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NATURAL
TORY
THE JOURNAL OF THE
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY c
VOLUME XXIX
1929
Published bimonthly by
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

NEW YORK CITY
1929
\\
NATURAL HISTORY
IS SENT FREE TO ALL CLASSES OF MUSEUM MEMBERS
AS ONE OF THE PRIVILEGES OF MEMBERSHIP
ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE
AN devoted to the advancement of
natural history, the recording of scientific research, exploration, and
discovery, and the development of museum exhibition and museum
influence in education.
Contributors are men eminent in these fields, including the scientific
staffand members of the American Museum, as well as writers connected with
other institutions, explorers, and investigators in the several branches of
natural history.
CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXL\
Januaey-Februaby, No. 1
Blazing the Trail to ttie Distant Past Cover

A Giant Denizen of Ancient Mongolia Frontispiece
The Revival of Central Asiatic Life Henry Fairfield Osborn 3
When Winter Comes Chester A. Reeds 17
/Early Man in North Arabia Henry Field 33
'^ Mosquitoes and Other Flies C. H. Cuhran 45
To the Arctic for Walrus H. E. Anthony .50
How Nature Plants Her Flowers Clyde Fisher 65
New —
Caledonia A Modern Fragment of the Ancient World '.
. .Wilmatte Porter Cockerell 75
Strange Animals of the Island Continent H. C. Raven 83
Salamanders of the Great Smokies William G Hassler . 95
Roald Amundsen Lincoln Ellsworth 100
Bashford Dean (1867-1928) Henry Fairfield Osborn 102
In the Field of Natural History 104
March-April, No. 2
Sunset on the Gobi Desert Cover
The Central Asiatic Expedition in the Shadow of the Great Wall Frontispiece
Further Adventures of the American Men of the Dragon Bones '
Roy Chapman Andrews 115
At the Edge of the Antarctic Ice John T. Nichols 129
Fossil Bones in a Persian Garden Otis Barton 143
Wide-gab, the Angler Fish E. W. Gltdger 155
Experiments with Wonder Creatures Frank E. Lutz 160
Eleven Weeks in a Lion Pasture G. Lister Carlisle .169 •
The Odyssey of a Ground Squirrel Robert T. Hatt 181

The Ruddy Wanderer of the Sky Clyde Fisher 190
A Trail that Led to Mongolia Stewart A. MacWilliams 208
Ogden Mills (1856-1929) 210
Frederic Augustus Lucas (1852-1929) Robert Cushman Murphy 211
"The Brain from Ape to Man": A Review William K. Gregory 215
May-Jutte, No. 3
The Great White Heron Cover
A Citizen of the Gulf Coast Frontispiece
Wings Along the Gulf Alfred M. Bailey' 227
IMasks and Dramas of Old .lapan S. Ichikawa 241
Weather Prophets of the Sky Herbert P. Whitlock 2.51
By Motor from Nairobi to the Nile James L. Clark 261
Children of the Orinoco Plains Sidney- F. Tyler, Jr. 273
Outposts of the Sea f Roy W.\ldo Miner 283
Seeds of Disaster David Locke 296
Acrobats of the Monkey World W. Henry Shear 307
Trailing Nature William H. Carr 312
The Red Squirrel Farm Robert T. Hatt 319
Jonathan Dwight (1858-1 929) Frank M. Chapman 327
Jult-Attgust, No. 4
Ringing the Tiger Cover
A Japanese Sailboat in the Shadow of Fujiyama Frontispiece
Tiger Hunting in Nepal William J. Morden 339
Afloat on Many Waters 353
The Conquest of Claudia Frank M . Chapman 367
A Night with an African Herder William R. Leigh 3S0
Falconing G eorge G. Goodwin 390
The Black Art _ Margery L. Loeb 400
Glimpses Along the White Nile Harold E. Anthony 410
Honey Wasps. Herbert F. Schwarz 421
—
Itatiaya Brazil's Most Famous Mountain Ernest G. Holt 427
Inspiration .-.; Harold T. Clark 437
Air Pioneering in the Arctic " A
'
' : Review 440

Our Contributors 440
September-October, No. 5
A Haitian Rhinoceros Iguana Cover
The Rhinoceros Iguana Frontispiece
Lizard Hunting in the Black Repubhc Gilbert C. Klingel 450
The Theoretical Continent VHiHJALMtrR Stefansson 465
—
.\ndros An Island of the Summer Seas Rot Waldo MiniTr 481
Noses Robert T. Hatt 497
Hunting Extinct Animals in Florida George Gay-lord Simpson 506
Animals in Orchestration Myron Ackland 519
The Birds of Little Diomede Francis L. Jaques 521
Ou the Threshold of Native American Civilization George C. Vaillant 530
How Animals Run _. S.Harmsted CnrsB 543
\mercan Museum Expeditions 552
a. the Field of Natural History 555
IV CONTENTS OF VOLUME XXIX
?CovEMBER -December, No. 6
Augusta Victoria's Bird of Paradise Cover
Baker's Bower Bird Frontispiece
A Collector in the Land Birds of Paradise
of the Rollo H. Beck 563
To New Guinea for Living Birds of Paradise Lee S. Cea:?vdall 579
The Mountains of Dominica Paui. Griswold Howes 595
Some Insects of Barro Colorado C. H. Ci^rran 611
A Bit of Japan in Miniature V.Roxor Short 621
How Atoms Build Herbert P. Whitlock 629
Africa's Great National Park Mart L. Jobe Akelet 63S
Voracity in Fishes E. "W. Gtjdger 651
Air Castles in the Tropics = Frank E. Lutz 6oB
A Miocene Camel Bed-ground B abxtm Brown 658
American Museum Expeditons and Notes 663
NATU RAL
HISTORY
Jan. -Feb. Price Fifty
1929 Cents
JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN

MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
NEW YORK, N. Y.
Scientific Staff for 1929
Henkt Fairfield Osborn, LL.D., President
George H. Sherwood, A.M., Eo.D., Director and Executive Secretary
James L. Claek, Assistant Director, Preparation
Frederic A. Lucas, Sc.D., Honorary Director
Wayne M. Faunce, Sc.B., Assistant to the Director and Assistant Secretary
I. DIVISION OF MINERALOGY, GEOLOGY, Mammals of the World

GEOGRAPHY, AND ASTRONOMY H. E. Anthony, M.A., Curator
Henry Fairfield Osborn, LL.D., D.Sc, Curator-in-Ciiief
Robert T. Hatt, A.M., Assistant Curator
George G. Goodwin, Assistant Curator
Astrono7ny Frederic A. Lucas, Sc.D., Research Associate
William J. Morden, Ph.B., Field Associate
G. Clyde Fisher, Ph.D., LL.D., Curator.
Comparative and Human Anatomy
Minerals and Gems William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Curator
Herbert P. Whitlock, C.E., Curator H. C. Raven, Associate Curator
George F. Kunz, Ph.D., Research Associate in Gems S.H. Chubb, Associate Curator
Lea McIlvaine Luquer, Ph.D., Research Associate in
Marcelle Roigneau, Staff Assistant in Comparative
Optical Mineralogy Anatomy
History of the Earth
J. Howard McGregor, Ph.D., Research Associate in
Human Anatomy
Henry Fairfield Osborn, LL.D., D.Sc, Honorary Dudley J. Morton, M.D., Research Associate
Curator-in-Chief
Fossil Vertebrates
III. DIVISION OF ANTHROPOLOGY
Walter Granger, Curator of Fossil Mammals Clark Wissleh. Ph.D., Curator-in-Chief
Barnum Brown, A.B., Curator of Fossil Reptiles Science of Man
George G. Simpson, Ph.D., Associate Curator of Verte-
Clark Wissleh, Ph.D., Curator-in-Chief
brate Palaeontology
N. C. Nelson, M.L., Curator of Prehistoric Archaeology
Charles C. Mock, Ph.D., Associate Curator of Geology Harry L. Shapiro, Ph.D., Assistant Curator of Physical
and Paleontology Anthropology
William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Research Associate in Palae-
Margaret Mead, Ph.D., Assistant Curator of Ethnology
ontology
B.S., Research Associate in Palaeontology
George C. Vaillant, Ph.D., Assistant Curator of Mexican
Childs Frick, Archaeology
Geology and Fossil Invertebrates William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Associate in Physical
Anthropology
Chester A. Reeds, Ph.D., Curator Clarence L. Hay, A.M., Research Associate in Mexican
and Central American Archaeology
II. DIVISION OF ZOOLOGY, AND ZOO- MiLO Hellman, D.D.S., Research Associate in Physical
Anthropology
GEOGRAPHY George E. Brewer, M.D., Research Associate in
Frank Michler Chapman, Sc.D., N.A.S., Curator-in- Somatic Anthropology
Chief
Marine Life IV. DIVISION OF ASIATIC EXPLORATION
Roy Waldo Miner, Ph.D., Sc.D., Curator AND RESEARCH
WiLLARD G. Van Name, Ph.D., Associate Curator Rov Chapman Andrews, Sc.D., Curator-in-Chief
Frank J. Myers, B.A., Research Associate in Rotifera Walter Granger, Curator in Palaeontology
Horace W. Stunkard, Ph.D., Research Associate in Charles P. Berkey, Ph.D., [Columbia University], Re-
Parasitology search Associate in Geology
A. L. Treadwbll, Ph.D., Research Associate in Annulata Frederick K. Morris, A. M. [Central Asiatic Expeditions],
Associate in Geology and Geography
Insect Life Amadeus W. Grabau, S.D. [Geological Survey of China],
Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D., Curator Research Associate
A. J. Mutchler, Associate Curator of Coleoptera
C. H. CuRRAN, M.A., Assistant Curator V. DIVISION OF EDUCATION AND
Frank E. Watson, B.S., Staff Assistant in Lepidoptera PUBLICATION
William M. Wheeler, Ph.D., Research Associate in Social
Insects George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed.D., Carator-in-Chief
Charles W. Leng, B.S., Research Associate in Coleoptera Library and Publications
Herbert F. Schwaez, A.M., Research Associate in
Hymenoptera Ida Richardson Hood, A.B., .-Voting Curator
Hazel Gay, Assistant Librarian
Fishes Jannette May Lucas, B.S., Assistant Librarian — Osborn
William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Curator Library
John T. Nichols, A.B., Curator of Recent Fishes Education and Public Health
E. W. Gudger, Ph.D., Bibliographer and Associate
Francesca R. LaMontb, A.B., Assistant Curator of George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed.D., Curator-in-Chief
Ichthyology G. Clyde Fisher, Ph.D., LL.D., Curator of Visual In-
struction
Charles H. Townsend, ScD., Research Associate
C.M. Breder, Jr., Research Associate Grace Fisher R.vmsey, Associate Curator
Van Campen Heilner, M.Sc, Field Representative William H. Carr, Assistant Curator
Nancy True, A.B., Staff Assistant
EtizABBTH A. Eckels, Ph.B., Staff Assistaiit
Ainphibians, Reptiles, and Paul B. Mann, A.M., Associate in Education
Experimental Biology Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D., Research Associate in Outdoor
G. Kingsley Noble, Ph.D., Curator Education
Clifford H. Pope, B.A., Assistant Curator
Bertram G. Smith, Ph.D., Research Associate Ch.^-RLes-Edward Amory 'Winslow, D.P.H., Honorary
A. B.Dawson, Ph.D., Research Associate Curator of Public Health
William Douglas Burden, A.M., Research Associate Mary Greig, A.B., Assistant Curator of Public Health
Printing and Publishing
-'- - -
--'
Birds Hawthorne Daniel, Curator, Editor of Natural History
Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D., Curator-in-Chief A.Katherine Berger, Associate Editor of Natural History
Robert Cushman Murphy, D.Sc, Curator of Oceanic
Birds Public Information
W. DeW. Miller, Associate Curator George N. Pindar, Chairman
'
James P. Chapin, Ph.D., Associate Curator of Birds of the George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed.D.
Eastern Hemisphere William K. Gregory, Ph.D.
Jonathan Dwight, ALD., Research Associate in North Wayne M. Faunce, Sc.B.
American Ornithology Clark Wissler, Ph.D.
Elsie M. B. Naumbueg, Research Associate H.\WTHORNB Daniel
Advisory Committee on Natural History Magazine

Hawthorne D.-s^niel, Chairman
Henry Fairfield Osborn, LL.D., D.Sc. Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D.
Clark Wissler, Ph.D. Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D.
George N. Pindar George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed.D., ex-officio
A. Katherine Berger
VOLUME XXIX iNyV 1 L/ rX/vL JAN. -FEB.
Number I T T T C "T^ /^^ TJ XX 19^9
The yournal of The American Museum of Natural History
Hawthorne Daniel l^m^tSKm ^- K^^therixe Berger

Ecîtor wSBt^^^m Associate Editor
CONTENTS
Blazing the Trail to teje Distant Past Cover
Painted by Arthur A. Jansson
A Giant Denizen of Ancient Mongolia Frontispiece
The Revival of Central Asiatic Life Henry Fairfield Osborn 3

New and Unexpected Light on the History of the Earth
When Winter Comes Chester A. Reeds 17

How Snow, Ice, Sleet, Hail, Glaze, and Frost are Formed
Early Man in North Arabia Henry Field 33

An Account of the Work of the Marshall Field North Arabian. Desert Expeditions
Mosquitoes and Other Flies C. H. Curran 45

Common Creatures and Their Strange Ways
To the Arctic for Walrus H. E. Anthony .50

Collecting a Group for the American Museum
How Nature Plants Her Flowers Clyde Fisher 65
The Many Ways that Flowers and Trees Scatter Their Seeds
New Caledonia —A Modern Fragment of the Ancient World

Wiknatte Porter Cockerell 75
An Island of the South Pacific that has been Isolated for Ages

The First of Two Articles on the Animals of the Australian Region
Salamanders of the Great Smokies William G. Hassler 95

Grubbing for Spring Lizards in the Brooks and Mountains of Northern Tennessee
Roald Amundsen Lincoln Ellsworth 100

A Tribute to the Achievements of the Great Polar Explorer
Bashford Dean (1867-1928) Henry Fairfield Osborn 102
Published bimonthly, by The American Museum of Natural History, New York, X. Y. Sub-
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3, 1917, authorized on July 15, 1918.
Copyright, 1929, by The American Museum of Natural History, New York

THE GIANT BALUCHITHERE
This colossal hornless rhinoceros is represented in the 1928 collection of the Central Asiatic Expedi-
tion by the long, massive bones of the forelimb and neck. Its shoulder height was 17 feet and the
browsing height of the head 27 feet, exceeding that of the tallest giraffe
See "The Revival of Central Asiatic Life"
VOLUME
XXIX
NATURAL NUMBER
HISTORY ONE
JANUARY-FEBRUARY, 1929
THE REVIVAL OF
CENTRAL ASIATIC LIFE
A Triumph of Modern Paleontology— New and Unexpected
Light on the Life
History of the Globe for the Past 155,000,000 Years—
Thirty more or less
Complete Vistas into the Previously Unknown Life of the Mother of
Continents—Hazards and Hardships but Finally Brilhant
Success
of the Fourth American Expedition into
the Gobi Desert
By HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN

Honorary Curator
of Palaeontology, American Museum
With Three Drawings by Margaret Flinsch Under the

Direction of Henry Fairfield Osborn
REVIVAL or the bringing back to giant appendage or peninsula to the far

Hfe of the plants and animals that southwest; and that our own North
lived on our prehistoric planet, America, with South America as an
thouands, millions, perhaps hundreds of appendage, takes on the form of a large
milhons of years ago, is the supreme art eastern peninsula.
of the palaeontologist and geologist. Since Asia is truly the central con-
This art is best practiced in a country tinent, the mother of all the
fertile
which in the past was subject neither to other continents, and since its environ-
the extreme luxuriance of abundant and mental conditions favor the preservation
more or lessdense forests nor to the in fossil form of its life down the ages,
opposite extreme of aridity and sand how transcendentaly important becomes
erosion, and no section of the world seems the revival of central Asiatic life! It is to
to meet all the requirements for fos- this revival that the Central Asiatic
silization better than the partly un- Expeditions of the American Museum
inhabitable, partly habitable, region of are devoted. The great outstanding
central Asia which formerly embraced the
result of the exploration and research
present Gobi desert of Mongolia. under Roy Chapman Andrews, Walter
On an 'equal area' map (see page 4) Granger, Charles P. Berkey, and their
we observe that the very old continent of gallant colleaguesis that the most terrible
Asia has a commanding position as the desert of the entire world has been re-
center of our planet; that Europe a
is stored and revivified into the very Garden
mere western outlier of this great Asiatic of Eden of the period of the reptilian
land mass; that even Africa appears as a and mammalian creations. In the rela-
:
NATURAL HISTORY
DINOSAURS
DIAGRAM SHOWING WORLD-WIDE MIGRATION OF THE GIANT migrated
life for 155,000 000 years, from which
fl )Central \sia mother of continents, fertUe center of
western Europe, (3) the extremity of .\frica 4j the penmsula of India
wives of reptSinTfe into (2)
nToiiLfnd the East Indies, (6, 6, 6) North and of South .America. This diagram represents the
expansion the giant dinosaurs knoôi as Sauropoda, o
aotualh Lown mkmtSns^^^^
These same migration routes were -bsequently followed by many orders and
uSe
^
^ Jurassic t?me
mammals which chiefly originated m
central Asia
families of
majestic hfe histoiy during^the

tively brief period of six years between
of its
geologic period now estimated by geolo-

1922 and 1928, the Central Asiatic Ex-
and physicists at upward of 155,-
peditions of the American Museum have gists
fairly revived this sleeping giant of pre-

000,000 years, subdivided into the follow-
ing time epochs
historj^ as well as the outstanding events
A.G-E OF TÂN
1,000,000 Man, Giant Ostriches [Gochu, Tsagan Xuru, Orok Xor,
Recent and Pleisto-
,
I
Shabarakh Usu
cene time ^
Age of Mammals
6,000,000 Horses, Camels from [Hung Kureh, Tung Gur
PUocene time
America [
12,000,000 Mastodonts from Africa Loh

Miocene time
16,000,000 Giant Titanotheres and f.-Vrdyn Obo, Ulan Gochu, Houl-
Ohgocene time
Baluchitheres 1
djin, Hsanda Gol.
20,000,000 Mammals akin to those f Gashato, Kolobolchi, Irden

Eocene time
of the Rocky Mt. region! Manha, Shara Murun
Age of Reptiles
40,000,000 Closing Age of Dinosaurs Djadokhta
Upper Cretaceous
25,000,000 Various Iguanodont [iren Dabasu
Lower Cretaceous
Dinosaurs '
Ashile
Jurassic 35,000,000 Giant Sauropod Dinosaurs Ondai Sair,
THE REVIVAL OF CENTRAL ASIATIC LIFE
From first to last this central region of the recently discovered 'shovel tusker'
Asia has been the homeland of waves of and 'serrate toothed' mastodon (Serri-
migrating plants, land reptiles, and mam- dentinus). These mastodont probosci-
mals that successively spread over every deans, however,
were not of central
continent along the general lines indicated Asiatic origin —they
were invaders from
in the map on page 4. Beginning the African or Ethiopian region passing
in Jurassic time and accompanying the through central Asia on their long trek
massive tread of the giant sauropods into Europe, southern Asia, North and
to the very extremes of South Africa South America.
and South America were the scions of These successive waves of life, these
hosts of other kinds of dinosaurs, such arrivals and departures, these competi-
as the leaf-eating iguanodonts and the tions and expansions of the older and
smaller and larger carnivorous dino- newer dynasties of the animal kingdom
saurs known as megalosaurs or thero- are revealed in part in the rocks of up-
pods. At the close of Cretaceous time, wards of thirty 'horizons' or 'life zones'
when the iguanodonts and related Cera- to which our geologists have uniformly
topsians, now famous for their nests of applied local Mongolian names for ex- —
eggs, and the dire large and small carniv- ample, 'Irden Manha', 'Valley of the
orous enemies of both these herbivorous Jewels' —
from which we are granted occa-
dinosaurs, passed away, there followed in sional vistas into the long corridors of
Eocene time a successive creation and central Asiatic time. Twenty-one of these
evolution of smaller and larger types of palgeontological vistas, discovered in the
mammals, which culminated successively years 1922, 1923, and 1925, have already
in giant titanotheres, in overpowering been defined.' Two wartime years in
Baluchitheres of the OligocenC; and finally China intervened, and now the year 1928
in several kinds of mastodonts, including 'See Mongolia, Enc. Brit., 13th ed. supp. By H. F. Osborn
SURVEYING THE BADLANDS OF URTYN OBO

