 
purposes. 

Endowments may be made to the Museum 
with the provision that an annuity be paid to 
the patron for life. These annuities are guaran- 
teed against fluctuation in amount, and ma.v 
reduce federal income taxes. 



PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS 



Field! 




seuffl«News 



Published Monthly by Field Mxiseum of Natural History, Chicago 



Vol. 13 



APRIL, 1942 



No. 4 



HOW LOGGERHEAD TURTLES LAY EGGS ON MOONLIT FLORIDA BEACHES IN JUNE 



By KARL P. SCHMIDT 

CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY 

The Florida sea beaches in mid-summer 
moonlight, though deserted by the seasonal 
visitors from the north, have a romantic 
interest to naturalists. It is at this season 
that these beaches, especially those on the 
Gulf side of the penin- 
sula, are visited by 
the giant sea turtles 
that come ashore to 
lay their eggs on the 
moonlit nights of June 
and July. The sea 
turtles, though known 
as stragglers as far 
north as New York, 
are properly tropical 
creatures, as foreign 
to our temperate 
continent as the palms 
and crocodiles that 
mark the proximity of 
Florida to the torrid 
zone. 

To see one of these 
gigantic sea turtles 
land in the dim light, 
drag its huge bulk up 
the shelving .sand to 
high water mark, and 
set about making a 
nest for its eggs is to 
have a glimpse of a 
foreign and indeed an 

antediluvian world. New habitat 

for these creatures are 

remnants of a group of reptiles once more 
numerous, more varied, and even more 
gigantic. For that matter, the turtles in 
general are "living fossils." They are so 
familiar that it is not often remembered 
that the turtle stock was old when the great 
dinosaurs themselves were young. There 
are two distinct living types of turtles that 
have invaded the sea, the leatherback turtle 
(not to be confused with the soft-shelled 
turtles of fresh waters), and the more 
familiar sea turtles including the edible 
green turtle and the loggerhead. Both of 
these families of turtles date from the Age 
of Reptiles. 

The green turtle, so highly prized for 
its clear soup and for its flesh as well, is 
no longer common on the Florida coast, 



though large numbers are brought to the 
cannery at Key West from the Caribbean 
coasts and islands. The moUusk-eating 
loggerhead, with more powerful jaws and 
correspondingly larger head, is little valued 
for food. This species still comes to the 
Florida coasts at its breeding season, though 




LOGGERHEAD TURTLE 
group showing large amphibian laying its eggs on a Florida beach 

probably also in much smaller numbers 
than in the past. On remote oceanic islands, 
where sea turtles have no enemies, they 
come ashore in the daytime to rest on the 
beach and bask in the sun. On the Florida 
beaches they are now never seen by day. 

An unmistakable record of its nocturnal 
visit is left by the egg-laying turtle in the 
broad and very characteristic track made in 
dragging its huge bulk over the sand. The 
nest is always placed above high tide mark. 

The scene shown in a newly-opened group 
in Albert W. Harris Hall (Hall 18) repre- 
sents the moonlit beach of Sanibel Island, 
on the Gulf Coast of Florida. It is dated 
June 10, 1939. On that night, Mr. Leon L. 
Walters, Staff Taxidermist at Field Museum, 
was patrolling the beach with Mr. G. J. 



Kesson, a local resident. Mr. Walters' in- 
teresting notes relate that a large female 
turtle was seen to land shortly before mid- 
night. He writes as follows: 

"At 11 P.M. on June 10, 1939, this turtle 
crawled from the water and, with unusual 
promptness, selected a nesting site. After 
bracing herself with 
her front flippers and 
pushing away the sur- 
face sand just behind 
her shell, she began to 
dig with deft alternate 
strokes of the hind 
flippers. 

"The nest cavity 
completed, about 125 
eggs were deposited in 
it at the rate of one 
every few seconds. 
Without hesitation, 
the turtle then filled 
in the cavity, 
thoroughly packing 
the sand by throwing 
her weight first on one 
flexed hind flipper and 
then on the other. 

"Before starting for 
the sea the turtle ad- 
\anced a few feet and 
obliterated the nest 
site by scattering sand 
far and wide with her 
front flippers. The 
entire operation con- 
sumed an hour, during 
which period she remained indifferent to 
two observers and their lights." 

The nest is not revisited by the mother. 
Incubation is by the heat of the sun. The 
young turtles emerge about two months 
afterwards as tiny miniature sea turtles 
that promptly make their way down the 
beach to the sea. What stimulus causes 
them always to head for the .sea, and not 
inland, has been the subject of much specula- 
tion and experiment. It appears that once 
out of the nest they move downhill, and that 
they always move in the direction of the 
open horizon. 

The loggerhead turtle group is opposite 
the habitat group of the American crocodile, 
another of the largest living kinds of reptiles, 
and these two scenes introduce the visitor 



lidnight 



Page 2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



April, 19i2 



to the systematic exhibits of reptiles in 
Harris Hall. The backgrounds of both 
groups are panoramic landscapes by Staff 
Artist Arthur G. Rueckert. These two 
habitat groups result from collecting in the 
field and reconstruction in the Museum 
laboratories by Staff Taxidermist Walters, 
whose invention of a method of reproducing 



is almost filled. Such horn cups are shown 
as part of a barber's outfit in the Hall 
of African Ethnology (Hall D), Case 21. 




DIGGING THE NEST 
Diagtam shows how the female loggerhead digs a flask, 
shaped nest in the sand with her scoop.like hind foot. 
After depositing more than a hundred eggs in it at the 
rate of one every few seconds, she tises her flippers to 
refill the cavity with sand, and then departs. 

reptiles and amphibians in celluloid-like 
materials constitutes one of the most notable 
recent improvements in the art of taxidermy. 

By the use of celluloid-like materials in 
making casts, with the coloring introduced 
into the translucent medium itself, the life- 
like translucent appearance of reptile scales 
or skin is produced; at the same time, since 
the finished cast does not require further 
painting, the full surface detail of the 
original mold is retained. The individual 
reptile models in the systematic exhibits in 
Hall 18 are the work of Mr. Walters, and 
are made by this process. Other notable 
exhibits made as celluloid models include 
the pig-like babirusa of Celebes in Hall 15, 
the hippopotamus and the white rhino in 
Carl E. Akeley Memorial Hall (Hall 22), 
and the group of Indian rhinoceros in 
William V. Kelley Hall (Hall 17). 

This method of reproduction of reptiles 
and hairless mammals in cellulose-acetate 
or cellulose-nitrate, developed by Mr. 
Walters, is now widely known among 
museums as the "Walters Process." 



Barber is Still Surgeon in Africa 
Among African Negroes an itinerant 
barber sometimes acts as a surgeon. He 
relieves pain by "bleeding" or "cupping" 
with a hollow horn having a hole at the tip. 
The wide end of the horn is placed over a 
cut on the site of pain. The operator sucks 
air from the cup and plugs the hole at the 
tip of the cup with a pellet of wax which 
he pushes into position with the tip of his 
tongue. Bleeding continues until the cup 



TYPE SPECIMEN OF THE LARGEST 
NORTH AMERICAN DINOSAUR 

By ELMER S. RIGGS 

CURATOR OF PALEONTOLOGY 

One of the problems in handling fossils 
in a large museum is that of preserving 
specimens that are of peculiar scientific 
interest but are not sufficiently attractive 
to justify public exhibition. In this category 
may be included many "type specimens" — 
specimens which are the first of their kind 
to come to scientific notice and publication. 
They are given a name and therefore become 
a kind of standard bearer for their particular 
cohort in the system of scientific classifica- 
tion. Such specimens in vertebrate paleon- 
tology often consist of odd parts which 
chance to be the first of their kind to be 
found, and so are given the post of honor 
to bear the name and to serve as standards 
with which others in turn are to be com- 
pared in this process of classification. 

Into such a category falls the type speci- 
men (holotype) of the gigantic dinosaur, 
Brachiosaurus. It consists of a series of 
vertebrae, fourteen in all, which extended 
from the middle of the animal's back to a 
point near the base of the tail. With them 
are a single bone of the pelvis (ilium), a 
thigh bone, a bone of the upper foreleg, 
one from the breast, and four great ribs. 
The thigh-bone and the upper foreleg bone 
are each six feet eight inches in length and 
weigh several hundred pounds. Other parts 
of the animal are proportionately large. 
The longest rib is nine feet in length, and 
some ribs are six to seven inches in breadth. 

In addition to the great size of this 
animal, its unusual proportions give it 
interest. Most large dinosaurs have the 
foreleg much shorter than the hind leg, 
but in this animal the proportions are 
reversed giving it something of a giraffe- 
like proportion. When first brought to 
this museum in 1900 the size of the bones 
attracted popular attention, while the un- 
usual proportions greatly interested scien- 
tists. For many years it had the distinction 
of being "the largest known dinosaur." 

Fourteen years later parts of a similar 
animal, a little larger even than this one, 
were found in East Africa; later still, bones 
of dinosaurs even more ponderous were 
reported from South America. So the 
championship as to size was passed along, 
but still Field Museum's specimen remained 
the "type" or standard for the name 
Brachiosaurus. 

For many years the two great leg bones 
were exhibited standing upright on a base, 
and as many of the vertebrae as would fit 
in were installed in an upright case. As 
more and more dinosaurs came to be known, 
these odd bones became no longer objects 



of special interest and so their time came 
to be replaced by other exhibits. But the 
duty was incumbent upon the Museum and 
the paleontologists to preserve this type 
specimen for future study and comparison. 
Accordingly, a larger glass-enclosed case 
has been built in one of the storerooms of 
an upper floor, and this half skeleton of the 
torso of Brachiosaurus has been assembled 
in it to be there preserved where any visiting 
scientist, or other person particularly in- 
terested in this type specimen, now out- 
dated as an exhibit, may have permission 
to examine it. 



FOUR MORE LECTURES 
IN SATURDAY SERIES 

There remain to be given on Saturday 
afternoons during April four more of the 
lectures in Field Museum's spring course for 
adults. All of the lectures are illustrated 
with motion pictures, many of them in 
natural colors. 

The lectures are to be given in the James 
Simpson Theatre of the Museum, and each 
will begin at 2:30 p.m. The Theatre en- 
trance will be open at 2 o'clock each Satur- 
day. The demand for seats makes it 
necessary to restrict admission to adults; 
but on the mornings of the same Saturdays 
the James Nelson and Anna Louise Ray- 
mond Foundation will present free motion 
pictures especially for children. 

Following are the dates, subjects, and 
speakers for the adult programs: 

April 4— Scientific Diversions in Plant 
Life. 
Arthur Pillsbury. 

April 11 — Peru Today. 
William B. Holmes. 

April 18 — The Philippines. 

Captain John D. Craig. 
April 25 — Adventures With Birds. 

Martin Bovey. 

No ticlcets are necessary for admission 
to these lectures. A section of the 
Theatre is reserved for Members of the 
Museum, each of wliom is entitled to 
two reserved seats. 

Requests for these seats should be made 
in advance by telephone (WABash 9410) or 
in writing, and reservations will then be 
held in the Member's name until 2:30 
o'clock on the day of the lecture specified. 
All reserved seats which have not been 
claimed by 2:30 p.m. will be made available 
to the general public. 



The cockroaches are one of our earliest 
families — the little pests have been on earth 
for at least 250 million years. See the huge 
extinct kinds that lived long ago, as repro- 
duced in the Carboniferous Forest group in 
Ernest R. Graham Hall (Hall 38). 



April, 191(2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page S 



MUSEUM HAS VAST COLLECTIONS FOR STUDY DURING PAN AMERICAN WEEK (APRIL 12-19) 



Throughout the western Hemisphere, Pan 
American Week will be celebrated from 
April 12 to 19; the program in Chicago is 
sponsored by the Pan American Council. 

Field Museum is cooperating by dis- 
playing in Stanley Field Hall during 
April a special exhibit emphasizing a 
few basic facts concerning hemispheric 
solidarity (see page i). 

On Friday, April 17, at 2 p.m.. Miss 
Elizabeth Hambleton of the Museum 
staff will conduct a guide-lecture on 
"Arts and Sciences of the American 
Indians." 

The nationwide observance of Pan Ameri- 
can Week is promoted by the Pan American 
Union in Washington, and the Office of the 
Co-ordinator of Inter-American Affairs 
(Nelson Rockefeller's Committee). This 
year, due to the steps taken at the recent 
Inter-American Conference in Rio de 
Janeiro, and because of the inter-independ- 
ence of the various American republics as 
a result of the war, there is more than ever 
before urgent need for greater unity and 
understanding between the United States 
and its sister republics. 

The climax of the week's celebration will 
be on Tuesday, April 14, Pan American Day. 
This, says a statement issued by Chicago's 
Pan American Council, "is a day set aside 
to commemorate the idea of the political, 
economic, intellectual, and spiritual unity 
of the twenty-one republics of the Americas. 
On April 14, 1890, the First International 
Conference of American States, held in 
Washington, organized the Pan American 
Union. Widespread celebration of Pan 
American Day dates to 1930. 

"Unification of the thoughts and aims of 
the free countries of the Western Hemisphere 
has been an ideal of statesmen in every 
American country since the days of the great 
Bolivar. Pan American Day expresses the 
reality of the ideals which all the Americas 
hold in common." 

Dr. Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator of 
Anthropology, has been appointed official 
repre.sentative of Field Museum to the Pan 
American Council. He and other members 
of the Museum staff are co-operating in 
various ways with that organization. 

Although Field Museum's interests are 
world-wide, it has always particularly em- 
phasized Pan American material in both 
exhibits and study collections. Ever since 
the Museum first opened in 1894, one-half 
or more of its hundreds of expeditions have 
been devoted to the Western Hemisphere. 

The following brief survey, by depart- 
ments, can attempt to outline only in the 
sketchiest fashion the Museum's compre- 
hensive permanent Pan American exhibits: 

DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY 

In the Pan American nations are numerous 
cultural factors important in binding them 
together. Increasingly recognized in this 



regard are the large Indian populations, 
and the common heritage of Indian culture 
with its great influence on American civili- 
zation. The United States and Canada 
have relatively small though culturally im- 
portant Indian populations; on the other 
hand, such countries as Mexico, Guatemala, 
Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia are more than 
half Indian in composition. The Indian 
civilizations at the time of discovery of the 
New World were by no means identical, but 
they had sufficient in common to influence 
similarly the transplanted European culture 
in different parts of America, and today 
there are similar social and economic Indian 
problems in many Pan American countries. 
The exhibits in the Department of An- 
thropology at Field Museum offer splendid 
opportunities for study of the Indian back- 
ground of contemporary culture in the 
Americas. Here may be observed the com- 
mon characteristics of Indian life, and the 
regional variations which have been signi- 



ceremonies, villages, and pueblos, and life- 
size figures of men and women demonstrat- 
ing characteristic costumes, equipment, and 
activities of everyday life. 

DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY 

The exhibits of the Department of Botany 
(except the woods) are arranged not geo- 
graphically, but systematically according to 
botanical relationships or to applications 
of plants and plant products in industry. 
The Hall of Food Plants is naturally devoted 
in major part to North, Central and South 
America. There is a special exhibit of 
grains. Both beet and cane sugar are well 
represented. Dioramas show the methods 
used in Brazil in growing and treating 
cassava and coffee. Other .series of exhibits 
include leguminous seeds, starches, spices, 
nuts, palms and their products. 

One hall is devoted to woods of the 
United States, and another to foreign woods. 
The latter contains a large number of im- 
portant cabinet and construction woods 




ll''t 



I 



LANDSCAPE IN SOUTHERN MEXICO 

Prominent in tho vegetation of subtropical America are these great plants, known as candelabrum cacti. One of a series 

of mural paintings by the late Charles A. Corwin, former StaflF Artist of Field Museum, on the walls of Martin A. and 

Carrie Ryerson Hall (Hall of Plant Life). Two species of the giant cacti are shown — Lemaircoccrcus Weberi on 

the left, and Pachycereus Chrysomallus on the right. 



ficant in the development of cultural differ- 
ences in the various nations. Especially 
notable are the Museum's collections from 
different culture areas of the United States, 
Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, and the 
Andean countries of South America — the 
regions in which Indians were of greatest 
historical importance, and which have the 
largest Indian populations today. In addi- 
tion to .systematically arranged collections 
of Indian artifacts from each region illus- 
trating such phases as social organization, 
religious ceremonials, warfare, arts and 
industries, hunting, fishing, agriculture, etc., 
there are miniature groups showing typical 



from tropical America, particularly Mexico, 
the West Indies, Central America, and the 
Amazon Valley. Another hall is devoted to 
plant raw materials. Subjects of special 
exhibits are such plants as cotton, sisal 
hemp, tobacco, Brazilian and other rubbers, 
and American gums and waxes. 

The Department's fifth and largest hall, 
known as the Hall of Plant Life (Martin A. 
and Carrie Ryerson Hall), contains exhibits 
arranged according to botanical relation- 
ships, designed to show, by means of accu- 
rate reproductions, the characters of the 
almost 300 families of plants native in 
America. Included are most of the im- 



Page i 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



April, 19i2 



portant economic plants of tropical America. 
Large habitat groups show typical vegeta- 
tion of the United States. 

The study collections of the department 
contain large quantities of economic prod- 
ucts, including tropical American woods, 
and other material. The Herbarium, with 
more than a million sheets of specimens, is 




LARGEST OF SOUTH AMERICAN 
Habitat gtoup of marsh deer^ on exhibition in Hall 16. The 
the Marshall Field Brazilian Expedition in swamps along the 

particularly rich in the flora of tropical 
America, especially the West Indies, Mexico, 
the Central American countries, Venezuela, 
Brazil, and Peru. 

DEPARTMENT OF GEOLOGY 

Latin America is well represented in the 
geological collections — in some sections 
better than any other part of the earth 
except the United States itself. In the 
mineral collection there is a special collection 
of the agate of Uruguay showing both raw 
agate and many choice polished specimens. 
In the Hall of Gems and Jewels are many 
precious and semi-precious stones from Latin 
America, ranging from Brazilian diamonds 
and Colombian emeralds to Argentine onyx. 
The Brazilian topaz, aquamarine, and 
amethyst attract much attention from 
Museum visitors. 

In the mineral collection, the ores of the 
United States and Latin America are com- 
prehensively represented. Heavily exploited 
deposits such as Mexican silver, Bolivian 
tin, Chilean nitrate and copper, and Bra- 
zilian manganese are illustrated by numerous 
specimens. Unexploited deposits which have 
future promise, such as the Brazilian iron 
and aluminum deposits, are also represented. 

The Marshall Field Paleontological Ex- 
peditions to Argentina and Bolivia, con- 
ducted over many years, brought together 
the most comprehensive collection of South 
American vertebrate fossils to be found out- 
side of Argentina. In the great Hall of 
Vertebrate Paleontology (Ernest R. Graham 
Hall), two out of three of the larger and 
more impressive fossil skeletons of giant 



DEER 

specimens were collected by 

Pataguay and Parana Rivers. 



beasts which lived millions of years ago came 
from South America. 

DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY 

The Museum has a good representation 
of the very strange-looking animals of 
various parts of Central and South America 
in its systematic collections of mammals 
and birds. These include, among mammals: 
opossums, arma- 
dillos, anteaters, tree 
sloths, numerous 
rodents, tapirs, car- 
nivores, and a wide 
variety of monkeys. 
The scarcely less ex- 
traordinary assem- 
blage of birds of the 
South American con- 
tinent is represented 
by forms ranging 
from the ostrich-like 
rhea of the plains of 
Argentina and Brazil 
to the humming- 
birds, which are con- 
fined exclusively to 
the Americas. 

A walk through 
the hall of habitat 
groups representing 
the large mammals 
of North and South 
America affords glimpses of many of the 
most characteristic landscapes which form 
the natural settings for the animal life of 
these continents. The mountain sheep and 
goats, the moose and elk, and the bison 
and muskox of North America are followed 
by the South American tapir and guanaco, 
marsh deer, giant anteater, and by a scene 
representing a 
jaguar stalking 
a family party 
of the giant 
rodent known 
as the capybara 
on a tropical 
river bank. 

Among the 
habitat groups 
of birds, thir- 
teen represent 
the birds of 
North America, 
and seven are 
from the West 
Indies, and 
Central and 
South America. 
The bird life of 
Guatemala is 
represented by 
the gorgeously 
colored toucans 
and birds asso- 
ciated with 
them in the 
forest, a nesting 
colony of oro- 



pendulas with their six-foot hanging nests, 
and a pair of beautiful quetzals, adopted 
by Guatemala as a national emblem. The 
South American birds include the jabiru 
stork and the sun-bittern, the screamer and 
ibis, and the rhea with its nest of eggs 
and hatching young. 

The largest reptile of tropical America, 
the American crocodile, is shown in a habitat 
group repre.senting a scene on the shores of 
Lake Ticamaya in Honduras. 



INDIANS NOT A VANISHING RACE, 
SPECIAL EXHIBIT SHOWS 

By DONALD COLLIER 

ASSISTANT CURATOR, SOUTH AMERICAN 
ETHNOLOGY AND ARCHAEOLOGY 

Contrary to common belief, there are 
more Indians in 1942 than there were in 
1492. While it is true that there has been 
a decrease in the Indian population of 
Canada and the United States from about 
one million to half a million at the present 
time, there has been a threefold increase of 
Indians in the Western Hemisphere from 
an estimated eight to ten million, when the 
white man first came, to thirty million 
today. And in most Pan American countries, 
including the United States, the Indian is 
the fastest growing element in the population! 
In such countries as Mexico, Guatemala, 
Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia one-half to 
three-fourths of the inhabitants are Indians. 

The numerical and cultural impor- 
tance of the Indian in the New World is 
the theme of an exhibit, "Indians in 
the Americas," prepared by the Depart- 
ment of Anthropology for display in 
Stanley Field Hall beginning April 1. 
The occasion for the exhibit is the celebration 




SOUTH AMERICAN MAMMALS OF 1,500,000 YEARS AGO 

The skeletons of two ground sloths of the Pleistocene Age, mounted in positions characteristic 

of their habits in life, as exhibited in Ernest R. Graham Hall. Collected by Marshall Field 

Paleontological Expedition to Bolivia. 



April, 1H2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page 5 



of Pan American Week (April 12 to 19), by all 
American republics. One part of the exhibit 
shows by means of color and symbols the 
present magnitude and location of important 
Indian populations. The remainder shows, 
through photographs and specimens, typical 
aspects of Indian life in different parts of 
the New World. Emphasis is placed on the 
fact that Indians everywhere are craftsmen 
— with their hands they make beautiful 
things to be used in everyday life. 

Other exhibits in Stanley Field Hall of 
special interest for Pan American Week 
include a collection of prehistoric American 
gold ornaments from Colombia (Case 1); 
a display of rare lacquered wooden vessels 
made by the ancient Indians of Peru in the 
Inca and early Colonial periods (Case 6); 
some excellent examples of ancient Peruvian 
textiles (Case 20); and a representative 



MUSEUM STAFF SUPPORTING SALE OF U. S. WAR BONDS 




ANCIENT STELA FROM GUATEMALA 

Hxhtbicrd in the Hall of Mexico and Central America 

(Hall 8) is this reproduction of a monument erected by 

the early Mayas. The original carved stone, dating to 

A. D. 804, still stands at Quiriga. 

collection of pottery excavated from Pueblo 
ruins in the southwestern United States, 
dating from a.d. 700 to 1500 (Case 11). 

Getnologists Hear Museum Lecture 

About 100 delegates to the recent conven- 
tion of the American Gem Society came to 
Field Museum March 17 for a lecture by 
Mr. Paul G. Dallwig, Layman Lecturer, and 
a conference with Mr. Henry W. Nichols, 
Chief Curator of Geology. 



Many employees of Field Museum are 
signing up for regular purchases of United 
States Defense Bonds under a payroll allot- 
ment plan just inaugurated. 

In support of the bond campaign, Dr. 
C. Martin Wilbur, Curator of Chinese 
Archaeology and Ethnology, furnishes the 
following bit about war financing in China 
between 200 and 100 B.C.: 

"One attempted method under the 
'Martial Emperor' was the creation of eleven 
ranks of new nobility based on war chest 
donations — the higher the donation the 
higher the rank. The central government 
exacted large contributions also from the 
old nobility. Those who failed to report 
their total wealth had their fortunes con- 
fiscated. The government, in addition to 
getting large amounts of cash, was tem- 
porarily embarrased with such things as 
land, houses, and slaves." 

Donald Collier, Assistant Curator of South 
American Archaeology and Ethnology, also 



recalled ancient history as an argument for 
the American way. 

"Just compare the modern bond idea with 
the way wars were financed by the Inca 
Empire which flourished from about A.D. 
1200 to the Spanish conquest in 1532," said 
Mr. Collier. "Headed by a so-called Divine 
Ruler, this warlike empire was organized in 
two principal departments: that of civil 
administration, and that of conquest. The 
emperor's constant efforts to expand the 
empire required great supplies of arms and 
food for the armies, which were gathered 
like taxes from the people. Military store- 
houses constantly crammed with supplies 
were maintained. The Aztecs, operated on 
a similar plan. These supplies were moved 
to storage houses near taking-off points, 
often on the territory of allied peoples, 
prior to campaigns of conquest. Then the 
people back home had to scramble to re- 
plenish the original storehouse. They got 
no bonds, no interest, no repayment." 



THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED 



The Odd Okapi, Rare Relative 
of Equally Curious Giraffe 

The giraffe, heaven knows, is a queer 
enough animal, and would stand out 
(literally) in any crowd of beasts. Museums, 
zoos, and circuses, however, have made 
people so familiar with its peculiarities that 
its only extant relative, the rare okapi, 
paradoxically seems even more grotesque, 
although it is actually less radically strange 
than the now commonplace giraffe. 

The okapi, without question one of the 
world's rarest animals, is represented by a 
fine mounted specimen in George M. Pull- 
man Hall (Hall 13) of Field Museum. This 
specimen was obtained by the Marshall 
Field African Expedition some years ago. 
It was speared by pygmy natives in the 
Ituri Forest of the Belgian Congo — the 
records indicate that only one or two white 
men have ever seen this elusive species of 
animal alive in its native habitat. Hunters 
generally agree that it is the most difficult 
to bag of all African animals. The pygmy 
black people who inhabit the same limited 
area of the Congo as the okapi are usually 
extremely hostile to white men, and this 
adds to the difficulties which the animal 
itself presents by its rarity, and its shy, 
secretive, and nocturnal habits. The Mu- 
seum's expedition had first to spend several 
weeks acquiring the good will of the pygmies 
before the hunt could begin, because the 
assistance of these small natives is practically 
indispensable to anyone who seeks to obtain 
a specimen of okapi. 

Up until 1900 the existence of such an 
animal as the okapi was unsuspected by 
Europeans and Americans. In that year 



some strips of its skin were obtained from 
natives by Sir Harry Johnston, a British 
colonial administrator. These were at first 
identified tentatively as representing a new 
type of zebra. Subsequently an entire 
specimen, including skin, skull, and skeleton 
reached the hands of zoologists who were 
then able to make thorough anatomical 
studies leading to recognition of the animal's 
kinship with the giraffe. 

The okapi's resemblance to the modern 
giraffe is less striking than that it bears to 
certain prehistoric ancestors of the giraffe 
with whose fossil skeletons it has been 
compared. The neck and legs are much 
shorter than those of the modern giraffe, 
but the teeth and horns are extremely similar. 




QUAINT MAMMAL 
Specimen of okapi in George M. Pullman Hall 



Page 6 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



April, 19UZ 



Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 

Roosevelt Road and Field Drive, Chicago 

Telephone: Wabash 9410 



THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 
Lester Armour Stanley Field 

Sbwell L. Avery Samuel Insull, Jr. 

W. McCoRMicK Blair Charles A. McCulloch 

Leopold E. Block William H. Mitchell 

Boarduan Conover George A. Richardson 

Walter J. Cummings Theodore Roosevelt 

Albert B. Dick, Jr. Solomon A. Smith 

Howard W. Fbnton Albert A. Sprague 

Joseph N. Field Silas H. Strawn 

Marshall Field Albert H. Wetten 

John P. Wilson 

OFFICERS 

Stanley Field PnndetU 

Albert A. Sprague Firtt Vice-Prendtnt 

Silas H. Strawn Second Vice-President 

Albert B. Dick, Jr Third Vice-President 

Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary 

Solomon A. Smith . . . Treasurer and AssialarU Secretary 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 

EDITOR 
Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum 

ASSOCIATE EDITOR 
Wilfred H. Osgood Curator Emeritus, Zoology 

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology 

B. E. Dahlgren Chief Curator of Botany 

Henry W. Nichols Chief Curator of Geology 

Karl P. Schmidt C*i«/ Curator of Zoology 

MANAGING EDITOR 
H. B. HartG Public Relations Counsel 

Members are requested to Inform the Museum 
promptly of changes of address. 



WHAT IS A SHAMROCK? 

Now that St. Patrick's day is past, it 
should be possible to bring up the questions: 
"When is a shamrock not a shamrock?" 
and "What is a shamrock anyway?" without 
provoking too heated a controversy among 
partisans of various plants. 

For, while nearly everybody speaks of 
the shamrock as if it were a specific plant, 
actually there is considerable dispute as to 
what particular plant is the true shamrock, 
it is learned by consulting Mr. J. Francis 
Macbride, Associate Curator of the Her- 
barium at Field Museum. (Incidentally, as 
a Caledonian Macbride, and not a Hibernian 
McBride, he is severely neutral among the 
disputants.) 

About half of the Irishmen, and about 
half of the other people who have considered 
the matter, regard the plant known as the 
wood sorrel, which bears the scientific name 
Oxalis acetosella, as the true shamrock. The 
other half just as vociferously vouch that 
the true shamrock is the white clover, whose 
botanical-Latin designation is Trifolium 
repens. Another smaller school of thought 
has claimed that the rightful emblem of 
Eire is another clover called Trifolium mirms. 
Still another asserts that the true shamrock 
is the black medic whose more esoteric 
designation is Medicago lupulina, and half 
a dozen other plants have adherents, among 
them even the water cress. 

SHAMROCKS AS FOOD 

And speaking of water cress, in the time 
of Spenser's "Faery Queen" some of the 



other plants called shamrock were said to 
be good to eat. 

An opinion based purely upon the evidence 
at hand would seem to recognize the white 
clover as the true shamrock, and this is 
supported by such noted Irish botanists as 
Keough, Theilkeild, and others, who aver 
that all history, romance, sentiment, and 
common sense unite in giving this honor to 
Trifolium repens. 

The wood sorrel is sent in great quantities 
from Ireland to London for St. Patrick's 
Day; on the other hand, the clover is the 
plant most commonly used in Ireland. In 
Chicago, and all America, the shamrocks 
worn are usually a horticultural variant of 
white clover. 

There is almost unity, at least, in the 
fact that nearly all of the plants for which 
the name shamrock is claimed have three 
leaflets, and that these leaves represent the 
symbolism of the shamrock, the story being 
that St. Patrick chose the plant to symbolize 
the Trinity. However, even this is disputed, 
for example, by the adherents of the water 
cress. Some say the three leaves are 
emblematic of love, valor, and wit, three 
charming traits of the Irish character. 

THE SHAMRAKH OF ARABY 

Perhaps it will be a shock to reveal that 
the trefoil plant was held sacred in Iran, and 
was emblematic of the Persian triad, long 
before St. Patrick's day; and that shamroc 
and shamrakh are Arabic words designating 
such plants. 

A point brought out by those who acclaim 
the wood-sorrel as the true shamrock is that 
it is said usually to reach its growth perfec- 
tion in Ireland about St. Patrick's Day, 
which is not true of the white clover. 

Whichever plant is considered to be the 
true shamrock, all Irishmen and most other 
people will agree that "the sweet little, green 
little shamrock of Ireland" is from a senti- 
mental point of view the most popular plant 
in the world today. Also, another plant 
associated with the Irish — although it origi- 
nated in America and became known as 
Irish only through importation — is the 
potato, which, apart from sentiment, is 
probably the most popular plant in the world 
today from the standpoint of being the most 
widely known and the most useful to the 
peoples of all nations. 



Dr. Dahlgren Returns from Cuba 

Dr. B. E. Dahlgren, Chief Curator of the 
Department of Botany, has returned from 
a brief collecting trip to Cuba undertaken 
for the purpose of adding to the Museum's 
palm herbarium. Incidentally he found 
opportunity to investigate important poten- 
tial sources of economic plant products 
which, because of interference with shipping, 
are becoming scarce or difficult to obtain 
from distant parts of the world. His col- 
lections have arrived at the Museum, and 
his work on plant products will be followed 
up by a chemist. 



Director Gregg Now Lieutenant-Colonel 

CliflFord C. Gregg, Director of Field 
Museum, has been promoted from the rank 
of Major to that of Lieutenant-Colonel in 
the United States Army, it was announced 
early in March. 

Lieutenant-Colonel Gregg, for years an 
officer in the Army Reserve Corps, has been 
in active service at Sixth Corps Area Head- 
quarters in Chicago since September 1, 1940. 



Staff Notes 

Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood, Curator Emeritus 
of Zoology, is in Arizona and California, 
collecting study specimens of mammals. 



Mr. Rudyerd Boulton, Curator of Birds, 
gave a lecture on "Camoufiage in Nature" 
in the defense course at the School of 
Design on March 5. 



Dr. Wilfrid D. Hambly, Curator of 
African Ethnology, has been appointed by 
the National Research Council in Washing- 
ton as a member of its Committee on the 
Ethnography of Africa. 



Mr. H. B. Harte, Public Relations 
Counsel, is assisting in publicity for the 
U. S. Defense Savings Staff. 



FIELD MUSEUM HONOR ROLL 

Now In the Service 
of their Country: 

Theodore Roosevelt, Trustee — Briga- 
dier-General, U.S. Army. 

Lester Armour, Trustee — Lieutenant- 
Commander, U.S. Navy. 

Joseph Nash Field, Trustee — Lieu- 
tenant (J. G.), U.S. Navy. 

Clifford C. Gregg, Director— Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel, U.S. Army. 

Melvin A. Traylor, Jr., Associate, 
Birds— Private, U.S. Marine Corps. 

Dr. John Rinaldo, Associate, South- 
western Archaeology — Private, U.S. 
Army. 

Dr. Alexander Spoehr, Assistant Cur- 
ator, North American Ethnology 
and Archaeology — Private, U.S. 
Army. 

Bert E. Grove, Guide-Lecturer — 
American Field Service, in North 
Africa. 

Patrick T. McEnery, Guard— Master- 
at-arms, U.S. Navy. 

John Syckowski, Guard — Chief Com- 
missary Steward, U.S. Navy. 

George Jahrand, Guard- Chief Water 
Tender, U.S. Navy. 

M. C. Darnall, Jr., Guard— Candi- 
dates' Class, U.S. Marine Corps 
Reserve (Officers' Training Course). 

James C. Mclntyre, Guard— Private, 
U.S. Army, Coast Artillery. 

Clyde James Nash, Guard — Chief 
Gunner's Mate, U.S. Navy. 

Nicholas Repar, Printer — First Class 
Seaman, U.S. Navy. 



April, 1H2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page 7 



A NEW BUTTERFLY EXHIBIT 

By WILLIAM J. GERHARD 

CURATOR OF INSECTS 

A case containing a selected series of the 
more attractive North American butterflies 
has recently been placed on exhibition in 
the west end of Albert W. Harris Hall 
(Hall 18). Thus, after a regrettably long 
delay, insects are again represented among 
the Museum's extensive zoological exhibits. 

The exhibit begins with butterflies, as 
these sunshine-loving insects are especial 




REGAL FRITILLARV BUTTERFLY 
This butterfly (Argynnis idalia) is found from Maine to 
Arkansas. It is the most easily recognized of the six kinds 
of frititlaries found in the Chicago region, and may be 
identified by the large silver spots on the under side of 
wings. Top figures in the illustration show the upper side 
of male at left, and female on right; lower figures show 
the under side of each sex in same left.to.right order. The 
regal's caterpillar eats only the leaves of violets. 

favorites with collectors, school children, 
and nature-lovers, and are most frequently 
inquired for by teachers of nature study. 
Specimens for three more cases of butter- 
flies and moths have been prepared for 
exhibition; the North American cases will 
be followed by an exhibit of some of the 
most remarkable and brilliant exotic forms. 

So many species of butterflies and moths 
are so nearly alike in shape, color and 
markings, that they can be separated only 
after a long and careful study. Therefore, 
only the more attractive and easily recog- 
nized species are suitable for exhibition. 
For this reason the specimens on display 
will always be much fewer in number than 
tho.se contained in the Museum's reference 
collection, which is accessible to any person 
deeply interested in the study of insects. 
Furthermore, certain butterflies and most 
moths will fade or change in color when 
they are exposed to strong light for a 
number of years, and often such specimens 
cannot easily be replaced. Most of the 
moths and some of the butterflies formerly 
exhibited in the Museum are now valueless 
as a result of their exposure to daylight. 
It is believed that the fluorescent lights now 
used for the illumination of the Museum's 
zoological exhibits will have a much less 
injurious effect on the specimens. 

LIFE-HISTORY SERIES INCLUDED 

Most of the specimens in the new case 
are arranged so as to show the upper and 



under surfaces of their spread wings, and 
both males and females are exhibited when 
they differ to a noticeable degree. At one 
end of the case is a display of the life-history 
of the pipe-vine swallowtail, the leaves and 
caterpillars reproduced in wax in a life-like 
shape and color. Butterflies are more 
frequently seen than the closely related 
and much more numerous moths, because 
with few exceptions, they are day-flying 
insects, whereas the moths are mostly 
night-fliers. 

From all other insects butterflies and 
moths are easily distinguished by having 
four membranous wings, which are partly 
or wholly covered on both surfaces with 
minute overlapping scales and often with 
an admixture of fine hair. Their bodies and 
legs are also covered with scales, but this 
is true also in some other insects. The 
upper surfaces of the wing scales have fine 
longitudinal striae, or parallel shallow 
grooves, and when they are exceedingly 
close together — approximately 35,000 to an 
inch — they diffract the rays of light, pro- 
ducing the brilliant iridescent colors charac- 
teristic of a number of tropical butterflies 
and moths. 

The scientific name of the order of insects 
to which the butterflies and moths belong 
is "Lepidoptera." This appropriate name 
is formed from two Greek words: lepido, a 
scale, and pteron, meaning a wing. As 
certain members of an order of insects or 
other animals often have similar structures 
that are believed to indicate still closer 
relationship, it has been found convenient 
and de-sirable to subdivide or classify them 
into smaller and smaller divisions, like sub- 
orders, superfamilies, families, subfamilies, 
genera, species, geographical races and 
seasonal forms. All of these divisions have 
definite latinized names. Many insects do 
not have common names, and, when they 
do, they of course are not the same in 
different countries; but the scientific names, 
except for special reasons, are not affected 
by the language of any country. The 
carefully prepared labels in the new exhibit 
form an excellent introduction to the 
subject of zoological classification and 
nomenclature. 

ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND KINDS KNOWN 

Butterflies and moths are usually divided 
into two suborders named respectively 
Rhopalocera and Heterocera. The former 
name is formed from two Greek words 
meaning "a club and a horn;" the latter 
is derived from the same source and means 
"different and a horn." As the scientific 
names of these two suborders imply, butter- 
flies have antennae (feelers) that are slender 
and swollen or clubbed at their tips, whereas 
the antennae of moths are either feather- or 
thread-like. Members of both suborders 
are found in nearly every part of the world. 
The range of their distribution extends 
irregularly from Alaska, Greenland, and 
Spitzbergen southward to Cape Horn and 



the Cape of Good Hope; and from .sea level 
to elevations as high as 16,000 feet. About 
100,000 species and races of these scaly- 
winged insects are known to science. No 
less than 9,876 species of moths and butter- 
flies, as well as a number of geographical 
races, seasonal forms, and aberrations, are 
recorded from America north of Mexico; 
992 of these are butterflies. 

Like many other insects, butterflies and 
moths have four stages in their life-history: 
the egg; caterpillar or larva; chrysalid or 
pupa; and the adult stage. The caterpillars 
or larvae have their mouth parts fitted for 
chewing, and it is in this stage that a few 
butterflies and many moths are destructive. 
In the adult stage their mouth parts are 
adapted only for sucking up liquid food, 
like the nectar of flowers, the sap of trees, 
and the juices of fruits. Some moths are 
incapable of feeding on anything during 
their adult stages. 



LORD AND LADY HALIFAX 
VISIT MUSEUM 

"In England we had heard so much about 
Field Museum that upon our arrival in 
Chicago we insisted on making a visit to 
this great institution." 

With this gracious remark made by Lady 
Halifax, she and Viscount Halifax, British 




Phologrjph courtesy of THK CHICAGO SUN- 
BRITISH AMBASSADOR AT FIELD MUSEUM 
Malvina HofTman's striking portrayal in bronze of a typi' 
cat Tamil of India, climbing a "toddy palm," catches the 
eyes of Lord and Lady I-lalifax. They were escorted by 
Mr. Stanley Field (center), President of the Museum. 

Amba-ssador to the United States, introduced 
themselves at the Museum during their 
recent stop-over in Chicago. 

Mr. Stanley Field, President of the 
Museum, and Mr. Orr Goodson, Assistant 
to the Director, conducted the distinguished 
guests on a tour of certain exhibition halls 
in which Lord and Lady Halifax were mo.st 
interested. Particularly was Lord Halifax 
impressed by the Malvina Hoffman sculp- 
tures in the Hall of the Races of Mankind. 



Pages 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



April, 19i2 



STORIES OF FAMOUS DIAMONDS 
IN APRIL SUNDAY LECTURES 

"The Romance of Diamonds from Mine 
to Man" is the subject of the Sunday after- 
noon lectures to be presented during April 
by Mr. Paul G. Dallwig, the Layman 
Lecturer of Field Museum. Illustrating his 
subject with exhibits in the halls of the 
Department of Geology, and in H. N. 
Higinbotham Hall of Gems and Jewels, 
Mr. Dallwig will tell dramatically the stories 
and legends surrounding some of the world's 
most famous diamonds. He will also tell 
about the original finding of diamonds in 
South Africa, the diamond rush that fol- 
lowed, and the processes involved from the 
time of finding specimens in the mine 
through the various stages of sorting, 
cutting, polishing, pricing, and marketing. 
All of the human interest angles connected 
with diamonds will be especially emphasized 
in Mr. Dallwig's lecture. 

Because of heavy public demands, it is 
necessary to limit each audience to 100 
adults (children cannot be accommodated). 
Those desiring to attend must make reserva- 
tions in advance by mail or telephone 
(W ABash 94 1 0) . The Sunday lectures begin 
promptly at 2 p.m. and end at 4:30. Midway 
there is an intermission for refreshments and 
smoking in the cafeteria. 

In May, which will be the last month 
during the current season in which the 
Sunday afternoon lectures are offered, Mr. 
Dallwig will introduce a subject not hitherto 
presented in his repertoire — "Who's Who in 
the Mounted Zoo." 



by adults. Teachers are urged to notify 
their classes about these programs in the 
James Simpson Theatre. 



FREE MOVIES FOR CHILDREN 
CONTINUE THROUGH APRIL 

The James Nelson and Anna Louise 
Raymond Foundation for Public School and 
Children's Lectures will present four more 
free programs of motion pictures in its 
spring series for children at Field Museum on 
Saturday mornings during April. Following 
is the schedule of the remaining programs: 

April 4 — From Penguins to Paradise 
Birds. 
Story of birds illustrated xcUh motion pie- 
lures and paintings — by Karl Platk, 
Brookfield Zoo. 

April 1 1— Middle America. 
A cartoon ittcluded. 

April 18 — African Stories. 
A cartoon included. 

April 25 — A Walt Disney Program. 
Composed of a series of cartoons. 

There will be two showings of each 
program, one at 10 a.m. and one at 11. 
Children from all parts of Chicago and 
suburbs are invited. The Museum is pre- 
pared to receive large groups from schools 
and other centers, as well as individual 
children coming either alone or accompanied 



WEEKDAY LECTURE TOURS 
OFFERED IN APRIL 

Conducted tours of exhibits, under the 
guidance of staff lecturers, are made every 
afternoon at 2 o'clock except Saturdays, 
Sundays, and certain holidays. Following 
is the schedule for April: 

Wednesday, April 1 — The People of China 
and India (Miss Elizabeth Hambleton); 
Thursday — General Tour (Miss Elizabeth 
Best); Friday — Plant Products of Pacific 
Lands (Miss Marie Pabst). 

Week beginning April 6: Monday — What 
Endures in Civilization (Mrs. Leota G. 
Thomas); Tuesday — General Tour (Miss 
Elizabeth Hambleton); Wednesday — High 
and Low in the Animal Kingdom (Miss 
Elizabeth Best); Thursday — General Tour 
(Mrs. Leota G. Thomas); Friday — Spring 
Wild Flowers (Miss Marie Pabst). 

Week beginning April 13: Monday — 
Man's Rise from Prehistoric to Con- 
temporary Times (Mrs. Leota G. Thomas); 
Tuesday — General Tour (Miss Marie 
Pabst); Wednesday — Bird Life in the Chi- 
cago Region (Miss Elizabeth Best); Thurs- 
day — General Tour (Miss Marie Pabst); 
Friday — Arts and Sciences of the American 
Indians (Miss Elizabeth Hambleton). 

Week beginning April 20: Monday — 
Primitive Musicians and their Instruments 
(Miss Elizabeth Hambleton); Tuesday — 
General Tour (Miss Elizabeth Best); Wed- 
nesday — Geology in National Defense (Miss 
Marie Pabst); Thursday — General Tour 
(Mrs. Leota G. Thomas); Friday— The 
Races of Mankind (Miss Elizabeth 
Hambleton). 

Week beginning April 27: Monday — 
Animals Found Around Chicago (Miss 
Elizabeth Best); Tuesday — General Tour 
(Mrs. Leota G. Thomas); Wednesday — 
Ornaments and Jewelry (Miss Elizabeth 
Hambleton); Thursday — General Tour 
(Miss Elizabeth Best). 

Persons wishing to participate should 
apply at North Entrance. Tours are free. 



GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM 

Following is a list of some of the principal 
gifts received during the last month: 

Department of Anthropology: 

From Mrs. Chauncey McCormick, Chi- 
cago — 3 necklaces (two Roman, 4th century 
A.D., and one Islamic); from Mrs. Jessie V. 
Bicknell, Des Moines, Iowa — 2 bolas, 
Argentina. 
Department of Botany : 

From Donald Richards, Chicago — 285 
specimens of bryophytes and 30 herbarium 
specimens. United States; from Dr. R. L. 
Caylor, Cleveland, Miss. — 23 specimens of 
algae, Mississippi; from Dr. M. A. Brannon, 
Gainesville, Fla. — 44 specimens of algae, 
Florida; from Professor Angel Maldonado, 
Lima, Peru — 46 specimens of algae, Peru; 



ARE YOU MOVING? 

OR GOING SOMEWHERE? 

Members of the Museum who 
have changed residences or plan 
to do so are urged to notify the 
Museum of their new addresses 
so that FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 
and other communications may 
reach them promptly. .\ post 
card for this purpose is enclosed 
with this issue. 

Members going away during the 
summer, who desire Museum 
matter sent to their temporary 
addresses, may have this service 
by notifying the Museum. 



from Richard D. Wood, Evanston, III. — 
85 specimens of Chara, United States; 
from Dr. Walter Kiener, Lincoln, Neb. — 
191 specimens of algae. 

Department of Geolo^: 

From Ray G. Swigart, Rifle, Colo. — 
incomplete skull of titanothere, late Eocene 
deposits, western Colorado. 

Department of Zoology: 

From Chicago Zoological Society, Brook- 
field, 111. — 2 snakes and 3 mammals; from 
Leander J. McCormick, Chicago — 2 fish 
specimens, near Havana, Cuba; from Dr. 
Henry Field, Washington, D.C.— 29 sala- 
manders, tadpoles, and toads. North Caro- 
lina; from Gordon Gunter, Rockport, Tex. 
— 340 fish specimens, Texas. 

The Library: 

Valuable books from Toledo Museum of 
Art, Toledo, Ohio; from James H. R. 
Cromwell and Dr. Henry Field, Washington, 
D.C.; and from Miss Elizabeth Hambleton, 
Bryan Patterson, and Dr. Fritz Haas, all 
of Chicago. 



NEW MEMBERS 

The following persons became Members 
of Field Museum during the period from 
February 17 to March 16: 

Associate Members 
Carl Buddig, Leigh B. Block, Louis Porter, 
Ainslie Y. Sawyer. 

Annual Members 

Robert A. Andrews, Percy H. Arden, 
Mrs. Mary E. Baker, Rudolph Bohrer, 
Herbert P. Brettman, Ralph E. Briggs, 
Mrs. Albert Cotsworth, Jr., Mrs. John T. 
Drysdale, Jr., Harold Flagler, Samuel I. 
Frank, Mrs. Steve Gavin, James M. R. 
Glaser, Dr. Louis Goldblatt, Samuel Halper, 
Dr. Arthur J. Hanson, Harry Hardwicke, 
Raymond A. Hoffman, Dr. C. Helge M. 
Janson, Miss Mary C. Kretzmann, Philip C. 
Lovejoy, Mrs. Franklin Marling, Jr., Dr. 
Josiah J. Moore, Dr. Vernon D. Nerger, 
Potter Palmer III, Harry George Prizant, 
J. T. Rankin, Robert C. Ransom, August 
Rassweiler, William E. Salomon, Jean L. 
Schureman, John A. Sidney, Mrs. Louis 
O. Sordahl, Dr. Elsie M. Tichy, L. Norton 
Wrisley, John E. Yates, Mrs. Walter 
Zitzewitz, Mrs. LeRoy J. Zorn. 



PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS 



Field 




News 



Ptiblished Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago 



Vol. 13 



MAY, 1942 



No. 5 



SOUTH AMERICA CAN AT BEST SUPPLY ONLY FRACTION OF U. S.' RUBBER NEEDS 



By b. e. dahlgren 

CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OF BOTANY 

A standard work on vegetable raw 
materials published in 1928 lists 488 plants 
known to yield rubber. The number known 
has been greatly increased since, and is 
usually roughly stated as more than 1,000. 
The Russian search 
for rubber sources is 
said to have revealed 
as many as 7,000, of 
which only 14 were 
considered of economic 
value. It is quite 
evident that a large 
number of plants have 
a milky sap or latex 
which solidifies as a 
sticky elastic rubber- 
like substance; also 
that of this very large 
number, only a few 
have up to the present 
time been of much 
practical importance. 
The overwhelmingly 
greater part of the 
entire world supply 
of rubber is, in fact, 
derived from a single 
botanical source, viz., 
the Brazilian rubber 
tree Hevea brasiliensis, 
native in parts of the 
Amazon region. It 
was the transplanta- 
tion of this to Ceylon 
in 1876 by seeds ob- 
tained in Brazil, and 
by plants to Singa- 
pore, and its large 

scale cultivation in the Malay Peninsula 
and the East Indies, that made possible the 
rapid expansion in the use of rubber which 
has taken place in the last thirty years. 

The world's production of rubber has 
recently (1940) reached a total of 1,500,000 
tons. Of this vast quantity, more than 
1,200,000 tons were produced in Malaya 
and the Netherlands East Indies, in the 
proportion respectively of about seven to 
five. Most of the remainder was contributed 
by other Asiatic countries: Ceylon almost 
100,000 tons; India a small amount; the 
now Japanese-occupied French Indo-China 



and Thailand, Burma, Sarawak and North 
Borneo, altogether somewhat less than 
200,000. Compared with all this, the 
African and South American production of 
about 20,000 tons each is truly insignificant, 
especially in view of present large require- 
ments of the United States. In 1 940, 670,000 




A DAILY TASK IN A BRAZILIAN RUBBER DEPOT 

Anuzon crude rubber comes to market in the form of Urge balls, produced by pouring the latex collected on a paddle ot 

stick upon which it coagulates when revolved in the smoke of a palm nut fire. At the warehouse each ball i& cut in two, 

as shown above, for examination before shipment. If the layers are not uniform they can be separated and pulled apart 

for grading and sorting. Photograph by Marshall Field Botanical Expedition to Brazil. 

tons were used in our country (out of an 
importation of more than 800,000, more than 
half of the world's production). 

WILD RUBBER OF THE AMAZON 

Before the development of the eastern 
plantations the Amazon basin was without 
a rival as a source of supply. Hevea trees 
of several species there grow spontaneously 
in the forests of an immense region including 
the northern states of Par4 and Amazonas, 
northern Matto Grosso, and the territory 
of Acre (all in Brazil) ; and parts of adjoining 
Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador and southern Co- 
lombia. The greater part of the territory 



has sparse population, and in most of the 
places where the trees are found the opera- 
tors of rubber concessions and the enter- 
prising prospectors who exploit the territory 
adjacent to the upper reaches of the rivers 
are obliged to bring their labor from more 
populous regions. The conditions of living 
in remote places in 
the forest are often 
of notable difficulty. 
The hardships of the 
rubber gatherer's life 
— its isolation and 
attendant dangers — 
have become pro- 
verbial in all places 
where the labor 
needed may be en- 
listed; likewise, rumors 
of high maintenance 
costs which must be 
paid by workers in 
places where all sup- 
plies are brought in 
from distant cities. 
Costs multiply with 
each shift or relay on 
the way up the rivers. 
Because of these 
conditions and others 
— including lack of 
proper sanitation and 
accompanying high 
incidence of disease — 
that surround the 
gathering of forest- 
grown rubber, only 
the most favorably 
situated parts of the 
Amazon territory can 
produce at all in com- 
petition with the Far East's compact and 
well managed rubber estates and auxiliary 
thousands of small plantations, operated in 
a region with an abundant population. 

With the production of these eastern 
plantations now cut ofT, however, the exist- 
ence of wild rubber trees in the Amazon 
again becomes a matter of importance. 
The number of such trees is unknown, but 
has been estimated at 200,000,000 to 
300,000,000. The questions of how much 
rubber may actually be obtainable from 
them, and how soon it may become avail- 
able, are somewhat difficult to estimate. 



Page 2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



May, 19 UZ 



One can only judge from past records and 
such indications as exist. The peak of 
production in the Amazon was reached just 
before the eastern plantations began to 
yield rubber in quantity. The average 
price of ParS rubber at the time was equiva- 
lent to about $1.10 per pound. As much 
as ten or eleven shillings per pound is said 
to have been asked in 1910 by exporters 
in Manads and Pard. 

In 1912 the Asiatic production, which 
began with one thousand tons in 1907, 
had reached 28,000, while 42,000 tons were 
produced in Brazil, and enough more from 
extra-Brazilian parts of the Amazon region 
to increase the South American total by a 
few thousands. The very next year the 
rapidly increasing East Indian output sur- 
passed that of Brazil, and in succeeding 
years doubled and tripled. The Amazon 
rubber boom then definitely collapsed, 
though not one-tenth of the wild rubber 
trees of Brazil and surrounding territory 
had been utilized. With falling prices (50 
cents a pound in 1920, then suddenly less 
than 20 cents) the Amazon production con- 
tinued to diminish, becoming less and less 
profitable until it reached a low point of 
8,000 tons gathered in the most accessible 
localities only. Since then there has been 
only a slight recovery. The 1939-40 pro- 
duction was 20,000, the exportation 12,000 
tons — barely enough for a week's supply in 
the United States alone. 

Not all the rubber of the Amazon is 
prime Par& rubber, and not all of it is the 
product of Hevea brasiliensis. Various other 
species of Hevea trees yield rubber of slightly 
inferior characteristics, but help increase the 
total output, and even trees of other genera, 
Castilla or "caucho," and Sapium, con- 
tribute to the bulk. The first rubber planta- 
tions on the American continent were, in- 
deed, of Mexican Castilla, but were aban- 
doned when the superiority of Hevea was 
realized. Sapium exists in several species 
at the higher elevations on the western 
margin of the Amazon basin, in Bolivia, 
and in the forest or "montana" of Peru to 
Colombia and Venezuela. Indeed, much of 
the rubber exported from the latter countries 
consists partly or predominantly of Sapium 
and is esteemed as good rubber, excellent 
for many important purposes, although 
when it is mixed in the field with Hevea 
rubber it is considered an adulteration of 
the latter. 

In connection with Sapium rubber it is 
interesting to recall that seeds of species 
of Sapium for experimental planting in the 
southern Caucasus region were gathered 
some years ago in the Andean countries by 
a Russian expedition. On arrival in Russian 
territory, after their long journey, the seeds 
would not germinate and it is said that the 
chief of the Russian Bureau of Plant In- 
dustry only with great difficulty was able 
to save the explorers concerned from 
execution for sabotage. 



The conditions surrounding the gathering 
of forest-grown rubber have in the course 
of years been somewhat improved, but in 
most respects remain essentially as they 
were when Brazilian 
rubber production was 
a matter of great im- 
portance to the world. 

LABOR IS PROBLEM 

Methods of tapping 
the trees have become 
less destructive and 
more efficient. Better 
sanitation and medical 
service, and more rapid 
and dependable river 
transportation can be 
provided without great 
difficulty, but the labor 
supply is, unfortu- 
nately, as scarce as ever 
in most parts of the 
Amazon, and must be 
recruited or supplied 
from outside, though it 
is said that the number 
of rubber gatherers en- 
gaged at no time 
exceeded five thousand. 
Introduction of labor from elsewhere raises 
an always troublesome immigration ques- 
tion, and there are few places in the Ameri- 
can tropics with an excess population. 
Nevertheless, granted a considerable increase 
in price to cover risks and cost of collection 
and transportation, with enough more 
guaranteed to stimulate a special effort, an 
output of 50,000 tons within a few years 
would seem a not unreasonable expectation, 
and if the demand should continue, in time 
perhaps twice as much would become 
available. 

Miscellaneous minor sources of rubber 
will be utilized to the fullest practicable 
extent, such as the guayule of which 
Mexico in 1940 produced 4,000 tons, but 
this, like the dandelion root kog-saghiz 
(a perennial planted in Russia in 1940 to 
the extent of 170,000 acres), requires several 
years of growth in order to attain any 
considerable size and rubber content. Com- 
merce will doubtless be renewed in some 
species of rubber now practically abandoned, 
such as CearS, and Manicoba. 

Rubber tree seeds and seedlings are being 
currently distributed to various tropical 
American countries, where with proper care 
they should eventually contribute to the 
rubber supply of the western hemisphere, 
and thereby help reduce future dependence 
on eastern production. In this connection 
it may be interesting to note that more than 
one-half of all the rubber of Asia is produced 
on small plantations averaging not more 
than about 100 acres each. 

A search is also being made for a rubber 
source plant that might be grown on a large 
scale as an annual crop, but it appears at 
present to be very unlikely that within a 



lifetime either a new rubber yielding plant 
or new plantations in the western hemisphere 
will substitute or displace the Hevea rubber 
of the Asiatic tropics which undoubtedly 




A LOI u^ IHAT RARK SUBSTANCE, RUBBER- 
— yet it's only a drop in the bucket, considering our national needs. This photograph, 
taken by the Marshall Field Botanical Expedition to Brazil, shows a typical scene in a 
warehouse in the rubber.growing state of Para, at Belem, the Amazon delta port from 

which most of the meager South American supply is shipped. 



will become available again, by military 
force or otherwise. 

SYNTHETICS MAY PROVE BEST SOLUTION 

There appears, on the other hand, to be 
a distinct possibility that the present loss 
of the eastern plantations will lead to 
achievements in the production of synthetics 
that in the long run may reduce even prime 
plantation or Pard rubber to a secondary 
or competing place. 

A 100,000-ton synthetic production is 
apparently to be expected within a year, 
as an aid to the existing, carefully rationed 
stock of crude and reclaimed rubber. The 
reclaimed product may enter into the output 
of rubber manufactures to the extent of 
more than the usual one-third. 

In the meantime it is apparent that if a 
relatively speedy restoration of the rubber 
supply from the East cannot be achieved, 
the solution of the rubber supply problem 
will have to be assumed mainly by the 
chemical industries. 



A graphic synopsis of noteworthy facts 
about the sugar industries, both cane and 
beet, is presented by exhibits in the Hall of 
Food Plants (Hall 25). 



Museum Hours Extended 
for Summer Period 

Summer visiting hours, 9 a.m. to 
6 P.M. daily, including Sundays and 
holidays, will go into effect at Field 
Museum on May 1, and continue 
throughout the period up to and in- 
cluding September 7 (Labor Day). 



May, 191^ 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Pages 



SPRING WILD FLOWERS— 

If you like them, and want to know 
more about them, read, Spring Wild 
Flowers, and Spring and Early Sum- 
mer Wild Flowers, two illustrated leaf- 
lets published by Field Museum. 
J. Francis Macbride, Associate 
Curator of the Herbarium, is the 
author. The booklets are on sale at 
THE BOOK SHOP of FIELD 
MUSEUM— 25 cents each. 



FIRST WOMAN AVIATRIX OF CHINA VISITS FIELD MUSEUM 



HEAD DEFORMATION 

Endeavors to improve on nature by modi- 
fying in some way the human figure are 
very common. In many cases even the head 
form is changed by causing the developing 
skull to take a different shape under pres- 
sure. A peculiar contrivance for accomplish- 
ing this, used by the Milanaus, one of the 
Dyak tribes of Borneo, is shown in Case 
No. 39 in Hall G. 

A padded block fastened to a wooden bar 
is placed on the forehead, and the ends of 
the bar are attached by two cords to a band 
around the back of the head. By tightening 
the cords the pressure can be increased. 
The cords are passed in opposite directions 
through a hole in a coin or similar object 
which can be used to twist the cords. In 
this way the pressure may be gradually 
increased. The cords fastened to the back 
band on each side pass through holes in the 
ends of the bar and along its front, the coin 
being about the center of the bar. 

This apparatus is used on children while 
they are very young, beginning usually 
within the first month after birth. The 
pressure is not applied continuously, but 
only for about fifteen minutes on successive 
days or at somewhat longer intervals for a 
month or so, ten to twenty applications 
being sufficient to bring about the desired 
effect. The pressure is applied only when 
the child is asleep, and is relaxed if it cries. 

The effect of this treatment is slightly 
to flatten and broaden the head, giving a 
more rounded face, this being the most 
admired form. Only female children, as a 
rule, are thus treated. 



DO YOU KNOW THAT— 

— people of some of the native tribes of 
eastern Siberia use clothing made of fish 
skins? Skins of large fishes such as carp, 
salmon and trout are treated so as to be 
almost as flexible as cloth and are then 
made into various garments for men and 
women. For ceremonial and other special 
purposes these garments of fish skin are 
ornamented with appliqui patterns made by 
sewing bits of dyed fish skin in patterns 
on pieces of cloth that are then attached 
to the garments. Garments made of fish 
skin are exhibited in several cases in Hall L 
(Asiatic Ethnology). — A.C.W. 



Miss Lee Ya-ching (formerly of Shanghai, 
and later of Hong-Kong), noted because of 
her accomplishments as the first woman in 
China to qualify as an aviation pilot, visited 
Field Museum on April 15. Dr. C. Martin 
Wilbur, Curator of Chine.se Archaeology 
and Ethnology, acted as host, representing 
the Museum. Miss Lee was especially 
interested in observing how the Museum's 
comprehensive collections interpret the arts, 
sciences, and general culture of her country 
to Americans. These collections, the largest 
assemblage of Chinese archaeological and 
ethnological material in the Middle West, 
occupy three halls: George T. and Frances 
Gaylord Smith Hall (Hall 24), Hall 32, and 
the Hall of Chinese 
Jades (Hall 30) which 
contains more than a 
thousand exquisitely 
carved jade objects. 

Miss Lee, who has 
served her country in 
the air at home, is now 
in America making a 
tour of our principal 
cities in the interest of 
United China Relief. 
She is flying her own 
airplane on many of 
her journeys in this 
country. 

In recognition of the 
China Relief activities, 
Saturday, April 18 was 
designated as "China 
Day at Field Museum" 
by Lieutenant-Colonel 
Clifford C. Gregg, 
Director. On that day 
the Museum was the 
scene of a celebration 
by a group of children 
from Chicago's China- 
town, and their mothers. 
Dr. Chang-Lok Chen, 
Consul-General of 
China in this city, and 
officials of United China 
Relief, were present. 

The exhibits in Hall 
24 illustrate the devel- 
opment of Chinese civi- 
lization in all its varied 



phases from its beginnings in the Neolithic 
period (about 2000 B.C.) down to the latter 
part of the 18th century. There are two 
main divisions: the ancient original culture 
of China prior to the intrusion of Buddhism, 
and the culture of Buddhistic China, as 
influenced and modified by religious and 
artistic currents coming from India about 
the third century a.d. 

In Hall 32 modern Chinese culture is 
illustrated. Extensive exhibits explain the 
Lamaist religion of Tibet. One section is 
devoted to Chinese and Tibetan theatricals, 
and presents all the main scenes in a drama 
based on the conception of Hades which 
forms a part of the Taoist religion. 




Chicago Dally Newt photo 

FINDS MONUMENT OF HER HOMELAND IN MUSEUM 
Miss Lee Ya-ching, first woman aviatrix of China, inspecting marble lion which once 



guarded the entrance to a Manchu Empire government building in Peking, with Dr. C. 
Martin Wilbur, Curator of Chinese Archaeology and Ethnology, and Joanne Westphal 
(left center) and her sister Ruth. The little girls, whose home is in Stanton, Michigan, 
and Miss Lee, who is touring the United States in the interest of United China Relief, 
were equally fascinated by Field Miueum's extensive collections from China. 



Museum Fossil Hunter Returns 
from Honduras Expedition 

Mr. Paul 0. McGrew, Assistant Curator 
of Paleontology, returned to Field Museum 
April 20 from a paleontological expedition 
he has been conducting in Honduras since 
November. Assisting Mr. McGrew in his 
explorations were Mr. Albert Potter, Curator 
of the Museum of the Chadron (Nebraska) 
State Teachers' College; Seflor Eliseo 
Carabantes, a Honduran school master, and 



a Honduran Indian who served as camp man, 
cook, and muleteer. 

Mr. McGrew obtained some 250 fossil 
specimens of mammals of both early Pliocene 
age (7,000,000 years ago) and Pleistocene 
age (500,000 years ago). He will publish 
an account of the expedition's work in the 
next issue of Field Museum News. 



Much amethyst comes from the hollow 
agates which are found in Uruguay. 



Page J, 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



May, 19i2 



A SPECIAL WARTIME EXHIBIT OF "STRATEGIC MATERIALS" 



By SHARAT K. ROY 

CURATOR OK GEOLOGY 

Editor's Note: A special wartime exhibit of 
the viaterials defined by the United States Army 
and Navy Munitions Board as "strategic," 
"critical," and "essential" — together with a 
colored map of the world, twelve by seven feet 
in dimensions, showing where each comes from 
and why many are now so difficult to obtain — 
may be seen in Stanley Field Hall. 

The exhibit was installed by Mr. Harry 
Changnon, Preparator in the Department of 
Geology, under the direction of Dr. Sharat K. 
Roy, Curator of Geology. Mrs. Anne Harding 
Spoehr, an artist on the Museum staff, painted 
the map in attractive style. 

Today the United States is engaged in a 
desperate war, the scope and magnitude of 
which is far beyond anything known in the 
history of man. This war must be won, for 
in it is involved the future of the whole of 



nately, as it must, that dangerously wasteful 
period of indecision and lack of cohesion 
has now come to an end, and the spirit to 
strip for action is unmistakably here. There 
is no longer doubt in anyone's mind that 
we are engaged in a titanic struggle of such 
vast proportions that it cannot be fought 
and won except by putting the entire 
resources of the country to work. In fact, 
this is a war of resources and production — 
of competitive production. The side which 
can outproduce the other is the side which 
is destined to tip the balance of the war in 
its favor. 

Can we outproduce the axis? It is not 
merely patriotic instinct to say "yes"; facts 
and figures prove that we can. But we must 
not delude ourselves. When we say we can. 



SOURCES OF OUR STRATEGIC RAW MATERIALS 

VITAL WAR MATERIALS FOR WHICH WE ARE LARGELY DEPENDENT ON IMPORTS 




GRAPHIC PRESENTATION OF AMERICA'S PRIME WAR PROBLEM 

Special exhibit currently displayed in Stanley Field Hall, showing what materials are considered as "strategic" by the 

military authorities of the United States. The exhibit is designed to explain in a vivid and easily understood manner the 

serious existing situation; and to impress upon the public the vital necessity of diverting to effective war efforts such 

supplies as remain available. The lesson: Civilians must sacrifice so that Soldiers may win. 



mankind. The reverses so far suffered are 
disquieting but were not unexpected. All 
through history, attackers have had the 
initial advantage of surprise over the 
defenders. Rarely, if ever, has an unpre- 
pared nation marched to war and to victory 
without first sustaining losses or without 
suffering the bitterness of initial retreats, 
and discouraging and often unsuccessful 
defensive maneuvers. 

This unpreparedness and the resulting 
tragedy of "too late, too far, and too little" 
are not difficult to understand. Democracy, 
unlike dictatorship, is slow and reluctant to 
encroach upon the peacetime living standard 
of its people. The will to mobilize the 
full strength of the nation to bear upon 
the enemy can hardly be translated into 
action overnight in a democracy. Fortu- 



we should say so reservedly. Industrial 
plants, skilled hands, technological brains, 
and the capacity to produce cannot alone 
guarantee the staggering production goals 
that must be reached. Machines of war are 
made from raw materials; the home front of 
industry must be supplied with raw materials 
before industry, in turn, can supply the 
armed forces with their munitions. Steel 
cannot be made without manganese, or 
aircraft without aluminum; armor plate 
requires chromium, and solders must have 
tin; ammunition needs mercury, and high 
speed cutting tools call for tungsten; tires 
there will be only if we have rubber, and 
parachutes demand a supply of silk, or a 
suitable substitute — and substitutes them- 
selves may depend upon other raw materials 
which we may lack. The question, then, is: 



Have we all the raw materials indispensable 
to our military requirements and to victory? 
The answer is discouraging. We have not. 

DEFICIENCIES IN FIFTEEN ITEMS 

This blunt fact may shock, even dismay 
those who have never doubted the strength 
of America's vast natural resources. It is 
true that the United States is the dominant 
mineral nation. It has adequate reserves 
of most of the high tonnage minerals — 
coal, oil, iron and the like, and an abundant 
supply of a host of lesser raw materials 
essential to its needs. It is self-sufficient to 
a degree beyond any other country. But 
despite this favored position, it is not 
wholly self-sufficient. 

In reality, no modern industrial nation is 
.self-sufficient. For some understandable but 
inexplicable reasons Nature has not dis- 
tributed her gifts to mankind equally over 
the globe. America may rightfully rejoice 
in being the recipient of the lion's share of 
Nature's wealth, but at the same time it 
cannot afford to ignore the grim reality 
that it is deficient in certain vital raw 
materials without which it cannot exist as 
an industrial power, much less win the war. 
These deficiency materials consist of fifteen 
items, namely: aluminum, antimony, chrom- 
ium, manganese, mercury, nickel, tin, tung- 
sten, coconut shell-char, manila fiber, optical 
glass, quinine, rubber, silk, and wool. The 
Army and Navy Munitions Board has 
designated them as "strategic" materials or 
materials which are indispensable to our 
military requirements in time of war (and 
essential to the maintenance of our economic 
order in time of peace), for which we are 
dependent in whole or in part on sources 
outside the continental limits of America. 

FEW REALIZE AXIS GAINS 

To be sure, we have stock piles of all of 
these materials, but they are fast dwindling, 
and with every passing month our foreign 
sources of supply are becoming fewer and 
less and less accessible. By successive 
murderous blows, the sons of Nippon have 
knocked us out of a quarter of our supply 
of chromite from the Philippines, 95 per 
cent of our requirements of rubber, 90 per 
cent of our imports of tin, and practically 
100 per cent of our supply of quinine from 
Malaya and the Netherlands East Indies. 
Prior to the Pearl Harbor attack we often 
heard such questions as: "What good is 
Guam?" "Why defend the PhiUppines?" 
"Why must we fight for the Indies?" The 
reasons must now be clear even to the most 
complacent. 

Few are aware that the Axis by its con- 
quest in Europe and southeastern Asia is 
now almost evenly balanced against the 
United Nations in vital raw materials. In 
fact, the Axis has now every resource that it 
lacked before the war started. It is hard 
to realize how dangerously the United 
States potential of self-sufl^ciency in stra- 
tegic materials has tumbled in the course of 



May, 19 UZ 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page 5 



a brief five months. Such are the vagaries 
of world economy and balance of power! 

The immediate problem confronting the 
nation is: Can it replenish what it has lost 
to feed hundreds of hungry furnaces with 
their daily ration? The answer is not at 
hand, but when life's great challenges come, 
they must be met with all the ingenuity 
that can be mustered. This may not be 
sufficient, but it will go a long way towards 
attaining the objective. The age-old saying, 
"Necessity is the mother of invention," 
never assumes a more significant role than 
it does in time of national emergency. 

WHERE OUR HOPES LIE 

To cope with the situation, a well directed 
program of exploration for new resources, 
of search for substitutes, of development of 
domestic low-grade deposits, and of com- 
mercial integration with South America 
has been launched. The results of these 
efforts are already considerable. Sizable 
deposits of tungsten ores — scheelite and 
wolframite — have been discovered in Idaho 
and California. These, plus a number of 
old mines which have been reopened, have 
upped the production of tungsten to about 
10 per cent of the United States' require- 
ments. New technical processes for getting 
the metal out of low grade ores or concen- 
trating it in a usable form have been devel- 
oped and are being successfully applied to 
many a previously abandoned complex ore 
of chromium, manganese, aluminum and 
other strategic metals. On the whole, 
technological attacks in the fields of geology, 
chemistry and physics are boosting the 
production of strategic metals to a level 
hitherto thought to be unattainable. But 
there is no room for over-optimism. Raw 
materials cannot be produced at the sound 
of the bugle, and some of them cannot be 
produced at any price or in any length of 
time. It is best to realize that the crisis 
is on, that the nation is in peril. It is now 
a race against time. We must get as far 
toward self-sufficiency in strategic materials 
as our skill and resourcefulness permit, for 
upon these materials depends the war's 
duration and who shall be the victors. 



THINOS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED 



"Man o' War" Immortalized 

Few, if any, race horses ever won such 
acclaim as "Man o' War." Many people 
will fondly recall his triumphs this month 
of May, with the coming of the famous and 
spectacular Kentucky Derby. 

Little known even to people familiar 
with Field Museum's collections is the fact 
that this famous horse is immortalized in 
— a sculpture which forms part of an exhibit 
in Stanley Field Hall. This model of the 
great horse is displayed not as a memorial 
to his accomplishments on the turf, but 
rather to fulfill a scientific function in 



illustrating the final step in the evolution 
of the horse. Man o' War was selected to 
typify the highest development of modern 
equine animals, in a series of models showing 
various stages over many millions of years. 

The sculpture of Man o' War is the work 
of the late Frederick Blaschke, well-known 
for his sculptures of prehistoric man and 
animals in Field Museum and other institu- 
tions. Mr. Blaschke modeled the horse 
from life shortly after its retirement from 
racing, and presented the sculpture, which 
is one-fifth the actual size of the animal, 
to the Museum as a gift. 

Six principal stages of horse development 
are shown by the complete exhibit. First 
illustrated is the "dawn horse" Eohipptis 




RACING HORSE AS SCIENCE SPECIMEN 
Sculpture of "Man o' War," famous for his turf records. 
Used to typify tfie modern horse in exhibit illustrating the 
evolution of the family from 55,000,000 years ago. The 
late Frederick Blaschke made this life study for the Museum, 

which lived approximately 55,000,000 years 
ago, was only about the size of a fox, 
and instead of hoofs had four toes on its 
fore feet, and three on the hind ones. This 
is followed in the series by: Mesohippus, a 
three-toed horse about the size of a collie 
dog that lived some 35,000,000 years ago; 
Merychippus, a slender-limbed small desert 
horse with three toes that lived about 
19,000,000 years ago; Neohipparion, an 
early one-toed desert horse of medium size 
that lived about 7,000,000 years ago; 
Equus seotti, a large one-toed or single-hoofed 
horse which appeared about 4,000,000 years 
ago, and finally Man o' War typifying the 
modern race horse. 

Further details of horse development are 
illustrated in the exhibit by fossil skulls and 
feet of the various kinds of horses. 

"Although the first known horses occurred 
in North America, soon spreading to South 
America, and not appearing in Asia and 
Europe until later times, they became com- 
pletely extinct on the American continents 
in prehistoric times," says Mr. Elmer S. 
Riggs, Curator of Paleontology. "The 
modern horses of the western hemisphere 
are descended from stock imported from 
Europe, Asia or elsewhere, where the family 
survived after its extinction here." 



SAPPHIRE AND RUBY LEGENDS 

By HENRY W. NICHOLS 

CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OP GEOIXWY 

The ancients used many of the same 
names for gems which we use today, but 
often they applied them to different gems 
than those to which we assign them. In 
consequence, since it is thus frequently un- 
clear just what gem they meant, it is also 
uncertain to which gems should be attached 
various beliefs and legends associated with 
various names. Furthermore, because they 
were unable to discriminate between the 
several mineral sf)ecies, the ancients often 
grouped together under one name gems of 
the most diverse kinds. Hence, in the old 
accounts whenever some special property 
is ascribed to one gem, it may well be that 
it also applied to a number of other gems 
that at the time were given the same name. 

The name "sapphire" appears to be very 
old — it runs through many languages with 
but little change. Sapphire in English, it 
is sapphirus in Latin, zapphiros in Greek, 
sapphire in Hebrew, saphirinon in Chaldean, 
and, in old Arabic, sappir. It did not apply 
to what we now call sapphire alone but 
included other blue gems and even such 
opaque gems as lapis lazuli. In some 
countries the sapphire was called "hyacinth," 
the name now given an entirely different 
gem, and it probably had other names as 
well. In Roman times the ruby was placed 
with other fiery red stones such as garnet 
and some zircons under the name "car- 
buncle," a name now limited to the garnet. 

Both sapphire and ruby were esteemed as 
stones of good fortune. According to ancient 
belief the sapphire procured the favor of 
princes, prevented evil and impure thoughts, 
and freed one from enchantments. It is 
such an enemy to poison that when placed 
in a glass with a spider or venomous reptile 
it would kill it. It was sacred to Apollo, 
and later was the symbol of the Apostle 
Andrew. One ancient author, Epiphanes, 
claimed that the Ten Commandments given 
Moses were inscribed on sapphire. The 
star sapphire was regarded as being a 
bearer of good fortune, and, in addition, a 
cure for apoplexy. The Persians believed 
that the earth rested on a great sapphire 
and that the reflection from this colored 
the sky. According to tradition the ruby 
turns black when danger approaches, and 
recovers when the danger passes. It is a 
sovereign remedy for the plague and poisons. 
It drives away evil spirits and bad dreams, 
keeps the wearer in health, and cheers his 
mind. In the East the ruby is a talisman 
never to be shown willingly to friends. It 
is considered ominous if a ruby contains 
black spots. 

Among the legends of the light-giving 
powers of the ruby is the old Talmudic 
tradition that the only light in Noah's Ark 
was a carbuncle which may have been a 
ruby, zircon, or garnet. 



Page 6 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



May, 19i2 



Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 
Roosevelt Road and Field Drive, Chicago 

Telephone: Wabash 9410 



THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 
Lbstek Armour Stanley Field 

Sbwell L. Avery Samuel Insull, Jr. 

W. McCoRMiCK Blair Charles A. McCulloch 

Leopold E. Block William H. Mitchell 

Boardman Conovbr George A. Richardson 

Walter J. Cummings Theodore Roosevelt 

Albert B. Dick, Jr. Solomon a. Smith 

Howard W. Fenton Albert A. Spragub 

Joseph N. Field Silas H. Strawn 

Marshall Field Albert H. Wetten 

John P. Wilson 

OFFICERS 

Stanley Field Prmdent 

Albert A. Spragub FirtI Vict-Pretitlenl 

Silas H. Strawn Stcond Viee-Prendeni 

Albert B. Dick, Jr. Third Vice-PrendenI 

CUFTORD C. Gregg Director and Secrttary 

Solomon A. Smith . . . Treantrer and Aamtlant Steretaryf 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 

EDITOR 
CUFTORD C. Gregg Director of the Miueum 

ASSOCIATE EDITOR 
Wilfred H. Osgood Curator Emeritus, Zoology 

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anlhropolony 

B. E. Dahlgrbn Chief Curtxtor of Botany 

Henry W. Nichols Chief Curator of Geology 

Karl P. Schmidt Chief Curator of Zoology 

MANAGING EDITOR 
H. B. Harte PuWic Rclultoiu Counsel 

Members are requested to Inform the Museum 
promptly of changes of address. 



CURATOR C. C. SANBORN RETURNS 
FROM PERUVIAN EXPLORATION 

The Field Museum Expedition to Peru 
has been completed with the return to 
Chicago early in April of Mr. Colin C. 
Sanborn, Curator of Mammals, after nearly 
nine months of zoological collecting. 

Mr. Sanborn obtained some 400 specimens 
of mammals, approximately 900 reptiles, 
300 fishes, 100 birds, and numerous insects. 
A large part of these were successfully 
shipped to the Museum through the sub- 
marine zone prior to January; the balance 
of Mr. Sanborn's collections are temporarily 
stored at Callao awaiting favorable shipping 
conditions. Mr. Sanborn himself flew from 
Lima to Miami, Florida. 

The collections obtained by the explorer, 
together with previous collections obtained 
by the Magellanic Expedition of which he 
was a member in 1939-40, give Field Museum 
the largest representation of the fauna of 
southern Peru that has ever been brought 
out of that country. 

Through the courtesy and hearty co- 
operation of officials of the Peruvian govern- 
ment, the University of San Marcos at 
Lima, and the Museo Javier Prado con- 
nected with the university, arrangements 
were made whereby Field Museum will con- 
tinue to make a specialty of the zoology of 
Peru, and will have the collaboration of the 
Peruvian institutions in research projects 
connected with this subject. Seiior Enrique 
Zufiiga, a member of the Javier Prado 
Museum staff, spent several months with 



Mr. Sanborn in the field, collecting speci- 
mens on the southern coast of Peru, in the 
mountains up to elevations of 16,000 feet, 
and in the jungles of the eastern part of the 
country where the explorers had some rather 
annoying experiences with great swarms of 
flies and red bugs. 

Mr. Sanborn collected many animals 
necessary for rounding out the Field Mu- 
seum collection, including two important 
species of wild Peruvian guinea pigs, and a 
number of species of small mammals new 
to science. The expedition was jointly 
sponsored by Field Museum and the John 
Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. 



Museum Workers Study First Aid 

In preparation for possible eventualities 
due to the war, a group of about thirty 
Field Museum employees, both men and 
women, are training for first aid under the 
direction of an instructor assigned by the 
Red Cross. Classes are being held at the 
Museum twice a week for two-hour periods. 
Employees of the Shedd Aquarium and other 
neighboring institutions are participating in 
the same classes. 