Tserin, trusty Mongol leader of the camel caravan, is gazing across these badlands, which appear
exactly like those of Montana and Dakota
6 NATURAL HISTORY
adds several new vistas into the previously that had endured almost continuously for
unexplored Pliocene time and reveals new 120,000,000 years. The cause of this
and stupendous forms of mammalian life. break was probably geographic as well as
THE BREAK BETWEEN THE GOBI AND climatic and enviromiiental. From this
THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION time on until the end of PUocene time,
Immediately following the Lower Oligo- North America pursued its own way in
cene horizon of Ardyn Obo, and bringing uninterrupted evolution of the quadruped
to a close the long-continued friendly stocks which it had originally received
interchange and migration of fossil rep- from central Asia and the unexplored
and mammalian life between the
tilian regions north of central Asia; it became
Gobi Desert and our Rocky Mountain especially the home of a great variety of
region, there occurred a momentous break horses and camels which, it is important
in the amicable international relations to note, were previously unknown in
between central Asia and North America central Asia up to the time of the break
between the life of the
two continents. Toward
,
the close of PHocene
time new waves of south
Asiatic and African life
again entered North
America, followed by
the final wave near the
close of the Ice Age
which gave North
America its present
mammals, the bison,
deer, and bear.
After this important
Upper OHgocene break
with North America
there followed in the
Gobi region of central
Asia the most favorable
climatic and environ-
mental conditions that
the mammalian king-
dom has ever enjoyed,
not excepting the high-
ly propitious conditions
modern equatorial
of the
African uplands. Under
these favorable condi-
tions of fertile and
relatively well-watered
uplands and broad
level plains, of partly
meandering streams bor-
PROFESSOR OSBORN IN CAMP AT IRDEN MANHA
It was here that the titanotheres were first discovered dered with forests and
: ; '
THE REVIVAL OF CENTRAL ASIATIC LIFE
AMERICAN MUSEUM CAMP AND WORKINGS AT CHILIAN HOTOGA

In the New Stone Age deposits of Chilian Hotoga were discovered teeth and bones that had been
fashioned into artifacts by man
succulent vegetation, there arose new races ing-ram-nosed Embolotherium (Greek eV/3oX?7,
signifying 'a battering ram') of the Oligocene of
of quadrupeds surpassing in size and gran-
the Desert of Gobi. This animal somewhat
deur even the great titanotheres of America
exceeds in size the largest Brontotherium ('fiat-
hitherto known, or the great mammoths horned thunder beast') North America and
of
that in northern Africa and in southern develops in the front part of its face an entirely
Eurasia marked the close of the Age of novel nasal battering ram composed of combined
nasal and frontal bones. As the brontotherimn
'
Mammals and the beginning of the Age

used its horns in tossing, the embolothere used
'
'
of Man. These new monarchs of the

its horns for battering, assaulting, attacking,
central Asiatic plateaus were partly charging, and tossing. This bony horn rose 28
endemic or native and partly migrant inches in the very front part of the face and was
from Africa. They were offshoots of three broadly expanded at the summit (Page 14).
entirely distinct families, namely, first,

Roy Chapman Andrews informs us (August 22,
1928) that the ram-nosed titanotheres "are from
the Baluchitheres or giant hornless rhinoc-
the Ulan Gochu region, probably Middle Ohgo-
eroses; second, the giant bony-horned cene, and belong to thesame group as the front
quadrupeds first discovered in America portion of the skull found in the Shara Murun by
and known as titanotheres; third, the Harold Loucks in 1925, although the new skulls
shovel-tusked mastodonts, a branch of are much larger than the Loucks specimen and
are comparable to the largest of our American
long-jawed proboscideans.
Ohgocene titanotheres. There are no true horns
These giants were not contemporaneous but the frontal and nasal bones are produced up-
they succeeded each other geologically as wards and terminate in a transversely broad blunt
follows and rugose end. FuUy as impressive as our finest
Fiest: Titanotheres, of Lower Ohgocene age. American skulls, they surely represent a distinct
Whereas in the Rocky Mountain region titano- phylum of titanothere."
theres reached their climax in the giant pair- Second: Baluchitheres, of Upper Ohgocene age,
horned Brontotherium platyceras of the Lower including the Baluchitherium, named because of
Oligocene, they survived and attained a super- its original discovery in Baluchistan; also re-
climax in the stiU larger and more unique batter- presented in Indricotherium. of Turkestan and in
NATURAL HISTORY
EXCAVATING THE TITANOTHERE BONES

titanothere
Professor Osborn and Walter Granger, assistant leader of the expedition, examining the
jaw exposed at Irden Manha
Upper Oligoceno
Baliichitherium grangeri of the turned up, besides three skulls of that
Hsanda Gol and Houldjin horizons of the Gobi. extraordinary titanothere with the
Discovered by the 1928 expedition is the still
clubbed nasals that Doctor Loucks found,
more gigantic stage fabulously known in the
American press as the 'Woolworth' among
many 'Dune-Dweller' artifacts and some
mammals. This hornless rhinoceros is thus far of a type entirely new to Pond, [our archae-
and many other good things. He
'
unknown except in the Ohgocene and Miocene of ologist] ,

'
central and southern Asia. considered these sites worthy of a whole

Third: Shovel-tusked Amebelodonts, of PHo- research. Despite this, the
season's
cene age.Of less imposing size than the Baluchi-
season of 1928 was extreme
one of
theres or the battering-ram-nosed titanotheres,
but of still more bizarre adaptation, are the shovel- difficulty and threatened until the very
tusked mastodonts, the direct ancestry of which end to be entirely unproductive of results.
can be traced back to the relatively small Ohgo- Our dauntless explorers are very stoical
cene shovel-tusker known as Phiomia osborni
regarding their hardships and disappoint-
which frequented the ancient river Nile, the Ur- '
ments; none but the most extreme diffi-

Nile' as it has been called, of the Fayum region
of northern Africa. The dramatic discovery of culties are even alluded to. Northwest of
these animals is fully described below. the Ordos, occured the most critical time
DISCOVERY OF THE GIANT SHOVEL-TUSKER in the whole series of our Central Asiatic Ex-
The leader of our expedition reported peditions since 1922 no discovery of trans-
;
the sites of more than one of the 1928 cendent importance having been made,
camps as very rich locahties, in which weather conditions being the worst our
"great new areas of exposures have been expeditions had ever encountered, the
discovered, a good deal of Baluchitherium leader suffering from a painful and threat-
qocHU
::ld jurassiq;
,C0NTIN£NTOCî
OF ^^ X X L'nder the direction of Henry Fairfield Ossorn U.M.5.
'MONQOt^lAX
1926
155,000,000- YEAR LIFE SUCCESSION OF THE GOBI SINCE THE JURASSIC
On e&ch ascending geologic level are portrayed the dominant life forms discovered
in successive
ascendmg horizons, begmnmg with the giant sauropod Asiatosaurus
of the Upper Jurassic and end-
^^'^ ^^^^'^^ °^ t^^ ^^°ân period (restorations mostlv to the same scale of
t?£f T. -Ti u^'^^l^^"''^^,'
ob^^^êd that each geologic stage has its giant form of life, but never do two giant
fZl' occur in the
torms .t
same period; it will also be observed that there is steady progress from the
humid environment adapted to Asiatosaurus to the verv arid verv
environment adapted to the bactrian
camel (Camelus) and the ostrich (Struthiolithus)
MEASURING THE LEG BONE OF THE 'MONSTER"
foreUmb of the new colossal species of
Andrews and
Chief Anareus
i^mei Assistant Chief Granger uncovering giant
of 1928
Baluchitherium, chief trophy of the expedition
HEROIC LEADERS OF THE EXPEDITION OF 1928

w v. 1
T Pft tn riffht thev are lower row: Perez, Andrews Granger (assistant chief), Spock (archjeolo-
(chief),
and Hill
!^!
j-istj, Tl.'±n.
Thomson SaSntlS
(palaeontologist);
; upper W: ShackeKord, Pond, Eriksson, Horwath, 1 oung,
pfcp^^fmw'^tr/.iir
TAKING OUT DINOSAUR EGGS

New deposit of dinosaur eggs discovered near the Kalgan-Urga trail at Ehrlein being unearthed by
Roy Chapman Andrews and Walter Granger
Copyright, Asia Magazine and The Amtrican Museum of Natural History
CHIEF TROPHY OF THE 1923 EXPEDITION

The finding of several nests of dinosaur eggs during 1923 was the first positive proof that some
dinosaurs laid eggs
:
12 NATURAL HISTORY
ening wound and receiving surgical care Urga trail at the telegraph station of
under the most trying conditions, the Ehrlein and slowly worked northeastward,
western way to Chinese Turkestan ab- to be rewarded early in August by the dis-
solutely blocked by mountains of driven covery of extensive exposures of Pliocene

sand, the party discouraged by the return age, 24 to 130 miles east of Iren Dabasu.
of Sven Hedin's decimated and half- It was the enforced end of the collecting
—
starved caravan such were the condi- season; the gasoline supply was running
tions which roused afresh the fighting very low, for owing to the frightful heat of
spirit of Andrews, Granger, and Young, May and June in the western part of the
and led to the practical reversal of ma- Gobi more than one-third of the cans had
tured plans and to an entirely new plan of exploded, and our reconnoitering party
campaign which involved retiring from had come to their last evening before fac-
the western post and turning eastward ing southward toward Kalgan for the
and northeastward. return journey. On his way to the summit
The palaeontologist always takes a of a high bluff on which were stretched the
gambler's chance, but fossil gambling in a American Museum tents, Walter Granger
country so many parts of which had suddenly struck his foot against a slight
yielded rich returns is so full of promise projection; even in the gathering twi-
that we can well understand the renewed light it seemed on close examination to be
outburst of optimism on the part of our a fossil. Marking the spot, he hastened
explorers even in the midst of their leader's back to camp and said
acute physical distress. Thus with the "Roy, we cannot move tomorrow morn-
face of the caravans and of the motor ing; I think I have found something
trucks turned toward the northeast, the entirely new."

expedition crossed the line of the Kalgan- Hurrying down the bluff soon after
dawn, they exposed
carefully what
proved to be a com-
plete lower jaw,
eight feet in length,
very slender in the
middle portion and
expanding in front
into the most as-
tounding pair of
lower teeth fourteen
inches in breadth!
The jaw was that
of a giant shovel-
tusker (Page 15).
The two lower teeth
are closely pressed
together in the mid-
dle line, broadened
and flattened at the
sides, so that to-
SINGAPORE
gether they exceed
Wide geographic range of the giant hornless Baluchithere belonging to differ-
ent species in (1) Baluchistan, (2) Turkestan, (3, 4) Central Mongolia the dimensions of
THE REVIVAL OF CENTRAL ASIATIC LIFE 13
the typical Irishman's

shovel. In place of the
shovel handle is the long,
relatively slender lower
jaw by which the shovel
tusks were pushed into
the sand or, more prob-
ably, used to uproot nu-
tritious tubers. Of the
briUiant Gobi discovery
which occurred at the
very end of the 1928 sea-
son in Phocene beds of
easternMongolia, Roy
Chapman Andrews writes,
August 22, 1928:
We
have one specimen of
the lower jaw in which the
front is well preserved. The
incisor teeth are about one
inch in thickness, seven inches
in transversal breadth and
over a foot in length and
truncated at the wearing end.
The alveolar border comes
directly to the front edge of
the teeth on the under side
but on the lingual surface the
teeth are bare for several
Above. —The giant Baluchi-

there, chief trophy of the
American Museum Expedi-
tion of 1927. After restora-
tion by C. R. Knight. This
record-breaking species now
yields in size to the 'colossus'
of 1^28
Left.— Colossal scale of the

giant Baluchithere of 1927 as
compared with a full-gro^Ti
Indian rhinoceros
inches back of the cutting edge. The symphy- be that Pere TeUhard got traces of it when he
sis is broadest some distance back of the front explored the Talai Nor region in 1924, but it is
and is rather deeply concave. It suggests a entirely new to me.
spoon which has been cut squarely across in This unique type of mastodont was first
front. Back of the symphysis the jaws seem
described by Prof. Erwin H. Barbour from
to be of a more normal mastodont type. This
mastodont comes from Pliocene beds to the a fossil jaw which he found in western
eastward of the Kalgan-Urga trail and it may Nebraska and to which he applied the
THE NEW BATTERING-RAM TITANOTHERE
been named Embolotherium andrewsi in honor of the leader of the expedition. This
is a giant
It has
survivor of the great race of qaudrupeds that roamed from the Balkans across
Eurasia into Nebraska
and Colorado. The position of the nostril opening is problematic.
^v^
THE GIANT SHOVEL-TUSKER

A new species of mastodont named Amebelodon grangeri, a descendant of the primitive long-jawed
mastodont (Phiomia) of northern Africa. Adapted to uprooting bulbous plants, it frequented the
shallow lake waters of ancient Gobi
16 NATURAL HISTORY
highly appropriate generic name Amebelo- covery. When found, the Dawn Man, a
don (derived from two Greek words sig- biped living in a partly open country, will
nifying 'shovel'and 'end-tooth'). The be quite distinguishable from the anthro-
Gobi discovery, which may be named poid apes, which lived in the tropical
Amehelodon grangeri confirms in the most forests of India to the far south. Andrews
manner the adaptation so aptly
surprising and Granger have been foiled this year in
named by Professor Barbour, and it finding traces of the ancestry of man in
demonstrates, as in the case of all the Ohgocene or Miocene time. This was to
other quadrupeds, that the Gobi climate have been expected, because the coarse
and environment were even more favor- gravel and sand deposits which contained
able than that of the Nebraska plains in the giant quadrupeds unearthed by the ex-
Phocene time, because in the Gobi shovel- pedition are not favorable to the preserva-
tusker the dimensions are nearly double tion of the more delicate remains of the an-
those of the Nebraska shovel-tusker. cestral Dawn Man or of the anthropoid apes.
But central Asia is still reluctant to yield Finally, during this period of the
completely to the supreme art of the palsec n- triumphant revival of central Asiatic life,
tologist and geologist the most important may we not conclude this preliminary and
fossil mammal of all, namely, the ancestors all too brief outline with the prophetic
of the Dawn Man, which still elude dis- vision of Isaiah?
The wilderness and the dry land shall he glad; and the desert shall rejoice, and
blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and sing-
ing; . . . for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And
the glowing sand shall become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water.
Isaiah 35: 1-7.
UNEARTHING THE BATTEBING-RAM-NOSED TITANO-

THERE Embolotherium andrewsi, one of the three
GREAT TROPHIES OF THE EXPEDITION OF 1928. THE
FRONT ASPECT OF THE 28-INCH NASAL FRONTAL HORN
APPEARS IN THIS PHOTOGRAPH. THE PHOTOGRAPH OF
MR. GRANGER GIVES THE SCALE
— —
Courtesy of Northern Pacific Railway Co

Paradise Inn, Rainier National Park, in May
WHEN WINTER COMES

The Many Forms Taken by Frozen Water
—
Snow and Ice Sleet and Hail
Glaze and Hoar Frost
By CHESTER A. REEDS
Curator of Geology, American Museum
With Photographs of Snow Crystals by W. A. Bentley
EVERY winter the varied

frozen water, such as
forms of
frost, rime,
light feathery deposit of ice
hoar-frost. The
known
heaviest hoar-frosts are
as
glaze, sleet, snow, and ice, formed under weather conditions similar
afford not only the most pleasing sights, to those under which the heaviest summer
but they display natural phenomena dews occur, namely: clear and calm
that are of intense interest to everyone. nights, when there is no cloud or smoke
All of the forms are exquisitely beautiful layer to impede the radiation of heat
and worthy of the study of the most from the surface of the land, which
gifted scholars. thereby becomes rapidly and completely
It may
be noted that as autumn passes cooled. Hoar-frosts provide one of the
into winter there is a gradual lowering prettiest sights of winter, forming every
of the average temperature, and during conceivable pattern on the grasses, shrubs
from the ground
clear nights the radiation and trees, as well as the more unsightly
may produce a temporary decrease of objects, such as fences, railings, and tele-
temperature of the land below the graph wires. Hoar-frost is beautiful in
freezing point of water, although the that it presents a tracery of glittering
general mass of the air above remains whiteness, the result of the reflections
at a higher temperature. Under such and refractions from the small transparent
circumstances the water vapor in the spicules of ice which form the flower-like
lower layers of the atmosphere condenses crystals.
and, as it settles upon the cold objects Another well-known form of frost
on the ground, it freezes and forms a closely allied to hoar-frost is the crystal-
18 NATURAL HISTORY
Courtesy of Northern Pacific Raihcay Co.
MOUNT RAINIER, WASHINGTON, CLAD IN ITS WINTER COAT

Mount Rainier is one of the highest perpetually snow-capped mountains in the United States, 14,408
feetabove sea level. At Paradise Inn, 5500 feet, 789.5 inches of snow fell in the winter of 1916-1917.
There are twenty-eight glaciers on the slopes of this mountain, seven of them being "live," and mov-
ing at the rate of sixteen to twenty inches a day
when the moisture in the

line deposit seen undercooled fog particles and hence
air of a warm room condenses on the grows straight into the wind. It appears
window pane that has been cooled by when a frosty fog is accompanied by
contact with the cold winter air outside. wind, the fog drifting along and depositing
These frost patterns are a joy to everyone. on all surfaces exposed to it.
spicules of ice
Not only are these feathery and For the deposition of the rime it is
fernlike forms so intrinsically essential that all surfaces be
beautiful in themselves, but they cooled by radiation below 32°
are highly instructive. They are Fahrenheit. As frost fogs in
usually developed by rapid labile low-lying districts occur usually
(shifting) crystallization; some- in calm weather, rime crystals are
times by a slower crystallization, not often observed there, but are
when the ends of the branches show begin- of frequent occurrence on hills, where the
nings of definite crystals of hexagonal driving mists cover all projecting objects
symmetry as may be noted on the illustra- such as trees, fences, stones, et cetera, with
tion from Mount Washington, New great masses of loose feathery crystals of
Hampshire, page 20. considerable thickness. When the sun-
Another interesting frost-like deposit light appears, the objects of the familiar
of ice is known as rime. It may be several landscape appear as if dressed in gar-

inches thick on the windward side of ments made studded diamonds.
of closely
exposed objects since it is formed from Close examination, however, reveals that
WHEN WINTER COMES 19
they are encrusted with ice-crystals of cooled to below the freezing point, the
unusually large size, some an inch long. raindrops on touching cold solid
freeze
The exquisite splendor of such a scene objects and form a smooth coating of ice
endures but for a short time, for the very on the ground, trees, fences, et cetera,
light rays which produce so wonderful a known as glaze. These ice storms are not
spectacle carry with them the uncommon in the United States
heat rays which melt the crystals and Europe.
and destroy the remarkable sight. In 1920 C. LeRoy Meisinger,
In 1920 V. Bjerknes ofNorway of the United States Weather
showed that when warm winds Bureau, by using records from
converge toward colder winds, and balloons, traced out the
kites
the warm air rises above the mannerin which warm southerly
colder air, and its moisture is condensed winds overflowing cold winds from the
in the same way as in the air rising over north produced zones of rain, glaze,
mountain summits. Whether it be on sleet, and snow. Often such storms are
mountain-side or on the slopes of a cold local and do not have a widespread effect,
current, as soon as the warm moisture- but once or twice in a winter they may
laden and expanding air is chilled to the occur over a large area. The ice storm
point of condensation, cloud formation that passed over Philadelphia and Balti-
begins and rain falls when the air reaches more at the time of President Taft's
the point of saturation. When such a inauguration, March 4, 1909, may be
rain falls through a surface layer of air cited as an example. The ice that formed
'Z'"^" i,:
'
n
#
<<
^ A^?'*^-^
NIAGARA FALLS IN THE DEPTH OF WINTER

During the month of February the spray below the Falls freezes, and gradually the front of this
natural wonder is encased in snow and ice.
20 NATURAL HISTORY
on the telegraph wires telegraph lines were crippled and numer-
was so thick and heavy ous accidents resulted. In New York
that many a wire and City the streets were more effectually
pole were broken down blockaded by snow than at any other time
by the weight of it. in the city's history. The removal of the
Telegraph communica- snow from the streets was a difficult
tions were so badly interrupted at that problem, since layers of ice had formed at
time that trains could not proceed for different levels in the snow, increasing the
many hours. rigidity of the drifts and packing them
In the winter of 1919-1920 two ice more solidly.
storms of this type stand out prominently A form of ice which falls from the free
— one, January 20-25, covered practically air and produces a rattling sound when
all of the territory east of the 100th it strikes hard objects, such as a window
meridian, while a second, February 3-6, pane or a tin roof, is known as sleet. It
was confined to the Atlantic coast. The consists of partly melted snow or rain
great precipitation consisted of snow in particles which freeze while falling from a
the northern portions, and of snow, sleet, warm layer of air through
and rain in the middle latitudes, which a cold one. Sleet is fre-
formed a solid, slow-melting cover. In quently driven by the
both instances traffic on railroads and in wind, and it may be said
cities was impeded and in many places that sleet falls are usually
completely tied up, and telephone and coincident with, imme-
1
Si.'
z^
<L
FROST FEATHERS ON WINDOW PANE, MOUNT WASHINGTON, NEW HAMPSHIRE

The moisture of an inhabited room, coming in contact with the cold surface of a window pane, is
often frozen into fantastic and beautiful designs

diately precede, or follow

snowfalls. The occur-
rence of sleet is also
known to be associated
with the conditions of
the atmosphere under
which glaze is formed.
Another form of ice
which falls from the air is
known as hail. It con-
sists of pellets, or hail-
stones, which frequently
consist of a kernel of hard
snow in the center, sur-
rounded by alternate con-
centric layers of ice and
snow; in other cases they
have a radial structure.
They assume various
shapes, most commonly
spheroidal, but some are
pyramidal othe rs flat and
, ,
others irregularly oval.