Albino Natives in Africa 

White Negroes and Negresses (albinos) 
are not uncommon in Africa. Sometimes 
the albinism is complete, sometimes pie- 
bald. The skin is, however, pinkish and 
not white. In former days, before European 
control, an albino male was executed at the 
conclusion of peace terms, following war- 
fare. This was at Onitsha in Nigeria, and 
there is no evidence to show that the practice 
was common. There is a record that the 
Bokongo tribe required an albino or some 
hair from one before they could form a new 
branch of a secret society. Some writers 
refer to albinos being regarded as reincarna- 
tions of deceased chiefs. Literature con- 
tains references to the matrimonial diffi- 
culties of albino males, who are held in 
disfavor by women. There is an instance 
of the usual tribal marks, which are incisions 
in the skin, being denied to an albino. 



Staff Notes 

Mr. Rudyerd Boulton, Curator of Birds, 
has been granted indefinite leave of absence 
from the Museum to accept an appointment 
to the staff of the Co-ordinator of Informa- 
tion at Washington, D.C. 



Mr. A. A. Miller, the Museum's coUo- 
typer, has retired on pension after long and 
faithful service to this institution. 



Mr. Kari P. Schmidt, Chief Curator of 
the Department of Zoology, was recently 
elected president of the American Society 
of Icthyologists and Herpetologists, at the 
annual meeting held in New York. Mr. 
Schmidt has been honored also by an 



appointment as a special lecturer in the 
Department of Zoology at the University 
of Chicago. This appointment was recently 
confirmed for a three-year term by the board 
of trustees of the university, and becomes 
effective October 1 of this year. 



Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood, Curator Emeritus 
of Zoology, has returned from his collecting 
trip in Arizona and California, bringing a 
number of specimens needed for the Museum 
collections. While in San Diego he made 
an address before the annual meeting of the 
Cooper Club, an ornithological organization 
of which he was one of the original founders 
forty-nine years ago. 



Mr. Loren P. Woods, Assistant Curator 
of Fishes, left April 15 for a brief field trip 
to southwestern Indiana. 



Mr. C. J. Albrecht recently returned from 
a brief visit to the Marineland Aquarium, 
Florida, where he made studies of living 
porpoises in connection with his preparation 
of models of whales and their relatives. 



FIELD .MUSEUM HONOR ROLL 
Now In the Service 
of their Country: 

Theodore Roosevelt, Trustee — Briga- 
dier-General, U.S. Army. 

Lester Armour, Trustee — Lieutenant- 
Commander, U.S. Navy. 

Joseph Nash Field, Trustee — Lieu- 
tenant (J. G.), U.S. Navy. 

Clifford C. Gregg, Director — Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel, U.S. Army. 

Melvin A. Traylor, Jr., Associate, 
Birds — Private, U.S. Marine Corps. 

Dr. John Rinaldo, Associate, South- 
western Archaeology — Private, U.S. 
Army. 

Dr. Alexander Spoehr, Assistant Cur- 
ator, North American Ethnology 
and Archaeology — Private, U.S. 
Army. 

Bert E. Grove, Guide-Lecturer — 
American Field Service, in North 
Africa. 

Patrick T. McEnery, Guard — Master- 
at-arms, U.S. Navy. 

John Syckowski, Guard — Chief Com- 
missary Steward, U.S. Navy. 

George Jahrand, Guard— Chief Water 
Tender, U.S. Navy. 

M. C. Darnall, Jr., Guard — Candi- 
dates' Class, U.S. Marine Corps 
Reserve (Officers' Training Course). 

James C. Mclntyre, Guard — Private, 
U.S. Army, Coast Artillery. 

Clyde James Nash, Guard — Chief 
Gunner's Mate, U.S. Navy. 

Nicholas Repar, Printer — First Class 
Seaman, U.S. Navy. 

IN A CIVILIAN STATUS 

Rudyerd Boulton, Curator of Birds 
—Staff of Co-ordinator of Informa- 
tion, Washington, D.C. 



May, 1H2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page 7 



SOMETHING ABOUT SARONGS 

By WILFRID D. HAMBLY 

CURATOR OF AFRICAN ETHNOLOGY 

Fashion Note: — Despite their latter-day 
renunciation by Miss Dorothy Lamour of 
Hollywood fame, who made them a by-word 
in the American home, sarongs will continue 
to be worn in the East Indies, Malaya, and 
elsewhere (including probably even Holly- 
wood). Genuine sarongs, as contrasted 
with the motion picture varieties, are dis- 
played in Field Museum's Department of 
Anthropology (Halls F and G — ethnological 
collections from Polynesia, Micronesia, 
Malay Peninsula and Malay Archipelago). 

War Note: — With the placing of General 
Douglas A. MacArthur, U.S.A., at the 
head of all United Nations forces which are 
to take the ofifensive against Japan, there is 
new hope for all of the peoples in the 
countries and islands with which the sarong 
has become so closely associated as to be 
the identifying element in the minds of many 
Americans. 

Ethnological Notes: — Most Americans, 
however, really know little about genuine 
sarongs. Chicagoans with distorted ideas, 
derived from celluloid versions, can correct 
their information by inspecting the speci- 
mens displayed in the Museum. 

The term "sarong" is derived from the 
Malay word "saron." This type of garment 
is the chief article of dress worn by both 
sexes in the Malay Archipelago, Ceylon, 
and some parts of India. It is a long strip 
of cloth, usually of cotton or of silk, sewed 
together at the ends and worn as a petticoat 
tucked around the waist. The name 
"sarong" is also given to certain kinds of 
printed European cotton cloth which are 
exported for making sarongs. 

In Java and the Dutch East Indies, by A. 
Cabation, a sarong is defined as a skirt 
falling from the waist, or sometimes above 
it, to the feet. When open in front it is 
called the kain pandjang. In Java batik 
work is for the well-to-do; the poor have 
their sarongs colored with woven stripes. 

To a sarong a man adds a sort of vest 
of white cotton, or a short jacket with wide 
sleeves. Women sometimes add to the 
sarong a wide bandage of blue cloth (called 
kemben) which is wound round the bust, 
under the arms. 

An indispensable article of feminine toilet 
is the slendang, a scarf somewhat over 
twenty inches wide, often ornamented with 
fringes. It is colored brown, green, or yellow, 
or among the poorer classes deep blue. A 
well-dressed woman wears this for ornament; 
the women of the people wear it across one 
shoulder, like a bandolier, and use it for 
carrying the baby, or for bringing home 
articles purchased at the market. A 
Javanese woman is always bareheaded in 
the presence of men, but she decks her 
hair with flowers. Both the men and the 
women go barefoot. 



Women of central Sumatra wear a wrap- 
around skirt, or sarong, which reaches from 
the waist nearly to the ankles. The sarong 
is often worn by men outside their trousers 
but reaches only to the knees. It is often 
made of cotton with decorative elements in 
colored silk or gold thread (which may be 
imitation or real according to the owner's 
bank balance). 

The skirt on the model of a Menangkabau 
bride, among the Sumatran exhibits in 
Hall G, may be called a sarong. In Case 16, 
Hall G, is a royal sarong worn by Sultan 
Idris of Perak, Federated Malay States, at 
his last marriage. The design is woven in 
gold thread by skilled weavers who often 
lived in the palace. 

BATIK DESIGNS FAVORED 

Many sarongs are decorated with batik 
designs. In the batik process a cotton fabric 
is covered partially with a thin ground of 
wax before plunging it into a bath of dye, 
so as to keep from the dye certain parts of 
the textile in such a manner as to form a 
design. This operation, repeated several 
times in succession, but with a dye of 
different color on each occasion, and with 
the stuff recoated so as to preserve different 
portions from the dye, finally produces a 
design. Batik work is done by women. 
Wax, held in a little cup or funnel of copper, 
trickles through a fine tube and makes 
designs in warm liquid wax which then 
hardens. The process resembles the making 
of icing designs on a wedding cake. When 
the worker has traced the design in wax 
upon one face of the cloth, she uses the 
same means to decorate the other side, 
so that the stuff has no wrong side, and may 
be used with either side uppermost. The 
fabric is then plunged into a dye vat and 
the dye colors all portions that are not 
covered with the wax design. The wax is 
removed by means of boiling water; then, 
before dyeing again, a second wax design is 
added. This process is repeated until the 
design is complete in all colors. Special 
designs are reserved for certain articles of 
clothing or for certain persons. A sultan 
may wear batiks of designs that no other 
person might dare to wear. 



SEEDS USED AS STANDARDS 
OF WEIGHT AND MEASURE 

By LLEWELYN WILLIAMS 

CURATOR OF ECONOMIC BOTANY 

From ancient times down to the present, 
various seeds (especially those of the bean 
family) and cereal grains have served as 
standards of weight and measure in widely 
separated parts of the world. During the 
middle ages, for example, certain European 
towns or seats of commercial activity had 
their own particular unit of weight. In 
the French city of Troyes, famed for its 
agricultural fairs, a kernel of wheat was 
adopted as a standard and this gave rise 
to the term troy weight, the pound troy 
being equivalent to 5,760 grains or 12 



ounces. In the early part of the fourteenth 
century the troy system was accepted in 
England and elsewhere for weighing bread, 
silk, gold, silver and jewelry, but nowadays 
it is used exclusively in Weighing the few 
precious metals. 

BASIS OF AVOIRDUPOIS SYSTEM 

In parts of southern France and north- 
ern Spain the pea (pais) was the acknowl- 
edged standard of weight and some main- 
tain that this gave origin to the term 
avoirdupois. This system was introduced 
into England about the year 1300 for weigh- 
ing coarse commodities, such as grain, hay, 
butter, sugar, tea, etc., and is the official 
standard of weight and measure employed, 
with some modification, in the United 
States. A decree promulgated by Edward II 
of England in 1324 stipulated that "three 
barley corns, round and dry" define an 
English inch. Thus a single kernel of 
barley was regarded as one-third of an inch. 

It is generally believed that the original 
carat of jewelers, still in vogue for weighing 
precious gems, is the equivalent of the tiny 
seed of the "carob" {Ceratonia siliqita), a 
small leguminous tree growing along the 
shores of the Mediterranean. Its pods are 
known as "St. John's bread," from the 
belief that they constituted the food of 
St. John while he was in the wilderness; 
also, because these were the husks cited in 
the parable of the Prodigal Son. In India, 
jewelers and druggists employ the seed of 
"rati" (Abrus precatorius), a leguminous 
plant of twining habit native to Asia but 
now found in most tropical regions. Each 
seed is equivalent to slightly less than two 
grains, and it is stated that the weight of 
the famous Kohinoor diamond was ascer- 
tained on the basis of these nearly globular 
seeds. On account of their unusual color — 
brilliant scarlet with a black scar — they are 
also popular in some countries for necklaces 
and bracelets. 

ORIENTAL STANDARDS 

A Persian standard of weight, the Nukhud, 
is equal to rij of an ounce avoirdupois. It 
is the seed of the chick-pea, an annual 
plant cultivated extensively in the Orient 
and southern Europe for food and in the 
preparation of sweetmeats. In the Far 
East the seeds of the red sandalwood tree 
(Adenanthera pavonina), of the bean family, 
are employed by jewelers and goldsmiths as 
weights, each seed, being remarkably uni- 
form in size, averaging four grains. They 
also served as an article of food, and their 
scarlet color adapts them for making orna- 
ments, such as bracelets, necklaces, etc. 
In the Gold Coast region of West Africa 
the seeds of "damabo" (Rhynchosia cyano- 
sperma), also of the bean family, are said 
to be utilized for weighing gold dust. 

Several of these seeds are on exhibition 
in Case 835 in Martin A. and Carrie Ryerson 
Hall (Plant Life— Hall 29); bariey and wheat 
are included among the cereal exhibits in 
the Hall of Food Plants (Hall 25). 



Page 8 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



May, 191^ 



WEEKDAY LECTURE TOURS 
OFFERED IN MAY 

Conducted tours of exhibits, under the 
guidance of staff lecturers, are made every 
afternoon at 2 o'clock except Saturdays, 
Sundays, and certain holidays. Following 
is the schedule for May: 

Friday, May 1— The Near East, Cradle 
of Civilization (Miss Elizabeth Hambleton). 

Week beginning May 4: Monday — Ani- 
mals of Forest and Jungle (Miss Elizabeth 
Best); Tuesday— General Tour (Miss Eliza- 
beth Best); Wednesday— Springtime in 
Chicago-land (Mrs. Leota Thomas); Thurs- 
day — General Tour (Miss Elizabeth Ham- 
bleton); Friday — Veneers and Varnishes 
(Miss Marie Pabst). 

Week beginning May 11: Monday — 
South America, Its Peoples and Products 
(Miss Elizabeth Hambleton); Tuesday- 
General Tour (Mrs. Leota Thomas); Wed- 
nesday — Racial Types and Native Life of 
Certain Contemporary Peoples (Mrs. Leota 
Thomas); Thursday — General Tour (Miss 
Marie Pabst); Friday — Life in the Water 
(Miss Elizabeth Best). 

Week beginning May 18: Monday — How 
the Ancient Egyptians Lived (Miss Marie 
Pabst); Tuesday — General Tour (Miss 
Elizabeth Best); Wednesday — Why An 
Ever Changing World (Mrs. Leota Thomas); 
Thursday — General Tour (Miss Marie 
Pabst); Friday — Sources of Materials Stra- 
tegic to America (Miss Miriam Wood). 

Week beginning May 25: Monday — 
Masks and Medicine Men (Miss Elizabeth 
Hambleton); Tuesday — General Tour (Miss 
Marie Pabst); Wednesday — Ways in Which 
Animals Protect Themselves (Miss Eliza- 
beth Best); Thursday — General Tour (Miss 
Elizabeth Hambleton); Friday — Plants and 
Animals Through the Ages (Miss Marie 
Pabst. 

Persons wishing to participate should 
apply at North Entrance. Tours are free. 



Notable Grizzly Bear Specimen 

Mr. Francis N. Bard, of Highland Park, 
Illinois, has presented to Field Museum one 
of the finest grizzly bears ever shot in North 
America. This specimen, recently placed 
on exhibition in Hall 15 where mammals 
are systematically arranged by families, 
was taken by Mr. Bard on the Bella Coola 
River, British Columbia, in the fall of 1938. 
Really large bears in good coat are difficult to 
get, and this one is a very welcome addition 
to Field Museum's exhibits. — CCS. 



Children from Michigan Are First 
to Use Enlarged Lunchroom 

More than 800 school children from 
Ottawa County in Michigan, together with 
some of their parents and teachers, visited 
Field Museum on April 10. This was one 
of the first mass groups of children to come 
from near-by states on spring season 
pilgrimages to Chicago cultural institutions. 



Bringing picnic lunches, these youngsters 
gave the first test to the Museum's newly 
enlarged special lunch room for children. 
Table space for picnickers has been in- 
creased by about 20 per cent; the necessity 
for such enlargement was indicated by the 
experience of previous years. 



LIFE HISTORIES OF THE ANIMALS 
TOPIC OF SUNDAY LECTURES 

"Who's Who in the Mounted Zoo," a 
lecture which will include stories of the 
world's animals — the strangest ones in the 
animal kingdom, as well as those with which 
everyone is familiar — will be presented by 
Mr. Paul G. Dallwig, the Layman Lecturer 
on Sunday afternoons during May. This is 
an entirely new lecture not hitherto offered 




CLOUDED LEOPARD 

A rare and beautiful member of the cat 

family, from Asia and the East Indies. Mr. 

Dallwig gives special attention to leopards 

in his Sunday lectures during May. 

in Mr. Dallwig's repertoire. Mr. 

Dallwig will use the extensive 

exhibits of the Department of 

Zoology to illustrate his talk, which will 

cover the animals of North and South 

America, Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. 

Because of heavy public demands, it is 
necessary to limit each audience to 100 
adults (children cannot be accommodated). 
Those desiring to attend must make reserva- 
tions in advance by mail or telephone 
(WABash 9410). The Sunday lectures 
begin promptly at 2 p.m. and end at 4:30. 
Midway there is an intermission for refresh- 
ments and smoking in the Cafeteria. 

This is the final month of the current 
season of Layman Lectures. They will be 
resumed beginning with the first Sunday 
next October when Mr. Dallwig will again 
present "Who's Who in the Mounted Zoo" 
as the opening subject of a new season 
extending over six months. 



GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM 

Following is a list of some of the principal 
gifts received during the last month: 

Department of Botany: 

From Donald Richards, Chicago — 150 
specimens of bryophjrtes and 66 of algae; 
from Paul H. Allen, Balboa, Canal Zone — 
25 herbarium specimens, Panama; from 
Jos6 Ignacio Aguilar, Guatemala City — 200 
herbarium specimens, Guatemala; from 
Herman Silva, Knoxville, Tenn. — 80 speci- 
mens of algae, Tennessee and North Caro- 



lina; from Lawrence J. King, Chicago — 21 
specimens of algae, Illinois; from Professor 
Angel Maldonado, Lima, Peru — 68 speci- 
mens of algae, western Peru; from Uni- 
versity of California, Berkeley, Calif. — 
2,280 specimens of algae, chiefly California; 
from United States National Museum, 
Washington, D.C — 444 specimens of algae. 

Department of Geolo^ : 

From E. D. Goldring, Cowdrey, Colo. — 
4 specimens of ilsemannite, Colorado. 

Department of Zoology: 

From Dr. Louis B. Bishop, Pasadena, 
Calif.— 378 bird skins; from Clyde T. Reed, 
Gregory, Tex. — 419 fish specimens, 78 sala- 
manders, toads, and turtles, 202 specimens 
of marine shells comprising 20 lots, and 
323 specimens of marine Crustacea compris- 
ing 29 lots, Texas; from Dr. Wilfred H. 
Osgood, Chicago — 58 mammals and 2 birds, 
Arizona; from Dr. B. E. Dahlgren, Chicago 
— a toad and a scorpion, Cuba; from Henry 
S. Dybas, Chicago — 14 land shells and 10 
bugs, Chicago area; from Chicago Zoological 
Society, Brookfield, 111. — 3 reptiles, 6 birds, 
and 2 mammals; from Dr. Leslie Hubricht, 
St. Louis, Mo. — a cave salamander, Mis- 
souri; from Dr. Edward McC. Callan, 
Trinidad, British West Indies — a snake, a 
lizard, a frog, and a series of tadpoles, 
Trinidad; from George R. Campbell, British 
West Indies — 4 snakes and a lizard, Trini- 
dad; from American Museum of Natural 
History, New York City — 11 South Amer- 
ican rodents, Colombia; from Gordon 
Pearsall, Maywood, 111. — a mink, Illinois; 
from Professor Angel Maldonado, Lima, 
Peru — 75 specimens comprising 5 lots of 
fresh water invertebrates, Peru; from Dr. 
Fritz Haas, Chicago — a red-throated loon, 
Illinois. 

The Library: 

Valuable books from William H. Phelps, 
Caracas, Venezuela; G. P. Putnam's Sons, 
New York City; and Solomon A. Smith, 
Dr. Fritz Haas, and Henry S. Dybas, all 
of Chicago. 



NEW MEMBERS 

The following persons became Members 
of Field Museum during the period from 
March 17 to April 15: 

Associate Memtiera 

Miss Elizabeth G. Dimmer, Fred R. 
Eiseman, Mrs. Louis Goldman, W. S. 
Holabird, Jr., Basil Maxant, Willis D. 
Nance, John A. Obermaier. 

Annual Members 

Hugh R. Adams, Jr., Harold C Adsit, 
N. J. Aschermann, Miss Maude F. Back, 
Joseph D. Biety, John H. Carroll, Jr., 
Milton S. Carstens, Dr. Joseph S. Drabanski, 
William M. Hammond, John A. Kahoun, 
Samuel Laderman, Charles Luckman, J. H. 
Mehan, Carlton R. Merrifield, Miss Elsa 
V. Winckelmann Miller, Alfred R. Nilson, 
Nino J. Persello, Samuel S. Reid, O. A. 
Rochlitz, Sidney M. Spiegel, Jr., Irving E. 
Teitelbaum, Dr. Richard J. "Tivnen, William 
Vilsoet, Dr. D. A. Vloedman, Arthur L. 
Wanner, Willis C Ware, F. Harris Wells, 
Ross Whitney, C S. Young. 



PRINTED BY FIEIO MUSEUM PRESS 



Fieldi^ 




News 



Published Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago 



Vol. 13 



JUNE, 1942 



No. 6 



UNIQUE EXHIBITS FROM MADAGASCAR, GUARDIAN OF AMERICAN SUPPLY ROUTES 



By WILFRID D. HAMBLY 

CURATOR OF AFRICAN ETHNOIX)GY 

A recent British landing, and an American 
declaration of the vital importance of ocean 
routes around South Africa, have made the 
name Madagascar familiar in every home. 
Newspaper articles and maps have shown 
the island to be a bastion of both the east 
coast of Africa and 
the vast expanse of 
ocean between that 
continent and India. 
For this reason the 
Allies have for a long 
time been fearful that 
this strategic position 
might fall into the 
enemy's possession. 

As far back as 1925, 
Field Museum real- 
ized the scientific im- 
portance of this vast 
territory, and at that 
time appointed Dr. 
Ralph Linton, then a 
Field Museum curator, 
as leader of the Mar- 
shall Field Anthropo- 
logical Expedition to 
Madagascar. The col- 
lection of ethnological 
specimens made 
through this enter- 
prise, and now on dis- 
play in Hall E, has 
become world-famous, 

and is unique among museum exhibits in 
the western hemisphere. 

The island of Madagascar is of enormous 
size — 975 miles long — and its area is 227,750 
square miles, or nearly as large an expanse 
as the state of Texas. The ocean channel 
separating Madagascar from the mainland 
of Africa is about 240 miles wide at the 
narrowest point, and this fact might suggest 
that the peoples, languages, and cultures, as 
well as the plant and animal life, would 
most closely resemble the near-by African 
types. This, however, is not the case. 

MALAYAN INFLUENCE INDICATED 

The various tribes of Madagascar, so 
thoroughly described in Dr. Linton's publi- 
cation T/ieTanaZa, a Ht/J Tribe of Madagascar, 
published a few years ago by Field Museum, 
have in their appearance, languages, and 



cultures, much closer affinities with Indo- 
nesia and Polynesia, thousands of miles 
distant, than with adjacent Africa. There is, 
of course, some Negro and Arab influence, 
especially from the east coast of Africa, and 
Arab navigators touched Madagascar at 
very early periods of uncertain date, but 
the main influences must be sought in far 




MADAGASCAR'S MOST FAMOUS PLANT-'THE TRAVELER'S TREE" 
Rjin water which gathers in the leaf axils of this exotic tree (Ravcnata madagascariensis) is supposed to be a boon to 
thirsty wanderers, although actually it probably would be found to be warm and infested by a variety of small unpal- 
atable aqtutic life. Illustration reproduces a mural painting, in Hall 29, by the late Charles A. Corwin. 

away Malaya. The common use of large 
outrigger canoes along the east African and 
Madagascan coasts suggests that these 
vessels, which are so like their Indonesian 
counterparts, were responsible for many 
daring voyages from the Malay Peninsula 
and Indonesian Islands. 

In the year 1896 Madagascar was declared 
a French protectorate, and considerable 
advance has been made in constructing 
roads to accommodate bus services, and in 
building railway lines, the longest of which 
connects Tamatave, chief port and capital, 
with Antananarivo, the ancient capital, over 
a distance of 229 miles. Numerous schools 
of Catholic and Protestant missions exist, 
and free elementary education has been 
fostered. Schools of animal husbandry and 
of agriculture are of extreme importance in 



the development of better social and eco- 
nomic conditions, for the native peoples 
are proud of their large herds of cattle; and 
many crops, especially such staples as rice, 
manioc, sweet potatoes, beans, ground-nuts, 
yams, cotton, sugar cane, coffee, tobacco, 
and hemp, require scientific development. 
Much of the interior is covered with 
densely wooded moun- 
tain ranges rising to a 
height of 9,000 feet. 
From these flow num- 
erous rivers, but their 
courses are so broken 
by gorges, cascades, 
and rapids that navi- 
i«- gation is considerably 

hampered. There is, 
however, one river 
that can be ascended 
by light steamers for 
a hundred miles. The 
mineral wealth in- 
cludes deposits of iron, 
gold, lead, copper, 
and coal. 

Dr. Linton speaks 
of the hot and humid 
climate of the eastern 
coastal plains where 
rainfall is an almost 
daily occurrence, and 
fever takes a heavy 
toll of European and 
native lives. The 
plateau is character- 
ized by a rather dry, temperate climate with 
a moderate seasonal rainfall. On the western 
slope of the plateau, and on the extreme 
south, the climate is hot and dry. People 
of the east coast are mainly fishermen and 
agriculturists, with little dependence on 
cattle. Those of the plateau are mainly 
agricultural, but possess some herds of 
importance. Tribes of the south and west 
subsist almost entirely on their herds. 

To visit these various tribes involves many 
long and arduous journeys over difficult 
terrain. For this purpose a native contriv- 
ance known as a filamana is frequently 
used. This consists of a precarious seat 
fixed between two ten-foot poles, the four 
ends of which rest on the shoulders of four 
bearers, who necessarily must be men of 
considerable strength. The Malagasy porters 



Page 2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



June, 1 HZ 




MALAGASY SATIRE 
"Beauty from Paris"— native 
artist's carved wood carica- 
ture of the much disHlced wife 
of a white colonial official. 



carry all of the baggage on their heads in 
loads o( about fifty pounds each. 

PLANT LIFE 

The interests of Field Museum have been 
by no means confined to subjects of ethno- 
logical importance. In Martin A. and Carrie 
Ryerson Hall (Hall 29— Plant Life) is a 
beautiful mural painting, by the late 
Charles A. Corwin, former Staff Artist, 
showing one of the trees which arrest the 
attention of those 
who visit Mada- 
gascar. Called the 
"traveler's tree," 
it has a peculiar 
fan-like arrange- 
ment of its leaves. 
Explorers have re- 
ported that at the 
axil of each leaf one 
may find from a 
pint to a quart of 
drinkable water 
that has condensed 
on the leaves and 
trickled downward. 
The Euphorbia 
i.itisy, now almost 
extinct in Mada- 
gascar owing to the 
depredations of 
natives in search of rubber, is mentioned by 
Charles F. Swingle of the United States 
Department of Agriculture, in his excellent 
article on exploration in Madagascar (Na- 
tional Geographic Magazine, vol. 56, 1929). 
He brought some living Intisy plants home 
to Washington, and states: "The whole 
southern section of the island, particularly 
that in which I found Intisy, is similar to 
our own Southwest. This allows us to 
hope that Euphorbia intisy will prove a 
profitable rubber producer in parts of 
Arizona and California." 

MADAGASCAR ANIMALS 

One might assume that the animal life 
of ' Madagascar would bear very close 
resemblance to that of Africa. But the 
elephant and the lion are lacking from island 
life, and the constrictor snakes are boas 
which are related to the South American 
constrictors (Hall 18) rather than to the 
pythons of near-by Africa. There has been 
much speculation about the possibility of 
ancient land connections of Madagascar 
which have long since submerged, but have 
nevertheless allowed the preservation of 
some ancient forms of life that were once 
widely distributed. The lemurs of Mada- 
gascar (Hall 15) are peculiar forms of mam- 
mals, of diverse size and coloring. Their 
anatomy has been of considerable interest to 
zoologists and anthropologists because of 
features suggesting that they played a part 
in the early evolution of the human form. 
They are dusk-to-dawn animals which exist 
in the trees and seldom touch the ground. 

A visitor interested in Madagascar should 
be careful not to miss the exhibits in Hall 21 



where a case of casts illustrates the forms 
of giant extinct birds. The elephant birds 
(Aepyomis) of Madagascar were the largest 
and most massive birds that ever existed, 
and some of them did not become extinct 
until a few thousand years ago. Individuals 
were as much as eleven feet tall, and the 
egg, of which a model is displayed, was 
equal in volume to 183 hen's eggs. 

ARTS AND HANDICRAFTS 

Visitors who are most interested in the 
native population of Madagascar will be 
delighted with the rich display of arts and 
handicrafts displayed in twenty-six large 
cases that occupy Hall E on the ground floor. 
Of exceptional rarity and value are the 
examples of Sakalava weaving with raffia 
fiber (Case 22). Young leaves of the raffia 
palm are dried and shredded, and the 
filaments are then tied to form a continuous 
thread. Designs are dyed into the warp 
thread of the fabric before it is woven, and 




RUFFED LEMUR OF MADAGASCAR 
Lemurs are more primitive than other primates, being a 
re'atively unmodified descendant of one of man's early 
ancestors. "True lemurs" are found in Madagascar, and a 

few others inhabit Africa and the East Indies. 

the parts which are not to be dyed are tied 
with raffia so tightly that the color cannot 
affect them. To produce these remarkable 
examples of the weaver's craft, with decora- 
tions mostly in geometrical patterns, the 
dyer works from memory. 

Examples of weaving in silk by the 
Imerina and Betsileo tribes are shown in 
Case 6. These articles are woven on crude 
hand looms from silk which is sometimes 
obtained by collecting the cocoons of 
moths. There is, however, a domestic 
industry in which the caterpillars are kept 
at home. After the cocoons have been 
spun the larvae are removed and eaten, 
then the silk is unwound for industrial use. 
Thus the caterpillar serves a double purpose. 

Mats, baskets, and pottery are gathered 
here in rich profusion. Remarkable ex- 
amples of the blacksmith's craft in the form 
of giant candelabras of elaborate design 
are shown in Case 25. These are the work 
of Betsileo artisans. 

Case 20 contains a selection of ornaments 
of gold, silver, and coral, and in Case 27 
there is an attractive display of modern 



arts of the Imerina, who, guided to some 
extent by European influence, have produced 
excellent articles of carved woodwork, horn, 
and basketry, together with hand-painted 
designs. The carved wooden posts and 
panels of the Imerina and Betsileo tribes 
have great artistic merit (Case 9). 

For information on those social and 
spiritual matters which cannot be well 
illustrated in cases one must turn to the 
pages of Dr. Linton's publication, previously 
mentioned. There he describes the strange 
cult based on a belief that souls of the dead, 
particularly of important chiefs, can return 
to earth in the form of giant snakes (boas). 

To the important subject of matrimony, 
Linton rightly devotes several pages. The 
information relates to courtship and arrange- 
ment of the nuptials. He states that 
"romantics are usually considered fools," 
and in arranging marriages economic con- 
siderations seem to be uppermost in the 
minds of even the young people. "In 
general a man is content if he gets a wife 
who is strong and industrious, while a woman 
is satisfied with any hard-working husband, 
the richer the better. Only ordinary con- 
geniality is expected. What little romance 
there is seems to be practically limited to 
first marriages. Plural wives are taken on 
purely economic grounds, and have to pass 
the scrutiny of the first wife." 

Madagascar is a land of many problems, 
not the least of which are archaeological. 
The huge stone monuments are not yet 
explained, and a great field for excavation 
awaits the archaeologist. Many conspicuous 
modern monuments are memorial stones. 
One observer has said that the Malagasy 
devotes more time to his tomb than to the 
erection and improvement of his house, 
because he knows he will pass a much longer 
time in the former. 




MEN OF THE BARA TRIBE, MADAGASCAR 
Although their island home is a close neighbor geographi. 
cally of Africa, these primitive people apparently are of 
Malaysian racial origin. They are believed to be the 
descendants of daring voyagers who traveled thousands of 
miles by outrigger canoe, from Pacific regions. 



June, 19iZ 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page S 



NUMEROUS FOSSILS COLLECTED 
BY HONDURAS EXPEDITION 

By PAUL O. McGREW 

ASSISTANT IN PALEONTOLOGY 

Reasons for going to the Republic of 
Honduras in search of fossil mammals are 
manifold. Evidence bearing directly on 
many important paleontological problems 
might be obtained from the study of fossils 
from that country. For example: Just when 
did land emerge and reconnect long-isolated 
South America with North America, making 
it possible for animals of one continent to 
migrate freely to the other? What effects 
did the mountains and tropical conditions 
have on plains animals that migrated south- 
ward into Central America? Did some 
mammals that became extinct a million 
years ago in North America survive much 
longer in the Central American tropics? 
Did the tropical conditions of Central 
America form a barrier that stopped the 
migration of certain mammals into South 
America? Is it possible to use the same 
paleontological criteria for dating ancient 
deposits in the tropics that we use in the 
more temperate North? It was to answer 
part of these questions that the recent Field 
Museum Paleontological Expedition to 
Honduras was planned. 

Mr. Albert A. Potter, of Nebraska State 
Teachers College, Chadron, Nebraska, and 
I left Chicago for Honduras on November 2. 
In Gracias we obtained the services of Seiior 
Eliseo Carabantes as guide and general 
assistant, and one Doroteo Mendes as 
general camp man. 

Our first camp was some five kilometers 
north of the town of Gracias, a simple town 
of some 2,000 inhabitants, near the Rio 
Mejocote along whose valley for some 
twelve kilometers are exposed rocks of early 
Pliocene age. It was these exposed sand- 
stones and clays that were to occupy our 
attention for some three months. 

Our efforts in the Gracias region produced 
fossils of extinct genera of rhinoceros, horse, 
camel, dog, mastodon, deer, turtle and other 
forms as yet unidentified. Of these, the 
dog, turtle and deer appear to be new to 
science. The horse, of which we obtained 
a particularly good collection, is of special 
interest because of its diminutive size. It 
is only about half as large as its counter- 
part in the American Plains. Presumably 
this dwarfing resulted from migration into 
an unsuitable environment. Just why a 
typical plains animal such as the horse 
would migrate into mountainous tropics is 
a bit hard to understand, but it seems that 
overpopulation in the more suitable regions 
drove the southern peripheral individuals 
continually southward. 

Another fact of interest is that every form 
found in this Pliocene locality was of 
northern origin. This certainly means that 
there was no full scale penetration from 
South America, and that North and South 



America were at that time still separated 
by a marine portal. 

"a fossil jackpot" 

With work finished in the Gracias region 
we reluctantly bid our friends of the town 
adios, packed our fossils and belongings on 
a train of mules, and set out northward in 
pursuit of more fossils. We had heard rumors 
of fossils in the Department of Copan near 
the town of Dulce Nombre. Some twelve 
kilometers north of Dulce Nombre a small 
creek had cut into an ancient mud deposit 
exposing bones of such size that they could 
not fail to excite the local people. First 
glance at the mud hole proved that we had 
"hit the jackpot." Scattered about the 
creek bed were dozens of great bone frag- 
ments, and protruding from the mud was 
the skull of a great ground sloth, Mega- 
Iherium, along with other bones. Without 
further hesitation camp was set up near the 
spot that was to be our home for most 
of the next two months. 

Although a terrifically messy job, working 
day after day in malodorous mud up to our 
knees, digging in this new locality was far 
from disappointing. The excellent preserva- 
tion and quality of the bones dispelled all 
thoughts of the discomforts. Work went 
smoothly for about a month and a half, and 
then each day brought increasing difficulties. 
From the beginning we had trouble keeping 
mud and water out of the quarry as it was 
continuously seeping out of the quarry wall. 
By the time we had some twelve feet of 
overhead our shovels were inadequate to 
cope with the problem. Finally more mud 
would come into the quarry than we could 
po.ssibly move, and we regretfully abandoned 
the quarry. 

The fossils from this mud hole were of 
Pleistocene age and were of mammals of 
both South and North American origin. 
From the south were bones of the giant 
ground sloth Megatherium, of the Toxodont 
(a massive and unique extinct form), and of 
Glyptodont, a giant armadillo-like animal. 
From the north were horse, camel, and puma. 
Other forms are represented by specimens 
as yet unidentified. These occurrences 
represent the most northern record known 
of the South American Toxodon, and, on 
the other hand, the most southern record of 
the camel {Camelops). 

We crated and packed our fossils carefully 
and transported them by mule to the border 
town of Copan, and from there by truck to 
the railroad in Guatemala, then returned to 
Chicago by plane and train late in April. 

One of our most pleasant memories of the 
work in Honduras is that of the friendly 
co-operation so generously offered by all 
of the people we met within its borders. 
The government officials courteously paved 
our way for a pleasant and successful 
expedition, giving us every assistance. Hon- 
duras is one of our allies, having declared 
war on our Axis enemies, and the people are 
enthusiastically pro-United States. 



TfilNOS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED 




Madagascar Tribal Kind's Lamp 
to Signal Chiefs and Wives 

One of the last kings of the Betsileo tribe 
in southern Madagascar had an ingenious 
method of signalling to indicate just what 
royal prerogatives he wished to exercise on 
any particular evening. This was done by 
means of a special stand holding a number 
of lamps. If he 
craved complete 
solitude, he lighted 
a single lamp at the 
top of the stand, 
and no one, man 
or woman, would 
then dare approach 
his habitation. If 
he desired the com- 
pany of any special 
wife, he lighted the 
lamp assigned to 
her exclusively; if 
he wished several 
wives to visit him 
together he lighted 
the lamps of all of 
them. Similarly, if 
he felt the need of 
conferring upon 
affairs of state with 
any one or several 
of the divisional 
chieftains of his 
tribe, he lighted the 
lamps designating 
the man or men 
he wished to see. 

This royal gadget is now on exhibition in 
Hall E at Field Museum, as part of the 
notable Madagascar ethnological collection 
obtained by the Marshall Field Anthropo- 
logical Expedition to Madagascar, led by 
Dr. Ralph Linton, former member of the 
Museum staff. 

The lamps are iron cups which were 
filled with grease and equipped with a wick. 
The.se lamps are suspended on a tripod-like 
stand. The lamp denoting the king himself, 
in which a flame meant he was not to be 
disturbed by anyone, is at the top of the 
stand; below this is a tier of four lamps 
for each of the chieftains of the tribe's four 
principal clans; and farther down are five 
more cups designating the king's five wives. 
Jealousy, if it existed, certainly had to be 
suppressed by these consorts, for just as a 
woman was preening herself in congratu- 
latory self-esteem on having been called, 
she might see the lamps of one or more of 
her sisters of the harem also flaring forth 
their light. The king, perhaps, would have 
found it easier to go calling, or to send a 
courier with his messages, for in order to 
light his lamps he had to resort to the 
primitive method of rubbing sticks together 
until the friction brought fire. 



GADGET FOR A KING 

IN MADAGASCAR 
When top lamp was lighted, 
His Majesty wished to be 
alone; each lamp in middle 
tier was to call a certain chief, 
and in lower tier to Cdll a 
specific wife. 



Page i 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



June, 19 iX 



EXHIBIT SHOWS VARIED ANIMALS THAT INHABITED THE BAD LANDS 25,000,000 YEARS AGO 



By ELMER S. RIGGS 

CURATOR OF PAI.EONTOLOGY 

An exhibit recently added to Ernest R. 
Graham Hall (Hall 38) at Field Museum 
consists of remains of fossil mammals from 
a zone in the Oligocene Bad Land formation, 
estimated to be twenty-five million years 
old. The purpose of this display is to 
demonstrate that many kinds of mammals 
in that age had attained the structural 
characteristics and the habits evident in 
families of mammals living today. 

The exhibited specimens include skulls 
and skeletons of animals that lived on plains 
centered about the group of mountains 




Drawing by Hansen (tnoditied from Bruce Horsfall) 

GIANT PIG.LIKE ANIMAL 

Archaeotheriura raortoni, a precursor but not i direct 

ancestor of the modem hog. Some of these creatures grew 

to the enormous size of an American bison. 

known as the Black Hills and extending 
into the Dakotas, Nebraska, Colorado, and 
Wyoming. The locality, commonly known 
as the South Dakota Bad Lands, is famous 
for having produced, in large numbers for 
most species, a great variety of especially 
interesting prehistoric mammals. 

The Black Hills region in Oligocene time 
evidently consisted of a series of fertile 
and well-watered plains. Vegetation there 
is known to have been abundant. Some 
thirty species of extinct deciduous trees 
have left fossil remains in various localities 
of North America. Many of these may have 
lived in the Black Hills district, but con- 
ditions were not so favorable for fossilizing 
and preserving them as for preserving the 
remains of animal life. 

In Oligocene times, streams ran swiftly 
down the mountain slopes, carrying their 
burden of sand and clay out over the ad- 
jacent lowlands. Volcanoes threw out 
volumes of ash and dust, and the winds 
spread and sifted these over the surround- 
ing plains. At flood-time streams gathered 
up the ash and clay sediments, sorted them, 
and carried them to be dropped in layers 
over their wide valleys or flood-plains. 
Thus, layer upon layer, the valleys and the 
plains were built up. The animals that 
lived there in great numbers are now known 
from their skeletons, found near the watering 
places or distributed over the open plains, 
where they were covered and preserved by 



the accumulating sediments and wind-blown 
ash. As the ground level was continuously 
built up, the level of ground waters rose, 
covering the animal remains and sealing 
them against the decomposing action of the 
air, thus contributing another condition 
essential to the adequate preservation of 
the bones as fossils. 

In the course of time the streams, having 
built up layer upon layer a series of sedi- 
ments to a thickness of nearly 400 feet, 
ceased further depositing of their clays. 
The volcanic ash continued to drift on the 
winds, probably at longer intervals and at 
a diminishing rate as the neighboring vol- 
canoes became less active, and wind-borne 
sands from the shallow channels of rivers 
to the south drifted over the region. So 
there entered another stage in the history 
of these plains. 

BARED AFTER MILLIONS OF YEARS 

We pass over the happenings of two long 
geological epochs. The rivers which flowed 
eastward across the plains of Dakota and 
Nebraska had by this time turned into 
destructive agents. They were now cutting 
away the plain which is underlain by more 
than a thousand feet of sediments that had 
been so gradually built up. In time the 
streams cut their way through the layers 
of later sands and deep into the underlying 
ash and clays on the lower slopes of the Black 
Hills. In turn these lower clays were cut 
and furrowed by valleys and by lesser stream 
channels into the myriads of hills and ridges 
which today characterize these well-known 
Bad Lands. As the clays were washed 
away, the fossil bones and skeletons, which 
had been buried and preserved in them for 
nearly twenty-five million years, appeared 
one by one at the surface. Scientists were 
enabled to see and recognize them as fossils. 
Their great abundance and splendid state 
of preservation became a great boon to 
paleontological knowledge. 

The process of erosion and denudation 
is still going on as it has ever since the period 
of glacial erosion. The Cheyenne River 
which flows close about the southern base 
of the Black Hills and northeastward along 
the margin of the big Bad Lands of South 
Dakota is still a turbid stream at flood- 
time, heavy with sediments. Its companion 
stream, the White River, takes its name from 
the whitish Bad Land clays heavily mixed in 
its waters. These rivers are still carrying 
away the sediments which the waters of 
every rain and every melting snow bring 
down from the steep slopes of the Bad 
Lands. This process continuously lays bare 
the fossils, just as it has been doing for 
many thousands of years. 

EXTINCT RELATIVES OF MODERN ANIMALS 

The specimens in the new Museum 
exhibit are from the middle stage of the 
White River Bad Lands, a geological horizon 



which has received the name of lower Brule 
clays. They have been selected from the 
most abundant fauna of the epoch in order 
to show the great variety in structure and 
in habits that mammals had then attained. 
Many belonged to families well known at the 
present time. Among these are the horses, 
rhinoceroses, and tapirs, the camels and 
peccaries, the dogs, cats, and wea.sels, the 
rabbits, squirrels, and opossums — eleven 
well-known families. In addition to these 
surviving families there are others which 
flourished for a time and died out. One is 
a primitive kind of flesh-eater, the Hyae- 
nodon, which was the last remnant of a 
great group of flesh-eaters that had played 
a prominent part in the earlier mammalian 
history of North America and that survived 
somewhat longer in the Old World. There 
is also a member of a numerous but extinct 
family, the merycoidodonts, which became 
one of the most numerous of all North 
American mammals. They survived in the 
Great Plains region for several million years, 
not migrating to any other continent, and 
finally died out entirely before the approach 
of the Glacial Period. 

Mammals of almost all habits common 
to dwellers of lowland and plain are among 
those of middle Oligocene time. There 
were: the heavy-bodied river rhinoceroses, 
similar to the modern hippopotamus in 
habits; the lighter-bodied upland rhinoceros, 
and the swift-footed or cursorial rhinoceros, 
an animal very similar in structure of 
body and limb to the three-toed horse, 
(though the head was distinctly rhinoceros- 
like). There was the tapir of lowland 
habits, living not very differently from the 
tapir of today. There were gregarious 
animals such as the merycoidodonts and 
the peccaries; also, larger and more solitary 
animals such as Archaeotherium and others 




Drawing by John Conrad Hansen 

LARGE DOG OF OLIGOCENE TIME 

Daphaenus vetus, a canine beast of 25,000,000 years ago. 

Ic was more closely ancestral to the modern wolf than to 

any of our familiar domesticated dogs. 

of his family, feeders on roots and tubers. 
Along with them are found the more active 
grazers of the upland, including the early 
horse and camel, as well as a variety of 
small, gazelle-like animals — slender and timid 
little creatures that depended upon conceal- 
ment as well as swift-footedness to protect 
them from their enemies. The carnivores 
are represented by dogs of two distinct 



June, 19U2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page 5 



kinds, by little weasels, and by larger and 
smaller sabertooth cats of several species. 
Harboring and burrowing animals are found 
in the rabbit, the squirrel, and a small 
species of insectivore. 

These and their contemporaries formed 
a varied and a well-balanced community of 
mammals in middle Oligocene time. They 
had acquired most of the habits of living 
and of feeding found among land mammals 
of the present day. 

Some of the descendants of these animals 
migrated to the Old World and introduced 
the stocks of horses, camels, and rhinoceroses 
to the wide plains and valleys of Europe, 
Asia, and Africa. Others crossed over the 
narrow connections with South America 
and brought to that continent the stocks 
of horses and lamas, of tapirs and rodents, 
of fox-like wolves, and the larger cats 
which gave to that continent in later times 
a more cosmopolitan phase of mammalian 
life than it had previously enjoyed. 

All of this bears unmistakable evidence 
that North America was a fertile breeding 
ground for many sturdy races of mammals 
which have developed and maintained their 
existence in this favored part of the earth 
through millions of years. 



VENEZUELA JUNGLE REPORT 
FROM MUSEUM EXPLORER 

(Editor's Note: — Somewhere in the deepest 
and most remote parts of the Venezuelan 
jungle, Mr. Llewelyn Williams, of Field 
Museum's botanical staff, is trudging on 
foot and traveling sivift-running, rock-strevm 
streams in dug-out canoes, in the interests of 
science. For the first time since he plunged 
last autumn into the region known as the 
Venezuelan Guiana, he has reached an out- 
post of civilizalion from which to send a 
report to Lieutenant-Colonel Clifford C. Gregg, 
Director of the Museum. After sending his 
report, from which excerpts follow, Mr. 
Williams immediately departed into the jungle 
again, this time in a different direction, along 
the upper reaches of the Orinoco River.) 

By LLEWELYN WILLIAMS 

CURATOR OF ECONOMIC BOTANY 

After a long and arduous trip I am able to 
report that we managed to bring to this point 
a large collection of plant and wood speci- 
mens, as well as other forest products. This 
was accomplished without mishap despite 
the many rapids that were negotiated, the 
frequent heavy showers experienced, and 
inadequate transportation. 

We left Puerto Ayacucho on January 17, 
traveling overland to Sanariapo, above the 
dangerous rapids of Atures, thence along 
the Orinoco River to San Fernando de 
Atabapo, and then followed this stream 
(Atabapo) to its headwaters. From Yavita, 
on the Temi, after making collections, we 
traveled overland to the River Pimichin, 
and down this stream until we reached the 
Guainfa, which forms the source of the Rio 
Negro. Collections were made along the 
Guainia from the Colombian border to the 
Brazilian frontier. In addition, excursions 



were made along the lower Casiquiare, the 
stream San Miguel flowing diagonally in 
the direction of the upper Casiquiare, and 
the forest flanking the Yavita-Pimichin trail. 
The material assembled at the various 
centers was embarked in large dugouts, 
falcas, with roofs made of palm leaves to 
protect the specimens from the heat and 
rains. The entire cargo, forming 40 loads, 
was then transported overland by Indians 
from Pimichin to Yavita, at which point 
several canoes were obtained and other 
Indians hired for the journey downstream 
to San Fernando. Here we transferred the 
cargo into larger boats, able to withstand 
the strong currents and rapids of the 
Orinoco, to Sanariapo, thence overland to 
this place. With the exception of three 
brief spells of fever I managed to keep good 
health throughout, despite the fact that we 
had to take with us all the food necessary 
for myself and the peons. 

RUBBER TREES ABUNDANT 

The region studied is one of the most 
interesting, floristically, of the entire terri- 
tory. It is estimated that seven-eighths of 
its entire area is covered by rain forests of 
tall trees and a wide variety of palms. One 
of the most notable features of these forests 
is the abundance of latex-yielding trees, 
chief of which is rubber (Hevea), represented 
by several species, followed by chicle, masa- 
randy, balata, uququirana, marima, etc. 

Plants furnishing fibers are also especially 
well represented, the principal one being 
the chiquichiqui palm, known in Brazil as 
piassaba; its fiber is durable in contact 
with water and almost incorruptible when 
placed in the ground, being especially suit- 
able for brooms and tow ropes. Another 
fiber furnished by a palm is cumuare, from 
the young leaves of which the Indians 
remove a fine, tough, yellowish fiber, greatly 
esteemed for making hammocks. The fiber 
is sometimes dyed black or dark brown with 
the crushed leaves of a plant of the trumpet- 
creeper family. The color, being indelible, 
holds indefinitely and is not affected by the 
action of climatic elements. Another useful 
fiber is curagua, obtained from the leaves 
of a plant of the pineapple family, and 
employed principally in the making of fish- 
ing lines and nets. 

Many woods are encountered in the.se 
forests. They range from the heavy para- 
ture, a leguminous species with a rich 
reddish brown heartwood, to the light- 
colored palo de boya, almost as light as 
balsa-wood, and used by the Indians for 
rafts and for fishing floats. 

INDIANS AND THEIR CUSTOMS 

The region is inhabited almost entirely 
by Indians, of which there are many tribes, 
the principal ones being the Baniba, the 
Piapoco, the Puinave, the Guahibo, the 
Kuripako, the Karros, the Uarekena, and 
the Bare. The Baniba are excellent woods- 
men and expert tree climbers. Most of the 
Indians are nomadic in habits, and during 



the dry months they travel far in search of 
game and fish. 

In Maroa I had occasion to witness a 
typical Indian festival, an event to offer 
thanksgiving for the catch secured during the 
dry period. The festival is held in the middle 
of March, shortly before the rainy season 
begins. The principals, the lluiz (chief), 
mardomo, mardoma, etc., are selected the 
year before and when the festival is inau- 
gurated these persons set up two posts, 
known as mastres, laden with fruit. On 
the last, or ninth day, the retiring officers 
offer a feast to the newly-appointed officials, 
the meal composed mostly of manioc and 
cassava, prepared from yuca roots, which 
constitute their staple food. Fish and game 
meat are also eaten. At sunset on the same 
day the fruit-bearing posts are felled, each 
woman holding office giving a blow with an 
ax, followed by the men, and the job is 
finished by the chief. 

In the upper Guainfa the Kuripako In- 
dians hold a feast, known as dabukuri. 
This ceremony takes two forms: an offering 
of certain articles, such as fruit, fish, or 
canoe paddles, or dances in which the 
young men are subjected to lashing with a 
long whip made of vine, to the accompani- 
ment of music played on the yapururo, a 
long instrument made from the hollow stem 
of the mavi palm. 

I intend next to leave on the second stage 
of the explorations, to collect around Tama- 
tama, at the bifurcation of the Orinoco and 
the upper Casiquiare, where Hevea rubber 
trees are said to abound. Thence I will 
proceed farther up the Orinoco, and also 
along the River Padamo, before returning 
downstream to reach the Ventuari region and 
the mountain ranges in the area traversed 
by the Sipapo River. 



NESTING BIRDS 

and the Vegetation Substrate 

This is an informing little book 
dealing with the common birds of 
the Chicago area and their relation 
to the plant communities in which 
they nest. 

Written by Mr. William J. Beecher, 
Assistant in the Department of Zool- 
ogy, it is an account of eight years' 
study of the nesting birds of the Fox 
Lake region near Chicago. 

"This book is highly recommended 
to local bird students," says Mr. 
Emmet R. Blake, Assistant Curator 
of Birds, "but the basic principles 
illustrated by the data make it equally 
valuable elsewhere." Illustrated with 
an aerial photograph, and text fig- 
ures. $1. 

THE BOOK SHOP of FIELD 
MUSEUM is sole distributor. 



Page 6 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



June, 19 it 



Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 

Roosevelt Road and Field DtItc. Chicago 

Telephone: Wabash 9410 



THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 
Lester Armour Stanley Field 

Sewell L. Avery Samuel Insull, Jr. 

W. McCoRMicK Blair Charles A. McCulloch 

Leopold E. Block Wiluam H. Mitchell 

Boardman Conover Gborub A. Richardson 

Walter J. Cummings Theodore Roosevei.t 

Albert B. Dick. Jr. Solomon A. Smith 

Howard W. Fenton Albert A. Sprague 

Joseph N. Field Silas H. Strawn 

Marshall Field .\lbert H. Wetten 

John P. Wilson 

OFFICERS 

Stanley Field Pruulmt 

Albert A. Sprague Firtl Via-Prmdent 

Silas H. Strawn Second Viet-Prttidenl 

ALBERT B. Dick, Jr Third Viee-Praideni 

Clipford C. Gregg Dirtctor and Seerttary 

Solomon A. Smith . . . Trecuurer and AttiMant Secretary 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 

EDITOR 
Clifford C. Gregg Direetar of the Mtueum 

ASSOCIATE EDITOR 
Wilfred H. Osgood Curator Emeritus, Zootogy 

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology 

B. E. Dahlgren Chief Curator of Botany 

Henry W. Nichols Chief Curator of Geology 

Karl P. Schmidt Chief Curator of Zoology 

MANAGING EDITOR 
H. B. Harte PuUie Relatione Countel 



Members are requested to inform the Museum 
promptly of changea of address. 



BON VOYAGE, 

COLONEL GREGG— 

The Director of Field Museum, Lieuten- 
ant Colonel Clifford C. Gregg, who has been 
on active duty with the United States Army 
since September 1, 1940, in the Adjutant- 
General's Department at Sixth Corps Area 
headquarters in 
Chicago, was trans- 
ferred to another 
post far from 
Chicago late last 
month. 

Prior to his de- 
parture, a farewell 
reception was given 
in his honor in the 
Museum Library, 
with the entire 
personnel of the 

institution attending. An especially pre- 
pared memento book, bound in calf-skin, 
containing a testimonial of the respect and 
friendship of every man and woman em- 
ployed by the Museum, and personally 
signed with the autograph of each, was 
presented to Colonel Gregg upon this 
occasion. Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood, Curator 
Emeritus of Zoology, and Mr. Stanley Field, 
President of the Museum, made addresses 
in connection with the presentation of the 
volume, and Colonel Gregg responded with 
a farewell speech. 

During the twenty-one months since 
Director Gregg was called to active service 
with the Army, he has maintained his 




LT. COL. C. C. GREGG 



connection with and interest in the Museum. 
Day after day, following a full stretch of 
hard work on his Army duties, Colonel 
Gregg came to the Museum in the evening 
and put in further hours of toil in the 
interest of this institution, as well as many 
extra-long sessions at week-ends. 

Ever since the first World War, during 
which he was a lieutenant, Colonel Gregg had 
retained his commission in the Army Reserve 
Corps, continuing his military studies, and 
frequently serving in the summer training 
camps for reserve officers, thus qualifying 
himself for promotions. At the time of his 
call to active duty he had attained the rank 
of major, and in March of this year he was 
again promoted to his present rank of 
lieutenant-colonel. 

Until Colonel Gregg's return from the 
war, Mr. Orr Goodson, who has been his 
assistant for some time past, will serve as 
Acting Director. Dr. Osgood will tempo- 
rarily take Colonel Gregg's place as Editor 
of Field Museum News. 

Following is the testimonial voicing the 
sentiments of the Museum Staff at the 
departure of their Director for the duration 
of the war: 

"To Lieutenant Colonel Clifford C. Gregg 
"The entire personnel of Field Museum 
of Natural History extends its warmest 
good wishes to you as you leave for active 
field service to the Nation. You carry 
with you our pride, our loyalty, and our 
confidence in your success. We know that 
the fine qualities you have shown as Director 
of this institution will continue wherever 
you go. May you return to us safely and 
speedily." 

— AU REVOIR 



Staff Notes 

Mr. Karl P. Schmidt, Chief Curator of 
Zoology, gave the annual lecture before the 
Illinois Academy of Sciences meeting at 
the University of Illinois, May 8. His 
subject was "A Naturalist in the South 
Seas." 



Mr. John W. Moyer, Staff Taxidermist, 
returned May 1 from a leave of absence 
for an extended lecture tour. 



African Proverbs 

African Negroes have many equivalents 
of American and European proverbs. The 
Ibo of Nigeria, instead of saying that 
"Charity begins at home" state that "A 
man repairs his own house first." Instead 
of saying "Familiarity breeds contempt" 
the Ibo say "If you play with a puppy he 
tears your clothes." 

Among proverbs of the Ovimbundu of 
Angola are the following (the American 
equivalents are cited in parentheses in each 
case): 



"You can't tie an antelope's head in a 
cloth, the horns will stick out" ("murder 
will out"). 

"A turtle cannot climb on a tree stump, 
someone has to put it there" (an incompetent 
man has to be promoted through influence). 

"Hot water does not burn a house" (said 
of a braggart who keeps threatening things 
he cannot do). 

"If you are full of food don't climb on a 
leopard's back" (means do not be proud and 
foolish through good fortune). 

"I caught some fish but lost my bracelet" 
(said of a deal which brings small gain and 
a bigger loss). 



Death Takes Mrs. Hackbarth, 
Museum Telephone Operator 

Mrs. Adelaide F. Hackbarth, who had 
served Field Museum as telephone switch- 
board operator since 1920, died on April 25 
after a long illness. She will be long re- 
membered for her uniform cheerfulness even 
under the stress of an extremely busy board. 



FIELD MUSEUM HONOR ROLL 
Now In the Service 
of their Country: 

Theodore Roosevelt, Trustee — Briga- 
dier-General, U.S. Army. 

Lester Armour, Trustee — Lieutenant- 
Commander, U.S. Navy. 

Joseph Nash Field, Trustee — Lieu- 
tenant (J. G.), U.S. Navy. 

Clifford C. Gregg, Director — Lieuten- 
ant-Colonel, A.G.D., U.S. Army. 

Melvin A. Traylor, Jr., Associate, 
Birds — Private, U.S. Marine Corps. 

Dr. John Rinaldo, Associate, South- 
western Archaeology — Private, U.S. 
Army. 

Dr. Alexander Spoehr, Assistant Cur- 
ator, North American Ethnology 
and Archaeology — Private, U.S. 
Army. 

Bert E. Grove, Guide-Lecturer — 
American Field Service, in North 
Africa. 

Patrick T. McEnery, Guard — Master- 
at-arms, U.S. Navy. 

John Syckowski, Guard — Chief Com- 
missary Steward, U.S. Navy. 

George Jahrand, Guard — Chief Water 
Tender, U.S. Navy. 

M. C. Darnall, Jr., Guard — Candi- 
dates' Class, U.S. Marine Corps 
Reserve (Officers' Training Course). 

James C. Mclntyre, Guard — Private, 
U.S. Army, Coast Artillery. 

Clyde James Nash, Guard — Chief 
Gunner's Mate, U.S. Navy. 

Nicholas Repar, Printer — First Class 
Seaman, U.S. Navy. 

in A civilian status 
Rudyerd Boulton, Curator, Birds — 
Staff of Co-ordinator of Informa- 
tion, Washington, D.C. 
Bryant Mather, Assistant Curator, 
Mineralogy — Civil Service Worker 
for Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army. 



June, 19i2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page 7 



WHAT SNAKES ARE POISONOUS, AND WHERE DO THEY LIVE? 
A New Field Museum Exhibit Gives the Answers 



By CLIFFORD H. POPE 

CURATOR, AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES 

"Is it poisonous?" Since this is nearly 
always the first question asked about a 
snake, Field Museum has placed in Albert W. 
Harris Hall (Hall 18) an exhibit designed to 
answer it with regard to any snake found in 
this country. The installation is timely, as 
the snakes have now come out of hibernation. 

This exhibit includes five colored maps 
showing the distribution of our dangerous 
species. Anyone may begin to leam his 
local poisonous snakes by studying these. 

In general, the matter is as simple as 
this: The western half of the United States 
harbors nothing but rattlesnakes (and the 
excessively rare coral snake of Arizona); 
in the northeastern quarter of the country 



but the Arizona species is too small and 
too rare to be regarded as a menace. 

The copperhead, often called "highland 
moccasin," is an eastern species, two to 
three feet long, whose bite, though danger- 
ous, is seldom fatal to man. The more 
dangerous and larger water moccasin, or 
cottonmouth, lives in or near fresh waters 
of the southeastern lowlands. The so-called 
"water moccasins" of the northern states 
and southern highlands are merely harmless 
snakes that more or less resemble the true 
moccasin and are often more vicious than 
it. No false belief about snakes is so hard to 
deal with as the conviction that true water 
moccasins occur in northern states. 

The rattlesnakes are divided into two 
groups, the smaller pigmy species, two in 



POISONOUS SNAKES IN THE UNITED STATES 




<^^' 



COHMOa HtCHlY DANCEiOUt DATTIESNAKE! 





PART OF EXHIBIT OF POISONOUS SNAKES OF THE UNITED STATES 

Examples of the reptiles arc shown, together with several colofed maps indicating the areas over which they arc 

distributed. Labels give the principal points (or the identification of dangerous snakes. Thus the problem of recognizing 

those which are poisonous is reduced to its simplest tern^ by an elimination process that even a child can grasp. 



are only rattlers and the copperhead; in 
the southeastern quarter are rattlesnakes, 
the copperhead, water moccasin, and com- 
mon coral snake. 

ONLY THREE DANGEROUS GROUPS 
Snake distribution is justifiably em- 
phasized also because the layman, when 
asked in turn, "Is it poisonous?" invariably 
recites complicated and useless rules about 
relative size of head and neck, shape of 
body, and so on. Even if these rules were 
good they would scarcely be worth memo- 
rizing because only in the southeastern 
states is the problem involved. 

Fortunately, every one of our poisonous 
species belongs to one of only three types 
or groups as follows: pit vipers without 
rattle; pit vipers with rattle; coral snakes. 
The copperhead and water moccasin are 
the sole pit vipers without a rattle, whereas 
those with a rattle are the well-known rattle- 
snakes. There are two kinds of coral snakes. 



number, and the larger typical rattlesnakes. 
Although there are thirteen kinds of typical 
rattlers, only four are common and widely 
distributed, the rest being confined to the 
arid and desert areas of the extreme south- 
west. The combined ranges of the four 
common kinds cover nearly all of the 
United States and include at least a part 
of every state. Any rattlesnake can, of 
course, be recognized by its rattle. 

The bite of a large rattlesnake is a serious 
matter, so all kinds are to be carefully 
avoided. The small pigmy species have 
potent venom, but are not large enough to be 
fatal to man under ordinary circumstances. 

DISTINGUISHING MARKS OF PIT VIPERS 

All the members of these first two groups 
are called pit vipers because they have a 
deep pit in the face a little below a line 
joining eye and nostril. This pit, a sense 
organ stimulated by slight differences in 
temperature, presumably helps in the detec- 



tion of warm-blooded prey. Another sure 
way to recognize a pit viper is to find in 
the front of its upper jaw a pair of long, 
hollow teeth or fangs which fold backward 
when the mouth closes; through these the 
pit viper forces venom into its victims. 

The layman often contends that looking 
for pit or fang is as bad as braving the lion 
in its den, and asks for recognition points 
which can be seen at a distance. The 
rattle of the rattlesnakes can be both seen 
and heard from a distance. One simply has 
to become familiar with the general appear- 
ance and patterns of the copperhead and 
water moccasin. The latter's aquatic habits 
help in its recognition; water moccasins are 
not encountered far from water, and never 
in mountains or highlands. 

The gorgeous coral snakes, deadly rela- 
tives of the cobras, are likewise easily recog- 
nized at a distance. It happens that a few 
harmless species are also banded or ringed 
with red, yellow, and black so the exact 
arrangement of these colors in the coral 
snakes must be learned to avoid undue 
excitement at the sight of one of its "mimics." 
In the deadly species the snout is black, 
the bands of the back cross the abdomen 
or belly to form complete rings, and the 
yellow rings are next to the red ones. No 
harmless snake of this country duplicates 
this triple arrangement. 

The single species of coral snake that one 
is at all likely to meet lives in the south- 
eastern states and is usually between two 
and three feet long. It does not coil and 
strike like a pit viper, but flings and jerks 
its slender body about in a manner all its 
own. The short, rigid fangs are not com- 
parable in efficiency to the long ones of the 
pit vipers, but the venom itself is extremely 
potent and attacks the nerve centers rather 
than the blood and blood vessels. This 
means that the symptoms of its bite are 
general rather than local as in the case of 
the bite of a pit vijjer. 

AID TO FIRST-AIDERS 

Many inquiries have recently been re- 
ceived from civilian defense workers attend- 
ing first aid classes. All those taking such a 
course will find this exhibit especially helpful. 
It shows, for example, that only one poison- 
ous snake, the massasauga, occurs in the 
region of Chicago. A person wearing leather 
shoes is fairly safe from this pigmy rattle- 
snake which is locally confined to forest 
preserves northwest of the city and the dunes 
at the southern end of Lake Michigan. 

In administering first aid to a snake 
victim, the first consideration is to determine 
whether the snake was venomous or not. 
As the Red Cross First Aid Text-book states, 
"Bites of non-poisonous snakes should be 
treated as any other wounds," but special- 
ized treatments are required for the venom- 
ous ones. 

The new exhibit and its maps were 
designed by Miss Clarice McKeever, vol- 
unteer artist, Department of Zoology. 



Page 8 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



June, 19i2 



MOTION PICTURES FOR CHILDREN 
IN JULY AND AUGUST 

The James Nelson and Anna Louise 
Raymond Foundation for Public School and 
Children's Lectures will present a summer 
series of six free programs of motion pictures 
for children on Thursday mornings begin- 
ning July 2 and continuing through August 
6. Subjects of the films to be shown will 
be published in the next issue of Field 
Museum News. The programs will be 
given in the James Simpson Theatre, and 
will include films with sound, some in color. 
Each program will begin at 10 a.m. Children 
from all parts of Chicago and suburbs are 
invited, and no tickets are necessary for 
admission. They may come alone, accom- 
panied by adults, or in groups. 



DALLWIG COMPLETES 5th SEASON 
AS "LAYMAN LECTURER" 

On May 31, Mr. Paul G. Dallwig ended 
his fifth season of Layman Lectures, given as 
his contribution to Field Museum. During 
the five years since he inaugurated this 
activity, he has presented a total of 159 
two-hour lectures, with a total attendance 
of 14,511, or an average attendance of 91 
at each lecture. 

In the season just closed, November, 1941 
through May, 1942 inclusive, the total 
attendance was 3,294 or an average Sunday 
attendance of 106 for each of 31 lectures. 
In addition, there were 920 requests for 
reservations which could not be fulfilled be- 
cause of physical limitations on the number 
that can be accommodated. 

In addition, Mr. Dallwig has carried the 
story of Field Museum to audiences attend- 
ing programs given by 46 women's clubs 
and men's organizations, 22 of these outside 
lecture appearances occurring in the season 
just closed. Many persons from his outside 
audiences were stimulated to attend his 
lectures at the Museum. 

Next season Mr. Dallwig plans to start 
his Museum lectures on the first Sunday in 
October, and end the series on the last 
Sunday in April, omitting January from 
the schedule. Subjects will be announced 
later in Field Museum News. 



GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM 

Following is a list of some of the principal 
gifts received during the last month: 

Department of Botany: 

From Harry Hoogstraal, Urbana, 111. — 
42 herbarium specimens, Mexico; from 
Herman C. Benke, Chicago — 46 herbarium 
specimens. United States; from Richard D. 
Wood, Camp Barkeley, Tex.— 139 her- 
barium specimens, Texas; from Herman 
Silva, Knoxville, Tenn. — 31 specimens of 
algae, Tennessee and West Virginia; from 
Dr. M. A. Brannon, Gainesville, Fla. — 18 
sf)ecimens of algae, Florida; from Donald 
Richards, Chicago— 45 specimens of mis- 



cellaneous mosses. North America; from 
H. K. Phinney, Albion, Mich. — 61 speci- 
mens of algae, Michigan and Texas. 

Department of Geolo^: 

From C. Hafer, Candor, N. C. — 21 speci- 
mens of minerals. North Carolina; from Dr. 
A. H. Becker, Madison, Wis. — one anortho- 
clase moonstone cabochon, Wisconsin; from 
George Huss, Chicago — a fluorite crystal 
with curved striae, Mahoning Mine, Illinois; 
from Dr. Frederick W. Burcky, Evanston, 
111. — 3 moss agate cabochons and a specimen 
of nephrite jade, California and Wyoming. 

Department of Zoology: 

From Clyde T. Reed, Gregory, Tex.— 32 
mammal skulls, an infant human skeleton, 
and 2 armadillo pelves, Texas; from Dr. 
James P. Heath, Kent, Ohio — 3 bats, Cuba; 
from Eugene Ray, Chicago — a beetle (para- 
type), Indiana; from Dr. Henry Field, 
Washington, D.C. — a lizard, 8 corals, and 
46 shells comprising 9 species, Trinidad, 
British West Indies; from Dr. Marshall 
Hertig, Lima, Peru — 7 mice, Peru; from 
Colorado Museum of Natural History, 
Denver, Colo. — a sage grouse, Colorado; 
from Robert A. Burton, Evanston, 111. — 
195 salamanders, frogs, lizards, snakes, 
and turtles, Arkansas and Missouri; from 
Rowland R. McElvare, New York City — 
8 moths, California; from Henry S. Dybas, 
Chicago — 344 insects and allies, Panama and 
United States; from Dr. Angelo Maldonado, 
Lima, Peru — 34 specimens of water-bugs, 
water-beetles, spiders, and dragonfly naiads, 
Peru; from Chicago Zoological Society, 
Brookfield, 111.— 36 birds. 

The Library: 

Valuable books from Americana Corpora- 
tion, New York City; Mrs. G. C. Walch, 
CHntonville, Wis.; Dr. Henry Field, Wash- 
ington, D.C; and Lt. Col. Clifford C. Gregg, 
Boardman Conover, Henry W. Nichols, 
Kari P. Schmidt, and Paul C. Standley, 
all of Chicago. 



NEW MEMBERS 

The following persons became Members 
of Field Museum during the period from 
April 16 to May 15: 

Associate Members 

Carl Dreutzer, Edward Gray, Lawrence 
Pucci, Richard A. Trenkmann, Mrs. Edward 
C. Waller. 

Sustaining Members 

Peter M. Perry 

Annual Members 

Albert E. Baddin, Samuel R. Ballis, 
Charles L. Barr, Fred Biesel, Fredrik A. 
Chramer, Howard H. Darbo, James C. 
Downs, Jr., DeForest A. Hamilton, Mrs. 
Margaret Pope Hovey, Maurice Lazar, 
J. Lentin, John S. Lord, R. K. Mangan, 
Earl J. McMahon, Morris Mendelson, Miss 
Henriette Mertz, M. A. Metzger, Jonas 
Meyers, Albert A. Miller, Joseph M. 
Mozeris, Robert A. Rankin, Freeman C. 
Read, Henry P. Reger, Dr. Leslie H. 
Reimers, Hayes Roberton, Herman Spertus, 
Mrs. R. St. John Stevens, Howard H. 
Wanzer. 



WEEKDAY LECTURE TOURS 
OFFERED IN JUNE 

Conducted tours of exhibits, under the 
guidance of staff lecturers, are made every 
afternoon at 2 o'clock except Saturdays, 
Sundays, and certain holidays. Tours are 
free. Following is the schedule for June: 

Week beginning June 1 : Monday — People 
of the South Seas and East Indies (Miss 
Elizabeth Hambleton) ; Tuesday — General 
Tour (Miss Elizabeth Best); Wednesday — 
Variety of Animals in North and South 
America (Miss Elizabeth Best) ; Thursday — 
General Tour (Miss Elizabeth Hambleton); 
Friday — Sugars and Spices (Miss Marie 
Pabst). 

Week beginning June 8: Monday — Men of 
the Stone Age (Miss Miriam Wood); Tues- 
day — General Tour (Miss Marie Pabst); 
Wednesday — Africa's People (Miss Eliza- 
beth Hambleton) ; Thursday — General Tour 
(Miss Elizabeth Best); Friday — Game Ani- 
mals of the World (Miss Elizabeth Best). 

Week beginning June 15: Monday — 
Medicinal Plants (Miss Marie Pabst); Tues- 
day — General Tour (Miss Elizabeth Ham- 
bleton); Wednesday — Indians and Eskimos 
of Alaska (Miss Elizabeth Hambleton); 
Thursday — General Tour (Miss Marie 
Pabst); Friday — Minerals in Ancient and 
Modern Times (Miss Marie Pabst). 

Week beginning June 22: Monday — 
Summer Life of Various Animals (Miss 
Elizabeth Best); Tuesday — General Tour 
(Miss Elizabeth Best); Wednesday — Before 
the Dawn of History (Miss Marie Pabst); 
Thursday — General Tour (Miss Elizabeth 
Hambleton); Friday — Vegetable Oils and 
Fats (Miss Marie Pabst). 

Week beginning June 29: Monday — Life 
Usually Unseen (Miss Elizabeth Best); 
Tuesday — General Tour (Miss Miriam 
Wood). 



BY-WAYS TO ADVENTURE, 
by Edwin Way Teale. 

Of this book, Mr. Kari P. Schmidt, 
Chief Curator of Zoology, says: 
"Studies in natural history, from the 
level of the bird-lover or nature-lover, 
to the scholarly work of a professional 
ornithological scientist, offer inex- 
haustible opportunities for hobbies 
and even life-long avocations for the 
amateur. Books like Mr. Teale's 
open the door to such studies for 
children and for amateur students, 
and thus help to ensure us of future 
generations of those scientists whose 
interests entitle them to the name of 
naturalist. Mr. Teale's lists of recom- 
mended books attached to each 
chapter are an especially important 
and valuable feature." 

On sale at THE BOOK SHOP of 
FIELD MUSEUM— $2.75. Mail or- 
ders accepted. 



PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS 



Field 




News 



Published Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago 



Vol. 13 



JULY, 1942 



No. 7 



ISLANDS THAT BOUND THE CORAL SEA ARE REPRESENTED IN MUSEUM EXHIBITS 



By KARL P. SCHMIDT 

CHIEF CURATOR, DEPARTMENT OP ZOOLOGY 

The Coral Sea lies between the Great 
Barrier Reef off northeastern Australia and 
the series of archipelagos of volcanic and 
coralline islands extending in great arcs 
eastward and south- 
ward from the eastern 
end of New Guinea. 
Not long ago New 
Guinea and other is- 
lands of the South 
Seas were no more 
than romantic names 
to most of us — syno- 
nyms and symbols for 
the exotic, strange, 
and unknown. Often 
enough they were 
thought to be idyllic 
havens of peace, offer- 
ing opportunities for 
escape from the mad 
rush of the civilized 
world into unspoiled, 
even though some- 
times savage, Edens. 
Now these islands and 
archipelagos appear in 
the daily news, head- 
lines have to distin- 
guish between North 
Ireland and New Ire- 
land, and what Edens 
may have existed have 
been invaded by a 
warfare infinitely 
more destructive than 

any waged by their so-called savage in- 
habitants in the past. We suddenly find 
that we, or our sons, or brothers, or friends, 
are likely for some time to be more familiar 
with remote New Caledonia than with 
Scotland, with New Britain than with 
Britain, and with the New Hebrides of the 
Pacific rather than the Hebrides of the 
Scottish coast. 

Field Museum, with its world-wide view- 
point and its conscious attempt to assemble 
a knowledge of the life and products of 
exotic and remote places, has long given 
attention to the archipelagos of the Coral 
Sea. These antipodean islands are of very 
great interest to several of the Museum's 



departments, perhaps first and most ob- 
viously for their extraordinary variety of 
native human tribes with cultures essentially 
at a Stone Age level. They are no less 
directly interesting to the zoologists for the 
wealth of the marine life of their reefs, and 




CEREMONIAL PROCESSION WITH FEATHER MASKS 

Photograph made years ago at Awar, Hansa Bay in northern New Guinea, by the Joseph N. Field Expedition under the 
leadership of the late Dr. Albert B. Lewis, Curator of Melanesian Ethnology. Four of these masks, ranging from 14 to 19 
feet in height, were brought to Field Museum by the expedition and are exhibited, on manikins, in Stanley Field Hall. 

for the "living fossils" among their land 
animals, which bear the stamp of the Age 
of Reptiles. Their forests form a botanical 
world still largely unknown, and while 
geological problems are somewhat restricted 
by their volcanic nature, the islands them- 
selves are only outliers of continental 
Australia and New Guinea, which offer 
fields for exploration which to date have 
been no more than scratched. 

Field Museum's expeditions to the islands 
north of the Coral Sea began with the 
Joseph N. Field Expedition of 1904-1908. 
Under the direction of the late Dr. Albert B. 
Lewis, for many years Curator of Melanesian 
Ethnology, this expedition brought back a 



whole shipload of ethnological collections. 
The island tribes have suffered such exten- 
sive decline in numbers, and their customs 
and hand-made products have been so pro- 
foundly altered by the impact of civilization 
during the last thirty years, that much of 
this collection is now 
wholly irreplaceable. 
A visit to Joseph N. 
Field Hall (Hall A) 
which occupies the 
whole eastern end of 
the ground floor in the 
Museum, will bring 
before one's eyes a 
series of native cul- 
tures noteworthy for 
an astonishing devel- 
opment of art, as ex- 
emplified in design, 
and applied to every 
detail of daily life 
from cooking pots to 
canoe prows, and from 
weapons to ceremonial 
costumes. These is- 
lands, grouped to- 
gether as "Melanesia" 
(a name based on a 
Greek root in refer- 
ence to the black skins 
of the native inhabit- 
ants) exhibit remark- 
able changes from is- 
land to island and 
from archipelago to 
archipelago. The na- 
tive languages are so 
distinct and so multitudinous that work 
"boys," assembled from different islands on 
coconut plantations, converse with each 
other in the elaborate "pidgin English" (or 
better "beach English") which has been 
developed as a lingua franca by the trading 
and missionarying whites. 

The variety of strange human cultures in 
the successive island groups is well exhibited 
in Joseph N. Field Hall. Carved door posts 
and weird roof ornaments characterize the 
circular houses of the all but extinct New 
Caledonian natives. Between New Cale- 
donia, occupied by the Free French and 
our own forces, and the Solomons, now in 
the hands of the Japanese, lie the New 



Page 2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



July, 19i2 



Hebrides, now obviously in the tension zone 
and of utmost importance to us. The New 
Hebrides, famous in missionary history, are 
an orphan archipelago of the colonial period, 
under the joint rule of the French and 
British. Perhaps the comparison should be 
with a child of separated parents, for the 
rule by two European administrations has 
produced unsolvable problems of labor- 
management and of colonization. The 
native New Hebrideans are still a people 
of strange customs, and still little influenced 
by white civilization except for a great 
decline in their numbers. The remarkable 
dancing grounds, set about with huge 
vertical drums, are situated in gloomy forest 
glades, and an almost incredible hierarchy, 
in which rank is determined principally by 
the ritual of killing pigs in a ceremonial 
"pig-cult," dominates the men's secret 
societies. 

THE SOLOMON ISLANDS 

The Solomon Islands are famous for 
savage tribes whose resentment of slave 
making raids from Australia in former times 




Copyright Field Museum o( N'aiural History 

SOLOMON ISLAND NATIVE 

Life study by Malvina HofFnun, among the Races of 

Mankind bronze sculptures on exhibition in Ouuncey 

Keep Memorial Hall of the Museum (Hall 3). 

(known euphemistically as "black-birding") 
still persists as a barrier against the white 
man. When the Crane Pacific Expedition 
of Field Museum visited Malaita Island in 
1929, 1 was instructed not to leave the village 
without escort, and a Solomon Islander was 
detailed to accompany me on my nocturnal 
frog hunting expeditions. He turned out to 
be a kind of prisoner, kept at the government 
station, who entertained me with accounts 
of the murder of a tax-collector, in which 
he had participated in the previous year. 

The Solomon Islanders are bold navi- 
gators. Their canoes, ranging from a size 
.suitable only for a single child to great 
war-canoes that hold fifty men, are made 




LAE IN HALCYON DAYS OF 1929 

Airport in New Guinea as it appeared when visited by the 

Crane Pacific Expedition of Field Museum. Today, in 

Japanese hands, it has become an important base for the 

bombers sent against the United Nations by Nippon. 

from hewn planks, lashed together and 
caulked with the parinarium nut. Strangely 
enough, outriggers are not used. Their 
peculiar outlines are well-known to stamp 
collectors from pictorial postage stamps. 
The Solomon Island canoes are often elabo- 
rately decorated with mother-of-pearl inlay. 
The Solomons are now in Japanese hands, 
and it is into this group that the Japanese 
fleet probably retired from the battle of the 
Coral Sea. 

Northwest of the Solomons lie the still 
larger volcanic islands of New Britain and 
New Ireland. These were German colonies 
before World War I, and have since been 
under Australian jurisdiction. The cere- 
monial objects made by the native tribes 
on these islands reach an extreme of elabora- 
tion. Intricate wood carvings are like totem 
poles with the animal and human figures 
carved out within them. A "medicine 
man's" dance costume from New Britain 
is like a parasol supported by a gigantic 
praying mantis. 

VAST NEW GUINEA 

It was twenty years after the notable 
ethnological explorations of Melanesia by 
the Joseph N. Field Expedition, that the 
zoological expedition, under the patronage 
of Mr. Cornelius Crane, visited the New 
Guinean region. Sailing in Mr. Crane's 
brigantine sailing yacht Illyria, the consider- 
able scientific staff included Dr. W. L. 
Moss as physician. Dr. A. W. C. T. Herre, 
of Stanford University, as ichthyologist, 
Mr. Walter A. Weber as artist, Mr. Frank 
C. Wonder (of the Museum staff) as collector 
and taxidermist, and the writer as leader 
of the scientific party. A group of Mr. 
Crane's friends accompanied the expedition, 
among whom Mr. Sidney N. Shurcliff served 
as photographer, while Messrs. Charles R. 
Peavy and Murry Fairbank accompanied 
us as non-professional aids. 

The first landfall of the lUuria on New 
Guinea was at Lae on the north coast, now 
daily in the war news as one of the principal 
Japanese bases. There was a commercial 
airport at Lae in 1929, serving a gold mining 
region in the interior. T'here were twenty- 



two planes in service at the time of our 
visit. The village was the usual collection 
of palm thatched huts, and the construction 
of the hangars had been adapted from the 
New Guinean type of structure. 