In size they usually vary
from a tenth to a quarter
of an inch in diameter but ,
masses measuring from

twelve to fifteen inches in
circumference and weigh-
HOAR FROST ON TREES IN WINTER,
NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK
ing more than half a Frost is formed when dew collects and freezes during a drop in
pound are of occasional temperature
occurrence. The fall of
and summer,
hail occurs chiefly in spring winter visitors is snow. It falls to the
and most commonly precedes or accom- earth in flakes, each flake consisting of
panies a thunderstorm. The time of its a distinct crystal, or more commonly, of
continuance is always short, generally only combinations of separate crystals. The
a few minutes. It is now believed that crystals are generally in the form of thin
the continued retentionand repeated ele- tabular plates, long needles, or columnar
vation in the atmosphere, of a pellet in- particles of ice formed in the air at
itially small, which is several times carried temperatures below freezing. All are
by strong convection currents through hexagonal in type, but of endless variety
successive regions of rain and snow, gives in detail. Many of the forms are ex-
the requisite length of time for the accre- quisitely beautiful. The
tion of the larger hailstones. Hailstones whiteness of snow is due
frequently damage fruit and grain crops, primarily to the large
kill small animals, such as birds and numbers of reflecting
and occasionally cattle.
rabbits, surfaces arising from
The most common of the free air the minuteness of
22 NATURAL HISTORY
the crystal particles. found side by side. They are mostly of
Snow crystals are six-rayed stellate form, the rays being
formed at high altitudes inclined at exactly 60°, the feathery form
directly from the water being produced by the main six rays
vapor of the free atmos- developing off-shoots or branches to right
phere. The snow crystal and left at 60°. Many of them are like
solidifying as it does from the vapor of stars, the interspaces between the rays
the cold upper air without passing through of which are almost filled in with exquisite
the liquid stage, is formed under circum- lacework. The most perfect and largest
stances exceptionally favorable to free- of these, stellate snowflakes are formed
dom of movement of the molecules. when the air is still, the moisture plenti-
This no doubt, accounts for the
fact, ful,and the temperature only moderately
great variety of crystal forms observed, low; the columnar, tabular, and more
a variety not approached by any other complete solid crystals are produced at
mineral. higher altitudes in a more intense cold.
Mr. Wilson A. Bentley of Jerico, Ver- Reproductions of a number of Mr.
mont, has made more than 4200 exquisite Bentley's photomicrographs of snow crys-
photographs of snowflakes, no two of tals accompany this article. They show
which are alike. Even when formed under a considerable variety of crystal forms.
identical conditions, he states, hexagonal, According to Dr. E. T. Wherry, 1920,
trigonal, oblong plate forms, six-petalled the nucleus from which the growth of a
forms and columnar forms, have all been snow crystal starts consists^ pf a single ice
SCENE IN BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, DURING THE ICE STORM OF MARCH 4, 1909

The forecaster had predicted fair weather for President-elect Taft's inauguration at Washington, but
due to the unexpected appearance of a cold air current from the north, glaze was deposited on trees
and telegraph lines. For want of a better term, the storm was called a "flareback"
A CONNECTICUT LAWN IN WINTER

The summer house, trees, and ground are covered with sparkHng ice called glaze, This winter phe-
nomenon is particularly troublesome to railroads
molecule, which, as is indicated by the cules of water vapor in the air, and not
chemical evidence, consists of a group of from the cloud particles. Some snow
four molecules of water (H2O). As new crystals, however, are composed of flakes
material builds up around this nucleus, coated with granular ice. These coatings
several different things may happen. If are in all probability formed by the freez-
the growth is very gradual, relatively un- ing of actual minute droplets of condensed
interrupted, and long continued, the water, the material of clouds. Occa-
crystal may retain the form of the nucleus sionally too, lines of secondary growth in
throughout its development. Where snowflakes exhibit bilateral instead of
conditions favor rapid growth, crystals in hexagonal symmetry. This is one of the
general tend to become elongated and unsolved problems connected with the
needle-like,and when the growth occurs crystal forms of snow. Other degrees of
in several directions around an axis of symmetry are occasionally shown by
symmetry, a skeleton crystal or a solid snow crystals as the result of more or less
form will be produced. In snow crystals accidental conditions of growth.
such rapid growth takes place in the In some snow crystals tabular plates of
directions of the three interchangeable different size and outline may be de-
crystal axes, or, counting from the center, veloped at opposite ends
in six directions, producing highly perfect of a central column as
hexagonal symmetry. shown on page 32. Oc-
There is much evidence at hand to show casionally a twelve-rayed
that true snow crystals are formed crystal may be observed.
directly from the minute invisible mole- It is like the above with
24 NATURAL HISTORY
SNOWFALL MAP OF THE UNITED STATES

The snowfalls for the jêars 1895-1914 have been averaged, and the results entered on the above
map. Depths in inches. Data from Chart XVII, Monthly Weather Review, Washington, October, 1919
one of the two basal planes rotated 30° when it is just beginning to snow in calm
on a short axis without disruption. By air and when the crystals fall on dark
noting the difference in development of objects that their shapes may be distinct-
the alternate rays one may differentiate ly recognized. This stage is the most
the two phases of such a crystal. favorable for photomicrographic work.
Snowflakes vary in size from micro- It is usually a brief period, however, for
scopic forms to those 10 cm. in diameter as the crystals become more numerous
or larger. In most snowflakes the three they frequently reach the ground in a
horizontal axes are more fully developed damaged state due to their collisions one
than the vertical axis, and the margin of with the other on their downward flight.
the flakes are not infrequently turned As the fall of snow becomes denser, a
upward slightly so that they re- number of crystals combine to
semble a round or oval dish. The form a conglomerate composed
edges are turned upward slightly of crystal fragments. This is by
by reason of the resistance offered far the most frequent form of
by the air in their fall. During snow in our snow storms.
flight they may rock to this side The character of the snow-
or that, but as a rule they do not fall also depends on its water
turn over. The larger crystals have been content. The large flaked ''wet" snow
observed to fall at the beginning of a that falls at temperatures above
snowfall, when the ground temperature freezing and usually melts rapidly,
was but a little above freezing. should be contrasted with the "dry,"
The forms snow crystals
of are rarely "powdery" snow that does not
noticed during a snow storm. It is only pack.
It not infrequently happens that rain ous sections of California, Nevada, Ari-
and snow may fall simultaneously, pro- zona, and the Rocky Mountain states. A
ducing graupel, an opaque mass of snow winter snow cover prevents deep freezing
and water resembling soft hail. Not in- of the ground; protects grasses and fall
frequently these have the appearance of sown crops, and provides spring moisture
small pellets of snow, which are for growing vegetation. This is
readily pulverized. especially true of the Missouri

Snow, especially the deep and upper Mississippi valley
snows which lie for weeks and li^M states. While snow facilitates
months on the mountains and 'xW lumbering operations in the west-
plateaus, has an economic signif- ern, northern, and northeastern
icance somewhat different from states, it seriously interferes with
that of rain. The snow furnishes a the operation of steam and electric rail-
slower, and therefore a more lasting ways and involves great expense in its
natural supply of water for power, for removal where city streets are covered to
irrigationand general use than does rain, considerable depths.
which has a quick run-off. In the drier A snowfall map of the United States,
sections of the United States many of prepared by the United States Weather
the engineering and agricultural problems Bureau, is shown on page 24. It repre-
are connected with the depth and condi- sents the average annual snowfall for the
tions of snowfall, and the amount of years 1895 to 1914. In examining the
water which its melting will supply. map it should be recalled that the amount
This is especially true in the mountain- of snowfall varies greatly and very
Copyriyliled A. E. Yuun.fj, from Ewing Gallouay, X. Y.

ICE-INCRUSTED STEAMER, SCO LOCKS, SAULT SAINTE MARIE, MICHIGAN
Winter comes early and ends late on the upper Great Lakes. Nevertheless, more cargo tonnage (iron
ore, coal, grain) passes through these locks than crosses the Atlantic between North America and Europe
26 NATURAL HISTORY
Summit, California, (7017 feet),
irregularlyfrom year to year. This
for 44 years, is 419.6 inches; and
variability depends on the length
the average for eight years at
and the severity of the winter,
Tamarack, California, (8000 feet),
the number and intensity of the
521.3 inches. The maximum
snow storms, the temperature, the is
snowfalls recorded at Summit,

topography, proximity to primary
California, occurred in the years 1879-
sources of moisture-supply, such as the
oceans and Great Lakes, and the exposure 80, 783 inches, and 1889-90, 776 inches.
The greatest fall registered at Tamarack
to damp winds.
heaviest snowfalls in the United was 757 inches in 1910-11. The first
The
snowfall report, 1916-1917, from the
States occur on the western slope of the
gauging station established November
Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges, where
24, 1916, at Paradise Inn on the south
snowfalls amounting to more than 400
inches annually are not uncommon. slope of Mount Rainier, Washington, at
Although these mountains are regions of an elevation of 5500 feet, gave a total depth
of 789.5 inches. It is not unlikely that
heavy rainfall and excessive snowfall,
deeper snows will eventually be
they are not perpetually covered with still
recorded at higher elevations on the

snow. On many of the higher peaks the
snow disappears in May or June and slopes of Mount Rainier.
usually does not reappear until October. The most outstanding tragedy of the
The average annual snowfall at Fordyce Sierra snows occurred in November, 1846.
Dam, California, (6500 feet), for 16 The Donner party, California bound,
402.4 inches; the average at consisting of 83 persons, numerous cattle,
years, is
ICE FLOWERS, ST. MORITZ, SWITZERLAND

and Pr«d"«?,d si^-ry ed cavi^^^^^^^^
Here the sunlight has melted a portion of the ice along a crack ice tlowers
The water within these cavities has re-frozen, forming beautiful
tive crystals).
Photograph hy Bessie Wiley Fisher

A NATURAL BRIDGE OF HAILSTONES, NEAR RATON, NEW MEXICO
These hailstones, which were about the size of walnuts, fell during a thunderstorm on August 2, 1927.
Dr. G. Clyde Fisher, Mrs. Fisher, and Mr. Severs of the American Museum, were passing Waggon
Mound Station as the hail fell. The hail formed a deposit knee deep over many acres. The warmer
waters of the stream, however, melted a number of the hailstones and thus formed a natural bridge
horses and "prairie schooners," was control of latitude until the Great Lakes
caught in a snowfall of twenty feet at and the Appalachian Mountains are
Donner Lake. The cattle and horses reached. In the east the rising slopes of
were submerged and frozen, and of the the Appalachian, Adirondack, Green, and
83 persons only nine survived' the White mountains exert subordinate, but
winter. nevertheless, important controls in the
The effects of the high Sierra Nevada- precipitation of snow.
Cascade mountain slope in causing a The Appalachian Mountains carry the
heavy precipitation locally and a decrease lines, 50 to 100 inches, as far south as
in the depth of snowfall to the eastward West Virginia, while the warm waters of
over the areas of the Great Basin, the the Gulf Stream bend the lines north-
Rocky Mountain district, and interior ward along the Atlantic Coast. In the
plateaus, is very marked. The heavy vicinity of the Great Lakes, especially
snows of the Rocky Mountains amount on their lee or eastward shores and thence
to more than 100 inches annually over along the Canadian boundary as far as
fairly large areas as far south as northern New England, there is a relatively heavy
New Mexico ; restricted areas in southern snowfall varying from 80 to more than
Wyoming have as much as 300 inches, 100 inches. Over the north Atlantic
and those in Colorado 400 inches states the northeastwind from the
annually. Atlantic Ocean, being cold and
East of the Continental Divide damp, is the chief source of snow.
the snowfall rapidly decreases with The heaviest snows fall in Febru-
the lines of equal depth extending ary or even March. The north-
in an east-west direction under the west winds blowing on the rear of
I
28 NATURAL HISTORY
sohd, which assumes
crystal forms belonging
to the hexagonal system.
It is characterized by a
prominent habit of twin-
ning in producing the
beautiful ice flowers of
hoar-frost. It is fre-
quently precipitated
from the air as frost,
rime, glaze, sleet, hail,
or snow.
Water in ordinary
cases freezes at 32°
Fahrenheit (0° Centi-
grade). When pure
water, however, is placed
in sealed tubes and kept
perfectly still, it freezes
spontaneously between
-2° Centigrade and - 1.6°
Centigrade, mean - 1.9°
Centigrade. This differ-
ence of almost two de-

grees in the freezing
state of water is due to
the air being impreg-
nated with germ crystal-
A BEAUTIFUL WINTER SCENE NEAR GSTAAD, SWITZERLAND lites of all common sub-
This view is one of the many pretty winter sights along the scenic It is to these
stances.
electric railway which leads from Montreux to the
Bernese Oberland germ crystals that most
common crystallizations
the storms are cold enough to give snow, of substances from their solutions and
but are generally too dry. Exceptions for from the fused state are due. Freezing
retarded by substances in solution;
the northwest winds are to be made on is
the western slopes of the Appalachians for instance sea water freezes at about
and places to leeward of the Great 27° Fahrenheit (-3° Centigrade). The
Lakes. Most of the snow falls from ice thus formed is found to have rejected
December to March, but at the higher four-fifths of the salt which was originally
elevations it begins as early as October present.
or even September and falls as late as Under the influence of heat, ice itself
April or May. In general, topography is behaves as most solids do, contracting
seen to be the most striking factor of when cooled, expanding
control in the western states, and latitude when heated. As regards
in the eastern ones. the evaporation of ice, it
It is a well known fact that ice is the was shown by Barnes

sohd form of water produced by freezing. and Vipond in 1909 that
It is a brittle, transparent, and colorless it goes directly into
vapor without passing

through a prehminary
Hquid phase.
Although there is no
rise of temperature ac-
companying the melting
of ice, a definite quantity
of heat is absorbed,
namely, about 80
calories per gram or
79.818 thermal units.
The same amount of
heat is evolved when
water becomes ice. In
other words, the amount
of heat required to con-
vert ice into water or
vice versa would raise
the same amount of
water through 79° Centi-
grade. This is called
the latent heat of fusion
of ice or the latent heat
of water. Because of
this fact, ice is the most
difficult of all solids to

melt, as regards the
amount of heat energy
required to be put into
HIGH WALLS OF ICE FORMED BELOW^ NIAGARA FALLS
King winter reigns supreme amidst this labyrinth of crv'stal caves and
it in order to effect towering buttresses draped with huge stalactites, stalagmites, and
fusion, and water the columns of ice
most difficult liquid to

freeze, of all substances, owing to the is of interest to note that the fresh water of
relatively large amount of the latent heat lakes and ponds continues to contract
needed. It is fourteen times as great as with increasing cold. The surface waters
for lead, and twenty-eight times as great being colder and thus heavier, sink, and
as for mercury. the warmer waters from the bottom rise
Another remarkable property of ice is to the surface.These convection currents

that its melting point is lowered by in- continue until all of the water in the
crease of pressure. The rate at which lakes and ponds has been reduced
this occurs is 0.0075° Centigrade for to the maximum density of water, after
every atmosphere of pressure. This fact which the circulation stops, for the sur-
was theoretically pre- face waters, when cooled to lower
dicted by James Thom- temperatures, remain on top and grow
son in 1849, and demon- steadily colder until they suddenly freeze
strated by Sir W. Thom- at 32° Fahrenheit.
son (Lord Kelvin) in 1850. The temperature at which water
When winter comes, it reaches its maximum densitv and what
30 NATURAL HISTORY
DEEP SNOW IN THE ALPS MOUNTAINS

A powerful snow plow on the Berniner Electric Railway which connects St. Moritz, Switzerland,
with Tirano, Italy, enables the railroad to operate through any quantity of snow
follows needs a bit of explanation. This force is also brought home

According to the researches of to all of us by the bursting of
Joule and Playfair, water ex- water-pipes on cold
exposed
hibits the unusual property of winter nights, when they are full
possessing a maximum density of water with taps all closed and
at a temperature of 39.2° Fahrenheit no possibility of escape. Cannon shells
(3.945° Centigrade). When cooled below filled with water, sealed, and allowed to
this temperature, water expands instead freeze, burst in like manner.
of contracting, and the expansion goes on The expansion of water to such a degree
to the total extent of one-ten-thousandths on freezing is, of course, of great value in
of its bulk, until freezing occurs, when gardening and agriculture, in the break-
there is a sudden expansive leap of nearly a ing up of the soil and its disintegration into
tenth of the whole volume of the water, small grains. It may be noted that in the
as it freezes. On becoming ice, the water spring of the year when the frost is coming
has increased in bulk by nine per cent, out of the ground that the soil is spongj^
and this increase occurs instantaneously and worked as compared with the
easily
and with enormous, well-nigh irresistible late summer, when it is dry, compact,
force. and hard. Water finds its way between
Large-scale operations of this phenom- the joints in the rocks, rends them apart
enon may be noticed during the winter on freezing, and is thus an important fac-
and spring months along the shores of tor in the decay and denudation of rocks.
lakes and large ponds, by the appearance By reason of this expansion, a piece of
of newly made ridges, consisting of sand, ice weighs less than an equal bulk of
gravel, and large bowlders, which have water. If a certain bulk of water weighs
been pushed up by the expanding ice. 1000 pounds, a piece of ice of the same
bulk will weigh 916 pounds. Thus ice, These cavities are filled as far as possible
being lighter than water, floats in ponds, with the water produced by the melting
rivers, lakes, and the open sea, when of the ice but as this water is less in bulk
;
broken up, with about one-tenth of its by 9 per cent, as noted above, it cannot fill
volume above water level. the cavity, so there is an apparent bubble
Ice, like snow, forms six-rayed crystals. left, about the center as a rule, which is
They are formed when water crystallizes vacuous. All of these delicate flowers are
into ice. Due to the fact that ice and formed parallel to the surface of freezing.
water are so optically alike, the crystals In the northern portion of the United
are rarely seen, but have been observed States and in Canada, ice forms on the
as floating free on the surface when water lakes as well, as the rivers. The St.
freezes slowly. Lawrence River, for example, is completely
When sunlight or the beams from an closed to navigation from December to
electric arc lamp fall upon lake or pond April, and sometimes in May. The Hud-
ice, six-rayed stars called ice-flowers may son River freezes over every year at
be formed. The heat rays dissolve the and above Newburgh. Even the Niagara
solid structure of the ice crystals with Falls are largely by freezing
arrested
such regularity as to produce during February. The mist be-
cavities in the ice which have low the Falls freezes, producing
exactly the same hexagonal sym- remarkable ice structures, which
metry as snow crystals. They stimulate cave formations, form-
may be termed negative crystals. ing columns, stalactites, and
A 1919-1920 WINTER SCENE IN NEW YORK CITY

In January and February, 1920, the streets were more effectually blockaded by snow than at any
other time in the city's history. The removal was diflBcult, since layers of ice had formed at
different levels
32 NATURAL HISTORY
stalagmites. Ice is also formed above atom, diameter 1.46X10-^ cm., an ar-
snow line in high mountains and the polar rangement which causes twice as many
reo-ions bv the conversion of snow into hydrogen atoms to be present as there are
glacier ice. It also forms on the polar oxygen atoms. Each unit cell of the
seas as pack ice; in fact, ice is produced lattice contains four molecules of water
in unlimited quantities by the process of (H2O).