New Guinea, nearly 2,000 miles long, is 
so vast an island that its animal life has a 
much more continental character than that 
of even such near-by islands as the Solomons. 
Its birds-of-paradise present a high-light of 
ornithology, a climax of brilliant coloration 
and bizarre ornament in the 
bird group. There are other 
brilliant birds — parrots, 
kingfishers, and fruit pi- 
geons; cassowaries on the 
ground, while large horn- 
bills and giant black cocka- 
toos high in the trees add 
to the impression of a re- 
markable wealth and variety 
of birds. 

With the advantage of the 
Illyria as a base, and with 
a season of high water in the 
Sepik River, we were able 
to sail into the interior far 
beyond the reach of white 
influence. Father Franz 
Kirschbaum, a missionary 
of twenty-two years experi- 
ence on the Lower Sepik, 
served as our very capable 
and genial guide. Father 
Kirschbaum had compiled 
grammars of fourteen lan- 
guages among the Papuan 
tribes of the Sepik, but 
above Ambunti, about 200 
miles from the mouth of the 
river, we were soon reduced 
to communication by signs 
alone, as the languages 
changed bewnlderingly with 
every new village. On the 
May River, some 400 miles 
inland, we were in territory 
only once before penetrated 
by white men. Iron tools 
reach the interior through 
trade and pass through so 
many hands by the time 
they reach the remote tribes 
that they are of inestimable 
local value. As soon as our 
signs and a few preliminary 
gifts showed that we had 
knives and axheads for 
trade, the naked savages 
crowded around us with 
offers of every kind of tool 
or ceremonial object, even 
their human skull trophies, 
begging for an exchange in 
the most precious of all 
metals, iron. 

Museums, with their 
world-wide interests, cannot 



'.^li 



CARVED 
LOG 

or "nialagan" 
from New Ire- 
land, exhibited 
in Hall A. 



July, 19i2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Pages 



expand greatly in times of war. It is to 
be hoped that a return of tranquillity to 
such far-off islands as those of the Coral 
Sea may be under a world peace of enduring 




TOPSY-TURVY COURTSHIP 

The blue bird-oi'paradise assumes an upside'down position 

for its colorful nuptial display, as shown in this Field 

Museum exhibit. These birds are found only in New 

Guinea and its neighboring islands. 

conditions in which museum exploration, 
and the internationalism of scientific re- 
search, will again flourish. 



HAIL AND FAREWELL— 
A Tribute to Director Gregg 

{Editor's Note: — The June issue of Field 
Museum News contained a factual account 
of Director Gregg's departure for war service. 
The following tribute, penned by Mr. Karl P. 
Schmidt, Chief Curator of Zoology, voices 
the feelings of the Staff in general.) 

Through a period of great difficulty Field 
Museum has maintained the high standards 
of its exhibition halls, and the steady growth 
of its exhibits. The researches of its 
scientific staff have gone forward, and the 
results have been published. The relations 
of the Museum with other educational 
institutions have been developed. A great 
program of expeditions has been carried on 
and has contributed vitality and freshness 
to the exhibition halls, the reference collec- 
tions, and the research laboratories. These 
continuing activities are the outward signs 
of a well-administered institution, forming 
a real tribute to its Director and its Trustees 
under whom he serves. 

The inward signs of a museum in good 
institutional health must have been most 
gratifying to Lieutenant Colonel Clifford C. 
Gregg at the time of his recent departure 
for service to the nation. His ability to 
command the loyalty and respect of his 
staff had unlocked all doors to him and 
placed the sum of the staff intelligence at 
his service. Accompanying respect has been 
a growing trust and affection on the part 
of his Museum colleagues. All who have 
had occasion to "see the Director" have 
left his office encouraged and determined tq 



make their best contribution to the Museum. 
If more difficult times are ahead, we shall 
face them with courage and optimism as a 
result of his example. 

In the national emergency of a world war, 
it was singularly appropriate that the first 
of our staff to be drawn upon should be 
the Director himself, whose present period 
of service with the United States Army 
began in September, 1940. Since that time, 
various younger members of the staff have 
been drawn into governmental services. 
For them, those who remain will carry on 
"for the duration." 



TURTLE "MYSTERY" SOLVED 

(A nature lesson, as told in June Provines' 
Column in The Chicago Sun, June 11, on 
the basis of information supplied by Field 
Museum.) 

A resident of Dundee Road, Harrington, 
Illinois, Mr. Sidney H. George, called up 
his friend, Mr. Orr Goodson, Acting Director 
of Field Museum of Natural History, for 
aid in the solution of a turtle mystery. 

"Yesterday I drove out of my garage and 
found a large turtle had stationed itself in 
my driveway," said Mr. George. "I 
managed to get past it without hurting it 
and when I got back in the evening there it 
was in exactly the same spot. The next 
morning it was gone, but in the sand and 
gravel where it had been were marks in- 
dicating that a hole had been dug and 
covered over. It was as though a murderer 
had concealed a corpse. Perhaps you had 
better send a squad car full of herpetologists 
to investigate." 

The case was referred to Mr. Karl P. 
Schmidt, Chief Curator of Zoology and a 
specialist in reptiles and amphibians. 

"It's not a murder, it's a blessed event," 
said Mr. Schmidt. "It undoubtedly was a 
pond turtle laying a couple of dozen eggs, 
and burying them in the approved turtle 
fashion. The heat of the ground should 
hatch them eventually." 

If Mr. George will wait until August, and 
be careful not to drive over the spot, Mr. 
Schmidt added, a dozen or two baby turtles 
may emerge from his driveway to face the 
world. 

Mr. Goodson invited Mr. George to visit 
Field Museum and inspect a habitat group 
showing a giant loggerhead turtle of Florida 
laying and burying its eggs on a beach. 



Strategic Quartz 

Rock crystal, the transparent variety of 
crystal quartz, is so abundant that tons are 
thrown away every year as worthless by 
quarriers of other minerals. Yet one variety, 
of such great industrial importance that it 
is classed as a strategic mineral, can be 
found in commercial quantity only in Brazil. 
It is used to control the length of radio 
waves, and of radio frequency oscillations, 
wherever their accurate control is required. 



HOW BIG IS A DINOSAUR? 

This innocent question is sometimes 
asked and not always by children. The 
name" dinosaur, "signifying" gigantic lizard," 
is misleading. Almost all animals, however 
large they may be, were once small. This 
is almost always true of the race as well as 
of the individual. Large kinds of animals 
do not suddenly spring into being as an 
offshoot from other large animals, but arise 
from opportunity coming to modest and 
inconspicuous kinds of animals and their 
adaptation to this new opportunity, whether 
it be a new supply of food, a favorable 
climate or other beneficent conditions. 

In fact, at the heyday of dinosaurian life 
there were small dinosaurs as well as large. 
Some were slender and active tree-climbers 
and evidently lived from robbing birds' 
nests, while others, notably one, Brachio- 
saurus, carried his head thirty-odd feet high, 
looking over treetops to cull his land and 
to gain his outlook upon life. And there 
were intermediate plodders who took what 
came and were satisfied. — E.S.R. 



ETHNOLOGY OF MELANESIA 
by Albert B. Lewis 

Especially note- 
worthy in these 
times when so 
much fighting is 
going on in the 
waters and islands 
of the South 
Pacific, is Field 
Museum's copi- 
ous handbook on 
Melanesia. This 
most readable 
book was written 
by the late Dr. 
Albert B. Lewis, 
who for many 
years was Cura- 
tor of Melancsian 
Ethnology. It 
deals with the 
geography and 
climate of the 
islands of that 
area, and espe- 
cially with the 
different groups 
of peoples and 
their varied cul- 
tures. Written 
in popular style, 
it is especially 
suitable for the 
general reader. 

On sale at THE BOOK SHOP of 
FIELD MUSEUM. 210 pages, 64 
plates, 2 maps. $1.75. Mail orders 
accepted. 



TREE-FERN DRUMS 
OF NEW HEBRIDES 

(Hall A) 



Page i 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



July, 19If2 



CHINESE CARVED IVORY 
IN NEW EXHIBIT 

By C. martin WILBUR 

CURATOR OF CHINESE ARCHAEOLOGY AND ETHNOLOGY 

Americans delight in Chinese figures 
carved of ivory, and in the colorful little 
bottles ingeniously fashioned by the Chinese 
to hold snuff. They are "decorative art," 
frankly made to be sold to persons who 
enjoy the ownership of such knick-knacks. 
Most examples are modern — a piece that 
is two centuries old is counted ancient. It 
requires no esoteric knowledge to admire 
such things, and examples selected purely 
for visual enjoyment have been recently 
put on display in Stanley Field Hall. They 
include a few of the more handsome ivories 
from a bequest left to the Museum by Mr. 
Louis L. Valentine, and some of the brighter 
bottles from the collection bequeathed by 
Mrs. Frances Gaylord Smith, both of whom 
were prominent Chicagoans. None of these 
objects have been exhibited previously by 
Field Museum. 

It was about 1680 that Europeans intro- 
duced the Chinese to the practice of taking 
snuff, a powdered form of the American 
Indian tobacco. For a century and a half 
the practice was popular in fashionable 
Chinese circles just as it was in Europe. 
A gentleman carried his snuff in a fancy 
bottle that ranged in height from one and 
a half to four inches, and that held about 
a tablespoonful. The bottles were made to 
be shown off and admired, and the artisans 
used all the colorful materials available. 
Mrs. Smith's collection affords a wide 
variety. Among the always popular polished 
stone bottles, several types of agate may be 
seen, as well as carnelian, crystal, onyx, 
lapis lazuli, and turquoise. Jade bottles of 
many colors from the same collection are 
displayed in the Hall of Jade (Hall 30). 
Porcelain bottles followed in miniature the 
ceramic fashions of the last two centuries, 
sometimes even copying in decoration the 
best vases and table ware made at the 
imperial kilns. Glass bottles were some- 
times made of different colored layers carved 
in cameo style; some are opaque with floral 
painting in enamel, or of clear brilliant color. 
The most surprising glass bottles are those 
painted on the inside with landscapes and 
floral scenes — painted through a neck one- 
quarter of an inch in diameter, a feat of 
skill and patience of the sort in which 
Chinese artisans surpass all others. Lacquer, 
ivory, coral, and amber are other materials 
— only a few of the many that could be 
shown in the allotted space. 

The shape and size of the ivory tusk 
limit the forms into which it can be carved. 
Figures of humans, bending slightly, are 
especially suitable, and these the Chinese 
seem to enjoy producing. The subjects 
they choose to portray, however, are rather 
conventionalized: deities, and persons of 
Chinese legend and romance. From Mr. 
Valentine's collection it has been possible 



to show a well-carved set of the "Eight 
Immortals," each of whom has a particular 
legend known to all Chinese; two representa- 
tions of the Goddess of Mercy and two of 
the God of Long Life; and a group from the 
"Eighteen Buddhist Worthies," who hold a 
position in Chinese folk art somewhat like 
that which the Christian saints and martyrs 
hold in European folk art. This display is 
a reminder of another group of Chinese 
ivories exhibited in George T. and Frances 
Gaylord Smith Hall (Hall 24). 



IMPORTANT MOLLUSK COLLECTION 
ACQUIRED BY MUSEUM 

By fritz HAAS 

CURATOR OF LOWER INVERTEBRATES 

MoUusks of both the sea and fresh water, 
including especially the familiar oysters, 
clams, and sea-snails, together with the land 
snails, have been of great importance to 
mankind since the time of the earliest 
Stone Age, first as a source of food, and 




VARIATIONS IN SHELLS 

Five representatives of South and Central American land 

snails of the family Bulimulidac, showing variations in size 

and shape. (Figures about twO'Chirds natural size). 

secondarily for tools and ornaments. Their 
importance in these respects is a reflection 
of the fact that the mollusks are among the 
more successful kinds of animals, with 
thousands of living species, ranging in size 
from that of minute snails no larger than 
pinheads to that of the giant squids of the 
ocean, which may reach a length of fifty 
feet. At the same time, the mollusk group 
is one of the most ancient of living types, 
appearing in abundance in the earliest 
fossil record. 

The attractiveness of snail and bivalve 
shells as curios led naturally to the formation 
of large collections of these objects, at first 
in private hands. Such collections formed 
the basis of early studies of mollusks, and, 
as the private collections gradually were 
transferred to museums, they formed the 
reference cellections on which further scien- 
tific research was based. Though the hey- 
day of great private collections is largely 
past, this process still continues. The larger 
and more showy marine shells are naturally 
important for museum exhibition; the vast 
number of smaller and less conspicuous 
species are no less important to zoological 



research. Their infinite variety of shape 
and pattern makes them of extreme import- 
ance in evolutionary and geographic studies, 
as may be seen from published studies of 
the remarkable Hawaiian snails of the genus 
Achatinella. The fact that the hard shells 
of mollusks naturally tend to be preserved 
in great numbers as fossils gives the group 
a great practical importance to geology, 
which dates its successive deposited strata 
by means of the study of such fossil remains. 

Through the interest of Mr. Stanley 
Field, President of the Museum, the De- 
partment of Zoology has recently acquired 
one of the most notable collections of mol- 
lusks remaining in private hands. This 
collection, accumulated over a period of 
more than forty years by Mr. Walter F. 
Webb, of Rochester, New York, comprises 
especially land and fresh water snails and 
bivalves. It includes about 20,000 lots 
of shells, with more than 100,000 individual 
specimens. Mr. Webb, a well-known dealer 
in shells, accumulated his personal collection 
as the by-product of his business, retaining 
the finest specimens and the rarest forms 
for himself. 

The permanent scientific value of the 
Webb Collection was greatly enhanced by 
Mr. Webb's purchase of other well-known 
private collections, such as those of Mr. 
G. K. Gude, of London, Mr. John Ritchie, 
of Boston, and Mr. Robert Jetschin, of 
Breslau. These collections date in part 
from as far back as the eigh teen-sixties; 
the identifications thus supply a picture of 
the classification in use at those times by the 
authorities in the field of conchology. Of 
still greater scientific importance is the fact 
that the collection thus includes some of 
the original specimens on which the descrip- 
tions of new species and varieties were based. 
These are the so-called co-types and para- 
types, and they are of special importance 
for reference, tending to stabilize classifica- 
tion and nomenclature. 

The typical material, representing about 
800 forms, includes paratypes of most of 
Gude's species of the snail family Helicidae, 
and of many of the Japanese forms described 
by Pilsbry, and by Pilsbry and Hirase. 
The collection in general was further en- 
riched by extended exchanges with con- 
chologists in all continents, often with the 
further addition of typical material. 

Mr. Webb included with the collection a 
number of important publications on mol- 
lusks, some of them extremely important 
for their rarity. It is gratifying that he has 
continued his interest in the collection, 
supplementing it by gifts of important 
specimens acquired by himself subsequent 
to the purchase agreement. 

Thus at a single stroke, Field Museum 
has obtained a collection of world-wide 
scope that fills a serious gap in its zoological 
collections, and forms a basis for further 
active research in the field now usually 
referred to as "malacology." 



July, 19i2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page 5 



THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED 



The Queerest of Boats 

Many odd types of watercraft have come 
to notice as a result of the war — "invasion 
barges" whose lines are often reminiscent 
of very ancient vessels, the controversial 
"sea otter" boats whose design is at great 
variance from conventional modern ideas of 
marine architecture, and various kinds of 
collapsible round and oval rubber boats and 
rafts carried by aviators as life saving 
equipment. Every army has been impressed 
with the necessity of carrying equipment 
for hurried crossing of rivers and canals 
which may lie as obstacles in its path, and 
there are even amphibian tanks. 

None of the new types of craft is more 
peculiar than the coracle. Field Museum 
has on exhibition in its Hall of Chinese and 
Tibetan Ethnology (Hall 32) a Tibetan 
boat of the coracle type. Clumsily designed 
boats have immemorially been sneered at 
as "old tubs," and the coracle is actually 
and purposely tub-like in design. The 
Tibetan coracle displayed in the Museum 
is built on a frame constructed merely of 
bent willow twigs. Cattle played an in- 
ordinately prominent part in its construc- 
tion, for it is "planked" with the skins of 
yaks, fastened with rawhide thongs, and 
when in use it was even caulked against 
leakage with a bovine product — butler! 
Such boats are said to be the only type made 
and used by the Tibetans. 

Coracles, however, are not confined to 
Tibet. The name for these skin boats 
comes from the Welsh word "corwgl," mean- 
ing both "carcass" and "boat." Once 
coracles were widely used over much of the 
northern hemisphere. In their day they 




BOAT MADE OF SKINS AND TWIGS 

The "three men in a tub" would have been quite at home 
navigating in this Tibetan coracle. It was used for ferrying 
passengers and cargoes across rivers. Exhibited in f-lall 32, 

were even improvised for use as war craft, 
just as almost anything which will float is 
playing its part in the war of today. Coracles 
were used by Alexander the Great on his 
expedition of conquest in the Orient. At 
the time of the Roman invasion, they were 
used in Britain. Western Asia and many 
parts of India found them useful, while 
even in America the Mandan Indians of the 



upper Missouri River constructed in similar 
fashion so-called "bull boats." As a matter 
of fact, fishermen on the Severn and other 
Welsh rivers still use coracles. 

The Tibetan coracle exhibited at the 
Museum is about five and one-half feet in 
diameter, and three feet high. The hides 
composing the sides of this semi-globular 
vessel are sewed together with rawhide, 
and this requires a great number of holes, 
which in turn necessitate the use of the 
butter caulking. Kneeling on the bottom, 
the boatman directs the coracle to the op- 
posite shore by means of a short paddle. 
The downstream drift of the current causes 
complications for the navigator. Surpris- 
ingly enough, these crude boats are capable 
of carrying three or four men, or two men 
and about 200 pounds of goods. At ferry 
stations in Tibet there are generally only 
two or three of these boats, and it often 
takes an entire day to transport a large 
caravan across a river. 

Part of Field Museum's Tibetan collection 
was transported in the very coracle now 
exhibited here. It was used several times 
by the late Dr. Berthold Laufer, former 
Curator of Anthropology, while leading an 
expedition to Tibet. When he no longer 
needed it for practical use, he purcha.sed it 
for exhibition, since few such boats are 
available for inspection in museums. 



GUATEMALA EXPLORER REPORTS 
PROGRESS IN COLLECTING 

Dr. Julian A. Steyermark, Assistant 
Curator of the Herbarium, reports con- 
tinued success in his botanical exploration 
of Guatemala. Recently he spent three 
weeks with his volunteer assistant, Mr. 
Albert Vatter, and Indian paddlers in a 
thirty-foot dugout canoe on the rivers of 
southern Peten, a region sparsely inhabited 
and almost wholly unknown scientifically. 
The party camped along the stream banks, 
and was fortunate in having fine weather for 
collecting. While the vegetation of this 
lowland area is poor in species of plants 
as compared with the near-by mountains 
of Guatemala, an interesting collection was 
made that probably contains some additions 
to the previously known flora of the country. 

Collecting is now being carried on by 
Dr. Steyermark from a finea on the Pacific 
slope of Guatemala, where there is a large 
commercial plantation of cinchona for 
quinine production. Although the trees are 
not yet ready for exploitation, this planting, 
with others in the same region, marks the 
beginning of a new Central American in- 
dustry which, it is hoped, may in time free 
the United States from its dependence upon 
the East Indies for a supply of this most 
essential drug. — P.C.S. 




ACTING DIRECTOR ORR GOODSON 
TAKES CHARGE OF MUSEUM 

Mr. Orr Goodson, appointed Acting 
Director of Field Museum by action of the 
Board of Trustees at a meeting held on 
May 25, a.ssumed executive control of the 
institution on June 1. Mr. Goodson joined 
the staff as Assist- 
ant to the Director 
on July 1, 1941. 
He is to serve as 
Acting Director 
until the return 
from war service 
of the Director, 
Lieutenant Colonel 
Clifford C. Gregg, 
recently trans- 
ferred out of the 
ORR GOODSON Chicago area by 

the U. S. Army. 
Prior to coming to Field Museum, Mr. 
Goodson had been an executive of a large 
Chicago loop office building. Previous to 
that he had served in administrative capac- 
ities in a number of business organizations 
in California and other parts of the country. 
Mr. Goodson was born in Parnell, Mis- 
souri. He attended the University of 
Nebraska and George Washington Uni- 
versity, Washington, D.C., at both of which, 
in addition to his scholastic activities, he 
became a star basketball player and captain 
of teams. His pre.sent residence is in 
Glencoe, Illinois, where he takes an active 
part in community activities and in the 
village's civilian defense program. One of 
his first undertakings at the Museum was 
the organization and training of .selected 
members of the staff for the protection of 
the Museum building and its contents in 
the event that Chicago should be subjected 
to enemy attack. 



Magnesium Under Chicago 

A great body of a potential ore of the 
strategic metal magnesium lies under 
Chicago. This city is built upon a bed of 
dolomite (the carbonate of lime and mag- 
nesia) which is from 200 to 450 feet thick. 
Although this rock is mined elsewhere as a 
source of magnesium, such use of it here is 
unlikely, because large deposits are available 
in regions where land values are much lower. 
Too few analyses of the Chicago bed rock 
have been reported to determine its average 
value, but five analyses made on rock from 
our local quarries all show a content of 
magnesium metal between twelve and 
thirteen per cent, nearly the theoretical 
maximum for ore of this kind. — H.W.N. 



Striking similarities to our modern archi- 
tecture are found in the model of a Zapotecan 
palace at Mitla, exhibited in Hall 8. 



A most effective panorama in James 
Nelson and Anna Louise Raymond Hall 
(Hall 4), shows the life of the Sauk and 
Fox Indians of Tama, Iowa. A close study 
of this group reveals their way of life. 



Page 6 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



July, 191,2 



Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded by Marshaix Field, 1893 
Roosevelt Road and Field Drive, Chlcafto 

Telephone: Wabash 9410 



THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 
Lester Armour Stanley Field 

Sgwell L. Avery Samuel Insull, Jr. 

W. McCoRMicK Blair Charles A. McCulloch 

Leopold E. Block William H. Mitchell 

boardman conover george a. richardson 

Walter J. Cuumings Theodore Roosevelt 

Albert B. Dick, Jr. Solomon A. Smith 

Howard W. Fenton Albert A. Sprague 

Joseph N. Field Silas H. Strawn 

Marshall Field Albert H. Wetten 

John P. Wilson 

OFFICERS 

Stanley Field President 

Albert A. Sprague Fint Vice-President 

Silas H. Strawn Second Vice-President 

Albert B. Dick Third Vice-President 

•Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary 

Orr Goodson Acting Director and Acting Secretary 

Solomon A. Smith . . . Treasurer and Assistant Secretary 

* On leave in active service as a Lieutenant-Colonel 
in the United States Army. 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 

EDITOR 
Wilfred H. Osgood Curator Emeritus, Zoology 

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology 

B. E. Dahlgren Chief Curator of Botany 

Henry W. Nichoib Chief Curator of Geology 

Karl P. Schmidt Chief Curator of Zoology 

MANAGING EDITOR 
H. B. Harte Ptiblic Relations Counsel 



Members are requested to Inform the Museum 
promptly of changes of address. 



MUSEUMS IN WAR AND AFTER 

When Pearl Harbor and Wake Island 
appeared in the headlines last December, 
many an American citizen was obliged to 
consult his old school geography. Even 
Singapore and Hongkong were little known, 
but as events rapidly followed, especially 
in the Pacific area, unfamiliar names became 
familiar and geographic knowledge in the 
United States increased at an unprecedented 
rate. It was much the same, although to 
a lesser degree, in 1898 when the Spanish- 
American War suddenly gave us the battle 
of Manila Bay and we learned of the exist- 
ence of the Philippine Islands. Since that 
time we have grown somewhat less pro- 
vincial, and the present war is plainly carry- 
ing us into a new and, we hope, a more 
enlightened era. 

For better or worse, it is now beyond cavil 
that America must have a world viewpoint 
in which knowledge will be power, and 
understanding of conditions beyond our 
borders will be essential to progress. The 
relation of museums to this is in the fact 
that they, especially large natural history 
institutions such as Field Museum, have 
always had a world viewpoint. As every- 
one knows, science is international, the 
reason being that science seeks only the 
truth regardless of political or nationalistic 
prejudices. 

Burma, Timor, New Caledonia, Indo- 
China, Madagascar, and all the other 



battle fronts are not merely names to the 
Museum. They stand for interesting fields 
of study — past, present, or future. Many 
of them are already represented in the 
Museum by large collections, by special 
exhibits, by carefully gathered literature, 
and by specialists on the staff. Often they 
stand for millions of human beings destined 
to play an important part in a coming world 
of change. 

While the war goes on, it is generally 
recognized that the open museum is an 
important prop to civilian morale and a 
source of "recreation" and information to 
the enlisted man in training. The parent 
whose boy is flying over the steaming 
jungles of New Guinea or through the chilly 
fogs of the Aleutian Islands is pleased to 
find in the Museum tangible evidences of 
the actual conditions in these little known 
regions. The boy, himself, when he returns, 
as the majority will, may bring his parents 
to the Museum to confirm some of the stories 
he has to tell. All this becomes a part of 
the adult education which is one of the 
Museum's largest functions. Perhaps it 
would do no harm if even some of our 
omniscient columnists and radio commen- 
tators would take an occasional stroll in 
the Museum. 

After the war is over, not only when the 
peace settlements are made, but for years 
afterwards, the kind of knowledge that 
museums foster will be needed as never 
before. Whether or not America is to take 
world leadership probably depends upon 
whether she is ready for it. Wise and far- 
sighted statesmanship will not avail without 
the support of intelligent public opinion 
and, at best, success is far from certain. 
No one can foresee postwar conditions very 
clearly, but no one can doubt that public 
education is a prime requisite for a better 
world. In this, it is to be hoped and ex- 
pected, museums, may play an increasingly 
important part. 



Staff Notes 
Mr. A. B. Wolcott, Assistant Curator of 
the N. W. Harris Public School Extension, 
has been retired on pension. He has been 
ill since November. 



Mr. Emmet R. Blake, Assistant Curator 
of Birds, left for service in the United 
States Army June 15. Mr. William Beecher, 
temporary assistant in the Divisions of 
Birds and Mammals, was also inducted into 
the Army, on June 24. 



was delayed due to the fact that the Director, 
Lieutenant Colonel Clifford C. Gregg, is on 
active duty with the United States Army. 
The Report details operations of all 
Departments and Divisions of the Museum 
during the year ended December 31, 1941. 
It contains also a summary of all gifts 
and bequests, lists of Members in all classes, 
and other information. 



Noted Botanist Visits Museum 

Dr. Liberty H. Bailey, dean of American 
botanists and author of The Standard 
Cyclopedia of Horticulture, recently spent a 
week in the Museum photographing speci- 
mens of palms and Rubus in the collections 
of the Department of Botany. 



Annual Report Published 

The Annual Report of the Director of 
Field Museum to the Board of Trustees — 
a book of 156 pages illustrated with ten 
plates — has been published, and distribution 
of copies to every Member of Field Museum 
will be completed during July. Publication 



FIELD MUSEUM HONOR ROLL 

Now In the Service 
of their Country: 

Theodore Roosevelt, Trustee — Briga- 
dier-General, U.S. Army. 

Lester Armour, Trustee — Lieutenant- 
Commander, U.S. Navy. 

Joseph Nash Field, Trustee — Lieu- 
tenant, U.S. Navy. 

Clifford C. Gregg, Director — Lieuten- 
ant Colonel, A.G.D., U.S. Army. 

Melvin A. Traylor, Jr., Associate, 
Birds — Private, U.S. Marine Corps. 

Dr. John Rinaldo, Associate, South- 
western Archaeology — Private, U.S. 
Army. 

Dr. Alexander Spoehr, Assistant Cur- 
ator, North American Ethnology 
and Archaeology — Corporal, U.S. 
Army. 

Emmet R. Blake, Assistant Curator, 
Birds — Private, U.S. Army. 

William Beecher, Temporary Assist- 
ant, Department of Zoology — Pri- 
vate, U.S. Army. 

Bert E. Grove, Guide-Lecturer — 
American Field Service, in North 
Africa. 

Patrick T. McEnery, Guard — Master- 
at-arms, U.S. Navy. 

John Syckowski, Guard — Chief Com- 
missary Steward, U.S. Navy. 

George Jahrand, Guard — Chief Water 
Tender, U.S. Navy. 

M. C. Darnall, Jr., Guard — Candi- 
dates' Class, U.S. Marine Corps 
Reserve (Oflicers' Training Course). 

James C. Mclntyre, Guard — Private, 
U.S. Army, Coast Artillery. 

Clyde James Nash, Guard — Chief 
Gunner's Mate, U.S. Navy. 

Nicholas Repar, Printer — First Class 
Seaman, U.S. Navy. 

IN A CIVILIAN STATUS 

Rudyerd Boulton, Curator, Birds — 
Staff of Office of Strategic Services, 

Washington, D.C. 

Bryant Mather, Assistant Curator, 
Mineralogy — Civil Service Worker 
for Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army. 

John McGinnis, Guard — U.S. Mer- 
chant Marine. 



July, IHZ 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page 7 



MORE ADVENTURES OF BOTANIST 
IN VENEZUELAN WILDS 

(Editor's Note: — The follorving new report 
from Mr. Llewelyn Williams continues the 
account of his expedition into southern Vene- 
zuela which was begun in the June Field 
Museum News.) 

by llewelyn williams 

CUKATOR OF BCONOIIIC BOTANY 

We arrived at San Fernando de Atabapo 
on April 17, after hunting wild ducks and 
egrets on the way for food, and sleeping as 
usual on the open granite slabs along the 
banks. A motor launch left at 8 the follow- 
ing morning up the Orinoco, and we followed 
in ours at 11, but we had trouble with the 
outboard motor and made a couple of stops 
on the way to change or clean the plugs. 
We stopped that night at an abandoned site, 
known as Minisia. 

Soon after departing the following morn- 
ing, one of the men said he thought that the 
other launch had met with disaster and had 
burned, because he had seen small pieces 
of burned wood floating downstream. In 
the afternoon we ran into a chubasco — a 
high wind, followed by heavy rain. The 
water was churned into high waves. We 
could not tie to the steep bank, because 
of the danger of falling trees or earth, but 
fortunately we managed to reach a tree 
that had fallen into the water. Later we 
stopped on a large rock to make a repair 
to the motor and one of the men said he 
could see people moving about on a rock 
some distance up the river. 

DISASTER VICTIMS RESCUED 

As we got nearer, the figures became 
plainer, and now we could see a piragua, 
but no sign of the launch. When we got 
within about 50 yards we saw what remained 
of the launch — just a burnt hulk, a mere 
shell of the hull that reached to the surface 
of the water. The man in charge of the 
launch, the resguardo of the customs at 
El Cocuy, was pacing to and fro on the rock. 
Another man was covered with smudges of 
soot. To one side, lying under a cluster 
of bushes, was the motor operator, burned 
severely around the face, right arm, and 
leg, and groaning in pain. They had no 
food and only the clothes they had worn. 
Almost everything else was lost in the fire, 
or blown up in the explosion that followed. 
I had my tent set up to house the injured 
man and tended to his wounds, for he had 
not been taken care of since the accident. 

Castro, the resguardo, insisted on going 
up river with me to San Antonio, but I 
told him that the best thing would be to 
return to Puerto Ayacucho with the sick 
man, where he could have proper treatment. 
It took a long time to convince Castro but 
finally he agreed. 

That was the most miserable Sunday 
night I have spent in a long time. We 
were right in the middle of the rapids of 
Santa Barbara, below the mouth of the 
Ventuari, on a small rough rock in mid-river. 



Flashes of lightning lit up the sky almost 
constantly to the north, thunder rolled 
over the forest to the west, it was dark and 
we could hear the beating of rain falling 
on the water and forest to the south. One 
of the men said it was going to be an aguacero 
bianco, which meant that it would rain all 
night. Soon we had to abandon the bed 
of rock and hasten to the boat where we 
huddled among the cargo to sleep. 

The following morning I again treated 
the burns of the young man, who was still 
in great pain. Then I placed him in my 
boat with sufii(;ient food to last a week 
for him, for Castro, and the other men. 
Sixto, my mechanic, went with them to 
manage the outboard motor. 

We stopped on the wooded island of 
Callare with a group of Piaroa Indians. 
Most of them suffered from cold. One 
woman, sick and extremely thin, kept up a 
constant whine. So we decided to move 
into the forest, set up my tent, and build 
a rancho to house my equipment. Sixto 
came back in twelve days. The party had 
arrived safely but not too soundly at 
Sanariapo — the overland trip of forty miles 
to Ayacucho was almost too much for the 
sick man, and some of the others as well. 

A PLAGUE OF INSECTS 

From the island of Callare we traveled 
to San Antonio, where we spent a few days 
collecting, then we continued for three 
more days until we reached the mouth of 
the Casiquiare and came to Tamatama. 
One week was spent collecting at this place 
before proceeding further upstream to 
Esmeralda. I shall always remember 
Esmeralda for two reasons — Duida, towering 
above the savanna, and the stinging flies 
(called "mosquitoes" although they are not) 
plaguing us constantly from sunrise to 
sunset. They seem to come in waves and 
even the Indians I have with me are groan- 
ing and grunting under their attacks. The 
backs of our hands are covered with little 
red spots which turn black on the second 
day. One boy, who seems to suffer more 
than the rest, broke out in numerous small 
blisters all over his hands, fingers, and 
forearm. We covered our faces with towels, 
shirts or any other thing available. At 
night we have the "zancudos" (which are 
mosquitoes) to contend with. 

As a cook I have a tall, lanky fellow who 
goes by the name of Andrfe Castro, born 
in Trinidad of a Negro father and a Hindu 
mother. He spends his spare time com- 
posing third rate poetry, keeps up a con- 
stant chatter which makes us forget the 
pests, and is a good hunter. On our way up 
he shot two garzas morenas, a white egret, 
three deer, a paujil, and three wild ducks. 

The weather is becoming more unfavor- 
able for collecting, as it rains almost daily 
and sometimes all night. From here I 
plan to leave for the Casiquiare to collect 
around Capihuara. 



SERIES OF LECTURES OFFERED 
ON WAR BACKGROUNDS 

"Backgrounds of the War" a series of 
lectures on subjects of vital and timely 
interest, will be presented for the general 
public at Field Museum on Thursday 
afternoons during July by staff lecturers 
of the Raymond Foundation. The lectures, 
illustrated with slides, will begin at 2:30 
P.M., and will be presented in the Museum's 
lecture hall; each will be followed by a 

tOUaCES OF Out tlHATICIC HA* HATEDIAIS 
«IT4l 'VMS HatflMAlt »Oi WltCH Ml »tt laaClil •ItlMtl-l Om l«»Oatt 




EXPLANATIONS OF SOME WAR FACTS 
Miss Mirum Wood (left). Chief of the J^mes Nelson and 
Anna Louise Raymond Foundation staff, and Mrs. Anne 
IHIarding Spoehr, Museum artist, preparing for "Back* 
grounds of the War" lectures to be given at Field Museum 
each Thursday afternoon during July, at 2:30. 

conducted tour of certain sections of the 
Museum exhibits correlating with the par- 
ticular subject under discussion. Admission 
is free. Following are the dates, subjects, 
and speakers: 

July 2— Material of Strategic Import- 
ance IN War Times {illustrated by material 
pertaining to the sources and production of 
mineral and plant products essential to the 
war effort). Miss Marie B. Pabst. 

July 9 — The People of Africa (native life 
from Capetown to Cairo, illustrated by the 
extensive ethnological material collected by 
Field Museum African expeditions). Miss 
Elizabeth Hambleton. 

July 16 — Alaska (the important part that 
our northernmost American territory plays 
as a factor in war geography, and what the 
people of Alaxka are doing to win the tear). 
Miss Miriam Wood. 

July 23 — Brazil, a Country of Many 
Unused Resources (the actual and 
potential importance to the United States' 
war effort of our largest Latin-American 
neighbor). Miss Marie B. Pabst. 

July 30— Our Animal Enemies in the 
War Zones (how insects, fishes, snakes and 
other creatures affect the conduct of the war 
and must be considered as important 
problems). Miss Elizabeth Best. 



Page 8 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



July, IHZ 



GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM 
DURING PAST MONTH 

Following is a list of some of the principal 
gifts received during the last month: 

Department of Anthropoloi^ : 

From Mrs. Neva H. Farley, St. Paul, 
Minn. — 10 Chinese bronze mirrors, Chou to 
Sung periods. 

Department of Botany: 

From Mrs. M. Alice Cornman, Cardifl- 
by-the-Sea, Calif. — 101 species of mosses, 
Panama; from University of California, 
Berkeley, Calif. — 676 specimens of algae, 
mostly California; from Harry Hoogstraal, 
Urbana, 111. — 56 herbarium specimens, 
Mexico; from Dr. Roland M. Harper, 
University, Ala. — 19 herbarium specimens 
and 50 photographs, Alabama; from Dr. 
Walter Kiener, Lincoln, Neb. — 20 specimens 
of algae, Colorado, Nebraska, and vicinity; 
from Donald Richards, Chicago — 735 cryp- 
togams, Germany; from Fred O. Thompson, 
Des Moines, Iowa — 5 specimens of coal ball 
material, polished slabs, and peel; from 
H. C. Hanson, Madison, Wis. — 34 her- 
barium specimens, Manitoba, Canada. 

Department of Geolofty: 

From C. M. Barber, Hot Springs, Ark. — 
2 specimens of fossil turtles, Arkansas; 
from William E. Menzel, Chicago — 3 cabo- 
chons of anorthosite, Wisconsin. 

Department of Zoolo^: 

From Dr. Charles H. Seevers, Chicago — 
444 beetles, United States; from Orr 
Goodson, Glencoe, 111. — 4 chipmunks, Illi- 
nois; from Museum of Comparative Zool- 
ogy, Cambridge, Mass. — 300 tiger beetles. 
United States. 

Tfie Library: 

Valuable books from National Education 
Association, and Dr. Henry Field, both of 
Washington, D.C.; and from Dr. Wilfred H. 
Osgood, and William J. Beeeher, both of 
Chicago. 

Correction : 

The Rockefeller Foundation calls atten- 
tion to the fact that a gift of 11 miscellaneous 
Brazilian birds, credited to it in the January 
issue of Field Museum News, should have 
been attributed to the Ministry of Educa- 
tion and Health, Yellow Fever Research 
Service, of Brazil. 



SUMMER GUIDE-LECTURE TOURS 
MORNINGS AND AFTERNOONS 

During July and August conducted tours 
of the exhibits, under the guidance of staff 
lecturers, will be given on a special schedule, 
as follows: 

Mondays: 11 a.m., Halls of Primitive and 
Civilized Peoples; 2 p.m., General Tour of 
Exhibition Halls. 

Tuesdays: 11 a.m., Animal Groups; 2 
P.M., General Tour of Exhibition Halls. 

Wednesdays: 11 a.m.. Minerals and Pre- 
historic Life; 2 p.m., General Tour of 
Exhibition Halls. 

Thursdays: 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.. General 
Tours of Exhibition Halls. 



Fridays: 11 a.m., Plant Life Exhibits; 
2 P.M., General Tour of Exhibition Halls. 

Persons wishing to participate should 
apply at North Entrance. Tours are free. 
There are no tours given on Saturdays, 
Sundays, or on July Fourth. 

By pre-arrangement with the Acting 
Director, special tours are available to 
parties of ten or more persons. 



HANDICRAFT 

Simplified Procedure and Pro- 
jects 

New revised {8th) edition 
"Here is an invaluable guide for 
anyone interested in handicraft, 
whether ancient or modern," says Dr. 
Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator of An- 
thropology. "The fact that the book 
is in its eighth edition indicates its use- 
fulness. Those responsible for plan- 
ning projects for Boy Scouts, Girl 
Scouts, camps, settlement houses, 
and other groups have in this book a 
gold mine of suggestions. Included 
are detailed instructions, sketches, 
and photographs showing how to 
make objects of leather, plastics, 
metal, wood, and the like. Many 
other handicraft procedures are elabo- 
rately treated, such as archery, knot 
tying, pottery, weaving, gem cutting, 
and primitive Indian crafts. Boys, 
girls, and adults interested in anthro- 
pology will find the chapter on primi- 
tive Indian handicraft absorbing and 
most informative." 

On sale at THE BOOK SHOP of 
FIELD MUSEUM— $3. Mail orders 
accepted. 



NEW MEMBERS 

The following persons became Members 
of Field Museum during the period from 
May 16 to June 15: 

Contributors 

Mrs. Annie S. Cobum* 

Associate Members 
A. J. Filkins, J. J. Schwander, Joseph 
Wertheimer. 

Annual Members 

Abe C. Bailey, Mrs. Clarence W. Balke, 
Harry P. Baumann, Stanford Clinton, Mrs. 
Burnham M. Fisk, Charles E. Good, Miss 
Margaret Govett, Mrs. Yngve Hogsten, 
Mervin H. Lescure, John T. Love, Dr. 
William J. Michel, Walter F. MuUady, 
James S. Nachman, Judge Harold P. 
O'Connell, John R. Ordway, Dr. Eliot F. 
Porter, G. G. Preston, Ira Salomon, Frank 
P. Sheridan, Miss L. M. Sherwood, Dr. O. P. 
Sinnerud, O. O. Smaha, Samuel Steiner, Jr., 
Dr. J. Daniel Willems, W. W. Youngren. 

* Deceased. 



RAYMOND FOUNDATION PRESENTS 
CHILDREN'S SUMMER PROGRAMS 

Six free programs of motion pictures for 
children will be given at Field Museum this 
summer by the James Nelson and Anna 
Louise Raymond Foundation for Public 
School and Children's Lectures. The series 
will be presented on Thursday mornings in 
the James Simpson Theatre, beginning on 
July 2, and concluding on August 6. All 
six programs will begin at 10 a.m., and 
children from all parts of Chicago and 
suburbs are invited. No tickets are needed. 

Most of the pictures to be presented have 
talking and sound effects, and some are in 
color. One — that of July 2 on the subject 
"Hostelling in South America" — will be 
accompanied by a lecture. Mr. Justin Cline, 
who has led many long bicycling journeys 
under the hostel plan, will be the lecturer. 
Other programs will feature one of the finest 
animal motion pictures ever made in Mexico, 
two famous films which had long runs on 
regular theatre circuits, and a full hour of 
especially selected animated cartoons. 

Following are the dates, and subjects of 
each program: 

July 2 — Hostelling in South America. 
A bicycle trip through our neighboring 
continent. {Motion pictures in color, with 
a lecture by Justin Cline.) 

July 9 — The Adventures of Chico. An 
Indian boy's adventures with animals and 
birds in Mexico. 

July 16— The Biscuit Eater. The story 
of a hunting dog and a boy. (A picture 
which won wide acclaim from critics at the 
time of its presentation on theatrical 
circuits.) 

July 23 — Elephant Boy. Sabu, child actor 
from India, takes the lead in a story by 
Rudyard Kipling. (Another "hit" with 
theatre audiences throughout the country. 
Sabu is currently starred in "Jungle Book.") 

July 30 — Kings of the Sierras. The 
story of a wild horse on the Great Plains. 

August 6 — Vacation Special — Cartoons, 
both in color and black-and-white. Films 
to be shown include: Little Hiawatha, 
Elmer Elephant, Flying Mouse, Snubbed 
by a Snob, Pedagogical Institution, and 
The Ugly Dino. 



Museum's Division of Printing 
Expands Equipment 

The Museum recently purchased and 
installed in its Division of Printing the latest 
model of type casting machine. The new- 
caster, together with similar equipment 
previously used by the Division, has been 
housed in a room especially designed for 
the purpose. This addition gives Field 
Museum Press a complete type casting 
plant which will assure the uninterrupted 
production of the Museum's publications 
and other printing requirements. 

PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS 



Field 




liiiNews 



Published Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago 



Vol. 13 



AUGUST— SEPTEMBER, 1942 



No8. 8—9 



RUFF, BIRD WITH QUEEN ELIZABETH COLLAR, SHOWN IN NEW HABITAT GROUP 



By WILFRED H. OSGOOD 

CURATOR BMBRITUS, DEPARTMENT OP ZOOLOGY 

Owing to the departure of many members 
of Field Museum's staff for war service, the 
production of new exhibits doubtless will be 
somewhat retarded. However, at least 
certain projects al- 
ready under way can 
be completed. Among 
these are several 
habitat groups of 
foreign birds long 
planned and partially 
executed in Hall 20. 
Space for four Euro- 
pean subjects was 
allotted in this hall 
and previously only 
two had been finished, 
the well known Scotch 
grouse, and the Euro- 
pean stork. To these 
there is now added a 
group showing the 
remarkable bird of 
which the male is 
known as the ruff and 
the female as the 
reeve. 

This bird, which is 
found over northern 
Europe and less com- 
monly in Asia, is 
in many ways unique. 
It belongs to the great 
group of so-called 
shore birds and, ex- 
cept in the breeding 

season, has the general appearance of a 
rather good-sized sandpiper. Its breeding 
habits, however, are most extraordinary, 
and the plumage it assumes in spring is 
unparalleled. This nuptial plumage in the 
male is featured by a frill of elongated neck 
feathers forming a sort of shield and a tuft 
on each side of the head, while the short 
feathers of the face are shed and replaced by 
bead-like protuberances of bright pink or 
yellowish color. Moreover, there is great 
variation in color with different combina- 
tions of black, white, gray, and rich brown 
occurring either in solid blocks or in alter- 
nating bars. 

Thus panoplied, the ruff is ready for 
wooing. Meanwhile, the females or reeves, 
somewhat smaller than the males, are com- 



paratively plain and unchanged. As the 
time for nesting approaches, the ruffs be- 
come very active, gathering in groups on 
slight elevations or "hills" where a small 
subcircular space is nearly denuded of 
vegetation by their repeated tramplings. 




MALE RUFFS IN NUPTIAL PLUMAGE PERFORM "COURTSHIP DANCE" 
When the ruff has won his reeve (as the less colorful female is known), and the eggs have been laid, his attentions 
cease. In some related species, the male incubates the eggs and cares for the young, the female being the deserter. 



Here they quiver and pirouette and engage 
in violent but not very sanguinary combats. 
Their performances at this time are ob- 
viously connected with polygamy and sex 
excitement. In a general way they are 
somewhat comparable to the "dances" of 
some gallinaceous birds, notably the Ameri- 
can prairie chicken. As in the case of other 
polygamous animals, the fighting and dis- 
play do not result in a victor's triumphantly 
carrying off any given female, but may 
serve to eliminate younger birds and weak- 
lings and to establish a certain standard of 
capacity. The females, in fact, come to 
the males rather than the reverse. 

The male continues to "put on his show" 
even for some days after the females have 
made their nests and laid their eggs, but 



thereafter his interest lags, he soon sheds 
his showy plumage, and he fails to assume 
any family responsibilities. As one writer 
has said: "The ruff, like other fine gentle- 
men, takes much more trouble with his 
courtship than with his duties as a husband. 
Whilst the reeves are 
sitting on their eggs, 
scattered about the 
swamps, he is to be 
seen far away flitting 
about in flocks, and 
on the ground dancing 
and sparring with his 
companions. . . . But 
none of his spirit is 
expended in care for 
his family. He never 
comes to see after an 
enemy." 

The ruffs and reeves 
provide various in- 
teresting problems to 
the student of evolu- 
tion and heredity. 
Bright colors and gay 
plumage frequently 
characterize the male 
of many birds, but in 
the group to which 
this species belongs it 
is not the rule. In 
fact, it is in this group, 
which includes the 
snipes and sandpipers, 
that we find some of 
the most pronounced 
reversals of the usual 
sex behavior and plumage. Notably in the 
phalaropes the female is more brightly 
plumaged than the male and more aggres- 
sive in courtship; moreover, while she is 
relatively carefree, the male meekly sits on 
the eggs and guards the young. To some 
extent this is true of certain other shore- 
birds, including the dotterel, the godwits, 
and the dowitchers, while in most others 
the sexes are closely similar. 

Thus among otherwise closely related 
birds we have opposite conditions of sex 
relations — the ruffs and reeves in which the 
predominance of the male is extreme, and 
the phalaropes in which the female takes 
the lead in both appearance and actions. 
Except for the comparatively recent work 
of experimental zoologists and physiologists 



Page ^ 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Augmt — September, 19^2 




READY TO "SHOW OFF" 

Clos«'Up of ruff, stiowing tfic unique ear tufts and rxpan- 

ftive collar which the birds acquire each spring. Thus 

adorned, they posture and fence competitively to be 

selected as mates by the females or reeves. 

such a paradoxical condition would be 
puzzling, to say the least. It is now known, 
however, that secondary sex characters, 
such as the furbelows of the ruff, are 
governed by internal secretions or hormones, 
and the proportions of these which are 
carried in the blood stream determine the 
degree of maleness or femaleness. This is 
proved by the injection of glandular extracts 
or tissue from a male into a female, which 
causes the female to assume the showier 
plumage of the male. 

While the possession of brighter color 
and more elaborate attire by the ruff than 
the reeve is not unusual, the very wide 
variation in color seems to be unique among 
birds and perhaps among animals. It has 
been said that no two ruffs are ever exactly 
alike, and this appears to be almost if not 
quite true. Some fifty specimens are in 
FMeld Museum's collection (including the 
Conover collection) of which about half are 
adult males in breeding plumage. Two of 
these have approximately the same color 
and markings, but all the others show wide 
diversity. It has been determined that 
each individual ruff assumes the same colors 
and markings at each breeding season 
throughout its lifetime. Therefore, it is 
probable that various types may be per- 
petuated through sex-linked inheritance. If 
some of these types could be segregated and 
bred inter se, the results might furnish 
ramifications such as would delight the 
most zealous geneticists. 

Although essentially an Old World bird, 
this species, like many shore birds, is a 
great wanderer and has occasionally ap- 
peared in America, especially in Alaska and 
at several points in New England. For 
many years it was trapped, fattened, and 
sold in European markets as a table delicacy 
and, although by no means extinct, it is 
now relatively scarce. As early as 1893 
Alfred Newton remarked significantly, "In 
England, of late years, it has been known 
to breed in only one locality, the name or 
situation of which it is not desirable to 
publish." One of its best strongholds is the 
Netherlands and it is there that it is repre- 



sented in the Museum's group. This shows 
a green meadow and characteristic Dutch 
landscape with a bevy of the birds engaged 
in their nuptial activities. The birds were 
mounted by Staff Taxidermist John W. 
Moyer, the background is by Staff Artist 
Arthur G. Rueckert, and foreground ac- 
cessories are by Preparator Frank H. Letl. 
The specimens used were especially selected 
from the best available in Field Museum's 
study collections, supplemented by an un- 
usually notable one received as a gift from 
Mr. Boardman Conover, Trustee of the 
Museum and Research Associate in the 
Division of Birds. 



ANCIENT COAL BALLS GIVEN 
TO FIELD MUSEUM 

Learning during a recent visit that coal 
ball material was practically unrepresented 
in Field Museum's exhibits, Mr. Fred 
Thompson, of Des Moines, Iowa, promptly 
supplied the deficiency by sending several 
specimens of his own collecting. Mr. 
Thompson has long been interested in 
paleobotanical material yielded by the 
numerous coal mines operated in this part 
of the United States, and has been an 
assiduous collector of choice specimens for 
research purposes, especially for Harvard 
University. A few years ago he aided Field 
Museum in obtaining, from the University 
of Iowa, one of the fossil cycad trunks of 
the well-known Macbride collection repre- 
senting the South Dakota locality which is 
now Cycad National Forest. 

Coal balls are concretions, generally of 
dolomite or calcite, formed and mineralized 
in the early or peat stage of coal formation. 
Presumably remaining where they were 
formed, they are mostly found enclosed 
within the coal beds. They usually con- 
tain, imbedded in the mineralized ground 
mass, abundant plant remains either petrified 
or carbonized. Their paleobotanical interest 
resides, of course, in these enclosed remains 
— fragments of leaves, stems, seeds and 
spores — often preserved in such excellent 
condition that their minute structure may 
be examined with the microscope. 

The material sent by Mr. Thompson 
consists of an entire small coal ball; a slab 
cut from a much larger one showing abund- 
ant fossil foliage with one large thick-walled 
seed; parts of another consisting almost 
entirely of fossilized wood, and a piece 
containing a fragment of Cordaites leaf. 

Accompanying the fossil material is a 
so-called strip-film, produced by flowing a 
cut surface of a coal ball with celluloid, 
which, when peeled or stripped off after 
drying, removes from the cut surface an 
adherent film of fossilized material thin 
enough for examination by transmitted 
light. This simple and ingenious means of 
obtaining a substitute for a laboriously cut 
and polished thin section for study was 
developed by the late Professor A. C. No^, 



who was Research Associate in Paleobotany 
on Field Museum's staff. 

On this particular celluloid film, as large 
as the palm of a hand, more than thirty 
seeds of various sizes may be counted. The 
largest is not quite complete but must have 
measured fully three inches in length; 
smaller ones are as large as a peach pit or 
almond; a few are the size of small beans, 
the remainder appear only as large as rice 
kernels. The large number of seeds visible 
on a single cut surface indicates the presence 
of many hundreds in this particular coal ball, 
a veritable squirrel's cache formed and 
fossilized geological ages before squirrels 
appeared on the earth. 

The seed bearing plants of the period 
were of the long extinct group of seed 
ferns, or Cycadofilices, of which fossils and 
restorations may be seen in Martin A. and 
Carrie Ryerson Hall (Plant Life, Hall 29), 
and in the Carboniferous forest group in 
Ernest R. Graham Hall (Hall 38). The 
geological estimate of the age of the coal 
balls and the beds in which they are found 
is about 250 million years. The recently 
accessioned material came from the Urban- 
dale Mine, near Des Moines, Iowa. 

— B. E. Dahlgren 



Library Gifts 

Mr. Henry W. Nichols, Chief Curator of 
Geology, has filed with the Acting Director 
a statement that he has provided in his will 
for a bequest of his scientific books to the 
Library of the Museum. 

Mr. Emil Liljeblad, retired Assistant 
Curator of Insects, recently presented a 
number of notable books from his personal 
library on entomology. 

Mr. William Beecher, temporary assistant 
in the Division of Birds and Mammals, 
prior to leaving for service in the United 
States Army, presented a copy of a book he 
had just published. Nesting Birds and the 
Vegetation Substrate. 



WAR BACKGROUND LECTURES 
TO BE CONTINUED 

Due to tlie entliusiastic recep- 
tion accorded to the lecture series 
"Backgrounds of the War," pre- 
sented at Field Museum on Thurs- 
day afternoons during July, it has 
been decided to extend the series 
into August. On August 6, Miss 
Elizabeth Hambleton will discuss 
"China in War and in Peace." 
On August 13, Miss Marie B. 
Pabst, will speak on "Materials of 
Strategic Importance in War 
Times" (a request repetition of 
the July 2 subject.) These lec- 
tures, illustrated with slides, will 
be presented at 2:30 p.m., in the 
lecture hall. Each will be followed 
by a conducted tour of exhibits. 
Admission is free. 



August — Seplember, 19^2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page S 



EGYPT HAS SELDOM BEEN FREE OF FOREIGN DOMINATION 



By RICHARD A. MARTIN 

CURATOR OF NEAR EASTERN ARCHAEOLOGY 

. . . "the choicest of his bowman were mustered, 
his chariotry was brought up from every side, 
. . .his infantry marched out, the heavy armed 
troops arrived, beautiful in appearance, lead- 
ing the bowmen against the enemy from every 
land . . .the Lybians, Sardinians, Sicilians, 
Achaeans . . . ." 

Thus the Great Karnak Inscription 
heralds the first attack upon Egypt by 
Europeans some three thousand years ago. 
This is also the first written record mention- 
ing European peoples. 

In 1227 B.C. enemy forces moving from 
Lybia along the sea coast invaded the Nile 




CONQUEST CHAiNt.hlJ CI I.IURE OF EGYPT 
Excavation of a GrccO'Roman sarcophagus of the First Century A. D., at Ramlelir a 
suburb of Alexandria. This satcophagus, now on exhibition in the Hall of Egypt at 
Field Museum, represents a period when profound changes were wrought in the life of 
the ancient Nile empire, as a result of invasion first by Alexander and his Greeks, and 
then by the Romans, with the following infiltration of European influences. 

delta where they were defeated by the 
Egyptian army of King Merneptah, and 
driven back to the western plateau where 
the present battle for Egypt is in progress 
against descendants of some of these same 
early aggressors. More than 18,000 of the 
invaders were destroyed or captured. 

Egypt has not always been so fortunate. 
The Hyksos invasion in the 17th Century 
B.C. placed her under control of foreign 
princes. However, shortly after overthrow- 
ing these foreigners the ancient Egyptian 
empire reached its greatest extent. With 
the decline of the empire, about 1000 B.C., 
Lybian mercenaries took over control and 
founded their own dynasty. Ephemeral 
Egyptian rulers have since appeared, but 
the long periods are those of foreign domina- 



tion — Ethiopian, Assyrian, Persian, Greek, 
Roman, Sa.sanid, Arab, Turk, French, 
British. 

The port of Alexandria, whose possession 
is now so essential for naval control of the 
eastern Mediterranean, owes its beginnings 
to another war. Construction of the town 
and harbor was ordered by Alexander the 
Great (331 B.C.) after his conquest of Egypt 
to provide a deep naval base and to facilitate 
shipping the produce of the fertile Nile 
valley back to the Greek mainland. The 
harbor at Alexandria was connected by 
canal to the Nile, and due to the presence 
of favorable ocean currents did not silt up 
as did the older Egyptian harbors on the 
east side of the delta. 
Under Alexander's 
successors, the Ptol- 
emies, Alexandria be- 
came the commercial 
capital of the world 
and the center of 
Greek scholarship. 
The Alexandrian mu- 
seum with its great 
library produced the 
mathematicians Ar- 
chimedes, Appolonius, 
and Eucleides; the 
astronomers Aris- 
tarchus, Erotosthenes, 
Hipparchus, and 
Claudius Ptolemaus; 
the physicians Erasis- 
tratus and Herophilus. 
The importance of 
Alexandria declined 
with the Arab con- 
quest of Caliph Omer 
in A.D. 642 when the 
newly founded city of 
Fustat, near modern 
Cairo, became the ad- 
ministrative center. 
Later, with the dis- 
covery of America and 
a direct sea route to 
India, the status of 
this famous port rapidly became that of a 
small provincial town. The renascence of 
Alexandria began in the early part of the 
last century when the city was again con- 
nected to the Nile by canal and served as 
the outlet for products of the fertile valley. 
Aside from the natural productivity of 
Egypt, her controlling situation on the route 
from the Mediterranean to the Far East 
has made her a most desirable possession. 
The present Suez Canal was opened in 1869. 
As early as the 12th Dynasty (about 1900 
B.C.) the Egyptians had constructed a canal 
from the Nile through the Wadi Tumilat 
and along the Bitter Lakes to the Red Sea. 
With the dissolution of the empire this 
canal fell into disrepair but was restored by 
Darius the Persian. Under the Ptolemies 




TYPICAL MODERN EGYPTIAN 

A common laborer of the Land of the Nile, as he appears 

when "all dressed up" for some special occasion. 

locks were constructed at the Red Sea end. 
Trajan repaired the canal in A.D. 98, and 
it was utilized by the Arabs in the 7th 
Century. Remains of this ancient canal 
show it to have been about 150 feet in width 
and 17 feet in depth. After being in disuse 
from the 8th Century the canal was again 
reopened to supply fresh water for the 
workers constructing the Suez Canal. 

Much of the story of the ancient invasions 
of Egypt can be traced by study of Field 
Museum's Egyptian collections in Hall J. 
There are related exhibits also in the Roman 
collections in Hall 2. 




CANAL IMPORTANT IN HIS DAY, TOO 
Statue of Senmut, the court architect, holding a daughter 
of Queen Hatshepsut. About 1495 B. C. Hatshepsut dis- 
patched a fleet to Punt by way of the Nile-Red Sea canal 
(which in its day paralleled, in effect, the Suer Canal). 
Senmut designed the great temple at Deir el-Bahri on the 
walls of which is carved the story of this ancient expedition. 
Punt was the Egyptian name for the land extending along 
the Somali coast of the Gulf of Aden. 



Page l 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



AuguBt— September, It 



AFRICA, SO VITAL IN WORLD AFFAIRS TODAY, WELL REPRESENTED IN FIELD MUSEUM 



By WILFRID D. HAMBLY 

CURATOR Ol' AFRICAN ETHNOLOGY 

(Editor's Note: — A special article on Mada- 
gascar appeared in the June Field Museum 
News. An article on Egypt is published in 
the present number, and other parts of Africa 
which may be of timely interest will be treated 
in later issues. The following notes present a 
sketch of the continent as a whole.) 

Since America's entry into the Second 
World War, there has been an ever growing 
realization of the importance of Africa. 

Wmarily the development of the air- 
plane, and especially of long-range bombers, 
has brought home the fact that a distance 
of less than 2,000 miles separates South 
America and Africa — a matter of but a few 
hours' flight — and this has changed political 
thought and military strategy. 



-n' — u- 



.y^ 



1 


w 




^ 


■^rffnf!^ 


Ci 




■<\* ^ "' ', '* ~'~i''*^'Y^ 


frfff 




:*^ 


//'' 


'■'///''/^T^h^ 


tTTTlU-l^ 




f»rh/»ni* 



7>-i/» Oe*«''f- 



Graamfafta 



WIDE VARIETY OF VEGETATION AREAS IN AFRICA 



It would be a mistake, however, to assume 
that the attitude of America toward African 
peoples and their future is entirely new. 
During a long period in the 18th Century, 
European countries complacently supported 
a system of appeasement by making sub- 
stantial payments to Barbary pirates of the 
north coast of Africa in order to purchase 
immunity from attack for their merchant 
vessels. Thousands of Europeans and 
Americans toiled as slaves in the seaports 
of north Africa, wearily awaiting ransom. 
America, whose Congress once had voted 
$80,000 for this form of tribute took to itself 
the honor of making the first determined 
attack against the pirates. President 
Thomas Jefferson preferred to fight, and 
in 1815 Admiral Stephen Decatur captured 
the piratical stronghold of Algiers. 



American interest has also been focused 
on the republic of Liberia for more than a 
century. In 1820, the American Coloniza- 
tion Society sent a company of freed Negroes 
from America to what is now Liberia. These 
established themselves on the promontory 
where Monrovia now stands, purchased land 
from the local chief, and entered on a pre- 
carious existence marked by warfare with 
natives and with slave raiders of English, 
French and Spanish nationality. American 
commercial interests in Liberia have centered 
about the activities of a rubber company. 
GEOGRAPHY OF WAR 
The narrow Strait of Gibraltar, only nine 
miles across, is the entrance to the Mediter- 
ranean Sea, which for a distance of 2,000 
miles to the Suez Canal, is a strategic center 
in the present conflict. 
Since 1869 the Suez Canal, 
connecting the Mediter- 
ranean with the Red Sea, 
has converted Africa into 
the world's largest island. 
Today, our thoughts are 
focused on the Red Sea as 
a strategic link between the 
Mediterranean and the In- 
dian Ocean. 

On the western side of 
Africa, the Azores, 
Madeira, the Canaries, and 
Cape Verde Islands are 
mentioned daily in news 
dispatches on submarine 
warfare and airplane recon- 
naissance. From the west- 
ern prominence of Africa, 
in the region of Dakar and 
around the Cape of Good 
Hope to the Indian Ocean, 
there is a sweep of thou- 
sands of miles over which 
supplies have to be con- 
voyed to the Near Eastern 
theatre of war, unless they 
are trucked across Africa 
for 5,000 miles. 
Various African climates, which range 
from the dryness and scorching heat of the 
Sahara Desert to the great humidity of the 
central tropics, lead to a profusion of forms 
of animal and vegetable life, and finally 
to what are known as "cultural patterns" 
of human life which are based on climatic 
and general topographical conditions. 

EXHIBITS FROM ANCIENT EGYPT 

Probably the most notable contribution 
of Field Museum to the historical aspects 
of African study is the extensive Egyptian 
collection (in Hall J) which contains price- 
less objects of art, dating from 4,000 B.C. 
to the modern Arab period. (A special article 
on Egypt appears on page S.) People flock 
to see the series of mummies, especially the 
famous Harwa whose wrappings are auto- 
matically X-rayed to bring the skeleton to 




light before the visitors' eyes. Public in- 
terest is always attracted also by a mortuary 
boat, thirty-two feet long, built of cedar 
which the Egyptians probably brought from 
the mountains of Lebanon. It was used in 
the funeral procession of King Sesostris, 
about eighteen hundred years before the 
birth of Christ! 

AFRICAN PLANT LIFE 

Visitors with a practical turn of mind will 
find their greatest interest in a study of 
economic plant products in Hall 28. Here 
are shown raw materials such as cotton, 
sisal, flax, and resins, which are products 
of Africa as well as of several other parts 
of the worid. In the Hall of Plant Life 
(Martin A. and Carrie Ryerson Hall — Hall 
29) is a painting of the baobab tree, which 
is common in the more arid regions of Africa. 

In the Department of Geology are speci- 
mens of tin, manganese, copper, ivory, and 
gold, all of which are essential war products, 
of which there is now a special display in 
Stanley Field Hall. 

ANIMALS OF AFRICA 

Of all Field Mu.seum exhibits relating to 
Africa, the elephants which occupy a central 
position in Stanley Field Hall are the most 
conspicuous. These magnificent specimens 
were obtained by the late Carl E. Akeley. 

In the same hall . 

are further ex- 
amples of Mr. 
Akeley's art in 
the form of three 
notable bronze 
groups represent- 
ing a lion hunt by 
the Nandi tribe of 
northeast Africa. 

A vote of the 
children who visit 
Field Museum 
would probably 
show a concensus 
favoring the 
groups of African 
animals as the 
most interesting 
exhibits in the 
building. In Carl 
E. Akeley Memo- 
rial Hall of Afri- 
can Mammals 
(Hall 22) the 

largest group is a copyright F.tia Mustum 

magnificent re- SOUL OF AFRICA 

presentation of Music and magic are the two key- 

African animals— ""'" °' African life. This sculp. 

-, , ture 01 a Senegalese drummer, by 

giraffes, zebras, ^alvina Hoffman, is in Hall 3. 

rhinoceroses, and 

antelopes — gathered at a water-hole in 
southern Ethiopia. Among other habitat 
groups in this hall is one of the rare striped 
antelope known as the bongo. Further 
attractions are specimens of the giant sable 




August — September, 19U^ 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page 5 



antelope, a group of gorillas, and a specimen 
of that very rare animal, the okapi. 

MANY TRIBES REPRESENTED 

The physical types of man in Africa, to- 
gether with various personal ornaments, 
and in some instances bodily deformations, 
are shown by Field Museum in two halls. 
In the Hall of the Races of Mankind 
(Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall — Hall 3) 
are the world-famous bronze sculptures by 
Malvina Hoffman. The most remarkable 
of the African types depicted are those 



northern and eastern parts of Africa, and 
the island of Madagascar. The most 
valuable specimens of African jewelry will 
be found in H. N. Higinbotham Hall of 
Gems and Jewels (Hall 31). 

The other African hall, D, contains some 
remarkable specimens of wood-carving, in- 
including a large wooden drum from the 
Cameroons (Case 38). Initiation masks, 
used in mysterious ceremonies of -secret 
societies, are shown in Case 13-A. A central 
case (No. 37) displaying three life-like figures 




GIANT BAOBAB TREES OF AFRICA 

Largest of African plants, these trees attain heights up to 70 feet, and circumferences more than 30 feet. In the 

background are seen examples of a common acacia. Baobab trees do not occur in forest formations, but are scattered 

in open savannas or grasslands from Senegal to Portuguese West Africa and across the central part of the continent to 

Ethiopia and British East Africa. Illustration reproduces a mural by the late Charles A, Corwin, in f-fall 29. 



illustrating the physique of the Pygmies, 
the Bushmen hunters of South Africa, the 
exceedingly tall Shilluk Negroes of the upper 
Nile valley, and the Zulus of South Africa. 
An African dancing girl and a Senegalese 
drummer reveal at a glance the soul of the 
African Negro, which is everywhere ex- 
pressed by music and dancing. In Halls D 
and E a large collection of artifacts, accom- 
panied by many photographs, furnishes 
supplementary details of human life in all 
parts of Africa. 

ARTS OF THE NEGROES 
The most artistic and valuable exhibits 
relating to African arts and handicraft are 
the bronze castings from Benin (Hall D, 
Cases 19 and 20). Bronzes of this kind, 
which include human heads and animal 
forms, were manufactured in this ancient 
city of West Africa when the Portuguese 
pioneers arrived at the end of the 15th 
century. The origin of the craft is unknown, 
but we are sure the Negro did not learn it 
from Europeans. Of the two halls of African 
Ethnology, E contains exhibits from the 



of African medicine men, strikes the key- 
note of Negro psychology, which is a deeply- 
founded belief in the efficacy of magic. 

Many of the wood carvings are ancestral 
figures — portraits which perpetuate the 
memory of deceased ancestors to whom 
prayers and offerings are made. Beadwork 
(Case 36), leather goods (Case 33), pottery 
(Case 15), and musical instruments (Cases 
3 and 18), all serve to demonstrate the 
African Negro's cultural background. 

The exploration of Africa goes back to the 
daring voyages of the Phoenicians, and to 
the southern land journeys of Egyptian 
caravans. But so far as European explora- 
tion is concerned, we need not retrace further 
than the 15th century, when the Portugese 
were the great pioneers. Since then, roughly 
four centuries, there has been an almost 
uninterrupted series of daring sea voyages, 
and of inland explorations along the courses 
of the great rivers Nile, Congo, Niger, and 
Zambesi. Exploration of the Sahara Desert 
has provided stories of perseverance and 
supreme endurance never surpassed. 



When, however, we ask what is the net 
result of all this striving and heroism, we 
have to answer sadly that so far it has 
been mainly a partitioning of Africa among 
European countries which have shown the 
bitterest rivalry. 

POST-WAR PROBLEMS 

However, in the past twenty-five years, 
since World War I, there have been definite 
attempts to change the policy from one of 
exploitation to a consideration of native 
African interests — physical, educational, 
commercial, and political. In such a vast 
and diversified continent the problems of 
human life necessarily must be deep and 
complex. Some of the human problems are 
of a fairly general kind ; for example, on every 
hand the African social and religious back- 
ground is being swept away by European 
contacts, with no adequate replacement. 

One may be sure, however, that Africans, 
like many other peoples of the world, have 
a growing sense of personality, political 
unity, and physical power. Therefore at 
the end of the present conflict, the utmost 
good will and competent statesmanship will 
be necessary to avoid political catastrophe 
on the African continent. 



RUBBER ONE OF MOST ENDURING 
SUBSTANCES ON EARTH 

Rubber is one of the most enduring of 
substances. It is not corrupted by rust, 
and is seldom wholly destroyed except by 
fire or abrasion. Therefore it is probably 
true that almost all the rubber that ever 
has come into the United States is in exist- 
ence today and usable if only it could be 
brought together. This obvious fact is of 
special significance in the present crisis, 
and emphasizes the statements made by 
those in charge of scrap rubber collecting 
who maintain that large quantities of used 
rubber exist if people only can be induced 
to make them available where they will do 
most good in winning the war. 

Apropos of this, it is interesting to note 
that Mr. M. W. Harrington, a curator at 
the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles, has 
reported recently that his institution owns 
a rubber ball that is believed to be a thou- 
sand years old. It was found in 1909 
during excavations near Toltec, Arizona. 
Presumably it was carried to Arizona by 
ancient pedestrian traders, who traveled 
between Mexico and what is now the 
southwestern United States. The ball is 
perhaps one used in the old ball-court game 
of peloia, still popular in a modified form 
in Mexico and Central America. This 
ancient rubber ball, probably the oldest in 
existence, is reported to be cracked and 
shriveled on the outside and to look like a 
lump of brownish dry clay, but inside the 
rubber is still fresh and resilient. Bring in 
your old rubber to fight Hitler and the 
Japs! No matter how old it is, it can still 
be salvaged and made useful. — P.C.S. 



Page 6 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



August — September, 19^2 



Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 
Roosevelt Road and Field Drive, Chicago 

Telephone: Wabash 9410 



THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 
Lester Armour Stanley Field 

Sbwbll L. Avery Samuel Insull, Jr. 

W. McCoRMiCK Blair Charles A. McCulloch 

Leopold E. Block William H. Mitchell 

BOARDMAN CONOVER GEORGE A. RiCHABDSON 

Walter J. Cummings Theodore Roosevelt 

Albert B. Dick, Jr. Soix)MON A. Smith 

Howard W. Fenton Albert A. Sprague 

Joseph N. Field Silas H. Strawn 

Marshall Field Albert H. Wetten 

John P. Wilson 

OFFICERS 

Stanley Field President 

Albert A. Spragub First Vice-President 

Silas H. Strawn Second Vice-President 

Albert B. Dick Third Vice-President 

♦Cufford C. Gregg Director and Secretary 

Orr Goodson Acting Director and Acting Secretary 

Solomon A. Smith . . . Treasurer and Assistant Secretary 

* On leave in active service as a Lieutenant-Colonel 
in the United States Army. 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 

EDITOR 
WiLPRBO H. Osgood Curator Emeritus, Zoology 

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology 

B. E. D ahlgren Chief Curator of Botany 

Henry W. Nichou Chief Curator of Geology 

Karl P. Schmidt Chief Curator of Zoology 

MANAGING EDITOR 
H. B. Harte Public Relations Counsel 



Members are requested to Inform the Museur 
promptly of changes of address. 



THEY ALSO SUFFER 

While war ravages humanity, lower forms 
of life get scant consideration. Even in 
times of peace it is difficult to protect the 
flowers, forests, birds and beasts, and when 
war comes the bars are wholly down. In the 
jungles of Malaysia and Papuasia, the wealth 
of life is so overpowering it is doubtful if 
thousands of "infiltrating" soldiers can do 
much permanent harm, but even there some 
animal and plant life is jeopardized. This 
is especially true on small islands which 
often form the exclusive habitat of peculiar 
animals. A soldier off duty is seldom averse 
to shooting anything subhuman and he is 
especially willing when it may provide a 
variation for the daily mess. He cannot 
be fighting all the time, and his opportunities 
for wantonness must be frequent. As 
Kipling pointed out, we cannot expect even 
our own men to be "plaster saints," and 
when it comes to our enemies, especially the 
Japanese, there is little hope. 

The war has spread to so many out-of- 
the-way places that natural conditions are 
bound to be greatly disturbed, and it is not 
unlikely that exterminations or near ex- 
terminations will be among the many 
deplorable by-products. On the treeless 
Aleutian Islands of Attu and Kiska, recently 
occupied by the Japanese, are distinct species 
of ptarmigan, handsome grouse-like birds, 
nominally protected by our laws, but doubt- 
less due to go into the soldier's pot by 



hundreds. In this region also is the sea 
otter, one of the most interesting of living 
mammals and one of great potential eco- 
nomic value. From the verge of extinction 
it has just been restored to numbers thought 
to guarantee its continuation, but under war 
conditions its fate may again become un- 
certain. Another important animal of this 
region is the fur seal which pas.ses regularly 
through the Aleutians on its migrations. It 
is interesting to note that our long standing 
treaty with Japan, by which she agreed 
not to kill seals on the high seas, was 
abrogated before war began. This treaty 
was profitable to Japan, and her refusal to 
continue it seems explainable only on the 
assumption that she expected to occupy 
our territory. 

Examples of threats in other regions 
could be multiplied. North Africa, espe- 
cially, might furnish a number, but there 
are some much nearer home. The danger 
to our western forests from fires set by 
incendiary bombs is a very real one which 
was quickly recognized, and protective 
measures are doubtless being taken, but 
the task is well nigh insuperable. We can 
only hope for success. 

As so often said, our first business is to 
win the war, but the naturalists and con- 
servationists can scarcely be blamed if their 
thoughts and sympathies turn occasionally 
to the killings that are not mentioned in 
the official communiques. 



to take the place of the late Dr. Marcus 
Ward Lyon. Mr. Schmidt's services will 
be in the field of cold-blooded vertebrates. 



Staff Notes 
Mr. Rupert L. Wenzel, Assistant Curator 
of Insects, has been commissioned as a 
First Lieutenant in the Sanitary Corps of 
the United States Army. His first Army 
assignment, which became effective July 22, 
is at Billings General Hospital, Fort Benja- 
min Harrison, Indiana. Mr. Henry S. 
Dybas has been appointed a special tem- 
porary assistant in the Division of Insects 
during Lieutenant Wenzel's absence. 



Dr. Alexander Spoehr, Field Museum's 
Assistant Curator of North American 
Archaeology and Ethnology, who for some 
months has been in the Army, was trans- 
ferred last month to the Navy, with a 
commission as Ensign. 



Mr. Paul O. McGrew, Assistant Curator 
of Paleontology, recently received the degree 
of Doctor of Philosophy from the University 
of Chicago. The degree was conferred in 
recognition of Dr. McGrew's extensive 
researches, and especially for his recent 
publication, issued by Field Museum Press, 
on Fossil Rodents (Aplodontoidae) from 
South Dakota. 

Mr. Kari P. Schmidt, Chief Curator of 
Zoology, has been appointed to the editorial 
board of The American Midland Naturalist, 



Mrs. Emily M. Wilcoxson, Librarian, 
and Mrs. Mary W. Baker, A.s.sociate 
Librarian, attended the recent sessions of 
the American Library Association, held at 
Milwaukee. 



Mr. James C. Mclntyre, a Museum guard 
on leave for Army service, was last month 
promoted from the rank of private to that 
of Second Lieutenant. 



Mr. George I. Quimby, Jr., has been 
given a temporary appointment as Assistant 
Curator of North American Archaeology 
and Ethnology, and will serve in that 
position during the absence on war service 
of Dr. Alexander Spoehr, the regular 
Assistant Curator. Mr. Quimby was 
formerly Director of the Muskegon County 
Museum, and has also served in curatorial 
positions on the staffs of the University 
of Michigan Museum at Ann Arbor, the 
Louisiana State Archaeological Survey, 
Museum of Louisiana State University, 
and Museum of the Department of Anthro- 
pology at the University of Chicago. 



FIELD MUSEUM HONOR ROLL 
Now In the Nation's Service: 

Military 

Theodore Roosevelt, Trustee — Brigadier- 
General, U.S. Army. 

Lester .Armour, Trxistee — Lieutenant-Com- 
mander, U.S. Navy. 

Joseph Nash Field, Trustee — Lieutenant, 
U.S. Navy. 

Clifford C. Gregg, Director — Lieutenant 
Colonel, A.G.D., U.S. Army. 

Melvin a. Traylor, Jr., Associate, Birds- 
Private, U.S. Marine Corps. 

Dr. John Rinaldo, Associate, Southwestern 
Archaeology — Private, U.S. Army. 

Dr. Alexander Spoehr, Assistant Curator, 
North American Ethnology and Archaeology 
— Ensign, U.S. Navy. 

Emmbt R. Blake, Assistant Curator, Birds — 
Private, U.S. Army. 

Rupert L. Wenzel, Assistant Curator, Insects 
— First Lieutenant, U.S. Army. 

William Beecher, Temporary Assistant, De- 
partment of Zoology — Private, U.S. Army. 

Bert E. Grove, Guide-Lecturer — American 
Field Service, in North Africa. 

Patrick T. McEnery, Guard — Master-at- 
arms, U.S. Navy. 

John Syckowski, Guard — Chief Commissary 
Steward, U.S. Navy. 

George Jahrand, Guard — Chief Water 
Tender, U.S. Navy. 

M. C. Darnall, Jr., Guard — Seaman 2nd 
Class, U.S. Coast Guard. 

James C. McIntyrb, Guard — Second Lieu- 
tenant U.S. Army. 

Clyde James Nash, Guard — Chief Gunner's 
Mate, U.S. Navy. 

Nicholas Repar, Printer — First Class Sea- 
man, U.S. Navy. 

Other Services 

Rudybrd Boulton, Curator, Birds — Staff of 
Office of Strategic Services. 

Bryant Mather, Assistant Curator, Miner- 
alogy — Civil Service Worker for Corps of 
Engineers, U.S. Army. 

John McGinnis, Guard — U. S. Merchant 
Marine. 



August — September, 19U2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page 7 



NATIONALISTIC ZOOLOGY 

In 1938 a Japanese zoologist issued a 
"List of the Japanese Mammals," followed 
in 1940 by a pretentious illustrated volume 
entitled "A Monograph of the Japanese 
Mammals." 

Although largely compilations, both works 
bear evidence of care in preparation and 
need not be criticized on the score of 
accuracy, but the geographic limits they 
cover are both interesting and amusing. 
Some 370 species and subspecies are listed, 
including not only those of Japan proper 
and those of Saghalien Island and the 
Kurile Islands, for which there might be 
some justification, but also those of Korea 
and Formosa and, still more surprising, 
those of the Marianne, Pelew, and Caroline 
Islands. 

The mandated Pacific Islands evidently 
were regarded as part of Japan at least 
four or five years ago. The inclusion of 
Korea adds a large part of the fauna of 
all eastern Asia. Manchuria, for some 
reason, is omitted, perhaps because it was 
too large an order. 

If we applied the Japanese principle we 
should, in publishing on the fauna and flora 
of the United States or North America, 
include those of Cuba, Puerto Rico, Panama, 
Hawaii, and the Philippines. If a British 
naturalist were to try it, an almost incon- 
ceivable conglomeration would result. 

Evidently these books were among nu- 
merous straws which have been in the wind 
for a good while but to which we have paid 
little or no attention. The Japanese 
zoologist is doubtless not especially to blame 
for them since he only expresses a national 
inferiority complex which is compelling. 
— Wilfred H. Osgood 



THE FORTITUDE OF TURTLES 

The writer recently returned from Havana, 
Illinois, where he .studied the habits of local 
reptiles and amphibians to supplement his 
observations made in 1940 at the same place. 
Through the courtesy of the State Natural 
History Survey he was given quarters at 
their Havana Field Laboratory. 

The most interesting observations were 
made one morning from a well concealed 
position in a fringe of bushes extending along 
a narrow sand beach of Lake Chautauqua, 
occupied to discover exactly how soft- 
shelled turtles construct their nests. A 
turtle with a shell fully a foot long appeared 
on the sand and promptly began to dig, 
using the hind feet alternately and working 
with clock-like regularity. A boat came by 
and -sent the reptile scurrying into the lake, 
but it had already dug a square hole nearly 
two inches across and three deep. The 
bottom had not yet been enlarged for recep- 
tion of the round eggs. 