nature in chmates where the tempera-
all The structure is a very open one. It
ture drops to 32° Fahrenheit (0° Centi- thus reveals why ice can be melted under
grade) or lower. pressure, for there is ample room to force
Ice also exists in the form of minute the arrangement into smaller bulk, a
needles or spiculse in the higher state corresponding to liquid water. The
atmosphere. From the enormous height molecules of liquid water are spaced
at which some cirrus clouds float, 30,000 just enough to permit of their free move-
feet,and the low temperature they must ment over each other, while in sohd ice
consequently encounter, -27° Fahren- there are relatively large openings be-
heit, it is impossible that they can consist tween them. This explains how it is
of water. There is no doubt that the tiny possible for water to occupy less space
drops of which they are composed are than ice, and accounts for the sudden
frozen, and it is on account of the light and relatively enormous expansion which
refracted by these banks of minute ice occurs when water freezes,
particles that the formation of halos and We have now called attention to the
similar phenomena are possible, for various forms of ice which occur on the
only when the light has passed the prisms earth and up to the height of the highest
of ice, do we discern these phenomena when clouds. We have also briefly referred to
we look at either the sun or the moon. the various circumstances under which
The new method of investigating they appear, and noted some of the char-
crystals by x-rays, which was begun in acteristics of each. By application of
1912, has been applied to ice and its x-rays we have been able to ascertain not
structure determined. Sir William Bragg only the sjrmmetry of the crystals of snow
(1926) shows ice to belong to the "holo- and ice, but actually also to determine the
hedral" class 27, that of fullest hexagonal relative positions of the atoms of hy-
symmetry, the dihexagonal bi- ^^^^^^^^ drogen and oxygen within them,
pyramidal class.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^ When we recall that the num-
The struc-
ture is that of a hexagonal ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^L ber of molecules in a cubic
lattice made up of four ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^k centimeter of ice is cal-
interpenetrating ^^^BH|^^^^^ÎH^^^^k culated by Dennison to
trigonal prisms (length f^^^^Sttf^^^^^k be 31,540,000,000,000,-
4.52X10-8 cm. or 1/55,- ^^^pf^3^3^^H 000,000,000,
we are
we note
000,000 inch; height ^^HIJHHH^^^Î^^^^^^V that dealing with
7.34X10-8 cm. or l/34,- ^^^^^^^^^^^BM|H||^F lî'ge and intricate fiig-
000,000 inch). Each ^^^^ê^^^^^^^^^^F ^ês. We may thus con-

atom of oxygen, diameter ^^^H|: t^^^^^^^r elude that .'
'-^
ice and its
1.30X10-8 cm., is situated ^^t^^l^^^^^^ varied forms are not only
at the center of gravity of
^^^^^^^ beautiful to behold and
four neighboring equi- an odd type of snowflake to comprehend but that
j^^+<,^+ ^,.,.^^^ ,,+^^^r. The crystals consist of two basal plates ,1 r •
distant oxygen atoms, attached to the ends of a short vertical ^hey are of mterest to
j. . j.
and between it and each column or axis. One of the attached the layman as well as to
P'»'« - "' ™'""
ofthem lies a hydrogen ^^'l/^rhthf Xr the scientist.
Two Beduins Ask the Field Expedition for Water
EARLY MAN IN NORTH ARABIA

Geological and Archaeological Evidence Indicates that This Desert Area Was Once sa
Fertile and Well Watered that It May Have Supported a Large Semi-nomadic
Population in Prehistoric Times
By henry field
Assistant Curator, Field Museum of Natural History, and
Leader of the Captain Marshall Field North Arabian Desert Expeditions 1927-1928
With Photographs from The Field Museum op Natural History
THEbounded
North
is
Arabian or Syrian Desert
to the west by Trans- bank
To the east of the railroad lies
of sand-covered flat country, with

a wide
Jordania and Palestine, to the occasional low ranges of hills. There are
north by Syria, and to the east by the numerous mud-flats of varying extent,
"Fertile Crescent," lying between the indicating that at one time there was
River Euphrates and the River Tigris. considerable water in this region. During
To the south lies the great Nefud Desert, the greater part of the year these mud-
consisting of thousands of square miles flats are waterless, and form wide patches
of sand dunes, comparable to great ex- of hard sun-cracked sand. Farther to the
panses of the Sahara of North Africa. east rise the foothills of the great Harrat
The area in which these scientific ex- ar Rajil, covered with basalt bowlders of
peditions worked lies between Damascus, various sizes. This lava bed is some 150
Amman, and Ma'an, on the old railroad miles in length and about 100 miles in
line which ran as far south as Medina, width. The highest peak, Jebel Ashqaf,
and the city of Baghdad to the east. rises to 3700 feet above sea level, and is
During the World War most of the bridges surrounded by chains of high mountains.
and a great part of the railroad track was As there is no water anywhere in this
torn up south of Ma'an by Colonel T. E. entire area, it is completely uninhabited
Lawrence, and other British oflEicers in today.
that campaign. There is now, however, The region lying beyond the eastern
a regular train service as far south as extremity of the lava bed consists of a
Ma'an. hilly wilderness with large, flat, high
34 NATURAL HISTORY
A BRITISH MILITARY PARTY ON THE DESERT the

allowed to accompany one ot
rk •
+^ +>,« VJnHnP^^ of the British Air Force, the expedition was
danger ot iieduin dawn

^^^^^^^^^.^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ to avoid a surprise attack at
seems very plausible to suggest that in

plateaus of alternating bands of flint and
beds Palaeolithic and Neolithic times water
sand, cut at intervals by old stream
water was much more abundant, and the stony
or wadis, which sometimes contain
wilderness was then able to support a
in the rainy season.
considerable population. The Beduins
The general lack of water and the
today migrate over this large plateau with
rugged nature of the basalt country,
their thousands of sheep and camels,
together with the hundreds of miles of
following definite routes and seasons
stony desert— waterless today save
for
have handed down to them by their forefathers.
the few wells known to the Beduins,
In December, 1925, Professor Langdon,
caused this territory to be known as a
geographical migratory barrier. It was
Mr. Dudley Buxton, and I were on our
alsopresumed that the ancient migrations way to join the Field Museum-Oxford
of University Joint Expedition at Kish in
did not cross this dry and barren strip
to the Mesopotamia. Owing to the political
land, but rather that they passed
Syria and the lawless raid-
difficulties in
north through what is now called Turkey-
into ers of the Jebel Druze mountains, the
in-Asia, and down the seacoast
archaeological regular motor route from Damascus to
Egypt. From the recent
can be concluded that Man in a Baghdad was impassable, and the Nairn
survey it
Overland Desert Mail Convoy, with
prehistoric phase of culture crossed or
which we were traveUng, proceeded via
perhaps Kved in this great stony wilder-
From these recent discoveries it Jerusalem and Amman to Baghdad.
ness.
EARLY MAN IN NORTH ARABIA 35
Following the Middle East Conference sheltered depression. It was here that
of March, 1921, an Air Route was laid out Mr. Buxton discovered a chipped flint
between Cairo and Baghdad. At inter- —
implement undoubtedly chipped by
vals between Amman and Baghdad land- man. This was indeed a very important
ing-grounds about fifteen miles apart discovery, and during the brief halt for
were marked, and between these landing- breakfast, other specimens were collected.
grounds a plowed furrow was dug, so as to The time was very limited, but even this
be visible from the air, and to guide the small collection proved the former exist-
air pilots. At each of the landing-grounds ence of Man in that depression. The
a large letter of the alphabet was dug in arretes were in all cases worn very smooth,
the ground, to show the pilots over which and from the general characteristic
landing-ground they were passing. Going features was suggested that these were
it
east from Amman the letters continue in typologically palaeolithic (probably Mous-
sequence as far as landing-ground ''R," terian) implements. Many specimens
which is 237 miles east of Amman. were collected along the route whenever
From this point to Ramadi, Roman time allowed, and the places at which
numerals are used, running from the they were found were accurately recorded.
numeral XI to I, which lies just west of Miss Gertrude Bell, honorary director of
Ramadi. antiquities in Iraq, showed a keen interest
The morning following our departure in this collection, and gave us some valu-
from Jerusalem, the convoy reached a able suggestions for further work.
large mud-flat bounded on three sides by Professor Langdon remained at Kish
bowlder-covered hills which formed a well with Mr. Mackav to continue the excava-
A BRITISH ARMORED CAR

These machines, equipped with a machine gun and heavy armor plating, weigh about five tons and
can travel fully loaded at seventy miles an hour over the hard mud flats
36 NATURAL HISTORY
__"»«^7-a^
-.r
»,B<7flQA \ ^'
S JEBEL
'90M/ÛWAl\
FIELD MUSEUM SYRIAN DESERT EXPEDITIONS 1927-1928

iioon/LES
and Mr. Buxton and I returned to of Oxford, accepted this classification and
tions,
Baghdad during January, 1926, to find at once reahzed the significance and im-
that, thanks to the kindness of Air Vice- portance of the discovery.
Marshal Sir John Higgins, whom we had Thus, when I was ordered to join the
approached by letter, we were allowed to expedition at Kish for the season of 1927-
accompany an armored car patrol as far 1928, an opportunity for the continuation
west as landing-ground "H," and to make, of this desert work immediately suggested
collections whenever compatible with the itself. Following the approval of the
ofiicial patrol duties. The patrol con- Director, and with the cooperation of the
sisted of two armored Rolls-Royce cars, Air Ministry in London, everything was
and one Rolls-Royce tender, under the arranged, providing that no local disturb-
charge of Fhght Lieutenant R. L. ance or rising of the tribesmen prevented
Sweeney. Several prehistoric stations the start of the expedition. Group Cap-
were found before reaching landing- tain Rees, V. C, Officer Commanding
ground "H," where a more prolonged and Trans-Jordania and stationed at Royal
careful search added materially to our Air Force Headquarters at Amman,
previous series, and confirmed the hypoth- assisted the expedition in every possible
esis of human occupation at an early manner. Group Captain Rees, himself a

date, suggested by Mr. Buxton's dis- keen archaeologist, was able to make many
coveries some little time before. A close valuable suggestions as to the probable
examination of the entire collection re- localities where prehistoric man might
vealed the fact that typologically our have lived.
series ranged from Mousterian right Leaving Amman in the Field Museum
down modern "strike-a-lights," which
to Cadillac and accompanied by Flying
by the Beduins today. This Officer Silcox as escort, the expedition
are dropped
general classification was accepted by the proceeded south to Katrani, following the
Society of Antiquaries of London, before desert track along the railroad line Leav- .
whom a paper was read by Mr. Buxton ing the railroad at this point, we struck
in April, 1926. The Abbe Breuil of Paris, off in a southeasterly direction for the
Professor Cambridge, Mr.

Burkitt of famous Wells of Bair. We passed over
Henry Balfour, and Miss Dorothy Garrod many flint-covered hills, and at the end
:
of a long and day reached our objec-

tiring I have found in it bed near Mt.
(the gravel
tive. In the gravel just below the Arab Seir or Jebel Sherra) such wrought flint instru-
ments as we have from some river and lake
ruins, water-worn and rolled implements
gravels and loams of Europe.
of Upper Chellean type were found at a
depth of 11 feet 6 inches from the top of These specimens are now in the Uni-
the gravel bed. These implements were versity Museum at Oxford.
found in place after some digging had On account of the danger from raiding
been done in the face of the cliff. This parties, we had to leave the Wells of Bair
was the first time that implements of before nightfall. We were reluctant to
lower palaeolithic type were discovered in leave this fascinating place, far from all
situ east of the Hejaz Railroad. habitations, amid perfect lifeless silence.
Charles M. Doughty, in his Travels in As we turned to the west toward the
Arabia Deserta, quotes the following in- we passed the Wells of El Jefer,
railroad,
stance of his discovery of chipped imple- where young Mohammed Abu Tayi was
ments, more than fifty years ago encamped. He greeted us very cordially,
Walking in the torrent bed at Ma'an my eyes and showed us three ostriches, which he
lighted upon, —and I took up, moved and aston- very courteously offered to us. We were
ished, one after another, seven flints chipped to
interested to see ostriches, because they
an edge; we must suppose them of rational,
that is an himian labour. But what was that old had been reported between Amman and
human kindred which inhabited the land so Baghdad in 1921, when the Air Force
long before the Semitic race? Route was being marked out. Moham-
In another place Doughty says, med is the son of the late Auda Tayi,
QASR BURQA, THE MOST EASTERN OUTPOST OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE

This fortress isbuilt of large basalt bowlders all faced and laid in position without the use of mortar.
The Roman legions to whom this task was given must have spent many months in thus protecting
themselves from the raids of the Beduins
38 NATURAL HISTORY
THE APPROACH OF A SAND STORM

Sand storms often come with very great rapidity and violence. They are often very dense and
suffocating, and when a party is out on patrol, it is necessary for each car to keep in touch with all of
the other cars in the convoy to avoid being separated from them
whom Colonel Lawrence called "the were on their way as far east as landing-
greatest fighting man in Northern ground "R," to re-mark the landing-
Arabia." Miss Gertrude Bell once said, grounds which become obliterated owing
"I fancy that when you have drunk the to sand storms. We followed the Air
milk of the vaga over the camp fire of Force Route to Qasr Azrak, an old Roman
Abu Tayi you are baptized of the desert, fortress which is now partially inhabited
and there is no other salvation for you
.
by Druze, who wish to be under British
We took numerous photographs and protection. A
few miles to the east we
moving pictures of the tribal tents and of entered the Harrat ar Rajil, and as we
the wild Beduins. passed slowly along the very rough track,
We continued westward to the railroad, often not making more than eight miles
stopping for one day to visit the rock- in one hour, we observed basalt bowlders
hewn "the rose-red city,
fortress of Petra, arranged in the form of circular walled
half as old as time," and continued follow- enclosures. These stone circles are of
ing the railroad back to Amman. We various dimensions, the largest being
were pleased to have discovered a number thirty feet in diameter. In most cases the
of open-air prehistoric sites,and particu- walls are broken down and have obviously
larily to have found implements of Upper not been in use for a considerable period.
Chellean type actually in place in the Sometimes the stone circles are solitary,
gravels of Wadi Bair. apparently always above the possible

A
few days later we were allowed to water-level of the valley in which they are
accompany a convoy of five cars that situated, and usually on the slopes of low
hills. The Beduins told us that these before any definite conclusions can be
stone circles were used as sheep-folds at drawn. Buildings of stone, both round
night, and that in certain localities they and square, occur in hundreds dotted over
are used for that purpose today. How- the area covered by the archaeological
ever, whether upon the hills bordering a survey, but there are literally thousands
mud-flat, or upon either bank
dry of a of them in the great lava bed. Photo-
stream bed or water course, we found graphs from the air taken by the Royal
numbers of stone circles which appeared Air Force at a height of about 9000 feet
to us as village settlements. In other show numbers of these stone circles, also
localities the buildings appear to have long walls built up of these same basalt
been square or rectangular, and many of bowlders, apparently quite unconnected,
these walls are standing four or five feet and whose purpose still remains a
in height, which would indicate that they mystery.
are not of any great antiquity. Strange ruins which, from their form
Flint implements, mainly of Neolithic have been called ''kites" by Group Cap-
type, were found in profusion in the imme- tain Rees, are very numerous between
diate neighborhood of practically all of Azrak and landing-ground "H." These
these stone buildings, although there "kites" are composed of walls with a
might not be flint in the immediate round tower at intervals, and with long
vicinity. Collections of flint implements walls called ''tails" which extend for miles
have been made from many of these sites, across the country. There are many
and it remains to study them in detail different kinds of "kites," but one of the
THE ROMAN FORTRESS OF QASR AZRAK

This stronghold is about eighty miles to the southwest of Qasr Burqa across an almost impassable
section of a great larva bed. This fortress is now occupied by Druze forces under British protection
40 NATURAL HISTORY
simplest forms is shown in the following down the center of the "tail" of the
diagram. "kite" he suggests that domesticated
animals were kept on one side of the wall,
and that rudimentary forms of agriculture
were practiced on the other. Presuming
Head
that the mud-flat was at that time a small
lake, it would have been possible to guard
Tail the wide area at the extreme end of the
"tail" with one or two men, who could
Since these "tails" sometimes
are not fail to hear the approach of the
eighteen miles in length, it does not seem enemy over water. At the first signal of-
plausible to suggest that they could alarm the animals would be driven into
have been fortresses of any kind, but the "head" of the "kite," and the last
rather traps for catching gazelle or some wall hurriedly built up. In this position
other animals. Group Captain Rees they would be safe from attack from any
suggests that some of these "kites" whose side. It is interesting to note that the
"tail" opens upon a some
mud-fiat walls connecting the towers are built
hundred yards away from the "head" on a curve with the highest part of the
were used as fortresses. To explain the wall nearest to each of the towers. This
dividing wall which sometimes runs would tend to make the attackers rush for
SHEIKH MOHAMMED ABOU TAYI IS HOST TO THE VISITING SCIENTISTS

Mattresses are placed on the ground around the hearth, and for distinguished visitors the Sheikh
himself always makes coffee, which is a very elaborate ceremonj\ The head men of the tribe sit in a
circle around the fire, and in the evenings most of the conversation deals with rehgious subjects. The
wonderful array of coffee pots can be seen in the photograph, all of them ha\ang been handed down
for generations. The Sheikh's body guard is gathered behind him. This group is] almost invariably
within call
A BEDUIN BLACK TENT

The nomadic Beduins live in these black tents, which are made of camel's hair by the women of the
tribe. The number of tent poles used to support the long strips of cloth indicates the wealth and power
of the owner of the tent. For example, the tent of the Sheikh has the greatest number of tent poles,
and is thus easily recognized from afar. In hot weather the sides of the tent are propped open in
order to permit every possible breath of air to enter
the lowest part or center of the wall, and this would mean that the inscriptions
in their efforts to break through they copied by us are not more than two
could be attacked from the sides, as well thousand years old. In certain rare
as from the front. This is one of the prin- instances camels, and men
horses,
ciples of close fighting today. The were carved upon the rock and these
machine guns are placed on the flanks, and were all duly copied and recorded.
every effort is made to make the enemy Arabic inscriptions are rare, and usually
"bunch" at one place. take the form of "Bismillah irraham irra-
Flint implements are always found in him," meaning "In the name of Allah,
these "kites," and these will have to be the Merciful, the Compassionate." A
studied in detail. It is often very hard to door lintel at Burqa has a clear Arabic
follow or even to find these stone walls inscription which we copied. The Beduins
upon the ground, but air photographs leave their tribal marks or cattle brands
help to overcome this difficulty. There upon the walls of buildings or upon graves,
are many types of "kites," ranging from to indicate, in the latter case, the tribe to
the simple form described above to the which the deceased belonged. These
most complex, which is only discernible markings are called wasms; they were all
from the air. copied and the locality in which they were
In various localities we found inscrip- found was noted. As each tribe passes
tions upon the bowlders of basalt which by a certain well-known landmark the
are presumed to be of Nabataean or wasms are hammered on the surface of
Safaitic origin. Since the Nabataeans, one of the blocks of stone in the neighbor-
according to Pliny, lived in the city of hood. From a collection of these wasms
Petra about eighteen hundred years ago, taken at a given point, it is possible to say
42 NATURAL HISTORY
A ROMAN ARCH AT QASR BURQA

This arch, after nearly two thousand years, is still standing exactly as it was erected by its builders
which tribes or sub-tribes have passed by many different locahties between the
in recent years. Hejaz railway and Rutba Wells,
Leaving the lava bed, we proceeded "b 1? "b
slowly along the Air Route, collecting flint The results of this first expedition
implements and recording carefully the seemed sufficiently important to warrant
positions from which they came. Detours an additional survey to the north of the
were made to search on the tops of any course that had been covered during
hills that seemed possible points of 1927. With a further appropriation from
vantage for prehistoric peoples. On the the Captain Marshall Field Fund, it was
top of Umm Muwal, twenty-two miles decided to make a more detailed survey
south of landing-ground "M," at a point in a new area upon a larger scale. With
3200 feet above sea-level, we found the the permission and cooperation of the
most important collection of typologically High CommissioEer and the Air Vice-
Mousterian implements, including a verj^ Marshal in Iraq, the expedition, consisting
perfect, heavily patinated, small coup-de- of myself, Mr. Eric Schroeder, who was to
poing. So far as we know, we were the study any historical ruins and inscriptions,
first Europeans to visit Umm Muwal, as Mr. Showket of Baghdad as moving pic-
this is actually in the territory of Ibn ture operator and photographer, and a
Saoud, king of the Hejaz, although we Russian named Vania as mechanic,
did not realize this at the time. was invited by Major A. L. Holt, to ac-
We left the convoy at landing-ground company the Turkish Petroleum Com-
"R," and continued into Baghdad, with pany's Pipe Line Survey from Samarra
our heavy weight of stone, which proved to the Mediterranean. During April and
the former existence of prehistoric man in May of this year thousands of miles were
-ySfe'
Of
IN THE DRY BED OP THE WADI BAIR

At a depth of eleven and a half feet below the surface a large
number of Upper CheUean flint imole-
ments were collected. They were badly water worn and undoubtedly
some point higher up the stream
had ^b?en carried downTom
A DOOR LINTEL OF THE EIGHTH CENTURY

This mscription dated "81 A. H. "-that is, 81 Anno Hegir*, or 81
is
hammed, which places it at 703 A. D., the Hegira having years after the flight of Mo-
taken place in 622 AD
44 NATURAL HISTORY
May. Work was continued in this area
covered between Rutba Wells and Amman.
for the next few weeks, after which we
As the survey party proceeded relatively
slowly in making their observations and accompanied a patrol to Bair Wells. This
maps, we were able to make fairly detailed afforded an opportunity for making furth-
archaeological surveys along the traverses er observations at several points.
which they covered. The positions of Wishing to continue the survey to the
sites where we collected implements of
north, we went on to Damascus and
palaeolithic and neolithic types were

accompanied a Nairn Mail Convoy back
accurately recorded, and can be plotted via Rutba Wells to Baghdad. The speci-
on the survey party's map. mens were packed and shipped to Chicago
Among other important places visited for study.
now possible to state with absolute
was the Roman fortress of Qasr Burqa, It is
which hes about 38° east and 32°5' north, certainty that Man in a prehistoric phase
far out into the desert, about seventy- of culture inhabited this North Arabian or
five miles from water. We were the next Syrian Desert over a long period of time.
scientific party to visit this spot after a Geological evidence supports the view
visit ofMiss Gertrude Bell in 1913. We that this area was once so fertile and well
copied the inscriptions and planned the watered that in prehistoric times it may
buildings, while Mr. Showket took numer- have maintained a large semi-nomadic
ous photographs and moving pictures. population.
Many of the Mousterian types of im-
A large door lintel was found upon a
Beduin grave. Although this weighed plements found during the desert archae-
more than two hundred pounds, it was ological survey work resemble very closely
removed in order to study the Roman- the implements found in association with
Greek inscription, in the hope of finding the ''Galilee" skull in Palestine during
a reference to the date of the Roman August, 1925. These results prove the
occupation. eastward extension of our knowledge of
The convoy consisted of six automobiles the area once inhabited by palaeolithic
with twenty-eight persons in all, headed man and it remains for future scientific
by Mr. W. E. Brown who, with Mr. H. F. expeditions to link the recent discoveries
Moon, was making the survey. We were in Mongolia and the Ordos region of China
escorted by ten native poHce. As the with the Near East, North Africa, and
temperature often exceeded 106° in the Western Europe. I feel confident that
shade, our water supply had to be very the North Arabian Desert Hes upon one of
carefully conserved. the main fines of migration between the
Whenthe survey was completed be- East and West, and that prehistoric sites
tween Rutba and the lava bed, camp was will be found from North Eastern Iraq
moved to Qasr Azrak toward the end of to China.