The interesting fact is that in making its 
flask-shaped nest such a turtle performs a 



feat comparable to that of a bird building 
its nest. Neither the bird nor the turtle 
requires practice, but the bird does use its 
eyes. The turtle does not do so because its 
work is hidden by the broad rim of its shell 
and the head is held erect, the eyes ever on 
the lookout for the approach of danger. 
Moreover, the aquatic reptile is working in 
a strange element; its belly is burned by the 
hot sand below, its back by the direct rays 
of the sun above. If anyone doubts the 
remarkable ability of the .soft-shelled turtle, 
let him blindfold himself and try to dig 
a flask-shaped hole while lying naked on 
sand heated to 112° F. in sun that is only 
a few degrees cooler. Although a reptile 
is cold-blooded, its tolerance of heat is no 
greater than that of man. A turtle, being 
so much smaller, no doubt would succumb 
to such exposure more quickly than a man. 
— Clifford H. Pope 



THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED 



Contrast in Weight and Volume 
of Light and Heavy Woods 

Among the South American woods in 
Hall 27, in the case containing a large 
wheel section of the red quebracho of 




SPECIFIC GRAVITY ILLUSTRATED 
Remember, is a child, pondering the question "Which 
weighs more— a ton of feathers or a ton of lead?" The 
Museum's Department of Botany here demonstrates that a 
pound of balsa, one of the world's lightest woods, has 11 
times the volume of a pound of extremely dense quebracho. 

Argentina and Paraguay, two blocks of 
wood, shown side by side, afford a strik- 
ing contrast in specific gravity. One of 
them is a cube of quebracho which is 
one of the heaviest of all woods; the other 
is a block of balsa wood, which is one of 
the very lightest. The two blocks, one of 
which is much larger than the other, balance 
each other on the scale. Both weigh one 
and a quarter pounds, but the balsa block 
has more than eleven (11.25) times the 
volume of the quebracho cube. — B.E.D. 



"POISON LETTER" 

At this season of the year, when city 
people sally forth to the country on picnics 
or for tramps through the woods, they some- 
times, unless thoroughly familiar with the 
more offensive features of local natural 
history, fall into strange traps. Mr. Paul C. 
Standley, Curator of the Herbarium of 
Field Museum, recently sat at his desk and 
read a letter from a woman of Chicago 
stating that she was enclosing for identifica- 
tion a .sprig of a "tree" she had just "dis- 
covered," but was unable to place in any 
of her tree books. 

"It is a tall tree with a thick trunk, send- 
ing out branches from the lower part of the 
trunk," she wrote. "What is it?" 

Mr. Standley carelessly shook out the 
leaves from the envelope, and was startled 
to find in his hand some leaves of poison 
ivy. Although not himself susceptible to 
the noxious effects of this vine, he wondered 
through how many other hands the twig 
had passed before reaching his. Poison ivy, 
of course, is never a large tree, as described 
by the correspondent, but is usually, as in 
this case, a vine climbing up tree trunks by 
many strong aerial rootlets that hold its 
stems tightly against the trunk. 

In this connection it may be recalled that 
a few years ago the attention of Field 
Museum's Department of Botany was called 
to an ornamental vine trained over the 
porch of a residence in Chicago. This 
handsome vine turned out to be — yes — 
poi.son ivy! 

It is fortunate that probably the majority 
of people are immune to poisoning from 
this vine, for it may be found in the midst 
of the city in vacant lots where small 
children play every day. Many of these 
lots are now Victory Gardens, and the ivy, 
if its roots have not been completely eradi- 
cated, may appear among their crops to the 
peril of the gardeners. It is to be regretted 
that the aid of the WPA was not invoked 
during recent years to exterminate the plant 
in such situations, which might easily have 
been done by use of chemicals or by simply 
grubbing the roots from the ground. 



AUGUST-SEPTEMBER ISSUES 
OF NEWS COMBINED 

This issue of FIELD MUSEUM 
NEWS constitutes both the Au- 
gust and September numbers 
(VoL 13, Nos. 8 9). The next issue 
will be that due for publication on 
October 1. 

This suspension for one month 
is the first interruption in publica- 
tion that has occurred since the 
NEWS was inaugurated in Jan- 
uary, 1930. It is due to the deple- 
tion of the Museum staff for war 
service and necessarily reduced 
general activities. 



Page 8 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



August — September, 19U2 



FIELD MUSEUM IN FILM ENTITLED 
"BACKGROUND OF TOMORROW" 

A motion picture crew of fourteen persons, 
including director, cameramen, technicians, 
and a cast for incidental acting, spent nearly 
a week in July making films at Field Mu- 




REHEARSING SCENE IN MUSEUM MOVIE 
Acting Director Orr Goo<lson (left) and Staff Taxidermist 
John W. Moyer (riglit) receive screen instructions from 
Mr. Bertram Bates, director of ttie film "Background of 
Tomorrow," to bie releas«d in near future. 

seum, both in the exhibition halls and 
"behind the scenes" in workshops and 
laboratories. The film, to be released under 
the title "Background of Tomorrow," is 
sponsored by the Chicago Association of 
Commerce for the purpose of publicizing 
the educational and cultural advantages 
offered by leading museums of this city. 
In addition to Field Museum, the film will 
cover activities of the Art Institute, Mu- 
seum of Science and Industry, Chicago 
Historical Society, and Chicago Academy 
of Sciences. The professional cinema 
personnel is furnished by the Atlas Educa- 
tional Film Company, of Oak Park. Mr. 
Bertram Bates is director, and Mr. John G. 
Curtis is scenario editor. Many members 
of Field Museum's staff are shown in the 
performance of specialized tasks. The film, 
when completed, will have a sound track 
carrying a narrative by a well-known radio 
commentator. 



MOTION PICTURES FOR CHILDREN 

The final program in the summer series 
for children by the James Nelson and Anna 
Louise Raymond Foundation for Public 
School and Children's Lectures, will be 
given on Thursday morning, August 6, at 
10 o'clock. This program, called "The 
Vacation Special," consists entirely of 
especially selected animated cartoons, and 
includes films both in color and black-and- 
white. Titles of the pictures to be shown 
are: "Little Hiawatha," "Elmer Elephant," 
"Flying Mouse," "Snubbed by a Snob," 
"Pedagogical Institution," and "The Ugly 
Dino." Admission is free, and no tickets 
are required. Children from all parts of 



Chicago and suburbs are invited. Five 
other such programs were given during July. 
Beginning with the first week in October, 
and continuing throughout November, the 
annual autumn series of free motion pictures 
for children will be given on Saturday 
mornings; details will be announced later. 



SUMMER GUIDE-LECTURE TOURS 
MORNINGS AND AFTERNOONS 

During August conducted tours of the 
exhibits, under the guidance of staff lec- 
turers, will be given on a special schedule, 
as follows: 

Mondays: 11 A.M., Halls of Primitive and 
Civilized Peoples; 2 P.M., General Tour of 
Exhibition Halls. 

Tuesdays: 11 a.m., Animal Groups; 2 
P.M., General Tour of Exhibition Halls. 

Wednesdays: 11 A.M., Minerals and Pre- 
historic Life; 2 p.m., General Tour of 
Exhibition Halls. 

Thursdays: 11 a.m. and 2 p.m., General 
Tours of Exhibition Halls. 

Fridays: 11 a.m., Plant Life Exhibits; 
2 P.M., General Tour of Exhibition Halls. 

Persons wishing to participate should 
apply at North Entrance. Tours are free. 
There are no tours given on Saturdays or 
Sundays. 

By pre-arrangement with the Acting 
Director, special tours are available to 
parties of ten or more persons. 



NEW MEMBERS 

The following persons became Members 
of Field Museum during the period from 
June 16 to July 15: 

Contributors 
Charles Edward Brown 

Associate Members 

Mrs. Michael Blecker, Jr., J. J. Brodsky, 
Max Holmburger. 

Annual Members 
Alfred T. Abeles, Mrs. Arthur I. Appleton, 
T. W. Bryant, Albert Busch, Mrs. Frank L. 
Butz, E. D. Conant, Mrs. Margaret Falken- 
burg. Dr. Henry Goss, Max Halperin, Mrs. 
Edward K. Hardy, E. J. Harrigan, Ferdi- 
nand L. Hotz, Dr. Leo Houda, J. J. 
Kingham, James V. Licata, G. A. Millard, 
J. M. Miller, Harry Prince, Dr. Edmund A. 
Proby, Mrs. Thomas M. Quigley, Warren 
Roane, Philip W. Schimmel, James S. 
Schoff, Walter W. Schrage, James C. Shaw, 
Theodore Stempfel, Mrs. Gordon C. Thome, 
Dr. Irving D. Thrasher, Roscoe L. Weiss. 



Former Preparator Dead 

His former associates at Field Museum 
have received with regret news of the death 
on July 18 of John William Harrison, who 
for 35 years was a preparator in the Depart- 
ment of Anthropology. Since April 30, 
1940, he had been retired on pension. 



GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM 
DURING PAST MONTH 

Following is a list of some of the principal 
gifts received during the last month: 

Department of Anthropolo^: 

From Mrs. Broadus Clarke, Chicago — 
Huaxtec spouted jar with handle, and an- 
thropomorphic figurine of clay with whistle 
and tripod legs, Mexico; from Richard A. 
Doubleday, Chicago — a boy's suit, consist- 
ing of jacket, trousers, belt, and headdress, 
Guatemala; from Mrs. Anne Harding 
Spoehr, Winnetka, 111. — 2 Navajo silver 
buttons, southwestern United States. 

Department of Botany: 

From Donald Richards, Chicago — 34 
specimens of mosses; from Harry Hoog- 
straal, Urbana, 111. — 15 wood specimens, 
Mexico; from University of Chicago — 
2,528 specimens of miscellaneous fungi; 
from Dr. Edna Snow, Provo, Utah — 11 
specimens of algae, Utah; from Harry K. 
Phinney, Cincinnati, Ohio — 104 specimens 
of algae, Michigan. 

Department of Geology: 

From Dr. Frederick W. Burcky, Evanston, 
111. — 31 geological specimens, western United 
States. 

Department of Zoology: 

From Dr. Albert W. Herre, Stanford 
University, Calif. — a sea snake and a sand 
boa, India; from Harold Higgins, Salt Lake 
City, Utah — 19 lizards and a snake, Samoa; 
from John H. Crea, Fargo, N. D. — a little 
bittern, England; from Dr. C. S. Smith, 
San Marcos, Tex. — 3 salamanders, Texas; 
from E. W. Andrews, Cambridge, Mass. — 
96 frogs, lizards, and snakes, Yucatan; from 
Lincoln Park Zoo, Chicago — a stork and a 
brant, Europe and India; from Henry S. 
Dybas, Chicago — 796 insects and allies, 
14 specimens comprising 3 species of land 
isopods, and 190 specimens comprising 28 
species of land shells in 38 lots, Tennessee; 
from W. E. Eigsti, Chicago — 3 shrews, 
Illinois; from Boardman Conover, Chicago 
— a ruff, Holland; from Chicago Zoological 
Society, Brookfield, 111. — an Indian gallinule 
and a wild turkey; from Mrs. Edwin S. 
Cieslak, Chicago — 57 garter snake skins, 
Illinois; from Pvt. Donald M. Kemp, 
Hawthorne, Nev. — 4 lizards and a rattle- 
snake, Nevada; from Clifford H. Pope and 
family, Winnetka, 111. — 37 frogs, lizards, 
turtles, and snakes, Illinois; from Miss 
Margaret Finerty, Homewood, 111. — a com- 
mon mole, Illinois. 

The Library: 

Valuable books from Stanley Field, Lake 
Forest, 111.; from Dr. Henry Field, Wash- 
ington, D.C.; and from Henry W. Nichols, 
Elmer S. Riggs, and W. H. Corning, all of 
Chicago. 

Raymond Foundation: 

FYom Dr. Wilfred H. Osgood, Chicago — 
39 standard size lantern slides; from Turtox 
Biological Supply House, Chicago — 347 
kodachrome slides. 

Division of Photography: 

From Estate of Edmund Heller, San 
Francisco, Calif. — 402 negatives of general 
views in Central Africa. 



PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS 



Field 




News 



Published Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago 



Vol. 13 



OCTOBER, 1942 



No. 10 



MUSEUM MEN ARE GOOD SOLDIERS 
BUT LOSS TO SCIENCE IS SEVERE 

By STANLEY FIELD 

PRESIDENT OF THE MUSEUM 

Field Museum is proud of the part its 
men are playing in the nation's struggle. 
Twenty-five men (22 employees, and three 
Trustees) have gone into 
various war services, and 
a number of others are await- 
ing early calls. 

As the normal personnel 
of the institution totals 208 
employees, of whom only 
152 are males, the 22 who 
have left represent a large 
proportion (more than 14 
per cent) of the Museum's 
manpower. And of these, 
about two-thirds are men 
whose work here as scientists 
and artisans is directly con- 
nected with the progress of 
the basic activities of the 
Museum. They are men 
who normally are assigned 
to expeditions and research, 
who prepare exhibits, and 
who conduct the educational 
activities which are prime 
considerations in the opera- 
tion of the Museum. These 
men could not easily be re- 
placed, even if Museum 
policy permitted; the other 
eight men in war service 
— guards, maintenance 
workers, etc. — are tempora- 
rily replaced in such cases 
as seem essential. The 
Trustees have adopted a 
policy of keeping all posi- 
tions vacated for war service 
open for their original 
holders at the end of the 
war. The few substitutes 
necesvsarily employed are on 
a temporary basis only, with 
the understanding that positions will be 
surrendered to the returning service men. 
Further, the Trustees have made provisions 
enabling returning employees to obtain rein- 
statement of their full privileges under the 
Museum Employees' Pension and Group 
Life Insurance Plans, with no loss of benefits. 

Meanwhile, it is good to note that Mu- 
seum men are achieving notable success in 



military life — six Museum employees (as 
well as the three Trustees) have already 
received commissions in the Army and Navy. 
Reports have been received that others in 
training have attracted the attention of their 
superior officers and are qualifying to 
receive promotions in the near future. 




Chicago Daily Newt photo 

TWENTY-FIVE STARS NOW ON MUSEUM SERVICE FLAG 

President Stanley Field, Ensign Alexander Spochr (Assistant Curator of North American Ethnology 

and Archaeology), and Acting Director Orr Goodson watch as Mrs. Spoehr (a Museum artist) sews 

additional star on flag to represent Henry Horback (on right), Assistant in Geology, as he leaves for 

his new duties as a member of the United States Army Signal Corps. 

The welfare of the Museum itself is 
severely hampered by this heavy and ever 
growing depletion of its staff. It is hoped, 
therefore, that the membership, and the 
public at large, will understand the necessity 
of severely reducing all Museum activities. 
Further expeditions, for example, are out 
of the question, not only because of lack 
{Continued on page 2, column 1 .) 



STORY OF ANIMAL REPRODUCTION 
TOLD IN NEW EXHIBIT 

By D. DWIGHT DAVIS 

CURATOR OF ANATOMY AND OSTEOLOGY 

Animal reproduction is the subject of an 
exhibit recently opened in the Hall of Verte- 
brate Anatomy (Hall 19). The story of 
how an egg cell is fertilized, 
and then gradually develops 
into an amazingly complex 
young animal, is told in a 
special alcove of four cases. 
The relatively simple re- 
production of animals with- 
out .sex is illustrated by en- 
larged models of the ameba, 
where the whole body of the 
"parent" simply divides into 
two. An ostrich egg, which 
is as large as eighteen hen's 
eggs, is compared with the 
scarcely visible human egg 
to show the striking differ- 
ence between animals that 
store food for the young in 
the egg and those that 
nourish the young directly 
from the mother's blood 
stream. Other enlarged 
models show the geometric- 
ally accurate way in which 
the single egg divides into 
two, then four, eight, sixteen, 
thirty-two, and so on until 
finally the countless cells re- 
sulting from repeated divi- 
sions fashion the simple early 
embryo. Another series of 
models shows how such 
organs as the brain, heart, 
and liver gradually assume 
their proper form. A set of 
life-sized hen's eggs, opened 
to show the embryo, gives a 
"moving picture" of daily 
progress in the development 
of a chick, from the stage of 
the unincubated egg until 
the time of hatching three weeks later. 
Frog embryos (tadpoles) differ from bird 
or mammal embryos in that they lead an 
active fishlike life for a time, and then 
suddenly transform into young frogs. Stages 
in this special type of reproduction are shown 
in a case of enlarged models. Introduction 
of the tadpole stage into the reproductive 
{Continued on page 5, column S.) 



Page 2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



October, IHZ 



MUSEUM MEN ARE GOOD SOLDIERS 

(Continued from page 1) 

of the men to conduct them, but also because 
of the financial difficulties which Field 
Museum, in common with other endowed 
institutions, faces under present-day con- 
ditions — and besides, with warfare raging 
over nearly all the world, it would not be 
practicable or good judgment to attempt 
to conduct expeditions in foreign countries. 
Publications must be curtailed, both because 
of the depletion of the men to write them, 
and of Field Museum Press workers to 
print them. Field Museum News will 
suffer, since reduction of activities in general 
naturally brings reduction of news, and the 
depletion of the staff has taken some of the 
most prolific writers of the feature articles 
normally published in this periodical. Many 
of the remaining members of the staff have 
had to assume additional work, or have had 
to transfer their energies to branches of 
work outside their normal duties. 

museum's chief wartime aims 
There are three principal things which 
the Museum administration must strive for 
during the war. First, to keep the Museum 
open and as nearly normal as possible in 
its service to the public — this is important 
both as an element of civilian morale and 
of maintaining morale among service men 
stationed in the Chicago area. The second 
"must" is to give the proper care and 
attention to the protection and preservation 
of the Museum's collections, both those on 
exhibition and the vitally important scien- 
tific study collections — these represent an 
investment of millions of dollars, as well as 
the time and effort of many scientific 
pioneers who have conducted expeditions 
all over the world for years, and their 
value to the continuance of research after 
the war is incalculable. Third, earnest 
efforts must be made to avoid any cessation 
of the institution's educational projects 
(both adult and juvenile), particularly those 
for the benefit of school children, such as 
the activities of the N. W. Harris Public 
School Extension, and the James Nelson 
and Anna Louise Raymond Foundation 
for Public School and Children's Lectures. 

WORK IMPORTANT TO FUTURE 

In times of stress such as the present, it 
is generally agreed that such work is more 
important than ever, and that any tendency 
to minimize efforts in this direction must 
be combatted energetically. The hope of 
the world after the war depends upon the 
children who are growing up today. Mu- 
seums and kindred institutions have an 
essential task in preparing these children 
to live better balanced lives both as in- 
dividuals and as members of their com- 
munities in that better world which we 
envision, and must establish, if true civiliza- 
tion is to survive after the present world 
conflict, and if further wars are to be 
made impossible. 



FIELD MUSEUM HONOR ROLL 
Now In the Nation's Service: 

Military 

Theodore Roosevelt, Trustee— Brigadier- 
General, U.S. Army. 

Lester Armour, Trustee— Lieutenant-Com- 
mander, U.S. Navy. 

Joseph Nash Field, Trustee — Lieutenant 
(Senior Grade), U.S. Navy. 

Clifford C. Gregg, Director — Lieutenant 
Colonel, A.G.D., U.S. Army. 

Melvin a. Traylor, Jr., Associate, Birds- 
Private, U.S. Marine Corps. 

Dr. John Rinaldo, Associate, Southwestern 
Archaeology — Private, U.S. Army. 

Dr. Sharat K. Roy, Curator, Geology — 
Captain, U.S. Army. 

Colin Campbell Sanborn, Curator, Mammals 
— Lieutenant (Senior Grade), U.S. Navy. 

Dr. Alexander Spoehr, Assistant Curator, 
North American Ethnology and Archaeology 
— Ensign, U.S. Navy. 

Emmet R. Blake, Assistant Curator, Birds — 
Private, U.S. Army. 

Rupert L. Wenzel, .Assistant Curator, Insects 
— First Lieutenant, U.S. Army. 

William Bebcher, Temporary Assistant, De- 
partment of Zoology — Private, U.S. Army. 

Henry Horback, Assistant, Geology — Private, 
U.S. Army. 

Frank Borvca, Assistant Preparator, Botany 
— Private, U.S. Marine Corps. 

Bert E. Grove, Guide-Lecturer— American 
Field Service, in North Africa. 

Patrick T. McEnery, Guard — Master-at- 
arms, U.S. Navy. 

John Syckowski, Guard— Chief Commissary 
Steward, U.S. Navy. 

George Jahrand, Guard — Chief Water 
Tender, U.S. Navy. 

M. C. Darnall, Jr., Guard — Seaman 2nd 
Class, U.S. Coast Guard. 

Jambs C. McIntyre, Guard — Second Lieu- 
tenant U.S. Army. 

Clyde James Nash, Guard — Chief Gunner's 
Mate, U.S. Navy. 

Nicholas Rbpar, Printer — First Class Sea- 
man, U.S. Navy. 

Other Services 

Rudyerd Boulton, Curator, Birds — Staff of 
Office of Strategic Services. 

Bryant Mather, Assistant Curator, Miner- 
alogy — Civil Service Worker for Corps of 
Engineers, U.S. Army. 

John McGinnis, Guard — U.S. Merchant 
Marine. 



U. S. MARINES, NAVY AND ARMY 
ALL TAKE MUSEUM WORKERS 

Four more men from Field Museum's 
staff left during August for military service — 
two into the U. S. Army, one into the Navy, 
and one into the Marines. 

Dr. Sharat K. Roy, Curator of Geology, 
was commissioned a Captain in the Army, 
and went into active service August 21. 
Dr. Roy served as a private with the 
British Indian Army in the first World War. 
He joined the staff of Field Museum in 
1925. During 1927-28 he spent fifteen 
months exploring in Newfoundland, Lab- 
brador, and Baffin Land as geologist of 
the Rawson-MacMillan Subarctic Expe- 
dition of Field Museum. 

Mr. Colin Campbell Sanborn, Curator of 
Mammals, was commissioned a Lieutenant 
(Senior Grade) in the U. S. Navy, and began 
his duties in that capacity on August 31. 
Although now in the Navy, Mr. Sanborn 
served with the Army in the last war, when 
for two years he was a member of the 149th 



Field Artillery, Rainbow Division. He 
joined the staff of the Museum in 1922, and 
has participated in important expeditions 
to South America, including the Marshall 
Field Brazilian Expedition (1926-27), and 
the Magellanic Expedition (1939-40). 

Mr. Henry Horback, Assistant in Geology, 
enlisted as a private in the Signal Corps of 
the U. S. Army on August 1. 

Mr. Frank Boryca, Assistant Preparator 
in the Plant Reproduction Laboratories of 




1. r. c. c:. s.ANBORN capt. s. k, ko-i 

the Department of Botany, enlisted as a 
private in the U. S. Marines, on August 20. 
News occasionally trickles in about Mu- 
seum men who have been in service for some 
time past. Mr. Joseph Nash Field, Trustee, 
was recently promoted to Lieutenant (Senior 
Grade) in the Navy. Mr. Emmet R. Blake, 
Curator of Birds, now a private in a medical 
detachment at Camp Grant, Illinois, was 
recently chosen "Soldier of the Week." Mr. 
James C. McIntyre, a Museum guard who 
entered the Army as a private, has been 
commissioned as a Second Lieutenant. 



NEW EXHIBIT SHOWS 
THE SOLAR SYSTEM 

An elaborate model representing the solar 
system, and showing the relative positions 
of the planets, has been placed on exhibition 
in Clarence Buckingham Hall (Hall 35), 
Department of Geology. In this exhibit 
the planets are represented by models carved 
from a transparent plastic, and these are 
made attractive by illumination from behind 
the panel representing outer space. The 
model was prepared by Mr. Frank H. Letl, 
specialist in accessories for the Department 
of Zoology, whose services were lent to the 
Department of Geology for this purpose. 
Dr. Sharat K. Roy, Curator of Geology, 
designed and supervised preparation of the 
exhibit and prepared the explanatory labels. 

On the other side of the same case is an 
exhibit illustrating the composition of the 
interior of the earth. This was also designed 
by Curator Roy, and the carving of the 
model was done by Mr. Joseph Krstolich, 
Artist-Preparator in Zoology. 



October, 19U2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Pages 



SATURDAY AFTERNOON LECTURES BEGIN; SOME OFFER KNOWLEDGE OF VITAL WAR ZONES 



The annual Autumn Course of Free Illus- 
trated Lectures for adults, to be presented 
at Field Museum on Saturday afternoons 
during October and November, strikes a 
nice balance for those who wish to be better 
informed about regions vital in the war, and 
those who seek escape from the war by con- 
templation of happier subjects. About one- 
half of the lectures to be presented deal 
with regions appearing in the news of the 
day, and the rest of the lectures deal with 
America's own wonderlands and the beauties 
and curious phenomena of nature. All of 
the lectures will be illustrated in natural 
colors, and all but one with motion pictures. 

The lectures are to be given in the James 
Simpson Theatre of the Museum, and all 
will begin at 2:30 p.m. The demand for 
seats makes it necessary to restrict admission 
to adults; for children free motion pictures 
are given on Saturday mornings. 

Following are the dates, subjects, and 
speakers for the adult programs: 

October 3 — American Birds in Color. 

Cleveland P. Grant. 

Naturalists, and lovers of birds through- 
out the country, have given the highest 
praise to the natural color films of American 
birds, in flight and at rest, made by Mr. 
Grant. He has devoted years of study and 
research in remote wildernesses, making his 
films and the observations upon which his 
intimately presented lecture is based. Mr. 
Grant formerly was an extension lecturer of 
the Raymond Foundation, and later Acting 
Curator of the N. W. Harris Public School 
Extension of Field Museum. 

October 10 — Alaska and the Aleutians. 

Ben East. 

The giant brown bears of Alaska, largest 
flesh-eating animals in the world, and the 
rare Alaskan sea otter, highlight the motion 
pictures and lecture to be presented by Mr. 
East, Grand Rapids outdoor writer. He 
has spent three months this past summer 
in the remote sections of Alaska, cruising 
aboard patrol ships of the United States 
Fish and Wildlife Service. He covered 3,000 
miles of the Alaskan coast, including the 
bleak volcanic Aleutian Islands chain that 
extends nearly to Asiatic Russia and Japan. 
The story he tells includes descriptions of 
the largest seabird colonies in North 
America. Sea lions, blue foxes, caribou 
and other animals are shown. The sea 
otter pictures are among the rarest wildlife 
films ever shown. 

October 17 — Life's Pageant Through 

THE Ages. 

Charles R. Knight. 

Mr. Knight is famous as the foremost 
artist specalizing in the restoration of pre- 
historic animals and man. One of the largest 
and most important of his creations is the 



series of twenty-eight mural paintings on 
the walls of Ernest R. Graham Hall of 
Paleontology at Field Museum, showing 
extinct animals of various ages through a 
span of hundreds of millions of years, as 
science indicates they appeared in life. 
In his lecture he will tell how he goes about 
his unusual task of painting animals no 
man has ever seen alive, and making his 
restorations accurate in accordance with the 
best knowledge which scientific research has 
thus far produced. 

October 24 — Jungle Men of Dutch 

Guiana. 

Fred Hardenbrook. 

When Columbus returned to the court of 
Queen Isabella after the discovery of 



October 31— Western Desert Wonder- 
lands. 

John Claire Monteith. 
Mr. Monteith is a naturalist who tells an 
informative story of desert, mountain, and 
Indian country with superb natural color 
motion pictures. He has a long line of 
western pioneers as ancestors, and as a boy 
he heard the stories of Indian wars as passed 
down from his great-uncle. Dr. Marcus 
Whitman, who led the first wagon train 
over the old Oregon Trail more than 100 
years ago. For many years he has conducted 
research in desert and Indian lore. The 
struggle of plant and animal life to survive 
in arid lands; the life zones of plants from 
below sea level to the land of the pines; and 
the poUenization and growing of dates in 




V    >y o( John Claire Monteich 

LECTURER TO TELL OF "MIRACLE OF RAINS" ON DESERTS 

Giant cacti and great fields of strange flowers which successfully struggle to exist in barren waste lands are shown in full 
color in films accompanying the lecture "Western Desert Wonderlands" to be given at Field Museum October 31, 



America, he brought with him red men who 
called themselves Caribees and are known 
today as the Carib Indians. Some of their 
descendants have become civilized, but deep 
in the jungles of Dutch Guiana live the 
Ojana tribe of Caribs who have successfully 
withstood encroaching civilization. They 
live today as their ancestors did, hundreds 
of years ago, in palm leaf huts built in 
jungle clearings. They have no guns, but 
use bows and long reed arrows, tipped with 
deadly curare poison, both in their hunting 
and their continual warfare with other tribes. 
Fred Hardenbrook with his color camera 
has recorded their life and customs. By 
living as they do, eating their food, and 
observing their religious and tribal customs, 
he achieved an unusual understanding of 
the tribe. 



America — all are brought to the screen by 
his films in full and surprising color. 

November 7 — Ceylon. 

Charles Brooke Elliott. 

Ceylon, wondrous isle in the sapphire sea, 
brings to mind exotic pictures of a tropical 
island, of age-old legends, of beautiful 
scenery, and a lush jungle life. It is these 
aspects that Mr. Elliott shows. 

Ancient history of Ceylon as written in 
the Mahawansa — "buried cities" now un- 
covered — tea, rubber, and coconut industries 
— lovely gardens, bits of tamed jungle — 
native animals, including some unusual 
pictures of elephants at work and play, 
performing incredible feats of agility — these 
and many other subjects are featured. 
(Continued on page 8, column S) 



Page It 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



October, 19U2 



DIVING IN A MICHIGAN LAKE 
FOR MUSEUM MATERIAL 

By LEON L. PRAY 

STAFF TAXIDBRUIST 

Preliminary studies, required for a pro- 
jected preparation of a habitat group show- 
ing fresh-water fishes as they appear under 
water, were completed during August. The 
first step in this project was made about a 
year ago when Mr. Loren P. Woods, 
Assistant Curator of Fishes, Mr. Frank H. 
Letl, Preparator of Group Accessories, and 
the writer made a field trip to Magician 
Lake, in the vicinity of Dowagiac, Michigan. 
Diving equipment, built by Mr. Ronald 
Lambert, of Zion, Illinois, and used on the 
Leon Mandel Expedition to the Galapagos 
Islands, was employed on this brief recon- 
noitering trip with gratifjfing results. Richer 
weed beds were desired, and after careful 
deliberation Lake LaGrange in Cass County, 
Michigan, was decided upon for a 1942 
expedition to make final collections. 

The Museum was assisted in making 
arrangements by Mr. and Mrs. Gordon 
Cole, of Dowagiac. Early on the morning 
of August 19 we set forth for a two-day 
trip, with Mr. Lambert and Mrs. Marian 
Gray added to our original 1941 party, and 
with Staff Reporter Eddie Doherty and 
Photographer Leonard Bass, of The Chicago 
Sun, assigned to cover the story. 
UNDERWATER SURPRISES 

Boats were ready for us on arrival at 
Lake LaGrange. In short order our party 
now numbering seven members, was in 
bathing attire and hard at work with diving 
helmet and air pump. Between 10 A.M. 
and dusk many submersions were made. 
We located rich and varied water plants 
spread over the floor of the lake in groves, 
thickets, and extensive forests with deep, 
open waterways between. 

The complete contrast in appearance of 
the underwater scene from the horizontal 
view afforded through the wide window of 
a helmet, as compared to the foreshortened 
top- water view seen through a glass- 
bottomed bucket, always impresses new 
observers. Water that appears to be 
shoulder deep from the surface turns out 
to be twelve to eighteen feet deep when one 
descends with the helmet. Plants that 
seemed squatty from the boat tower and 
arch above the diver in grand array. 

FISHES STUDY THE DIVERS 

While under water, either when walking 
on the bottom or seated comfortably on a 
rung of the chain and pipe ladder hung 
from clamps on the stern of the boat, fishes 
appeared to lose all fear of us. They came 
right up to the helmet window, peered in, 
and looked each diver over from head to 
foot as though they were consumed with 
curiosity about us. Fishes to be shown in 
the proposed group in Hall O will include 
black bass, pickerel, yellow perch, wall- 
eyed pike, sunfishes, crappies, bullheads, 
and minnows. 



Outstanding among the plants to be shown 
are the pond weeds (Potanwgelon) , milfoil 
(Myriophyllura), and hornwort (Ceratophyl- 
lum). These had a bright green appear- 
ance under water. The sunlight filtering 
through the dense water filled the entire 
scene with a hazy golden-green. 

The footing upon which the plants in a 
lake grow is rather startling to one making 
his first few dives in a helmet. Bottoms of 
weedy lakes and ponds are covered with 
debris of varying depths, so that the diver 
may be plodding along easily one minute, 
only to plunge suddenly into some un- 
suspected pocket of soft material. Our 
party found it preferable to use the ladder- 
seat for underwater study on account of 
the uncertainty of footing. Stirring up of 
fine sediment was avoided by riding the 
ladder a foot or two above the bottom. 

Visibility was good in Lake LaGrange. 
The "water-bloom" of microscopic plants 
and animals which clouds so many lakes 
during the earlier part of the summer was 
at this time rapidly disappearing. 

Another day was spent exploring the 
underwater fiora, collecting plants, and 
making photographs and notes to be used 
in constructing the Museum's fish group 
typical of a northern lake. 

It will be many months before the group 
for which these studies were made can be 
completed. A great deal of detailed work 
must be done in the preparation of the plant 
reproductions and the specimens of fishes. 



expedition for the Museum and the Vene- 
zuelan government, has returned to Caracas 
after extensive explorations in the interior 
along the Orinoco and tributary streams. 



Staff Notes 



Dr. Paul S. Martin, Chief Curator of 
Anthropology, has been appointed Research 
Associate (with the rank of full professor) 
in the Department of Anthropology at the 
University of Chicago. Although continu- 
ing his duties at Field Museum, Dr. Martin 
will from time to time give special lectures 
for classes at the University, and later will 
give a special course in museology at the 
Museum. Dr. Fay-Cooper Cole, Chairman 
of the Department of Anthropology at the 
University, has been appointed Research 
Associate in Malayan Ethnology at Field 
Museum. These appointments evidence the 
development of closer co-operation between 
the University and the Museum. 



Mr. John W. Moyer, Staff Taxidermist, 
has completed the manuscript for the 
Taxidermy Handbook to be published by 
the Boy Scouts of America for their Merit 
Badge Series. Staff Artist Arthur G. 
Rueckert did the technical drawings, and 
photographs of several mounted specimens 
of birds and animals in the Museum's 
exhibits will be used. 



At the request of Director Floyd Young 
of the Lincoln Park Zoo, Staff Taxidermist 
C. J. Albrecht recently performed a "mercy 
killing" by shooting Deed-A-Day, the zoo's 
elephant, which was suffering from an in- 
curable ailment. Mr. Albrecht was called 
upon because of his knowledge of the huge 
animal's anatomy, and his skill with the 
rifle, exemplified by the fact that he ended 
the elephant's life with a single shot. 



Mr. J. Francis Macbride, Associate 
Curator of the Herbarium, recently visited 
Washington, D.C., to engage in work on the 
flora of Peru. 



MR. ELMER S. RIGGS, CURATOR 
OF PALEONTOLOGY, RETIRES 

Mr. Elmer S. Riggs, Curator of Paleon- 
tology, retired from the service of the 
Museum on September 15. A staff veteran, 
Mr. Riggs has been associated with the 
Museum since 1898. Except for a year as 
Museum Assistant at the University of 
Kansas, from which he was graduated, Mr. 
Riggs has spent his entire working career 
at this museum, coming here shortly after 
the completion of post-graduate studies at 
Princeton University. He conducted twelve 
Museum expeditions in the western United 
States, two in Canada, and two in Argentina 
and Bolivia, spending altogether a full four 
years in the last-named countries. He and 
the men who worked under his supervision 
on these expeditions were responsible for 
collecting a major portion of the Museum's 
paleontological material, a collection which 
ranks with the largest and most important 
in the world. During the course of this 
work, Mr. Riggs discovered numerous 
genera and species previously unknown, and 
his publications upon these are notable in 
the literature of his science. A farewell tea 
was given in his honor by the Museum staff 
on September 14. His colleagues in the 
Department of Geology presented Mr. 
Riggs with three large volumes containing 
the record of his accomplishments during 
his forty-four years at the Museum. 



Mr. Llewelyn Williams, Curator of Eco- 
nomic Botany, currently engaged on an 



Atnygdules 

The principal sources of agate are certain 
areas of northern Uruguay and southern 
Brazil. When visited by a Museum expedi- 
tion in 1929 the largest output was from 
the Catalan Grande Region of Artigas Prov- 
ince, Uruguay. There the agates come from 
shallow trenches dug in the stony soil of 
cattle ranges. The numerous stones are 
piled and the agates separated. The agates 
are amygdules, that is, fillings of bubbles 
which are formed by the escaping steam 
in cooling and solidifying lava. 



October, 19J,2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page 5 



EXHIBITS TELL STORY OF CORK, 
NOW A CRITICAL MATERIAL 

By B. E. DAHLGREN 
chief curator, department op botany 

Cork is the bark of certain species of 
small-leaved Old World oaks related to our 
live oaks. Two principal species are usually 
distinguished, or one main species (Quercus 
suber), the true cork oak, of which the other 
is then considered a variety. In addition 
there are several minor kinds regarded as 
hybrids of the cork oak and other oaks. 
They are native in the western Mediter- 
ranean region from Tunis through Algeria 
and Morocco in northern Africa, and in 
Europe from Greece to the Iberian peninsula 
and southern France. 

The best cork is said to come from Spain, 
where the cork oak forests, especially those 
of Catalonia, are famous for their excellent 
product. The largest acreages of cork oak 
forest exist, in order of extent, in Algeria, 
Portugal, Spain, and Morocco. The rela- 
tively small quantity of cork grown in 
southern France is used mostly by the local 
or near-by wine industry, as is also the still 
smaller amount produced in Italy. In 
many places in the general cork region the 
acreage of true cork oak has been increased, 
or has been created by planting. The former 
is true especially of Portugal; the latter is 
most notable in Sardinia, Corsicaj the 
Balearic Islands, and Sicily. 

BEST PRODUCT FROM OLD TREES 

The formation of cork bark proceeds 
rather slowly. Beginning when the tree 
is about four years old, it increases gradually 
with the age and diameter of the tree up to 
. 150 years. After that it diminishes steadily 
•until it practically ceases at the age of about 
200 years. The cork produced during the 
first fifteen to twenty years of the existence 
of the tree is not considered of good quality. 
It is cracked and irregular due to the con- 
siderable change in diameter of the tree 
during the early years of its existence. 
When the cork tree has reached a thickness 
of four to five inches, this so-called virgin 
cork is carefully removed in order to permit 
the unobstructed formation of a more even 
and perfect layer which succeeds it. Eight 
or ten years later the first actual cork harvest 
takes place, even that somewhat poorer in 
quantity and quality than succeeding ones 
obtained later at similar intervals. The 
best as well as most abundant cork is formed 
by trees from 50 to 100 years of age. 

To harvest the cork, transverse cuts are 
made to mark the upper and lower limits 
of the portion to be removed; also, vertical 
incisions that may follow main cracks in 
the bark. Pieces of cork are then carefully 
loosened and pried off, care being exercised 
not to injure, by cuts or undue pressure, 
the underlying cork-forming tissue or cork 
cambium. If long slabs or boards are 
desired, full length vertical incisions must 
be made. In its Hall of Foreign Woods 
(Hall 27), Field Museum has a large speci- 



men of cork bark stripped in one piece with 
only one vertical slit from the trunk and 
a part of two lower branches of a cork oak. 

Ordinarily the pieces removed are neither 
very large nor regular. They are usually 
stacked as they accumulate and allowed to 
to season for some time, then removed to 
boiling vats where the cork swells and 
softens. The pieces are then smoothed 
externally by scraping, sorted according to 
quality, flattened, and baled for shipment 
or manufacture. 

Relatively small quantities of the best 
quality cork are converted locally into 
stoppers and corks, while low-grade cork is 




CORK OAK 

Specimen showing bark and foliage oi a vitally important 
plant, on exhibition in Hall of Foreign Woods (Hall 27). 

used for floats for fishing nets, and similar 
purposes. The great bulk of cork collected 
is exported unmanufactured. 

Our normal importation of cork of all 
kinds, including corkwaste, shavings, and 
refuse, amounted in the last decade to more 
than 150,000 tons annually. In 1939 the 
imports diminished to 120,000 tons, and 
although no later statistics are at hand it 
may be assumed that with the war's inter- 
ruption in the flow of international commerce 
the importation of cork, even from Portugal, 
has been sharply reduced. With many u.ses 
besides that for stoppers and floats, e.g., for 
linoleum making and insulation, it is becom- 
ing increasingly scarce. Cork is now one 
of the critical war materials of which the 
small existing stock must be carefully 
husbanded. The cork oak has, of course, 
been introduced in the United States and 
grows well in California, but extensive 
plantings and considerable lapse of time 
would be required to produce any large 
proportion of this country's needs. 

An exhibit of cork is found among vege- 
table raw materials in the northern quarter 
of Hall 28. A reproduction of a branch of 
the cork oak has been made by Artist-Pre- 
parator Milton Copulos and installed with 
the cork bark which occupies a case in the 
center of Hall 2"?. 



ANIMAL REPRODUCTION 

(Continued from page 1 ) 
process of frogs has led to one of the most 
remarkable situations among the backboned 
animals — tadpoles have undergone an en- 
tirely separate and distinct evolution from 
the evolution of the frogs into which they 
transform! Tadpoles of various kinds of 
frogs have developed special protective or 
feeding devices of their own, or are specially 
adapted to living in mountain torrents or 
other peculiar situations. The.se peculiarities 
in the reproduction of frogs are depicted in 
a case of lifelike enlarged models in Hall 18. 

The reproduction of mammals, including 
man, differs in one feature from that of 
most other animals: in mammals the egg 
is retained in the mother's body and the 
embryo develops in these protected sur- 
roundings. This improved type of repro- 
duction means that fewer young fall prey 
to hungry enemies during their most helpless 
stage; But it also demands special arrange- 
ments for nourishing the developing embryo, 
and what is equally important, for ushering 
the fully developed baby into the world. 
Birth is one of the most critical periods in 
the life of a mammal. 

Human reproduction is like that of other 
mammals, but the details of this complex 
process are naturally best known in man. 
For this reason a series of life-sized and 
enlarged models of the most important 
stages in the human reproductive process 
is used to illustrate mammalian reproduc- 
tion. Special emphasis is placed on the 
extremely critical birth process: a .set of 
full-size models shows the delicate adjust- 
ments that make possible the short trip from 
the mother's womb to the outside world, 
and comparison of male and female human 
pelvises reveals the differences in the bony 
framework of the latter that this requires. 
An artistic sculpture of a human baby three 
weeks old, executed in pink marble by 
Malvina Hoffman, climaxes the exhibit. 

The models illustrating human reproduc- 
tion were made at the New York Maternity 
Center under the direction of Dr. R. L. 
Dickinson. They are a gift to the Museum 
from the late Charles H. Schweppe. The 
remaining models were made in the Mu- 
seum laboratories by Miss Nellie Starkson 
and Mr. Joseph Krstolich, Artist-Prepara- 
tors, under the direction of the writer. 

The exhibit won the high praise of many 
members of the medical profession who 
attended a special showing. 



Paleontology Associate Appointed 

Dr. Albert A. Dahlberg, former head of 
the Dental Clinics of Albert Merritt Billings 
Hospital, and now a well-known practising 
dentist, has been appointed Research 
Associate in Paleontology at Field Museum. 
He is engaged in special research on mam- 
malian dentition. 



Page 6 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



October, 19iX 



Field Museum of Natural History 

Founded by Marshaix Fibld, 1893 
Roosevelt Road and Field Drive, Chicago 

Telephone: Wabash 9410 



THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES 
Lester Armour Stanley Field 

Sbwell L. Avery Samuel Insuix, Jr. 

W. McCoRMiCK Blair Charles A. McCulloch 

Leopold E. Block William H. Mitchell 

Boardhan Conover George A. Richardson 

Walter J. Cummings Theodore Roosevelt 

Albert B. Dick, Jr. Solomon A. Smith 

Howard W. Fenton .\lbert A. Sprague 

Joseph N. Field Silas H. Strawn 

Marshall Field Albert H. Wetten 

John P. Wilson 

OFFICERS 

Stanley Field President 

Albert A. Sprague FinI Viee-Premdent 

Silas H. Strawn Second Vice-President 

Albert B. Dick Third Vice-President 

♦Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary 

Orr Goodson Acting Director and Acting Secretary 

Solomon A. Smith . . . Treasurer and Assistant Secretary 

* On temve in active service as a Lieutenant-Colonel 
in the United States Army. 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 

EDITOR 
Wilfred H. Osgood Curator EnurituSt Zoology 

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS 

Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology 

B. E. Dahlgren Chief Curator of Botany 

Henry W. Nichols Chief Curator of Geology 

Karl P. Schmidt Chief Curator of Zoology 

MANAGING EDITOR 
H. B. Harte Public Relations Counsel 



Members are requested to Inform the Museum 
promptly of changes of address. 



MUSEUM— ZOO CO-OPERATION 

All good zoo animals go to Field Museum 
when they die — at least those that die in 
the Brookfield Zoo. The scientific value 
of an animal often is just as great after 
it is dead as while it was alive, and close 
co-operation between the Museum and the 
Zoo is designed to extract the maximum 
value from each specimen. 

This program of co-operation dates from 
the very beginning of the Chicago Zoological 
Society's Brookfield Zoo. In the intervening 
years it has proved its worth many times 
over. The Museum has greatly extended 
the usefulness of these extremely valuable 
specimens by acting as a clearing house for 
those engaged in research in other institu- 
tions. Scientists working on special prob- 
lems in medical schools and universities 
throughout the city leave "orders" with the 
Museum for particular animals or parts of 
animals that they require. As such speci- 
mens become available they are routed to 
the scientist who has requested them. In 
this way both the Zoo and the Museum are 
contributing directly to medical research 
and thus to human welfare. It may seem 
a long way from a kangaroo in a zoological 
park to a surgeon's decision in the operating 
room of a hospital, but the path can some- 
times be traced very directly. 

The practical difficulties of embalming 
large animals in the field and transporting 
them to laboratories where they can be 
studied are so great that most of our knowl- 



edge of the internal structure of these 
creatures has come from zoo specimens. 
Some zoos, like that of the London Zoo- 
logical Society, employ a considerable 
scientific staff, one of whom, the "prosector," 
has the duty of making anatomical studies 
of the rare or otherwise interesting animals 
that become available for dissection as they 
die. In the United States the zoological 
gardens of New York, Washington, and 
Chicago have allied themselves with the 
respective museums of natural history, so 
that the curator of the museum division of 
anatomy serves as the prosector. 

Museum expeditions often bring back live 
animals, which are deposited in the zoo 
until they have lived out their life span, 
when they are returned to the museum. 
In this way the usefulness of animal speci- 
mens is doubled. 

The Museum's taxidermists continually 
refer to the living animals in the zoo to check 
poses, attitudes, and colors of the animals 
they are mounting. The result of these 
studies are obvious when the stiff and un- 
natural animals that filled the museums of 
yesterday are compared with the lifelike 
exhibits of today. Occasionally zoo animals 
are even used for museum exhibition, and 
in rare instances an entire group may be 
made from zoo material. Field Museum's 
group of emperor penguins, for example, 
was made from birds brought back by the 
Third Byrd Antarctic Expedition and de- 
posited in the Brookfield Zoo. 

According to an old joke, the packing 
houses use every scrap of a pig "except the 
squeal." Field Museum recently received 
from the Brookfield Zoo a fine specimen of 
the babirusa (a curious species of pig from 
the East Indies), and the subsequent history 
of this animal shows that a rare wild pig 
may be used up almost as thoroughly for 
scientific purposes as a domestic porker is 
for food and commercial by-products. A 
mold was first made from the babirusa, and 
from this was prepared the lifelike celluloid 
model exhibited among the pigs of the world 
in Hall 15. The anatomy of this extra- 
ordinary species was inadequately known, 
so extensive dissections were made and the 
results published in the Museum's series of 
technical scientific publications. Then the 
skeleton was prepared and filed for future 
reference in the research collection of 
skeletons. Finally, organs to which special 
interest attached were stored with the 
anatomical collection to make them avail- 
able for further study by specialists. 

In this way co-operation in science extends 
the horizons of human knowledge. 

— D. DwiGHT Davis 



LECTURE TOURS IN OCTOBER 

Conducted tours of exhibits, under the 
guidance of staff lecturers, are made every 
afternoon at 2 o'clock except Saturdays, 
Sundays, and certain holidays. 

Thursday, October 1 — General Tour; 
Friday — Why Civilizations Differ From 
Place to Place (Miss Miriam Wood). 

Week beginning October 5: Monday — 
Animals in Autumn (Miss Elizabeth Best); 
Tuesday — General Tour; Wednesday — 
Sugars and Spices (Miss Marie Pabst); 
Thursday — General Tour; Friday — How the 
Ancient Egyptians Lived (Miss Miriam 
Wood). 

Week beginning October 12: Monday — 
Modern People of the Americas (Miss 
Miriam Wood); Tuesday — General Tour; 
Wednesday — Plants and Animals Through 
the Ages (Miss Marie Pabst); Thursday — 
General Tour; Friday — Game and Fur 
Bearers (Miss Elizabeth Best). 

Week beginning October 19: Monday — 
Plant Products of Pacific Lands (Miss 
Marie Pabst); Tuesday — General Tour; 
Wednesday — Field Museum as a Vital 
Source of Information (Miss Miriam 
Wood); Thursday — General Tour; Friday 
— Animals of the Canal Zone and South 
American Jungles (Miss Elizabeth Best). 

Week beginning October 26: Monday — 
Men of the Old Stone Age (Miss Miriam 
Wood); Tuesday — General Tour; Wednes- 
day — Plants Prepare For Winter (Miss 
Marie Pabst); 'Thursday — General Tour; 
Friday — High and Low in the Animal 
Kingdom (Miss Elizabeth Best). 



Of value, and of special interest to 
students of the Southwest, is Case 8 in Hall 7 
which contains Pueblo Indian tools. They 
are arranged according to period, thus 
making it easy to trace the development. 



NEW MEMBERS 

The following persons became Members 
of Field Museum during the period from 
July 16 to September 8: 

.\s$oclate Members 

Robert B. Ayres, David Borowitz, Fre- 

dolph A. Cerling, George F. Fisher, J. A. 

Holmes, John P. Robertson, Sinclair G. 

Stanley, William G. Taylor, C. C. Whittier. 

Sustaining Members 

R. Stanley Cederlund 

Annual Members 

George D. A'Quila, Dr. W. Raymond 
Fallon, Eugene C. Fay, George H. Fay, 
Mrs. A. Leslie Hodson, Mrs. John Raymond 
Holran, William H. Hottinger, Jr., Wood- 
ford W. House, L. W. Hraback, Mrs. Ida 
Huch, Miss Katherine J. Hudson, Myron W. 
Hughes, Jr., J. W. Hulson, J. Ross Hum- 
phreys, Mrs. Robert E. Humphreys, B. N. 
Hunding, L. B. Hunter, Neil C. Hurley, 
R. E. Hurrell, D. P. Hynes, William H. 
Ingram III, Leonarde Keeler, Miles O. 
King, Elis L. Larson, John Franklin Lax, 
Mrs. George B. Martin, Frank X. Meiners, 
Dr. Louis T. Micek, Charles L. Miller, Dr. 
Roy C. Newton, Rev. John J. O'Hearn, 
Charles A. Pollak, Dr. Casimir D. Przy- 
pyszny, Mrs. Edmund H. Reich, Mrs. 
Anthony M. Ryerson, Mrs. Lawrence D. 
Sasscer, George A. Seaverns, Jr., E. J. 
Smerz, Walter R. Zahler. 



October, IHZ 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Page? 



SUNDAY LAYMAN LECTURES TO BE RESUMED IN OCTOBER 




Dagiicrre Studio, Chicago 

PAUL G. DALLWIG 



Mr. Paul G. Dallwig, the Layman Lec- 
turer of Field Museum, will begin his 
1942-43 season of Sunday afternoon pre- 
sentations in October. There will be six 
lectures this sea- 
son, the sixth in 
which Mr. Dallwig 
has conducted this 
activity. Lectures 
will be given in Oc- 
tober, November, 
and December, but 
not during Janu- 
ary, as Mr. Dallwig 
will then be travel- 
ing to fulfill lecture 
contracts in vari- 
rious parts of the 
country. He will 
resume his lectures 
at the Museum in 
February, March 
and April. The lectures at the Museum 
are given purely as a public service for which 
Mr. Dallwig receives no compensation. 

On each Sunday during October Mr. 
Dallwig will present "The Parade of the 
Races," which in past seasons has always 
been one of his most popular subjects. 
This lecture is illustrated with the Races 
of Mankind sculptures by Malvina Hoffman 
in Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall, and gives 
the high spots of a trip around the world 
in which representatives of all the principal 
races of mankind, civilized and savage, are 
encountered. 

The subject of the November lectures will 
be "Gems, Jewels and 'Junk' "; in December, 
"Mysterious 'Night-Riders' of the Sky"; 
February, "Digging Up the Caveman's 
Past"; March, "Who's Who in the Mounted 
Zoo," and April, "The Romance of Dia- 
monds from Mine to Man." 

The heavy demand by the public for Mr. 
Dallwig's lectures, and the necessity of 
limiting each audience to 100 adults {children 



cannot be accommodated), make it necessary 
to require advance reservations. Persons 
desiring to attend are advised to apply 
several weeks in advance. Reservations 
will be accepted by mail or telephone 
(WABash 9410). 

The unique feature of Mr. Dallwig's 
lectures, which distinguishes them from 
other such presentations, is the manner in 
which he dramatizes his subjects while at 
the same time interpreting science with 
accuracy based upon thorough research. 



THINGS YOU MAY HAVE MISSED 



An Apron of Human Bones 

An extremely rare curiosity, once used 
for mystic purposes, is an ancient apron 
made of human bones, displayed in Hall 32 
in an exhibit illustrating various phases 
of the weird lamaistic religion of Tibet. 
Despite a certain gruesome quality in- 
evitably associated with it, this object is 
truly beautiful, due to its exquisite carving. 

Obtained from a temple forbidden to all 
whom the Lamaists would have regarded as 
"infidels," this bone apron was once used 
by the high priests in sacred rites to exorcise 
and propitiate demons, devils, and evil 
spirits of various sorts. Objects of this 
type may seldom be seen by white men 
— strangers are not permitted to enter such 
temples, and the sacred treasures are always 
well guarded. 

Forty-one large plaques, all elaborately 
carved in strange designs from human bones, 
compose the apron. They are connected 
by double chains of round and square bone 
beads. The large pieces are made of thigh 
bones, and are decorated with grotesque 
fig:ures representing deities; the small ones 
bear designs based on various symbols of 
the lamaistic cult. The carving is notable 
for its technical excellence, indicating the 
utmost skill and inspiration on the part of 




the artists who fashioned the apron. Marks 
of wear and tear testify to the antiquity of 
the specimen. 

Exhibited with the apron are many ob- 
jects made from human skulls and other 
bones — bowls made of crania and once used 
for libations in honor of the gods; tam- 
bourines made of skullcaps to shake while 
reciting prayers; trumpets of thigh bones 
which were blown both to summon and to 
disperse evil spirits. Preferred for the 
trumpets were the bones of criminals and 
persons who had died by violence. Some 
of the skull bowls from which liquor was 
poured on altars in tribute to the gods are 
lined with brass or gilded copper, and are 
fitted with finely chased metal lids. These 
often were used also in a peculiar form of 




FOR EXORCISING DEMONS 

Lama priests of Tibet once used this apron, made of 

carved human bones, in the performance of their mystic 

rites. It is now exhibited in Hall 32. 

ancestor worship in which a son preserved 
and honored his father's memory by drink- 
ing from the parent's skull on the dead 
man's birthday anniversaries. 

The bone apron was a gift to the Museum 
from the late Arthur B. Jones; most of the 
other objects were collected on expeditions 
conducted by the late Dr. Berthold Laufer, 
former Curator of Anthropology. 



Field Museum Taught Plant Economics 
Long Before Pacific War 

The importance of plant raw material is 
being spectacularly illustrated at the present 
time, and is most forcibly underlined by 
the rubber shortage. Among the natural 
history museums of the United States, Field 
Museum alone has, ever since its beginning, 
developed and maintained extensive col- 
lecting of and large public exhibitions of 
plant raw products and industrial materials 
from all over the world. 



A STORY ABOUT EACH OF THE RACES IN THE HALL OF MAN 

That is the program at the Sunday afternoon sessions with Paul G. Dallwig, the Layman Lecturer, in October. 



Highly interesting among modern prim- 
itive peoples are some of the tribes of New 
Zealand. Their cultures are especially well 
represented by exhibits in Hall F of the 
Department of Anthropology. 



Pages 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



October, 1912 



FREE MOTION PICTURE SERIES 
OFFERED FOR CHILDREN 

Nine free programs of motion pictures 
for children are offered in the annual autumn 
series to be presented at Field Museum on 
Saturday mornings during October and 
November by the James Nelson and Anna 
Louise Raymond Foundation for Public 
School and Children's Lectures. These 
programs, to which children from all parts 
of Chicago and suburbs are invited, will 
be presented twice each Saturday, at 10 a.m. 
and at 11, in the James Simpson Theatre 
of the Museum. No tickets are needed for 
admission. Children may come alone, 
accompanied by adults, or in groups from 
schools, community centers, etc. 

The programs include motion pictures 
with sound, many in color. As an added 
feature, there will be animated cartoons on 
each program. Following is the schedule: 
October 3 — Animal Life. 
October 10~Fall of the Year. 
October 17 — Australia. 
October 24— Southwest Indians. 

Laila (a serial story of Lapland, 1st 

episode). 
October 31 — Holland and Netherlands 

East Indies. 

Laila (2nd episode). 
November 7 — Florida. 

Laila (Srd episode). 
November 14 — South America. 

Laila (ith episode). 
November 21— Smile with the Children 

OF China. 

Laila (final episode). 
November 28 — An All-Cartoon PROGRAM. 



GIFTS TO THE MUSEUM 

Following is a list of some of the principal 
gifts received during the last month: 

Department of Anthropolo^: 

From Miss Katherine Pope, Chicago — 2 
pieces of tapa cloth, Hawaii. 

Department of Botany: 

From Professor F. Miranda, Chapultepec, 
Mexico — 3 herbarium specimens, Mexico; 
from Illinois State Museum, Springfield, 
111. — 86 herbarium specimens, Illinois; from 
George L. Fisher, Houston, Tex. — 107 her- 
barium specimens, Texas; from L. J. King, 
Fresno, Ohio — 41 specimens of algae, Ohio; 
from Dr. Earl E. Sherff, Chicago — 59 nega- 
tives of plant specimens; from Professor 
C. W. G. Eifrig, River Forest, 111.-3,036 
herbarium specimens. United States (chiefly 
Illinois) ; from Leopold Metzenberg, Chicago 
— 2 coal ball specimens, southern Illinois; 
from Sister M. Marcelline, Grand Rapids, 
Mich. — 68 herbarium specimens, Michigan; 
from C. W. Bazuin, Grand Rapids, Mich. — 
124 herbarium specimens, Michigan; from 
Dr. M. A. Brannon, Gainesville, Fla. — 21 
specimens of Myxophyceae, Florida; from 
Senorita Delia Rabinovich, Buenos Aires, 
Argentina — 27 specimens of Myxophyceae, 
vicinity of Buenos Aires. 



Department of Geology: 

From Miss Hazel Deardorff, Rifle, Colo. 
— 3 specimens of Early Eocene mammals, 
near Rifle, Colorado; from Professor Edward 
L. Holt, Grand Junction, Colo. — Apatos- 
aurus metacarpus, Floy Junction, Utah; 
from William M. Harris, Mesa, Colo. — 4 
specimens of Paleocene mammals. Plateau 
Valley, Mesa County, Colorado; from The 
Peoples Gas Light and Coke Company, 
Chicago — 4 specimens of coal-tar products; 
from Robert G. Johnson, Le Grand, Iowa — 
a specimen of fossil coral, Iowa; from Dr. 
Childs Frick, Roslyn, Long Island, N. Y.— 
skull of Teleoceras (Early Pliocene), Ains- 
worth, Nebraska; from James H. Quinn, 
Chicago — 2 specimens of diatomaceous 
earth, Nebraska; from Robert A. Burton, 
Evanston, 111. — 5 invertebrate fossils, Illi- 
nois; from Ricardo Macedo, Puno, Peru — 
7 invertebrate fossils, Peru. 

Department of Zoology : 

FYom Jerry Cordell, Chicago — 90 tiger 
salamanders, a snake, and a turtle, Illinois 
and Indiana; from Lincoln Park Zoo, 
Chicago — 2 crocodiles; from E. Ross Allen, 
Silver Springs, Fla. — a coral snake and eggs, 
Florida; from Dr. J. O. Peterson, Chicago — 
a snake, Minnesota; from R. A. Burton, 
Evanston, 111. — part of Galapagos fur seal 
skin; from Luis de la Torre, Highland Park, 
111. — a weasel, Illinois; from Chicago Zoo- 
logical Society, Brookfield, 111. — a California 
sea-lion and an alpaca, California and South 
America; from FVed Cagle, Carbondale, 
111. — 7 frogs, 4 turtles, and 4 lizards, Illinois; 
from G. A. Darrow, Oak Park, 111.— 15 
small mammals, Illinois; from Boardman 
Conover, Chicago — 2 birds, Peru; from 
D. Dwight Davis, Fritz Haas, and Loren P. 
Woods, Chicago — 46 lots of fresh water 
invertebrates, comprising 30 species, Illinois; 
from Henry Dybas, Chicago — 4 specimens 
land isopods, 5 salamanders, and 3 speci- 
mens of land shells, Mexico, Tennessee, 
Colombia; from Professor C. W. G. Eifrig, 
River Forest, 111. — a bird skin, a box of bird 
nests, 2 boxes of birds' eggs, 5 weasel 
skulls, and a turtle skull, various localities. 

The Library: 

Valuable books from Stanley FMeld, Lake 
Forest, 111.; from J. Eric Thompson, Har- 
vard, Mass.; from Dr. Henry Field, Wash- 
ington, D.C.; and from Miss Elizabeth 
Hambleton, Miss Marie B. Pabst, Dr. 
Earl E. Sherff, Dr. J. Christian Bay, Elmer 
S. Riggs, Paul C. Standley, and Miss Celia 
Ellbogen, all of Chicago. 



SPECIAL NOTICE 

All Members of Field Museum who 
have changed their residence, or are 
planning to do so, are earnestly urged 
to notify the Museum at once of their 
new addresses, so that copies of Field 
Museum News and all other com- 
munications from the Museum may 
reach them promptly. 



SATURDAY LECTURES FOR ADULTS 
BEGIN IN OCTOBER 

(Continued from page 3) 
November 14 — South to Cape Horn. 

Sullivan C. Richardson. 

Mr. Richardson and two companions are, 
to date, the only travelers who have ever 
covered the length of Latin America, from 
Rio Grande to Cape Horn, by automobile. 
In colored motion pictures and lecture, Mr. 
Richardson tells the story of this trip. The 
itinerary embraced approximately fifteen 
thousand miles, much of it through roadless 
jungle, desert, and mountain wilderness. 
The expedition, which was made in 1940-41, 
had for one of its purposes the promotion 
of inter-American good-will and the con- 
struction of the Pan American highway. 
Impassable trails were conquered by block 
and tackle and the straining muscles of 
Indians and bullocks. Many natives along 
the route saw an automobile for the first 
time in their lives. 

November 21 — Astounding Australia. 

Dr. John C. Walker. 

Dr. Walker's lecture is illustrated by 
colored motion pictures of the modern city 
of Sydney with its subway, double-decker 
busses, electric trains and television tower 
contrasted with stucco and brick bungalows 
where the million and a quarter city folk 
live. Koalas, kangaroos, and kookaburras 
are "three famous K's" of Australia which 
the film shows. The emu, fairy penguin, 
spiny anteater, dingo, cassowary, wallaroo, 
platypus, and wombat, all peculiar to 
Australia, are also featured. A thrilling 
moment for any American audience is to 
see the Stars and Stripes preceding the 
men of the U. S. Fleet in Sydney. 

November 28 — WiNGS, Fins, and Antlers. 

John H. Storer. 

Mr. Storer has developed an avocation 
into a vocation. His purpose is to spread 
an interest in the conservation of our wild- 
life and its environment, our great natural 
resources of land, water, and forest. His 
films record 20,000 miles traveled to picture 
the intimate lives of the birds and animals 
of eastern North America. Close-ups show 
the courting and family life of the American 
egret, with its exquisite plumes, once worth 
twice their weight in gold. Slow motion 
close-ups reveal the mechanics of bird flight, 
the courting dance of the Florida crane, 
and salmon leaping waterfalls. 

No tickets are necessary for admission 
to these lectures. A section of the 
Theatre is reserved for Members of the 
Museum, each of whom is entitled to two 
reserved seats. Requests for these seats 
should be made in advance by telephone 
(WABash 9410) or in writing, and seats 
will be held in the Member's name until 
2:30 o'clock on the day of the lecture. All 
reserved seats not claimed by 2:30 p.m. 
will be made available to the general public. 

PRINTED BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS 




News 



Published Monthly by Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago 



Vol. 13 



NOVEMBER, 1942 



No. 11 



OLD WORLD BIRD OF PREY 
IN NEW HABITAT GROUP 

By WILFRED H. OSGOOD 

CURATOR EMERITUS, DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY 

In continuation of projects which were 
under way "before Pearl Harbor," another 
habitat group of birds has been completed 
in Hall 20, the west half of which is devoted 
to Old World subjects. This 
is a group showing the eagle 
owl, one of the principal pre- 
daceous birds of both Europe 
and Asia. 

This owl, which French 
writers have called "Le 
Grand Due," is the counter- 
part of the American great 
horned owl. It is slightly 
larger than the American 
species and at least in some 
dimensions larger than the 
snowy owl and the great 
gray owl. Therefore, it is 
probably fair to call it the 
largest of living owls. 

It has a very wide range 
throughout the great coni- 
ferous forests of northern 
Europe and Asia, and 
through slightly differenti- 
ated varieties is represented 
as far south as Spain, north 
Africa, and India. 

It feeds on rats and mice, 
squirrels, hares, rabbits, and 
even young fawns, as well 
as various birds including 
especially grouse and phea- 
sants. Often it boldly at- 
tacks the great capercaillie 
or cock-of-the-woods, which 
is one of the largest of 
gallinaceous birds. 

Like most owls, it is chiefly 
nocturnal, but may occa- 
sionally forage by day, espe- 
cially in cloudy or stormy 
weather. At such times, also like other owls, 
it may encounter harassing evidence of the 
disesteem in which it is held by smaller birds. 
Taking advantage of its relatively limited 
vision, these birds, most commonly crows 
and jays, band together and pursue it with 
loud cries and dashing feints. This so-called 
"mobbing" only results in the discomfiture 
of the owl and obviously in the satisfaction 
of the smaller birds which under other 



conditions might be its prey. After a spell 
of glowering and snapping its beak, the owl 
usually retreats to the depths of the forest. 
A mobbing scene is represented in the 
Museum's group in which a large owl of 
the Manchurian variety is shown being 
tormented by Old World jays. The birds 
were mounted by Staff Taxidermist John W. 




THE EAGLE OWL Ol- EURASIA 

A new habitat gtoup in the Hat! of Birds (Hall 20) showing a member of the largest extant species of 

owl. being harassed during its daytime blindness by a "mob" of jays. If the smaller birds approached 

as closely at night, they might well become the owl's prey. 



Moyer, the accessories were made by Pre- 
parator Frank H. Letl, and the background 
was painted by Staff Artist Arthur G. 
Rueckert. Owing to restrictions on the use 
of sugar, which has formerly served almost 
exclusively for making "ersatz" snow, a 
successful substitute has been produced with 
soap flakes to which a very small quantity of 
sugar is added as a binder. This is sprinkled 
with a cellulose product, "wood flour." 



"PEKING MAN'S" TOOLS SHOWN 
IN A NEW EXHIBIT 

By C. martin WILBUR 

CURATOR OF CHINESE ARCHABOIXXIY AND ETHNOLOGY 

On October 20 the following United Press 
dispatch appeared in The Chieago Sun: 
"JAPANESE CAPTURE 'PEKING MAN' 
4,000 CENTURIES TOO LATE 

"Chungking, October 19. 
—(UP)— The famous "Pe- 
king Man" skull, believed 
by anthropologists to be 
400,000 years old, has been 
seized by the Japanese and 
sent to Tokyo, according to 
information received from 
Peiping (Peking) today. 

"The skull, known aca- 
demically as Sinanlhropus 
pekinensis, had disappeared 
from its case at Union 
Medical College, a Rocke- 
feller-endowed institution. 

"The skull, complete with 
jaws, was hailed as one of 
the modern world's greatest 
archeological discoveries 
when it was excavated at 
Choukoutien, near Peiping." 

Twenty years ago it was 
hardly suspected that man 
in China went through the 
phases of human culture 
known as the Old Stone Age. 
Now "Peking man," dis- 
covered in 1926, is recog- 
nized as one of the very 
earliest humans, and it is 
also virtually certain that 
he used the stone tools and 
sat beside the hearths that 
have been unearthed with 
his skeletal remains. Some 
of "Peking man's" crude 
stone tools, and casts of 
others, are now on display 
at Field Museum for the first 
time in a new exhibit devoted to China's 
Old Stone Age in George T. and Frances 
Gaylord Smith Hall (Hall 24, Case A). 
This exhibit shows typical stone tools from 
six Paleolithic sites in China, and explains 
in graphic fashion their presumed chrono- 
logical sequence. A feature of the exhibit 
is a group of photographs, prepared by Mr. 
Millard Rogers, to show how stone tools 
might have been used. Also, on exhibition 



Page 2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



November, 19i2 




"PEKING MAN" 



in Case No. 1 of the Hall of the Stone Age 
of the Old World (Hall C) are casts and 
photographs of the "Peking man" skull. 
The casts were presented to the Museum 
several years ago by the Cenozoic Research 
Laboratory of Peking Union Medical College. 
The site in which "Peking man" was 
found, near Chou Kou Tien, some ninety 
miles southwest of 
Peking, has also 
produced evidence 
of at least two 
other early cul- 
tures. The tools 
that characterize 
one of them (found 
in Locality 15) are 
technically more 
advanced than the 
ones that "Peking 
man" probably 
used. One typical 
tool is a large 

, J / Restoration by Mrs. Lucille 

chopper made from „ . ' , ,  , 

'^'^ bwann, in anthropological 

from a split boulder reference collection. 

that was roughly 

chipped to form a good hacking edge. 
Other novelties, not possessed by "Peking 
man," are points and scrapers made from 
flakes of stone. The geological and pale- 
ontological evidence indicates that man 
at Locality 15 lived during a later age 
than "Peking man," but since no skeletal 
remains were found it is uncertain what 
species of man he was. Thus we may be 
dealing with an advanced stage of "Peking 
man's" culture, or with the culture of a 
different species of man. (The possibility 
that "Peking man" never died out, but 
that his strain still exists in the Mongoloid 
division of mankind, is a theory recently 
advanced by Professor Franz Weidenreich, 
the leading student of the subject.) 

DIM REACHES OF THE PAST 

Both these cultures are exceedingly 
ancient — so remote, indeed, that their age 
must be reckoned by geological standards 
in hundreds of thousands of years. A middle 
period of the Old Stone Age was discovered 
in 1923 by Pdre Teilhard de Chardin and 
Pfere Licent at two places in the badlands 
of northwestern China. At Shui Tung Kou 
in Suiyiian province, the two explorers 
found great quantities of crude stone tools 
in ancient camp sites that were buried under 
forty feet of wind-deposited loess soil. This 
thick layer had been covered, thousands of 
years later, by gravel and mud dropped by 
a river that made its course on top of the 
loess. Man was evidently living in this 
region before the formation of the loess. 
These geological conditions, and the fossil- 
ized bones of extinct animals found with 
the stone tools, warrant assumptions as to 
their great age. The tools are somewhat like 
those used by man in Europe during the 
Mousterian and Aurignacian periods, 50,000 
and 30,000 years ago. In a site named 



Sjara Osso Gol, one hundred and fifty miles 
farther east, Peres Teilhard and Licent 
discovered another culture characterized by 
tiny stone tools (called microliths) mingled 
with a vast accumulation of the broken and 
fossilized bones of such animals as the woolly 
rhinoceros, elephant, gazelle, camel, cave 
hyena, and giant deer, and with the shells 
of ancient ostrich eggs. Pfere Teilhard 
later presented to Field Museum a sample 
collection of the tools from each of these 
now classic sites, and they are displayed as 
types from the Middle period of the Old 
Stone Age in China. 

The next culture in the sequence that has 
so far been discovered was again located at 
Chou Kou Tien, but the man who there 
inhabited the "Upper Cave" was of the 
modern species of man (Homo sapiens), 
very different from "Peking man" (Sinan- 
thropus pekinensis). The discovery of carved 
bones and other ornamental objects such as 
stone beads, pierced shells and animal teeth, 
and the finding of a bone needle indicate 
that this man had reached an advanced 
stage of Stone Age culture. He practiced 
such modern habits as cooking, trading, 
wearing sewed skin clothing and "jewelry," 
and conducting funeral rites for the dead. 
Judging from the animal bones found mixed 
in the site, and from the way the inhabitants 
made their stone tools, the "Upper Cave" 
culture is classified as Late in the Old Stone 
Age, perhaps an eastern equivalent of the 
Late Magdalenian stage in Europe, which 
lasted until about 10,000 years ago. All 
the specimens and reproductions from Chou 
Kou Tien were presented to Field Museum 
by Dr. W. C. Pei of the Cenozoic Research 
Laboratory in Peking. 

GOBI DESERT LESS LIVABLE TODAY 

Throughout Mongolia many Stone Age 
sites have been discovered, but the wind- 
eroded steppe and semi-desert terrain have 
eliminated most of the evidence of geology, 
associated animal remains, and stratigraphy, 
which archaeologists use as an aid in de- 
termining the age of Paleolithic cultures. 
By careful analysis of an enormous collec- 
tion gathered on two of the Central Asiatic 
Expeditions of the American Museum of 
Natural History, Dr. N. C. Nelson con- 
cludes that Mongolian sites reveal a con- 
tinuous sequence of cultures from Middle 
Paleolithic through the New Stone Age. 
From the large number of sites and the vast 
accumulation of worked stone that have 
been discovered in Mongolia, it is apparent 
that the Gobi desert and its border regions 
were more hospitable to man in former 
times than now, and that they were in- 
habited for a very long time without major 
interruptions. Among the specimens from 
eastern Mongolia presented to Field Mu- 
seum by the American Museum of Natural 
History, and now on display, there is a 
heavily patinated stone chopper of a form 
belonging to the Middle part of the Old 



Stone Age. There are also many fine flint 
tools which have been delicately chipped 
by means of a technique that was a relatively 
recent accomplishment of Old Stone Age 
man. Finally, there are fragments of pottery 
and a stone bar for grinding seeds or grain, 
which are evidences of Neolithic culture. 
These Neolithic artifacts serve to link the 
newly installed Old Stone Age exhibit with 
another one being planned to show materials 
from China's New Stone Age. 



LIBRARY OF PHOTOGRAPHS 
SHOWS RACIAL TYPES 

Since the foundation of the Museum, 
nearly fifty years ago, members of expedi- 
tions have photographed racial types on 
every continent. Special studies on the 
physical characters of the peoples of the 
world were begun when the final plans were 
approved for the Hall of the Races of Man- 
kind (Chauncey Keep Memorial Hall). Miss 
Malvina Hoffman, the sculptor commis- 
sioned to make the series of bronze figures 
of racial types in that hall, was requested to 
compile a photographic record of all peoples 
visited during her trip around the world for 
the Museum. A curator selected prints of 
racial types from museums, pictorial serv- 
ices, and newspaper files in the United 
States and in England, France, Belgium, 
Holland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Ger- 
many, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Switz- 
erland, Italy, and Spain. Thus was created 
the Library of Racial Photographs. 

The 9,000 prints, which have been 
mounted on large cardboard sheets, are 
arranged geographically in steel files in the 
Department of Anthropology (Room 39), 
where they are available to the student. As 
this unique collection has become known, 
many of these photographs have been 
selected for text-books and new editions of 
encyclopedias. This Library is thus far 
only about half complete, however. 

Although the reader may be more familiar 
with the knowledge of the existence of the 
casting files in Hollywood used for selecting 
an individual to fill a special role, and the 
millions of photographs of criminals in the 
Federal Bureau of Investigation and in 
local police departments, the Library of 
Racial Photographs is of truly permanent 
scientific value to anthropologists. 

After such small groups as the Andama- 
nese, the Bushmen of the Kalahari Desert, 
the Vedda of Ceylon, and the hairy Ainu of 
Japan have died out, nothing but the pic- 
torial record will remain. A shining example 
stands before us. The last survivor of the 
Tasmanians, a most interesting primitive 
stock, died in 1877. No adequate series of 
photographs is available. With modern 
photographic equipment and subsequent 
recording on microfilm there is every reason 
for preserving such documentary evidence 
for future anthropologists and students of 
mankind all over the world. — H.F. 



November, 19^2 



FIELD MUSEUM NEWS 



Pages 



BARYLAMBDA, ONE OF THE EARLIEST LARGE MAMMALS, ADDED TO PALEONTOLOGICAL HALL 



By BRYAN PATTERSON 

ACTING CURATOR OF PALEONTOLOGY 

A skeleton of Barylambda, an extinct 
hoofed mammal of unusual interest, has 
recently been reinstalled in Ernest R. 
Graham Hall (Hall 38) by Mr. James H. 
Quinn, Chief Preparator in Paleontology. 
Unlike and unrelated to any present day 
animal, it lived some 50,000,000 years ago 
in what is now west-central Colorado. The 
skeleton was collected by a Museum expedi- 
tion in 1933. 

Barylambda was one of the most heavily- 
built animals of all time, standing some four 
feet high, with an over-all length of about 
eight and a half feet, and with a width across 
the hips almost equal to three-quarters of 
its height. Its bones were extraordinarily 
massive, indicating the possession of im- 
mense muscular power. The head was 
small in comparison to the size of the body, 
the legs terminated in broad, spreading, 
five-toed feet, and the tail was long, large 
and somewhat flattened from side to side. 
A realistic restoration painting by Mr. 
John Conrad Hansen accompanies the ex- 
hibited skeleton. This painting, reproduced 
in the figure, shows an animal that is, as a 
whole, decidedly unfamiliar to modern eyes, 
although there is a vague suggestion of the 
bear in its trunk and legs. 

EXTINCT animal's HABITS DEDUCED 

A reasonably accurate estimate of the 
habits of an extinct animal can usually be 
formed from an adequate knowledge of its 
skeleton and from study of the conditions 
under which the rocks in which it was found 
were laid down. In this case the skeleton 
was found in a formation of mud-stone 
containing many stream channel deposits of 
sandstone and some silty layers. This in- 
dicates that west-central Colorado was at 
that time a broad flood-plain with rivers 
and streams from the Rocky Mountains 
(lower then than now) meandering back and 
forth across it, laying down sheets of mud 
in times of flood. Numerous concentrations 
of crocodile, turtle, and gar-pike bones 
occurring in the formation demonstrate the 
former presence of standing water in the 
form of cut-ofTs, ponds, and small lakes. 
The climate was evidently warm and the 
vegetation heavy. Barylambda was well 
fitted for such an environment. The power- 
ful body was admirably adapted to forcing 
a way through the tangled vegetation of 
river-bottom areas, while the broad, spread- 
ing feet were suited to supporting its great 
weight on soft, treacherous ground. The 
very large, compressed tail strongly suggests 
that the animal was a capable swimmer 
almost as much at home in the water as on 
the land. The low-crowned teeth were 
fitted for a diet of the soft, succulent vege- 
tation undoubtedly abundant at that time. 

About ten million years before Bary- 
lambda' s day, there had occurred the great- 



est revolution of life that the earth has seen. 
The "Age of Reptiles" had come to a close 
with the passing of the dinosaurs and other 
giant reptiles that had dominated land and 
sea throughout that vast stretch of time. 
This dramatic and world-wide extinction 
had ushered in the opening epoch of the 
"Age of Mammals" — the Paleocene, in the 
latter part of which Barylambda lived. 

FIRST MAMMALS WERE SMALL 

At the beginning of this epoch the known 
mammals were of small to medium size, a 
carry-over from the decidedly subordinate 



of medium to large size — a structural limita- 
tion which precluded such evolutionary 
trends as the development of flesh-eating, 
tree-climbing, or burrowing forms — they 
achieved a notable degree of diversification, 
which seems to have reached a climax in 
late Paleocene time. 

A LOST POTENTIAL "TRUFFLE HOUND" 

Haplolambda, a contemporary of and 
similar in general appearance to Barylambda, 
was rather more slender in the legs and had 
a less ma.ssive tail. Sparactolambda, another 
contemporary, was one of the most extra- 




Rcttorjtion by John Conrad Hjtuen 

ONE OF THE EARLIEST OF LARGE MAMMALS 

RityUmbdi (aberi, reconstructed by an artist to show how it must have appeared in life according to the evidence furnished 
by Field Museum scientists. The animal, unrelated to any modern creatures, lived in Colorado 50,000,000 years ago. 



role they appear to have played during the 
Age of Reptiles. Once they had succeeded 
to the position of dominance, however, 
diversification and specialization along many 
lines went on rapidly, resulting finally in 
the animal world we know today. One of 
these lines of specialization was the acquisi- 
tion of large size, an evolutionary trend that 
has especially characterized various orders 
of the great hoofed mammal stock. The 
familiar living examples, such as elephants, 
rhinos, and hippos, have been preceded by 
a great variety of extinct groups, of which 
Barylambda and its relatives — comprising 
the order Pantodonta — were the earliest. 

HOW DIVERSIFICATION OCCURS 

All groups of animals tend to occupy as 
many different habitats as circumstances 
and their structures will permit; the more 
vigorous and successful the group, the more 
habitats it occupies and the more diversified 
its members become. The pantodonts were 
no exception. Within the bounds imposed 
by the fact that they were hoofed mammals 



ordinary of mammals. It was considerably 
smaller and much lighter in build than 
Barylambda, and posses.sed a normal tail 
and a proportionately larger head. The 
peculiar features center in the structure of 
the teeth and feet. The latter were five- 
toed and terminated in blunt claws — 
decidedly odd equipment for a member of 
the hoofed mammal stock. The upper 
canine or "eye tooth" was a greatly en- 
larged, downwardly projecting, dagger-like 
tusk; while the lower canine was altogether 
unique in structure and consisted of a sharply 
pointed hook in front followed by a long, 
blade-like part behind. A reasonable inter- 
pretation of this remarkable combination of 
characters seems to be that the animal fed 
to a large extent on underground roots and 
tubers. These were laid bare by the claws, 
caught up by the hooks of the lower canines, 
further uprooted by pulling and jerking 
movements of the head and neck