MOSQUITOES AND OTHER FLIES
Despised but not Always Injurious —Sometimes of Remarkable
Form and Beauty — Often with Most Surprising Habits
By C. H. CURRAN
Assistant Curator of Insect Life, American Museum
Illustrated by R. R. Schultz
WHEN we speak of
at once visualize the
flies, most of us
common
upon the young of other mosquitoes. This
isan example of how nature has devel-
house-fly, the bluebottle, or one oped a certain check upon the race of
of the near relatives of unsavory habits. mosquitoes as a whole by means of a near-
In short, the average conception of a fly cannibalism among their own kind, and
is that of an insect which is disgusting in it is not inconceivable that cannibalism
its habits and also injurious to man. sometimes actually occurs.

Such ideas are not unnatural, since it is Another common blood-sucking pest
because of their close association with us which is very well known is the black fly.
that flies have come to be considered Many species go under this name and they
something of importance in the civilized vary in size and habits. Most of them
world and something of a menace to bite humans, and the results of their bites
civilization itself. If it is true that malaria are frequently most serious. Unlike the
was responsible for the downfall of Greece mosquito, they give no warning of their
at the height of her glory, resulting in a attack, either by buzzing before com-
decided setback to the advance of civiliza- mencing their meal or by the injection of
ample reason for condemna-
tion, there is an irritating fluid. They feed until their
tion of flies, it is a well-known fact
since small bodies are fully distended with
that the mosquito, which is a fly, is essen- blood, and then go peacefully on their
tial to the development and spread of way.
this disease. A short time after, the region in the
The sportsman who spends any time vicinity of the puncture becomes in-
in the woods, and the greater number of city flamed and itches in a most tantalizing
dwellers (now that frequent visits to the manner. It frequently happens that
country are possible as a result of improve- several flies have completed their meal
ment in transportation) come into con- and departed before they attack in num-
tact with flies very different kind from
of a bers, and the irritation caused by their
those encountered about the home. The bites attracts attention to the newcomers,
mosquito is probably the most commonly who are called upon to pay the penalty
encountered fly in the nature of a pest that for the crime of their predecessors. Like
one meets in the woods, but it is not mosquitoes, black flies live during their
limited to such habitats. There are many early stages in water, but unlike the form-
kinds of mosquitoes and they have various er, they usually breed in fast-flowing
habits. Some of them are carriers of streams, and are therefore encountered
malaria, while others are irritating merely by trout fishermen more than by others.
because they are persistent "biters." In addition to attacking man
they attack
Perhaps one of the most surprising things various animals and some species have
in connection with mosquitoes is that the been known to kill young geese; others
aquatic young, "wrigglers," of certain spe- attack fish.
cies occurring in the tropics live entirely There are in all parts of the country
46 NATURAL HISTORY
A FLY THAT KILLS SPIDERS

This fly and its near relatives reverse the usual order of things by depositing their eggs
on spiders. The maggots develop inside the spiders, eventually destroying them
tiny flies which may cause a great deal of quired to make up that bulk. One sees
annoyance to warm-blooded animals, in- nothing when they bite, but the persistent
cluding man. They are known by vari- itching is evidence of their presence;
ous names, the most common being "no- something must be blamed for it and
see-ums" and "punkies." They are, all frequently the victim selects some inno-
unconsciously, of course, something in cent insect as the cause of the trouble,
the nature of insect jokers. Being true with the result that henceforth that un-
flies, they have only two wings but they fortunate animal and all its kind are con-
are very small and of a grayish or smoky demned for the crime of another. But
brown color, and, as the name used by the "no-see-um" may
not live to enjoy
Indians and travelers in the northern the joke, because the brushing of a hand
woods implies, they are not readily seen. over the itching parts is certain to destroy
If they lack something in size, they fully a large percentage of the biting midges.
make up for the deficiency in numbers The lover of the great outdoors is not
and the intensity of their bite. In actual permitted to rest from the attacks of flies
bulk they do not nearly equal the size of after exhausting the three groups already
an ordinary pin-head, in fact from fifteen mentioned. There are many others to
to twenty of them together would be re- annoy him. The "no-see-ums" are most
MOSQUITOES AND OTHER FLIES 47
common at night, the black flies during much more successful than these same
the day, while the mosquitoes seem never specialists imagine. One may learn in
to rest. They day
are joined during the time to distinguish them by the buzzing
by horse-flies and and these
deer-flies, sound they make, but that is something
inflict a very painful bite. Probably the apart from this story.
majority of those suffering from bites by We will mention only one more group of
these flies believe that they have been biting flies which occur in America and
stung by bees. To the naturalist they do which annoy the sportsmen in northern
not resemble bees, but everyone cannot —
woods the biting snipe-flies. I have
be expected to know the difference be- never been subjected to their bites, but
tween them. No one need feel badly am assured that they are sometimes a
about his inability to distinguish the major pest. It might be well to add to the
members of these two orders of insects, list the stable-fly and the horse-fly, two
because those who specialize in their near relatives of the house-fly, both of
study are much more frequently deceived which are bad biters and exceedingly
by the live insects than they would care elusive. To kill them while they are
to admit, and probably the deception is engaged in their meal requires the
BIRD "ticks"
The bird flies are parasitic upon birds. The group of flies to which these belong is
known as Pupipara, because the larvae hve inside of their mother until they are ready
to pupate or have already done so, when they are fastened by the mother to its host
48 NATURAL HISTORY
birds,most frequently on the neck. Birds
development of a great amount of skill
are attacked by other forms which, how-
and consummate patience. One's temper is
these pests are ever, are parasitic upon the young and
liable to suffer greatly if
may be much more are often responsible for the death of a

present and they
whole brood.
annoying than mosquitoes or deer-flies.
From what has been set forth in the
If we hved in Africa we
might consider
also related to the preceding lines one might conclude that
the tsetse flies,
flies are terrible insects and that
they are
house-fly,which cause sleeping sickness.
utterly useless. Such a conclusion would
The tsetse is, however, a pest of quad-
bothered hardly be fair to flies as a whole. It
rupeds, and man is not greatly
happens that this group of insects is
by it.
of several kinds one of the two really important groups
Mention has been made
which attack man directly. Many connected with the control of the major
of flies
indirectly by destroying insect pests. very large number of
A
others injure man
their yield, flies are insect parasites. It is true that
his crops or at least reducing
The house-fly some of them are parasitic upon beneficial
and by attacking animals.
insects,but the number is relatively small.
and its relation to the spread of disease is
For the most part, parasitic flies prey
too well known to need more than
pass-
near relatives are
Some of its upon caterpillars, beetles and beetle
ing mention.
Their methods of attack are
among the most serious pests of garden larvae.
In
the radish varied, and often most ingenious.
crops, and we find among these
some cases the flies deposit thousands of
maggot, which makes radishes unfit for
small black eggs upon the leaves of low
consumption, not alone because of the
plants and grasses. There seems to be no
presence of the maggot, but because the
becomes hard and fibrous; the onion system of the deposition of the eggs and it
root
onions, the seems a very haphazard way of doing
maggot which destroys young
things. But eventually a caterpillar
cabbage maggot, which dehghts in the de-
comes along and eats the leaf, swallowing
struction of newly transplanted cabbage
the egg along with it; and in due time
the
plants; the seed-corn maggot which
lives
numerous kinds egg hatches and the young maggot pro-
upon sprouting seeds of
and a long fist of other species. ceeds to feed upon the cutworm which
of plants,
Some other species have
Looking farther afield, we find many
swallowed it.
which quite as interesting habits: they deposit

other injurious flies. There are flies
living maggots on leaves. These are
make galls upon almost all kinds of plants
which was at peculiar black things and they fasten
and there the Hessian
is fly
the wheat grower. themselves to the surface of the leaf

one time the despair of
causes and remain there for a varying length of
It is still a pest, but the damage it
has been time— in fact until some unfortunate

is either much reduced or it
caterpillar comes along. As soon as a
relegated to the background by the
hair of the caterpillar touches it, the tiny
publicity being given other immigrants
black mass comes to life, crawls up the
to America.
hair, and pierces the body wall of the
A pecuhar habit of some flies is that
and those which caterpillar, eventually kiUing it.
of living upon birds,
have this habit are well adapted to the Some flies lay eggs or perhaps deposit
which nature has chosen maggots on bees while they are in flight—
mode of life
They are leathery in texture, at any rate they are parasitic upon bees.
or them.
^
and usually of a brownish color. There is one group of flies which does not
ery flat,
beheve in working for its food. These
I,hey are found under the feathers of
MOSQUITOES AND OTHER FLIES 49
insects allow solitary wasps to go forth to beautifully colored, being metallic green,
battle and bring home caterpillars, spiders, blue or black, although our eastern
or flies which they have overcome and species are dull colored . The flies lay their
paralyzed by stinging. The flies are evi- eggs upon the spiders and the maggots
dently cautious whilethe wasp is about, but develop within the host, ultimately de-
they are also very patient, for they will stroying it.
watch the wasp prepare the home for its Remarkably shaped flies are not un-
young and will wait about until food is common in the tropics. In the Old World
brought, then, darting in quickly, they there are many species of stalk-eyed
will drop living maggots upon the food. flies : in America we have but one species
Since the wasps lay eggs which will not ofwhich the eyes are scarcely "stalked,"
hatch for some time, the fly larvae have a although there are in Central America
distinct advantage and are well on the some distantly related forms which have
road to maturity before the young wasp the same character of head development.
maggot has gotten fairly started. The true stalk-eyed flies are predaceous in
There is a general impression that the adult stage, and are frequently very
spiders are the sworn enemies of flies and abundant on stones in streams and upon
that a fly invites death by approaching a grass stalks in swampy land.
spider. In the main this is true, but here There are many more beneficial flies
we have another case of "the worm turn- and a host which are of no great economic
ing," because there are flies which are importance, although the fact that they
parasitic upon spiders. These are peculiar pollinate flowers is not to be overlooked.
creatures, with a small, round head, often Also there are many injurious ones, but
a long proboscis or beak, and a large, on the whole the preponderance is prob-
roundish abdomen. Often they are very ably on the side of the beneficial.
STALK-EYED FLIES
These strange creatures which prey upon small insects are not uncommon in the Old-
World tropics. The "head on" view of the fly in the air shows plainly the antenna-
like "eye stalks," with the eyes placed at the ends. The other fly shown in the drawing
illustrates the fact that, aside frem their eye stalks, these flies are not greatly dissimilar
to their more common cousins
The Schooner "Morrissey" in the Arctic Ice Pack
TO THE ARCTIC FOR WALRUS

Collecting a Group of Pacific Walrus for the American Museum of Natural Histor}^
By H. E. ANTHONY
Curator, Mammals of the World, American Museum
The Stoll-McCracken Arctic Expedition was organized with the intention of expanding
a sportsman's trip to Alaska and the Arctic Ocean into a Museum expedition, with the collect-
ing of group material and study specimens as the features of major importance. Mr. Charles
H. Stall, of New York City, financed the expedition, and Mr. Harold McCracken was the
organizer of the undertaking. Mrs. Merle L. Stoll accompanied her husband and took an
active part in the work accomplished. The schooner " Effie M. Morrissey" was chartered for
the trip and, under Captain Robert A. Bartlett, sailed from Newfoundland by way of the
Panama Canal to Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
Here the partyfrom the American Museum, who in company with Mr. McCracken had
crossed the continent on the Canadian National Railways, came aboard, and on May 1, 1928,
the expedition started northward. The scientific staff was in charge of H. E. Anthony,
curator of mammals, and included Edward M. Weyer, archaeologist, F. L. Jaques, artist, and
Andrew Johnstone, preparator. Mr. and Mrs. Stoll joined the expedition at Port oiler, M
on the Alaskan Peninsula.
The most important achievement of the season in the Arctic was the collection of the
group of walrus, but the party had interesting experiences throughout the entire itinerary,
such as hunting the big brown bear of the Alaska Peninsula, collecting seals and cetaceans,
searching for the so-called "mummies" on Unalaska, and visiting Bogoslof Island and St.,
—
George of the Pribilofs. The Editors.
WHEN the vicissitudes of naviga-

tion in Bering Sea had landed
and well out in Bering Strait we crossed
from the green waters of the North Ameri-
our schooner in Grantley Harbor can shores into a blue stream that marked
with a broken propeller shaft (landed is the Arctic branch of the Japan current.
used advisedly, for we were aground for The line of demarcation was surprisingly
fifteen days there), the expedition was sharp and exact and stretched as far as
threatened with an early ending. the eye could see to north and south. To
Our luck turned finally, and with a new borrow a pedestrian's term, we crossed
shaft from Nome we were ready to start this line in a single step. By afternoon we
north once more. The morning of July reached the Diomede Islands, where we
27 found us passing Cape Prince of Wales, planned to take on Eskimo hunters from
TO THE ARCTIC FOR WALRUS 51
Little Diomede, and also to collect bird.s innumerable hosts. Auklets, puffins,
and make studies for a group of Arctic murres, kittiwakes, and cormorants come
birdlife for the Museum. and go in countless numbers, and in the
The Diomedes rise sheer from the sea early morning or evening the noise of
and stand as gateway to
sentinels at the their wings creates an all-pervading rush
the Arctic Ocean. To the southward like the hiss of escaping steam from
Fairway Rock does similar sentinel duty some titanic factory. Overhead, at such
for Bering Sea, and on clear days one sees a time, the eye senses myriads of flying
the two continents reaching toward one forms in numbers that defy estimate.
another, North America jutting out at When at last we saw the Diomedes
Cape Prince of Wales, Asia at East Cape. falling astern, we prepared for the real
While all this is interesting terrain and undertaking for which a specially chart-
stirs the imagination, only when the sun ered boat was necessary, the search into
shines (a not too frequent occurrence) the Arctic Ocean for walrus and polar
can one find even a remote justification bear. We knew from the reports of
for the use of the words ''friendly Arctic." traders that we should not reach the ice
At all other times these shores are bleak fields until we had sailed several days to
and inhospitable, unless indeed one has, the northward, but nevertheless we began
like the Eskimo, never known the attrac- to spend long hours on the deck, eyes
tions of a less rigorous clime. But the strained ahead for whatever living forms
sea birds find such a spot vastly to their this northern sea might hold. Great
liking and they throng to these islands in flocks of fulmars and shearwaters were
SEA GULLS VISIT THE "MORRISSEY"

The sea gulls were remarkably tame and lit about the schooner to pick up food which was scattered to
attract them
52 NATURAL HISTORY
ESKIMO VILLAGE AT LITTLE DIOMEDE

Two small islands make up the Diomede group. The eastern, or smaller island, is a possession of the
United States, the other belongs to Russia. The village is perched precariously among the rocks at
the very edge of the surf, for there is no level beach on these islands
low over the waves where the north-

flying groups up to six or eight, the whales were
ward flowing current carried the teeming rollingup to the surface or loafing about in
marine Ufe that is their food. These a small area. One even appeared to be
birds are known to the whalers as whale asleep on the surface and I thought the
birds, and where one sees them one may vessel would run down, since it was
it
also expect to find the cetaceans. We directly in our course, but it sensed the
discovered this to be the case. vibration of our propeller just before we
Well toward the close of a beautiful, reached it. One of my
most vivid
clear day we encountered finback and memories of the Arctic Ocean will be the
humpback whales in large numbers. cetaceans that we saw both on entering
These monstrous mammals were all about and on leaving this body of water. On
the schooner and afforded us a never-to- one occasion we must have seen at least
be-forgotten exhibit of marine life. The one hundred of these big fellows; their
airwas calm and quiet, the sea smooth columnar spouts were rising in every
and unruffled, and as the whales came up quarter of the compass. Some were sur-
to breathe, the sounds of respiration could charged with energy and threw them-
be heard for an incredible distance. This selves clear out of the water, so that the
was especially true of the finback whales, blue sky could be seen between the ani-
which make on inspiration a very loud mal and the ocean. It was a frequent
noise like an exhaust of live steam, audible occurrence to see the great flukes rising
at a distance of at least a mile under fav- high above the water in a graceful flourish
orable circumstances. Singly and in small which the mass of the creature belied as
1
the whale dove for some deep feeding Arctic atmosphere plays queer tricks at
ground. Besides the larger whales, we times, and mirages and other deceptive
also met the smaller beaked whales and conditions of the air tempt an observer
the large porpoise or killer whale, a to draw strange conclusions.
predatory creature with a towering dorsal When we came on deck two mornings
finthat cut the water with the sinister not only did the ice extend as far
later,
suggestiveness of a shark's fin. But the as we could see ahead of us, but there
whale is far more deadly than any
killer was the added thrill of Herald Island
shark and takes toll of any and all of the against the horizon. This island is but
ocean life. seldom visited and only on rare occa-
Our first sight of the ice came on August sions can parties penetrate the drifting
2, late in the afternoon. Seemingly far ice fields and make a landing there.
offagainst the horizon, there appeared a Not only would it have been an achieve-
mass that looked like a distant island, ment to set foot ashore, but there was a
and one of the Eskimos, who should have good chance that we might see walrus
known better, identified the object as or polar bear in the vicinity, so the Cap-
Herald Island. According to the reck- tain tried to work the "Morrissey" in
oning, we were too far south to see this for a landing. Twisting and turning to
island, and conjecture was rife until, in a follow the narrow lanes that ran back
surprisingly short time, the schooner through the loose ice, we finally arrived
had shortened the distance and we could within four or five miles of the rocky
make out a good-sized iceberg. The beach, but were forced to give up the
ESKIMOS PUT OFF FOR THE SCHOONER IN AN UMIAK

The umiak is a large, light canoe made of walrus-skin stretched over a framework of wood. It can be
hauled up on the rocks without danger of puncturing the sides, for walrus hide is very tough and
strong
54 NATURAL HISTORY
LITTLE MUD BAY AT LOW TIDE

the Alaska brown
One of the difficulties in navigating about MoUer Bay, where the party hunted
bear, is the presence of extensive mud fiats at low tide. Only at
high water is it possible for even
shallow draft craft to reach the firm shore line
attempt when the pack presented a they are up on an ice pan. If shot while
closed front. As a change of wind might in the water the animal sinks, in the great
majority of instances. Occasionally a
shiftthe ice and force the schooner into
a dangerous situation in the vicinity of swimming walrus may be harpooned, and
Herald Island, Captain Bartlett navigated a float attached to the iron marks the
the vessel back to the fringe of the pack progress of the quarry, which may be
and we began to cruise to the north- shot and retrieved in due course of time.
eastward. We could scarcely hope to harpoon a
Now began a series of days of nearly walrus from the schooner, and our best
identical routine. The period of daylight chance was to search until we discovered
was long, and some one
in addition to some that might be stalked on the ice.
in the barrel at the masthead (usually After days of scouting we at last
the Captain) one or more of us kept a located a good-sized herd of walrus. A

constant look-out from the deck for wal- single animal was observed some distance
rus or bear, from early in the morning ahead swimming rapidly on a course to
until dark. We were in the ice or at the take it across our bows. The Captain
outer edge of it continuously, and sang out from the barrel to the helmsman
although walrus were sighted from time and the schooner swung to starboard to
follow the walrus. These animals when
to time, they were all in the water,
going somewhere, and we were not traveling toward some fixed destination
able to follow them until they pulled out progress by surging leaps through the
The only certain way of water, swimming alternately on the

on the ice.
hunting walrus is to shoot them when surface and below it. When an ice pan
SNOW-COVERED PEAKS AT THE HEAD OF MOLLER BAY

The first camp was at Little Mud Bay, an arm of MoUer Bay. The snow had not
in the bear country
yet melted from the mountains, and the tracks made by bears crossing the slopes and ridges could be
readily seen
liesacross their path they dive and go the dark ice resolved itself into a great
under it. On the occasion in question we mass of walrus lying piled across one
were able to keep the walrus in sight for another. Now and then one moved or
many minutes. Each time it disappeared raised its head and bellowed. We had all
we looked for its reappearance along the heard the bellowing for the past two or
course it was obviously following, and three minutes, and now that our atten-
eventually when it came to the surface tion was properly focussed, we marveled
some one discovered it. Among broken that we had gotten so close without
ice it is an easy matter to lose even as seeing the animals sooner.
large an animal as a walrus if it be distant At once the course of the vessel was
eight hundred to a thousand yards. changed and we withdrew a short dis-
Finally the walrus ceased its direct tance to avoid frightening the walrus.
progress and began to swim in small As we slowly departed we noted the
circles. It bellowed and seemed to be vicinity carefully, for an ever-threatening
looking for something. We began to fog was lurking not far away and it was
look for something, too, for we realized very easy to lose sight of the herd. Also
that the animal was trying to locate a we discovered a second lot of walrus on a
herd which must be near by. smaller pan about an eighth of a mile
A mass of discolored ice a half mile from the first herd.
away had attracted some attention, but In a short space of time a plan of attack
had been dismissed as of no importance. was outlined and the two launches were
I turned my field glasses upon it for a put over the side. In the large one Mr.
better look and was amazed to see that and Mrs. Stoll, with McCracken and his
THE EDGE OF THE ICE PACK
The drift ice in the Arctic Ocean forms a more or less continuous edge. Scattered floes may be encoun-
knit bergs and pans
tered at some distance from the pack, but the main body travels as a mass of loosely
ESKIMO GIRL FROM BIG DIOMEDE

The Eskimos from Big Diomede came off to visit the schooner and impressed the expedition members
as a fine lot of healthy and intelligent natives
THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN
During the height of summer the dayhght never completely fades north of the Arctic Circle. At the
hour of sunset in southern latitudes thenorthern sun is yet high in the heavens
THE SCHOONER TIES UP FOR WATER

Water for useon the "Morrissey" was dipped up from pools formed in the ice. On large floes pools of
fresh water are common and the tanks and barrels could be filled bv a bucket brigade in an hour or two
58 NATURAL HISTORY
camera, set out for the main herd, while rudely disturbed them. It was possible
I in the power dory headed for the to drive the boat right up to the milling
smaller band. There was but little walrus and to select a few more specimens
finesse to our plan, for each party ran up to supplement those secured on the ice,
to within a short distance of the walrus and this we proceeded to do, making
and then attempted to pick out satis- certain of a stricken animal by harpoon-
factory specimens and drop them on the ing it and attaching the line to a float.
ice before the mad scramble carried the In doing this there was some risk, for a
animals into the water. At the first walrus, by accident or intention, might
shot the sleepy monsters, that had paid drive a tusk through the launch or rise
no attention to the noise of the motor, beneath the boat and overturn it. The
reared their heads and with one accord Stoll-McCracken party had walrus rising
fell or slid into the sea. In a twinkling close alongside and were kept busy for a
the shapeless mass of bodies had dis- few exciting moments when it looked as if
solved into individuals which took the some of the beasts would put tusks over
most direct course for the edge of the the gunwhale. The engine of my launch
ice. that is, except the few that had
All, was out of order this day and it died com-
been struck in a vital spot by bullets. pletely when we were right among the
Once in the water, the walrus collected walrus, but none of the animals made
into a compact band and began a lei- hostile demonstrations. Incidentally, this
surely retreat, coming to the surface engine trouble so hampered my ability
frequently and rolling sullen angry eyes to move about, that I soon ceased to take
back at the strange creatures who had so a very active part in the hunt, which was
WATCHING FROM THE BOW FOR WALRUS

All of the activity on deck drew to a focus at the bow of the schooner. Here a constant watch was
maintained for walrus, polar bear, and seal
just as well since the

other party secured all
the animals necessary for

our purpose, that is, all
the females, yearlings,

and calves, for these wal-
rus were all of this
category and we saw no
bulls.
The schooner came up

to the scene and the
launches ferried the
heavy carcasses over to
it. A tackle was rigged
and slings put around the
walrus which were hoisted
up on to the deck. There
was great rejoicing that
such fine material for the
group had been secured,
for we had imagined that
we might have to search
a long time for the young
walrus. The cows were
good-sized, typical
animals, and the imma-
ture were represented by
a yearling bull and two
calves of the year. Now
all that was needed to
complete the group re-
quirements were two LOOKING AFT ALONG THE DECK
An ample supply of oil for the Diesel engine had to be carried and a
prime bull walrus. As it large part of this had to be stowed on deck. This, together with cans
turned out, this was to be of gasoline, barrels of water, launches, et cetera, filled almost all of the
deck space. When the schooner ran aground and this had to be all
much more of a task set ashore, the party realized to the full just how much it weighed
than we anticipated.
For the next seventeen days the notice. Depressing fogs enveloped us
schooner wandered about the Arctic with but scant warning, and although
Ocean. From a spot northwest of they usually hfted soon, we could not
Point Barrow, Alaska, nearly 73° north venture very far inside the ice field when
latitude, west nearly to Wrangel Island, the visibility was poor. Following a
and south to the Diomedes and East day or two of high wind and stormy seas,
Cape, Siberia, we cruised and scanned the we ran close to the ice not far off the
ice for walrus. Luck was against us and Siberian coast, presumably about Cape
the rare, fleeting glimpses of solitary Serdze Kamen, and were tantalized by
animals never developed into a hunting the sight of huge bull walrus riding the
opportunity. Strong winds arose and crests of the waves. It was far too rough
shifted the ice fields almost on an hour's to put over a small boat or attempt to
BULL WALRUS ASLEEP ON THE ICE
photograph was taken f roin the approaching
These are the walrus shot by Mr. and Mrs. StoU and the
UnabTe to^'Lsum an upright position because he would cut mto the field of a motion picture
lluneh
machine, the photographer had to expose more or less by
guess
THE END OF A SUCCESSFUL STALK

tusks. The larger of the two
The bull walrus kiUed by Mr. and Mrs. StoU have unusually large are to be mounted for
specimens
shown herrhas a fine symmetrical pair 31 inches long. These
exhibition in the American Museum
AN ESKIMO BILLIKIN
The modern Eskimo has created a two-man skin boat which serves a purpose
intermediate between
ttie large umiak and one-man kyak.
Having no traditional name for it, he has borrowed a foreign
word and calls it a "billikin"
MR. STOLL AND MR. JAQUES ON THE '^PROMENADE DECK"

During clement weather the personnel spent most of the dayhght
hours on deck. Mr. StoU (wearing
glasses) usually was to be found up near the bow
watching for walrus and bear, while Jaques favored
the stern and studied the birds
62 NATURAL HISTORY
go after the quarry and we had to pass on, The wind had been steadily from the
hoping for another encounter when the northward and the ice was moving rapidly
weather moderated. southward. We knew that the western
Low visibihty prevented the Captain ice was unusually far south for the time
from locating our position on the map of the year. We hoped that the eastern
as he slowly retreated southward, feeling pack had not advanced so rapidly. On
for the lee of the ice and seeking for the the morning of August 27 we were close
southern limit of the field. There was to the Siberian coast and with the
the possibility that the "Morrissey" might Diomede Islands in sight to the south-
be caught in a pocket of the ice if the ward. Everywhere between us and
descending wings of the eastern and Siberia stretched closely packed ice,
western fields beat us to Bering Strait while toward the Diomedes and Bering
and consolidated before we got there. Strait there was no visible opening
through the ice pans. As
far as we could see the
Strait was packed with
solid ice!
Allthat day the schoon-
er made the best speed it
could to the eastward,

skirting the ice, while
up in the barrel the
Captain looked for the
eastern limits of the field.
There was considerable

reliefwhen it was finally
discovered that the
Strait was open from
Cape Prince of Wales
almost to Little Diomede.
None of us liked the
prospect of having to
spend the winter ice-
bound in a small schoon-
er, and while a knowledge
of what could be expected

told us that a southerly
wind would soon clear
the ice out of the Strait,
it was a more comfort-
able feeling late that
afternoon to be on the
southern fiank of the ice
field with open water
CAPTAIN BARTLETT SHOOTS THE SUN between us and civiliza-
Captain "Bob" Bartlett never missed an opportunity to "take the tion and looking out on
sun." The constant presence of clouds and fog force a skipper to
the ice from the safer
keep his position on the chart up to the minute, for he does not know
when or for how long they may hide the sun side.
A FUR SEAL PUP
The fur seals begin to come to the Pribilof Islands in May
and leave in November. Earlv in this
season the pups are born, a smgle young to a mother, and by the
end of the season they have grown
enough to be able to accompany the old seals on their long migration
at sea
A BULL FUR SEAL AT ST. GEORGE

the expedition spent a morning visiting the large rookery
^^"^ Pribilofs,
there, ^^r^""
fhpr?" ^f^"^^'
ihe seals i
""""f
are not alarmed very much at the approach of man. On the contrary, the male
seals are aggressive, chargmg fiercely if a visitor
comes too close to the
harem
64 NATURAL HISTORY
we ran across a ceptionally large and well-shaped tusks.
As luck would have it,
large herd of walrus this same afternoon. The weight of these bulls taxed our tackle
They had come southward with the ice to the utmost and stalled the winch. Even
and now that the wind had gone down and the skins were so heavy it required three
or four men with block and tackle to move
the sun was out (this day had been ex-
ceptionally clear and summer-hke for the them. When these animals are mounted
Arctic) they were sleeping on the ice and and the completed group occupies one
making the most of the good weather. of the large cases in the Hall of Ocean
nightfall to go after our Life, the full and adequate representa-

It was too near
specimens so we spent the night hove-to tion of the Pacific walrus will be the sole
Mr. determination, in
near by. In the morning the animals had result of Stoll's
moved off, seemingly to the westward, the face of obstacles and discouragements,
and thither the schooner followed. to secure a satisfactory group, if the
The animals were relocated on the ice expedition did nothing else all summer.
on August 30 and, although the wind As a matter of fact, the securing of the
was rising and blowing on to the ice, so group did exhaust the short Arctic season,
that we were on what is termed the and after a brief and fruitless attempt to
weather edge, not a nice place to be with get several more bull walrus as personal
low-powered craft, the launch was put trophies, the schooner left the ice on
overside and an attempt made to com- September 3 and began the long run
Mr. and Mrs. Stoll southward. was a cause of great
It
plete our group.
regret in leaving the Arctic Ocean that
had the good fortune to make a perfect
stalk on two splendid, big, bull walrus not even one polar bear had been sighted.
asleep on a small pan of ice. McCracken On the other hand, the season was said
and I took photographs as the launch to be an unusual one, the ice had closed
in very early, one schooner had been
crept up to the pair, and when the shots
were fired and both animals collapsed driven ashore by ice near Point Barrow,
before they could move off the and one or two other vessels
we hurried to get a closer were trapped by ice along the
ice,
Siberian side. Under the
view to ascertain if they had
we had circumstances we might
tusks as large as
Our long count ourselves
hoped for.
fortunate in having
search was well re-
accomplished our
paid, for the bulls
major purpose
were far finer than
without any undue
the average, and one
mishap.
in particular had ex-
A BALD EAGLE COMING IN TO ITS NEST

Tjiey are re-
Bald ea«^les are abundant in southern Alaska and out along the Alaskan Peninsula.
iheir nests
markabfy fearless and fly close to man, failing to recognize him as a potential danger,
are found on every high or detached spire of rock
'THE LONG BROWN
PATH"
HOW NATURE PLANTS HER FLOWERS

The Many Ways^That Flowers and Trees Scatter Their Seeds—How the Wind
Aids Some—How Birds and Animals Carry Others—The Extraordinary
Diversity of These Natural Methods
By CLYDE FISHER
Curator of Visual Instruction, American Museum
Photographs by the Attthor
Flower in the crannied wall,

I pluck you out of the crannies; —
/ hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Ldttle flower —but if I could under staiid
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
—Tennyson.
THE love of beauty seems to be in-
nate. There seems to have been
influence our appreciation of wild flowers
and birds and other objects of nature.
born in every human mind a love This significant fact is a plea for arousing
of the beautiful in one form or another, and cultivating an interest in the outdoors
and surely in most persons this embraces at an early age. Burroughs speaks of the
our wild flowers in their great variety of ''memory-stirring" note of the meadow-
form and color and fragrance. Some of lark.
these flowers are to be looked for along Plants five as animals five. Many
roadsides and in cultivated meadows, lower forms have powers of locomotion
others in marshes and bogs, others in highly developed. Some plants, for
shady woods, and still others on moun- example the wheat-rust, a parasite, seem
tain tops. Some plants grow only in acid to migrate in a way analagous to the
soil, while others are to be found only in seasonal migration of
animals. The
limestone regions. But wherever they insectivorous plants entrap insects and
occur, they attract our attention because digest them as some animals do. Here
of their beauty. belong the pitcher-plants, the sundews,
For some reason, perhaps not easy the butterworts, the bladderworts, and
to explain, our early associations strongly Venus's fly-trap. Some plants, like the
66 NATURAL HISTORY
DANDELION'S SPHERE OF PARACHUTES

After the flowers fade and while the seeds are ripening, the hollow stalk grows longer, thiis Hfting the
ball of seeds with their parachutes so that they may be more effectively wafted away on the breeze
slime molds or myxomycetes, have a This habit of traveling, which is uni-

plant phase and an animal phase. In versal among plants, is an
obviously
fact, some biologists consider these organ- advantage to the individual species, for
isms animals and call them mycetozoa. if all the seeds produced by a given plant
This recalls a fascinating essay by Huxley would fall straight down to the ground
on the borderland between the vegetable and were allowed to remain and to germi-
and animal kingdoms. nate there, the resultant overcrowding
Many of our conspicuous flowering can easily be imagined. Of course, this
plants have extended their range, have does not occur in any absolute sense,
traveled far in historic time. Most of the although there are some approaches to it.
so-called weeds of our roadsides and cul- In practically all cases, however, there
tivated fields in eastern United States are means of scattering the seeds far and
have been introduced from the Old wide. In many instances clever devices
World. This is true of yarrow, dandelion, astonishing in their effectiveness have
daisy, bouncing Bet, butter-and-eggs, been developed by the plants themselves.
corn-cockle, shepherd's-purse, Queen- In other cases there seem to be no special
Anne's lace, viper's bugloss, and many devices. It is doubtful whether it is
others. Occasionally one has come from generally appreciated that myriads of
the western United States, as black-eyed seeds are moved, and to long distances in
or brown-eyed Susan, and occasionally the aggregate, by the water that falls as
one comes from South America, as Galin- rain, while it is flowing over the surface
soga, a small weed with inconspicuous, of the earth before it has collected into
composite flowers. the recognized brooks and larger streams.
HOW NATURE PLANTS HER FLOWERS 67
One of the commonest and most fre- perhaps most astonishingly complex and
quently observed methods of seed-dis- beautiful of all flying devices of the dande-
persal is that dependent upon the wind, lion type are those of goat's-beard and
and there are at least three different salsif3^
devices for the accompUshment of this. We find flying-hairs of a different type

First, are those with flying-hairs, for ex- in willows, milkweeds, goldenrods, asters,
ample, the dandelion. Every one is famil- thistles,and very greatly developed in
iar with the wonderful little parachutes, cotton. The lint or fibers of cotton,
one attached to each seed, and all arranged which are woven into cloth, are the flying-
in a ball on the scape that previously hairs from the cotton-seeds.
bore the head of flowers, which is known Just as dependent upon the wind is a
to the child as the dandelion flower. great group of plants whose fruits or
"The dandelion's coin of gold seeds have wings. Examples of these are
Anew is minted on the lawn." the maples, the elms, the ashes, trumpet-
But how many of us have observed that flower, cross- vine, and ailanthus. One
the scape or stalk of the dandelion grows has only to toss up a handful of maple
much longer between the time of flowering seeds or ailanthus seeds when a breeze is
and the ripening of the seed? This blowing to observe how the wings func-
lengthening serves to lift the head of tion.
fruits or the ball of seeds with the para- The tumble-weeds and tumble-grasses
chutes up above the grass and other sur- constitute a third group of plants which
rounding plants, so that the wind may depend upon the wind to scatter their
waft them away more effectively. seeds. All of the tumble-weeds are more
Similar to the dandeHon's flying or less globular in shape, and have the
appendages are those of colt's-foot, and habit, when the seeds are nearly ripe, of
TROUT-LILY BESIDE THE BROOK

John Burroughs referred to this spring flower as the trout-Uly or fawn-lily, because of the mottled or
spotted leaves. An additional reason for the former name is its frequent habit of growing along trout
streams
aSE;
TWIN-FLOWER OF THE NORTH WOODS

for the great Swedish botanist, Lmnûs.
form oof this flower, Unnâ borealis. was named
The European torm ^^^^^^^ fragrance
^^^.^^^ ^^, ^^^^^^^ ^^^.^.^^ ^^^.^^^ ^^^ ^^^
TEA FAMILY
A BEAUTIFUL MEMBER OF THE CAMELLIA OR '''"
Mountain Stewartia, a shrub whose large, showy
along the mountam V'^Xn'lXvTot'eorir''''
streams from Kentucky to Georgia
GRAY SQUIRREL BURYING A NUT
The seeds of many of our nut-bearing forest trees are without doubt transported and planted by
mice, chipmunks, and squirrels
WATER-HYACINTH
This floating plant is often blown about on lakes or slow-moving streams in Florida, where it has been a
nuisance to navigation
70 NATURAL HISTORY
El- .-'•>
HOW NATURE PLANTS HER FLOWERS 71
Virginia knotweed there is a cushion of cherry trees which spring up along our
elastic cells at the base of each fruit, fences,came from seeds carried in this
which throw the ripe fruit or seed a way. Robins and starlings carry not
distance of several feet when the hook, only cherry-seeds but also the seeds of
formed by the dried style of the flower, is the flowering dogwood, and other trees
pressed. In the squirting cucumber the and shrubs.
fruit becomes very turgid upon ripening, Fourth: Certain birds store away or
and finally the pressure is great enough hide seeds, —for example the blue-jay
to push the stem out, leaving a hole hides or puts away acorns in various
through the rind. The seeds, which are places, sometimes in abandoned birds'
held in suspension in the liquid contents nests; the tufted titmouse hides or places
of the fruit, are squirted out with the pine seeds in the chinks of bark of trees;
liquid through the hole at the stem-end of the California woodpecker regularly stores
the cucumber. acorns in holes which it drills in tree-
The violets, the wild geraniums or trunks or in posts. In many cases these
crane's-bills, and many members of the seeds are eatenby the birds, but there is
bean family have explosive fruits, and for no doubt that some of them reach the soil,
different reasons. perhaps by being washed down by rain,
Plants, whose seeds are carried hy ani- and germinate.
mals, may be divided into several groups. Fifth Many rodents store up nuts for
:
First: Fruits or seeds

with hooks, as in burdock,
cockle-bur, stick-tights,
Spanish-needles, tick-tre-
foil, hoarhound, sand-
bur, and many others.
Everyone is familiar with
the way these burs or
hooked fruits are carried
on the clothing of human
animals, in the mane
and foretops of horses,
in the wool of sheep,
and on the coats of fur-
bearing animals.
Second Seeds of plants
:
are carried long distances

on the toes of migrating
waterfowl, as Darwin
proved in an experiment
which he described.
Third: Fleshy fruits
containing seeds, which
are indigestible, are eaten
by birds and animals, and
transported far from the
parent plants.
BUMBLEBEE ASLEEP IN THE FLOWER OF A HOLLYHOCK
Probably
Photographed on an autumn morning before the sun had warmed the
many of the wild black bee into activity
BRO'W'N-EyED SUSAN
The brown-eyed Susan, or
black-ej'ed Susan, has been
introduced from the western
United States
QUEEN-ANNE'S LACE
The flat^topped umbel of
Queen-Anne's lace or wild
carrot usually has in the cen-
ter an aborted flower, brown
in color. By the time the
seeds are ripe the umbel has
become concave and dense,
closely resembhng a bird's
nest
WIND-BLOWN PODS OF
THE MILKWEED
The seeds of the milkweed are
scattered by the wind
74 NATURAL HISTORY
food in positions well adapted to lead to were not killed, it is altogether possible
planting. One of the best examples is the that it would not find and dig up all the
gray squirrel which buries many nuts nuts it has buried. Those not found
—
each autumn, one nut at a place. would be in fine position to grow.
After a gray squirrel has buried fifty or It is believedthat squirrels and mice
one hundred nuts, let us suppose that the have a great deal to do with transporting
squirrel comes to some tragic end, —he and planting the seeds (nuts) of forest trees.
may be shot by a hunter or killed by a In this brief article only a few of nature's
dog. Then what is hkety to happen to the methods of scattering seeds can be
buried nuts? They are in excellent posi- mentioned or described. There are many
tion for germination. In case the squirrel others, and every one is interesting.
'Happy is he who understands the causes of things.
A PARENT CEDAR AND ITS CHILDREN

The overcrowding due to the lack of efficient means of scattering the seeds is well illustrated by this
old red cedar and its offspring
! A
Royal Flame Trees Silhouetted Against a Tropical Sunset
NEW CALEDONIA
A MODERN FRAGMENT OF THE ANCIENT WORLD
An Island in the South Pacific Ocean so Isolated for Ages that Its Plants and
Animals and Landscapes Carry One Back to a Past Geological Age —
Setting Almost Like That of a Different Planet
By WILMATTE PORTER COCKERELL
THE silhouettes of flamboyant trees

always be associated in our
will
edonia has been pretty well explored, we
hoped there might be some new things in
minds with the island of New our special field, the solitary bees, and
Caledonia. This tree, well called the the snails, but we went rather as students
royal flame tree, and voted by many than collectors. Some of the questions
plant lovers the most beautiful tree in over which we pondered were Why are
:
the' world, is a native of Madagascar, there no mammals in the island except

but has been planted all over the tropics, bats, no snakes except sea snakes, no
and in New Caledonia the French have amphibians except the frogs that the
—
planted hundreds planted them in long French have introduced, few bees, few
avenues, in groups in gardens, or perhaps butterflies, but many species of grass-
just single trees near a lake or pool so hopper-like insects? The island is con-
placed that the lovely shadow may be tinental, the geologists tell us, but the con-
reflected in the water. tinent of which it was a part must have
When Professor Cockerell and I were been broken up in early geological times,
deciding upon an island to explore, we though there were connections later with
chose New Caledonia because, having parts of this old continent. Well, it was
many forms, both plants and animals, all tremendously interesting
peculiar to the island, it is of the greatest I must confess that before we reached
interest to naturalists. Island areas often Australia, New Caledonia was little
throw great light on the history of this more than a name to me, although it is
old world of ours, and though New Cal- the second largest of the Pacific Islands,
76 NATURAL HISTORY
A HUT AT ST. LOUIS, NEW CALEDONIA

Many laborers have been imported from Java and French Indo China and these perform most of the
work on the island. Huts such as this, made largely of grass, are almost universal among these people
New Zealand being first. I had learned in villeas in New

Caledonia, and to re-
my geography years ago that New Cale- member though the plant is South
that,
donia belonged to the French and that American, even in this far-away island
it was used as a penal settlement, and which Bougainville was the first to pic-
later, when I read the life of that intrepid ture in imagination though not actually
explorer, Captain Cook, I
found that it to discover, his name is linked with one of
was he who discovered and named the the common garden plants.
island, calling it New Caledonia because The history of New Caledonia is full
of its physical resemblance to Scotland. of interest through its period of dis-

Like the largest of the Madeira Islands, covery and exploration; through the
New Caledonia was not discovered until period of missionary activity beginning
years after the smaller islands of the about 1840; the period when the island
archipelago (New Caledonia and outliers was a French penal settlement; and the
and the Loyalties) were known. De last thirty years, which might be called
Bougainville, sailing south from the New the period of commercial development.
Hebrides, noticed coconuts and branches Since 1853 New Caledonia has been a
around him, and this
floating in the sea French colony, although almost imme-
he told to Cook who landed at Balade on diately after its discovery the French
the northeast coast September 4, 1774. missionaries began their work, and its
The name of Bougainville is well known annexation to France was largely due to
to plant lovers because of the beautiful their influence. The natural history of
plants belonging to the genus Bougain- the island owes much to these early mis-
villea, vines grown in the North as pot sionaries. One of them, Father Mon-
plants in the greenhouses, and giving a trouzier, made extensive collections and
riot of color over trees, or as hedges and described and named many insects and
fences in tropical and subtropical coun- snails —in fact was a sort of Linnaeus of
tries. It was a delight to see the bougain- the island and its outliers. We visited
NEW CALEDONIA 77
the church where he worked for many of other ages that one sees in geologies.
years,and our friends tried to get permis- A superficial survey of plant forms is
sion to copy his photograph, and to interesting, but gives little idea of the
record something of his hfe at St. Louis strangeness of parts of the "bush" of
but the resident fathers
for this article, New Caledonia, a ''bush' most like that
'
were more interested in piety than in of the Mountains of the Moon in Africa.
Montrouzier's biological pursuits. A coniferous tree has been of
that
The plants of the island are quite as great interest since the discovery of the
interesting as the animals, and carry us island, is Araucaria cookii, named for
even farther back in the making of land Captain Cook. It grows to a height of
areas. Hardly fifteen years ago Compton more than 200 feet with very straight
from England spent three years on the and imposing shafts. On the approach of
island studying the plant life. He made Captain Cook's vessel to the Isle of
a collection of 830 flowering plants, of Pines, these trees were mistaken for
which 230 were new species with 10 columns of basalt, so different is their
new genera. In the discussion of Comp- form from that of ordinary trees. Even
ton's report, Doctor Seward, of Cam- Banks and Solander, the naturalists of
bridge, said that the plants of New Cale- the expedition, insisted that the columns
donia carry us further back in the history were mineral, after other members of
of plant than the plants of any other
life the expedition, among them the great
region of the earth's surface. We found Captain, had conceded that the curious
that wandering through the "scrub" columns must be trees. And although
was like being on a different planet or we were quite familiar with the historical
being carried back into a past geological account, and had even seen pictures of
age, so like was the landscape to pictures this remarkable tree, we had the same
A GARDEN AT A RAILWAY STATION

These flame trees, two of which are shown here, are said by many to be among the most beautiful
trees in the world. They have been introduced from Madagascar
78 NATUBAL HISTORY
illusion that they must be mineral the history of the world to the naturalist.
columns, when we saw them for the first As in Australia, the introduced plants
time. have completely changed the landscape
The island has a native Cycas, a very in places —
guavas and oranges grow wild
beautiful species which we saw in the bush in such numbers that it is hoped to make
near Bourail; fourteen kinds of Cas- them of commercial value. The intro-
surina trees; no Eucalyptus trees, but duced grasses have become such a pest
great forests of the beautiful niaouli that sheep raising is no longer profitable,
trees which are near relatives of the since the seeds of the grasses get into the
eucalyptus though probably more primi- wool and make it almost impossible to
tive in their characters; four kinds of clean. Many species of introduced weeds
endemic palms and several species of flourish; we saw the common dandelion
endemic mosses, and since mosses are so which is such a pest in Colorado. There
widespread, this is rather specially sig- were places where the lantanas were
nificant. There are many species of almost as thick as in the Hawaiian
ferns and orchids so that in places the Islands.
bush looks very one of the great hot-
like The principal crops are coffee, coconuts,
houses of Kew. These are only a few and rice, and though we saw a few very
of the ways in which the native plants good fields of sugar cane, we were told
interest the traveler, and give ideas about that the weather made cane growing
A NATIVE OF NEW CALEDONIA

European colonists have often found that the natives
of colonized lands have not lent themselves to
the white man's ways. This is true of these natives. They are not, in the European's eyes, "good
workers," and the French of New Caledonia have been forced to obtain the laborers they require from
other East Indian lands
NEW CALEDONIA 79
A CHARACTERISTIC SCENE IN THE INTERIOR

The huts shown in this photograph were occupied by Indo Chinese imported to New Caledonia. The
"niaoli" trees and the "bush" shown are typical of the island
difficult and that the fieldswe saw were pleaded that he was too busy, though
grown for the purpose of making rum. we felt that his occupations should have
The climate is variable, and instead of left some time for giving help to a
having wet and dry seasons, New Cale- visiting naturalist. We received so
donia has wet and dry years. In places much help everywhere that Mr. Ross's
plants for irrigation have been installed, attitude was very disappointing, for in
but often the same land that is irrigated the high forests we should have
certainly
one year must be drained the next, found new forms of the splendid Pla-
making all agricultural work uncertain costylus (the fine land snails abounding
and costly. Some of the coastal islands in the island) and just possibly have seen
have valuable deposits of guano. the wonder bird of the island, the world-
The greatest wealth of the island is in famous kagu.
its mines of chrome, nickel, cobalt, We found some of the residents inter-
copper, lead, and there is some silver and ested in natural history, particularly in
gold. The chrome mines are said to be corals, shellfish, fish, and birds, and our
Some profitable
the largest in the world. host, M. Paul Bloc at Plum Farm, was a
timber cutting is carried on, and we very efficient and a delightful
collector
found a timber company from Australia guide. Dr. Jean Risbec was the only
taking out the valuable Kauri pine trees naturalist we met. He was formerly a
from the high country. This company teacher but is now employed by the
has a small railroad running up to the government to investigate sea life. He is
region of their concession, and as we were the author of a very beautiful book on
very anxious to get into the hill regions, sea slugs or nudibranchs, and we had a
we tried to get permission to travel on delightful afternoon with him looking
this road. Unfortunately, we could only over his drawings and discussing the
go by courtesy of the manager of the distribution of these very fascinating
sawmill, Mr. Howard Ross, but he always little sea animals. He told us that he
80 NATURAL HISTORY
had and described about seventy
collected the Trocas shells. Tons of these disks
new from the reefs of New Cale-

species are sent to France, where the process of
donia and outliers, and hoped to find turning them into pearl buttons is com-
many more. The beautiful nautilus pleted. Mr. Levin, a young American,
were a dehght to us.
shells along the shore who came as a visitor to the islands but
We alsofound the cuttle bones of two who was staying to install the machinery
species of squid, which proved to be of for making jelly from the wild guavas and
especial interest to Mr. Iredale of the marmalade from the wild oranges, took
Sydney Museum. We visited the factory us about in his car and gave us help in
where pearl disks were being cut from many ways.
All along the coast and
on the near-by islands
there are species of the
large land snails belong-
ing to the genus Placosty-
lus. These snails are es-
teemed as delicacies both

by the natives and the
French, so it was easy to
get good series of the
different forms. Snails
are perhaps the best ani-
mals to show the history
of land building, since
they have such limited
powers of locomotion.
The native people are
of two very easily recog-
nized groups, although
in recent years there has
been much intermarriage.
We thought the Kanaka
children delightful. In
many ways it is much
easier to be a child in a
primitive cultural group,
for reasons quite appar-
ent even to a casual ob-
server. Like our Indians,
the Kanakas are seldom
good workers, so that
the French import
Photograph hy D. Seth-Smith
Javanese and Tonkinese
KAGUS IN CAPTIVITY
These|rare birds have been known to live a dozen years or more in to do the work of the
confinement, and their voices have been compared to the sounds island.
made by puppies. Though the external appearance is heron-like,
anatomical studies have shown them to be more nearly allied to There were many in-
cranes. They are flightless birds about the size of small chickens, teresting birds. Among
and though their long legs make it possible for them to run rapidh^
they seldom do so them were the honey
!
NEW CALEDONIA 81
THE REEF-PROTECTED BEACH OF NEW CALEDONIA

The coral reef New Caledonia is second in size only to the
surrounding the island of Great Australian
Barrier Reef
eaters which take the place of the humming beautiful wide-spreading wings, though
birds of the Americas. These were especial- flightless, and long legs which it seldom
ly attractive, both with their bright colors uses for running. When attacked by an
and active movements as they visited the enemy, it settles in the bush and covers
flowers of shrubs and trees, and took their its body with its wings and erects its
part in the evening bird chorus as I splendid crest. Of course it is an easy
stayed in the first darkness among the prey for dogs or hunters.
niaoli trees near Plum Farm. What a Besides the usual dogs kept as pets,
sight must be the large wide-spreading many dogs are kept to hunt deer, an
trees with sheets of crimson flowers alive Indian stag introduced several years
with active, noisy lorikeets and beauti- ago and now considered one of the worst
ful honey eaters! Sarasin and Roux, of pests, though we found that venison
celebrated Swiss naturalists, whose was much appreciated as food and is
reports on the fauna of the island are even canned for export. So it would
classical, Hst seven species of these de- seem that the success of the deer is likely
lightful little birds, and Doctor Leach, to cause the extinction of the kagu, so
a recent ornithological visitor from long one of the wonders of New Cale-
Australia, recognized five of these species. donia. The bird was even given a place
Along the shore we saw several species on the stamps of the country a few years
of plovers, and it seemed very amazing ago.
that many of them had come from their The kagu is an ancient, generalized
breeding grounds in Siberia. The long type, and confined to this bit of the old
is
trek of bird migrants always stirs one's southern continent which some naturalists
appreciation and wonder, but a trek from call Gondwanaland. Three such birds
Siberia to the far-away New Caledonia are known: the kagu, the sun bitterns
is almost beyond behef of South America, and the peculiar
The most famous bird of New Cale- Mesites of Madagascar. At one time
donia is the unique kagu, a bird with these birds were grouped together, but
82 NATURAL HISTORY
now the Madagascar bird is placed with about the yard (a bird of quite a differ-
the scratchers. The real systematic ent group). Only one egg is laid and
place of these aberrant types is still the probably only one young is raised each
subject of much speculation. year, though the natives have an amusing
The kagu is a dehcate blue-gray, with myth of the hen bird leaving an egg
its feathers very loosely webbed, giving behind for the jealous cock when she
the crest a flower-like appearance. The scuttles into the bush with her newly
bill and legs are red-orange. The bird is hatched chick.
about the size of a small hen, though the A. J. Campbell of Sydney, Australia,
body has quite a different shape, and the has had a chick hatched in confinement,
legs are long. We despaired of seeing the the period of incubation being thirty-six
bird in its wild state, for the hunters days. The young is described as a fluffy
have driven it back into the mountain ballwith a big heavy head, the color being
areas, but fortunately people sometimes dark brown with light fawn markings.
keep kagus as pets, and we went to see the Reluctantly we left this old corner of
two belonging to Mrs. Jackson. Their the broken-up continent Gondwanaland,
owner was not at home, but the black but felt had come to be a very real
that it
servant took great pride in showing us continent to us. Much work must be
the birds. This she said was Monsieur done with all groups of animals and
Kagu and that was his wife Madame plants, as well as with fossils and with
Kagu. When asked if they would breed structural geology, before we can define
in captivity she said: "Oui, oui, and that the boundaries of Gondwanaland or even
is the eldest son, young Monsieur Kagu," picture in imagination the vicissitudes
pointing to a small gray heron Meandering through which it must have passed.
"THE PERCHED ROCK"' NEAR BOURAIL

Manj- swallows, locally called "swiftlets," nest about this rock and in the arch of the cave from which
. this photograph was taken
STRANGE ANIMALS OF THE
ISLAND CONTINENT
The First of Two Articles Descriptive of
the Many Unique Animals of the
Australian Region
By H. C. raven
Associate Curator, Human and Comparative
Anatomy, American Museum
.v. r. zooi. So
CAMPED high in the mountains of foregoing his usual daily sleep in order to
Central Celebes, was sitting with
I feed on the fruit of a tall forest tree.
my three Malayan companions I told Sempa to chmb the tree and
drive
close to a fire built on the floor of a palm- the timpausu down where we might cap-
thatched hut. We heard an animal up ture it, but
was surprised when, after a
I
in a treetop in the dense mist and dark- little persuasion on my part, Sempa began
ness outside, give and repeat its faint call to fasten his feet together for the
— 'Huc-tuc-tuc-tuc cuc-tuc-tuc-tuc." up the smooth trunk. He was
chmb
clad only
In the low country of this East Indian in a loin cloth, but of course carried
his
island after dark, the buzzing and parang in a wooden sheath that was
humming of the insects of the jungle always fastened about his waist. When he
would probably have made it impossible reached the branch on which the tim-
to hear such a faint call; not so, however, pausu rested, the animal hissed at him and
in this cool,moss-covered forest between backed out on the branch, away from the
six and seven thousand feet altitude. trunk. Sempa carried several pieces of
One of my natives was a Tor ad j a boy rattan with which to attempt to snare the
about ten or eleven years old, and it was timpausu, but it was not a very easy
he, speaking in the Malay he had learned matter for him to get the noose over its
during the three months he had been with head and still more difficult to draw it
us, who said the voice we heard was that taut, for as soon as the animal felt the
of the 'Himpausu," an animal which rattan he scratched it off. Finally, how-
climbed about in the treetops, ate leaves ever, Sempa with a wonderful display of
and fruits, and carried its young in a agility managed to snare the beast by the
pocket. head, body, and feet, so that it was com-
A few days later, while we were eating pletely helpless. It was then lowered to us.
our midday meal, one of the boys glanced This marsupial proved to be of a species
down the steep slope of the mountain new to science and was named Phalanger
and chanced to see something moving furvus by Miller and Hollister. It was the
about in a treetop about a hundred yards third species to be described from Celebes
away. The small boy, Sempa, was sent and is the largest living phalanger. The
to see what was there. He stalked quietly other two species are fau-ly conmion in
under cover of the ^dense vegetation and some parts of the island. The natives
then called back that the animal was a have for centuries killed them for food,
timpausu, the largest he had ever seen. I and until comparatively recent times,
went immediately to the spot and found for their scent or musk glands, that are
that this nocturnal animal was apparently hke similar glands in the civet. These
i
HUNTING FOR
PHALANGERS
The Australian aboriginal,
or Black fellow, climbs trees
with the aid of a piece of
bark or a vine that he loops
about the trunk. He hunts
for the phalangers in holes in
the trunk and in the
branches
A FOREST CAMP
The expedition made short
trips into the dense"scrub"
between the top of the
escarpment and the coast.
Here they collected marsu-
pials not found in the open
eucalyptus forest
AUSTRALIAN
ABORIGINAL HUTS
These crude dwellings are
covered with eucalyptus
bark and grass. The
natives who occupy them
live upon wild fruits and
grass seeds and with the aid
of dingoes, or wild dogs
which they have domesti-
cated,hunt various marsu-
pials
FELLING A BIG TREE IN

ORDER TO CATCH A
SMALL ANIMAL
Trees three feet or more in
diameter were felled in the
search for the pygmy flying
—
phalanger a creature so
tiny that a whole family can
be held in the palm of one's
hand
86 NATURAL HISTORY
have found their way into the hands of lian naturalist, as to the best manner of
Buginese, Arab, and Chinese traders on hunting it. According to him the equip-
the coast just as wild beeswax, copal, ment required was a "half-axe" (an axe-
rattan, and other products from the man) and a pair of binoculars. A search
jungle have done. must then be made for trees with holes
Usually the natives secured the pha- suitable for nesting sites for the mouselike
langers by shooting them with poisoned creatures. If the binocular reveals tiny
darts from their long bamboo blowpipes, claw marks and scratches about the en-
or else by snaring the simple-minded trance to the hole, simply cut down the
creatures with a rattan noose, or with a tree and take out the phalanger.
still stronger noosemade from the root It was winter in the highlands of north-
of the sugar palm (Arenga saccharifera) ern New South Wales when we wandered
set on the branches of trees frequented about through the beautiful open forest
by the animals. composed mostly of trees known locally
Several years after my experiences as "stringy barks" (Eucalyptus ohliqua)
with phalangers in Celebes was collecting
I and "white gums" (Eucalyptus hsemas-
zoological material in Australia, the home- toma). Many of these were great tall
land of a wonderful assortment of pouched trees and had rather sparse foliage on
all
mammals. The pygmy flying phalanger their peculiarly gnarled and twisted
(Acrohates pygmasus) was one of the chief branches. Scattered among them were a
desiderata and was very difficult to secure. few smaller trees, the most remarkable
I was therefore dehghted to get advice being the peculiar "bottle brush" tree
from Mr. Harry Burrell, a famous Austra- (Banksia) . The ground beneath them was
THE PYGMY FLYING PHALANGER

This phalanger (Acrohates ipygmccus) is also called the "feather tail," because its tail has short hair on
the upper and lower surfaces and long hair on the sides
STRANGE ANIMALS OF THE ISLAND CONTINENT 87
A DIMINUTIVE MOTHER
This tiny flying phalanger (the same specimen as shown on the opposite page) the size of a mouse,
was found hibernating. In its pouch were four young ones, each the size of a small bean
covered with a very fine-leafed grass, now As soon as it was decided that the
pale buff and dry and strewn with strips "spout" looked promising, my "half-axe"
of eucalyptus bark and branches. companion set to work to fell the tree,
High on the side of the bole of a tower- which was about three feet in diameter.
ing eucalypt I saw a "spout" where a When I asked him which way it would
branch, years before, had broken off. fall, he replied that he could fell it in any
Decay had followed back the course of the direction I wished —

and he did.
branch in its growth and burrowed deep In an hour or less the tree was down.
into the side of the tree.The growing The hole in the "spout" was not as big
wood about the entrance to this cavity as it had looked, not even large enough to
now formed a heavy protruding fold that permit my hand to enter. Besides, the
in time would close the wound. The entrance was covered with ice in which
opening, however, still appeared to be were bits of leaves and bark. There was
three or four inches in diameter and there evidently a nest inside. It was therefore
were undoubtedly little scratches on the necessary to chop through the side of
smooth light-colored bark about the the "spout," but when a small hole was
entrance. made, the presence of the nest became a
It seemed a shame to cut such a fine certainty and the "spout" had to be
tree but here it really made no differ- chopped off completely, an awkward job
ence, for all the trees at this particular for any but a skilled axe-man. Then the
place were doomed to be either cut or nest was opened. On the outside were
ringbarked so that better grass might the long lanceolate leaves of the eucalypt
grow beneath for the pasturage of cattle. and inside was its finely shredded bark,
Courtesy of N. Y. Zoological Society
AUSTRALIAN OPOSSUM
The comraou vulpine phalanger {Trichosurns vulpecitla) gets its name from its foxlike visage. It is the
Australian opossum of the fur trade and the commonest of the Australian fur bearers

THE MEDIUM-SIZED FLYING PHALANGER
This creature (Petaiirus) is commonly called a squirrel in Austraha, for it closely parallels the American
flying squirrel in size, color, and habits, though in fundamental characters it is not related to this
rodent but belongs in the same group with the kangaroos
A RING-TAILED PHALANGER
^^^^.^™^'^^«) i« the limited area of tropical
S'coasfof
tne OnplTL^d'^'f
SVrfh Queensland.
coast ot Worth rain forest along
Another
'^;t''"" species
ranges over the greater part of the forested
area of
the continent
Courti.-^y of X. Y. Zooloijiral Sociefii

A CAPTIVE AUSTRALIAN OPOSSUM
ihis animal is one of the most generalized phalangers and is
often found wandering on the o-round
It vanes in color from pale silvery gray
to a deep reddish-brown
90 NATURAL HISTORY
forming a dry covering for a beautiful shoot from the saddle, or slip to the
little animal not larger than a mouse,
ground to shoot. The best sport, how-
ever,is to chase the kangaroo on horse-
with the form and almost the coloring
of our American flying squirrel. back with a couple of "kangaroo dogs"
At first it was dead but we
we thought or greyhounds. I found this great sport
soon learned that it was only hibernating. but by no means a sure way to secure the
After being taken back to camp and kept kangaroo.
in a warm place for an hour or more, it When pursued through the tall grass,
roused. We then examined it carefully the great gray kangaroo bounds away
and found it to be a female with four with amazing speed and ease. At a little
minute young ones in its pouch, each the distance the greyhounds cannot be seen,
size of a small bean, naked, blind, and all only the kangaroo bobbing up and down
hibernating, too. and dodging from side to side. Appar-
Besides the phalangers already men- ently the kangaroo hops high enough to
tioned and many others related to them, see the logs and gullies in time to avoid or
same locality many more jump them, but several times I have seen
there live in the
pouched mammals, foremost among them dogs stopped or hurt by running into a
the kangaroo. hidden log. This reminds me of the
and largest,
Kangaroos are hunted by stalking them following passages taken from the account
by Captain James Cook of his voyage of
on foot after the manner practiced in
hunting deer. Many professional kan- exploration to the east coast of Australia.
garoo hunters hunt on horseback and He writes:
EIDING IN ITS MOTHER'S POUCH

and kangaroos lean out of their mothers' pouches and learn to feed on vegetation
Young wallabies
[before being finally turned out into the cold world
Botany Bay, May 1, 1770.

. .We had a transient and
imperfect view of a quad-
ruped about as big as a rab-
bit [a rat kangaroo]. Mr.
Bank's greyhound, which was
with us, got sight of it and
would probably have caught
it, but the moment he set off
he lamed himself against a

stump which lay concealed in
the long grass.
And further, when the
kangaroo was first seen,
near the mouth of the
Endeavour River:
June 24, 1770, ... I saw
myself one of the animals
which had been so often
described: it was of a Ught
mouse colour, and in size and
shape very much resembling
a greyhound; it had a long
tail also, which it carried hke
a greyhound; and I should
have taken it for a wild dog,
ifinstead of running, it had
NATURE'S CONTRASTS
Figures drawn to scale to show the proportional differences in head
not leapt hke a hare or deer;
and body length between the adult and young at birth, of man and
its legs were said to be very —
the kangaroo. A adult man; B-new born child; C adult kangaroo;—
slender, and the print of its D —new-born kangaroo
foot like that of a goat; but
where I saw it the grass was so high that the
When a kangaroo is born, its crown-rump
legswere concealed, and the ground was too hard
length is less than one inch. In this
to receive the track.
July 8, 1770, they saw four animals of
. . .
immature condition it emerges from the
the same kind, two of which Mr. Bank's grey- cloaca of its mother and immediately
hound fairly chaced, but they threw him out at a starts crawHng upward through the hair
great distance, by leaping over the long grass,
to the pouch. At this stage the fore-
which prevented his running: this animal was
observed not to run upon four legs, but to bound
hmbs of the young kangaroo are actually
or hop forward upon two, Uke the Jerbua, or larger than the hind Kmbs and are pro-
Jaculus. vided with tiny claws. With overhand
These extracts are from the original strokes the young one makes its way
description of the kangaroo. It is inter- unassisted into the pouch, where it locates
esting to note that this description led one of the four teats. The teat is more
^
European naturalists of the time to con- easily received into the mouth of the
sider the kangaroo a sort of giant pouched young one, for as part of the maternal
rodent to jumping mice and
related preparation for this occasion, it has
jerboas on the one hand, and on the other become pointed and Within a
turgid.
to the American opossum, which was the short time after the young animal has
first marsupial ever known to Europeans. seized the teat, this swells out at the tip
One of the most interesting things
'It has been claimed that the mother kangaroo takes
the young at birth and places it on the teat in the pouch.
about marsupials The clumsy paws of a kangaroo are suitable for digging out
is their condition at grass roots, for awkwardly holding grass, and for scratching,
birth and their subsequent development. but certainly not fitted for picking up or handUng the deli-
cate newborn young.
A LITTLE XIGHT PROWLER

The doormouse phalanger {Dromicia), is a seclusive mouselike creature whose prehensile tail is doutless
a safety factor during nightly rambles in the treetops, in search of herbivorous and insectivorous food

ON THE DEFENSIVE
In order to strike with the hind foot, or to get a better view of the surrounding coimtry, kangaroos
stand on their toes and use their tails as props
ArT.TT.T. ^^
Gowêsu of N. Y. Zoologicol Societu
AA c-i^^T
RELATIVE OF THE KANGAROO
The bettong (Bettongta) is one of the rat kangaroos which might
be mistaken for a phalanger
geiuuêre
if it were
not for his greatly elongated hind
feet
FAVORED BY FORTUNE
Ihe most abundant of the Austrahan marsupials is the large flying phalan<xer
for It has a worthless skin and thus escapes the (Petauroides volam
"^t^^^^^-'oides volan,
fur hunter
94 NATURAL HISTORY
to fill the mouth cavity, so that the alarming; however, the ine^dtable result
young is practically buttoned to its parent, is not very distant, provided the
with its mouth representing the button- destruction is allowed to continue.
hole. Several years ago when Prof. WiUiam

In the field the young are often found K. Gregory and I were in Austraha in the
by hunters and trappers at this stage in interests of the American Museum of
the pouch of the slain female, and of Natural History, he expressed through
course when the tiny creature is pulled the Austrahan papers the great zoologic
from the teat, its hps are ruptured and interest of the Austrahan fauna and the
they bleed. This undoubtedly gave rise hope that it would be adequate^ protected
to the widely spread behef among Austra- for posterity. ]\Iany of our Austrahan
han hunters that the marsupial young scientific friends were already deeply inter-
originate and grow on the teat of the ested in the protection of their fauna and
mother. have encouraged the enactment of protec-
In the colder parts of Australia the tive measures.
young kangaroos are born at the begin- The greatest number of marsupial skins
ning of the Austrahan winter (about at present undoubtedly come from

April). They remain in the pouch untU Queensland, but the following figures
spring (October), then run with the from the httle island state of Tasmania
mother during the summer and frequently are characteristic. In their book The
longer. Vertebrate Animals of Tasmania, pubhshed
The Austrahan marsupials are hunted in 1924, ]\Iessrs. Lord and Scott state that
"... during the last
and trapped almost entirely for their
skins, though the flesh of aU the kangaroos
W open season the fol-
,# lowing furred animals

is very good to eat. Naturally they are
were trapped:
taken mostly during the Austrahan Brush phalangers
winter, when the fur is at its best. ("opossums"). .105,968
Ringtail phalangers
This unfortunate^ necessitates
("opossums"). .587,179
killing a pouch young with every
.
Bennett's waUaby
adult female, since every ("kangaroo"). .146,236
normal adult female has a Scrub waUaby 201,365
helpless young one in its The presence of a foreign scien-
pouch at that time. tific collector in their midst seemed
Some Austrahan marsu- to arouse the Tasmanian author-
pials have already be- ities to the defense of theh native
come extinct and the fauna to such an extend that the
ranks of those that are police regulations against collect-
stUl obtainable are yearly ing were, for once at least, rigidly
being thinned by trap- enforced. Finally, however, I was
pers for the fur trade. permitted to collect for the scien-
As the ranks of the best tificand educational purposes of
grade of fur-bearers are the American Museum of Natural
decimated, related History^, ten each of the marsu-
animals somewhat less pials listed above.
desirable are also exploit- Courtesy of the N. Y. Zoological Society
ed. Thus for a few years THE TEEE KANGAKOOS OF NEW GCIXEA AMD AUS-
TRALIA ARE ONE OF NATTTEe'S SUCCESSFUL EXPERI-
the annual decrease in the MENTS IN ADAPTING AN ANIilAL AGAIN TO LIFE
IN THE TREES AFTER IT HAD BECOME HIGHLY SPE-
number of skins is not CIALIZED FOR HOPPING ON THE GROUNT)
A BIT OF
THE GREAT SMOKIES.
SALAMANDERS OF THE
GREAT SMOKIES
Grubbing for Spring Lizards in the Brooks and Mountains of Northern Tennessee
By WILLIAM G. HASSLER
Department of Reptiles and Amphibians, American Museum
SALAMANDERS are " spring Hzards " A large series of living salamanders were
to our southern mountaineers, who desired for experimental work in the
use them as bait for fishing, but these laboratories of the American Museum.
people certainly would never think of It was also expedient to secure informa-
going hundreds of miles to collect a tion on certain species in the field, par-
trunkfull. I am sure that to some of the ticularly the habits and probable relation-
mountain folk living in one small com- ship of a reddish-cheeked, semi-aquatic
munity of the Great Smokies along the salamander. This color phase has been
Tennessee - North Carolina border, I found in the Great Smoky Mountains,
seemed "quare," (queer). and it therefore became my good fortune
The small, cold-blooded animals called to spend a few days collecting in these,
salamanders form a large branch of the the most beautiful and interesting of our
class Amphibia, and are closely allied to southern mountains.
the frogs. Though they have a tail and Wiley Oakley, of Gatlinburg, Tennes-
four small legs, their skin is unprotected see, was my helper and guide for the first
and often slimy, a character that separates two days. Self-styled "Roaming Man of
them from the true lizards, which have the Mountains," he not only knew of all
dry, scaly skins. Cold mountain brooks the likely streams and springs, but could
splashing along their stony beds, spring many stories of the mountaineers.
also tell
trickles seeping over mossy rocks and Sometimes, while working up a stream he
under old logs, boggy places and slow- would remark,
moving streams, all have their pecuhar "Perhaps they're makin' likker up thar
forms of salamanders. Some of these are in the holler."
wholly aquatic, others only partially so. A piece of stove or other rusty iron in
Still others are terrestrial and are found the stream would bear evidence that moon-
living under stones and rotting logs. shine had been secretly made near by.
RETURNING HOME WITH THE DAY'S CATCH
Woodrow and Orville collect on several days and this particular afternoon the party
Oakley helped
returned with about 140 spring hzards. Orville also had some snakes, but these he preferred to carry
at arm's length
GAUDY IN BRIGHT YELLOW AND BLACK

Six long-tailed salamanders (Eurycea longicauda) were the most briUiant of the captures. Their
slender yellow and black bodies were in sharp contrast to the dark brown mud under the stones
where they hid
I
WHERE LIZARDS MAKE THEMSELVES AT HOME
Fence lizards and skinks were often seen basking in the sun on old buildings, fences, and stone piles,
so the expedition stopped to looked for them on this unoccupied mountain house near "Pant'er
Creek"
A ''GROUND PUPPY" IS DISCOVERED

Popular names of reptiles and amphibians differ with each locahty. "Red Puppy" was another
name for this salamander which the party sought in every stony stream, and which, as though to
mock them, would as often be found in dry situations
98 NATURAL HISTORY
Snow covering the tops of LeConte and building, two kinds of true lizards basked
showing white between the balsams made in the sun. The fence lizards were almost
collecting useless in the higher reaches the exactly the color of the logs, and discern-
first day after I arrived. So Wiley and I able only with difficulty. They would
investigated the dart squirrel-like to
streams in the val- the other side of
leys near by. We the when we

log
each carried a knap- approached. By
sack containing working from op-
several nests of posite directions we
cans, our lunch, and were able to cap-
a cloth bag or two ture several. The
for reptiles, also a other kind were
mattock with which skinks, or "scorpi-
to overturn stones ons" as they are
and to rip off bark called all over the
and moss. The South. Wiley took
streams were swoll- my word that they
en from recent were not "pizen,"
rains,but some and we tried hard
specimens were Photograph by Edna L. Simms to catch some, but
found in the head- SET FOR BIGGER GAME THAN they were much
waters and in SALAMANDERS more wary and
springs and their An ardent lover of his native mountains, Wiley fast than the fence
Oakley always had some story in store about the
overflows. Large, Smokies, their forests, wild Ufe, and people lizards.
dark brown, mot- One day just be-

tled salamanders were the first found. fore lunch I caught a three-foot house
They are known as Desmognathus phoca, snake. It was a beautiful reptile, much
and live under stones and logs in the like our eastern milk snake. Its habits
water. A smaller species (Desmognathus and food are and it is often found
similar,
fuscus carolinensis) is usually found in

, near houses, where it preys on mice.
shghtly drier situations. These were Wiley, however, did not appreciate it, and
much more common along small trickles insisted that I carry the bag it was in.
of water. Under some flat stones in the grass-
A swath of loose
and overturned stones grown outlet of a well-like spring not far
marked our wake. Along the banks of a from Panther Creek, we found six bright
brook it wound, ever upward among the yellow and black salamanders. As we had
rhododendron thickets, and the cry been finding only drab-colored Desmog-
"Here's another, and it's one of those nathus, those attractive were a
ones
big reddish ones," would proclaim that most welcome change, and, proved
as it
Wiley had caught a purple salamander. later, were the only ones collected on the
Hastily the animal would be dropped whole trip.
into a collecting can, and the search A terribly rough auto ride over a new
would go on under the stones for more. road that was being constructed through
From Gatlinburg a stream led us to the "sugarlands" and over Indian
some property of Wiley's, where, on a Gap brought us to a number of little
clearing, a little log barn stood surrounded streams flowing into Alum Cave Creek
by old stumps. Here on the gray, rough below. We were more than 3500 feet
SALAMANDERS OF THE GREAT SMOKIES 99
above sea level, and high enough to find was icy cold. Under stones along the
the red-cheeked "spring Hzards" that I trail a number of black salamanders
particularly wanted to study and collect. with red cheeks were found. These were a
After searching vainly for perhaps an terrestrial form, and different from the
hour, we were nearly discouraged, when ones we had previously caught.
both of us suddenly discovered specimens The trail up Le Conte is difficult but
at almost the same time. All the trickles most interesting. Large outcroppings of
from then on yielded some, and collecting rock forced us to climb continuously along
for the day ended under a beautiful falls the lower portions of it. About haK way
tumbling off the chffs of Fort Harry up, Mill Creek takes a beautiful plunge
Mountain, a spur of Le Conte. of some sixty or eighty feet off a ledge.
One afternoon, while investigating the Orville, the younger of the two boys, was
streams around Elkmont, we went to see with me that day, and told me stories of
the gold mine of "Uncle Levi Trenham," the mountain wildcats that cried at night
who is often called the "Prophet of the near the house where he used to live,
Great Smokies." Mrs. Edna L. Simms, of"bars" (bears) and other wild life. At
who took me over in her auto, and Will the top we had a snowball fight just to
Ramsay, another guide at Gatlinburg, prove that the climb had not tired us.
showed me the peculiar stone that, accord- From the ledge where we ate our lunch,
ing to an Indian legend, points to gold. above a sheer drop of hundreds of feet,
This huge stone has carved deep on its we could see for miles over the thick
face the imprint of a man's hand, a bear's green mountain-tops that stretched
foot, and two eyes. It was lost for many below us. A young eagle cried every
years, then rediscovered now and then from the
on ''Uncle Levi's" farm. wilderness below, and
So far no great amount we could hear faintly
of gold has been found, the tinkling of Little
though small quantities Pigeon River, hidden in
have been dug out, but the valley.
Uncle Levi hopes that The following day was
some day he will find my last in Gatlinburg,
the real deposit. and 570 living salaman-
Two Wiley Oakley's
of ders and a number of
boys helped me on several snakes had to be repack-
trips. They enjoyed col- ed for shipment to New
lectingand worked hard York. We put fresh
at it. May 12 was moss around the sala-
devoted to a trip up manders, placed them in
Le Conte. Mill Creek perforated containers,
flows down the side of and then made them all
thismountain and here I snug in a trunk. The trip
hoped to find a goodly to New York seemed to
number of salamanders. agree with them, for they
I was disappointed in were all alive and well
this,however, probably when opened at the
because the snow had American Museum.
not yet melted com-
THE PROPHET OF
pletely, and the water '
Photograph by Edna L. Simms THE GREAT SMOKIES
ROALD AMUNDSEN
By LINCOLN ELLSWORTH
seems the irony of fate that Roald Beyond the last frontier —beyond even
ITAmundsen's hfe work should have the outermost rim of discovery, toward
ended somewhere near where it began that huge tract in the Polar Sea marked
—in the Norwegian Sea, off the coast of "unexplored" lay my dreams! But how
his native land where, as a lad of fifteen was I to get to that land of far horizons?
he started out be- The dreams of
fore the mast on a youth are long,
career of great ad- long dreams, and I
venture. But the am certain that
finding of bits of they never could
wreckage of his have found real-
plane in which he ization had not
with five compan- chance — or was it
ions sailed away in fate —brought us
succor former
of together? This was
comrades lost some- in October, 1924,
where in the Polar and the two years
wastes, leaves little of our close intima-
hope that this su- cy never dulled — it
preme adventurer only served to en-

who so often tempt- hance — thehero
ed fate in quest of worship which
in
the unknown, and I held him. Such
who always came was the magic spell
back, has at last that this man's
paid the supreme personality wove
sacrifice and jour- ROALD AMUNDSEN about me. Just
neyed into the un- The photograph of the great Polar explorer
last
why or how would
taken just before he started on the historic flight
—
known that Great in the "Norge" in 1926 be difficult to
Unknown— from explain.
which no man ever returns. Although years of battling in regions
But the end, no doubt, was as he him- of eternal ice had bred in Amundsen
selfwould have wished it, for Amundsen something that carried outward, visible
often told me that he wanted to die in —
signs that indelible stamp of the
action. He could bear the thought of no —
Arctic underneath the man of cold
other way. reserve lingered much of the spirit and
Life's friendships are transient things. enthusiasm of a boy. ''Do you know,"
Silently, like shadows in the night, they he said to me, on his arrival in America
come — and are gone away. With the the last time, "I have adopted many of
loss of this devoted friend —for Roald your ways. I have learned to smoke my
Amundsen and I had much in common pipe in bed of evenings and have written
together — goes the last of my boyhood to Montreal for fifty pounds of that
heroes. (Roosevelt and Peary were the French-Canadian tobacco you smoke,
others.) and I eat only two meals a day now. I
NATURAL HISTORY 101
never have that tight feehng around the effort was not in vain. Of such stuff are
belt any more." heroes made, the world needs them.
With the passing of this pictureque They are the salt of youth, and out of the
viking of an old school, whose strong salt of youth comes the iron that makes
weather-beaten face with its steadfast for mature manhood.
eye, hearty handclasp, ease of bearing, Amundsen would have been fifty-six
and innate modesty, captivated all those years old last July 16 had he lived, for he
with whom he came in contact, goes a was born in 1872. He had attained all the
certain something that has to do with major Geographic prizes left to the
romance, with youth, with the dreams of Twentieth Century, but he was not a
life, for Amundsen's attainment of the happy man. No idealist ever is. "What-
South Pole closed the chapter of that ever remains to man unknown in this
romantic history of Polar exploration by world of ours," he says in his memoirs in
men using ships and dogs as a means of speaking of the "good" of Polar explora-
transport. "Their place now," he says tion, "is by so much
a burden on the
in his memoirs, "though forever glorious, spirits of all men. remains a something
It
is in the museum and the history books. that man has not yet conquered a con- —
Aircraft has supplanted the dog." tinuing evidence of an
his weakness,
Strangely enough Amundsen was him- unmet challenge mastery over
of his
self one of the first to foresee the possibili- nature. By the same token, every
ties of,and to participate in, this new mystery made plain, every unknown land
method of exploration. But it wasn't his explored, exalts the spirit of the whole
—
game, he told me, guessed he was too old human race —strengthens its courage
to learn. Certain it is that, with the and exalts its spirit permanently. The
passing of the dog and sledge, explora- trail breaker isan indispensable ally of
tion has been robbed of much of its early the spiritual values which advance and
romance and glamour, born of the age sustain civilization." And so, accus-
when, out of the sheer urge for bodily tomed all his life to the thrill of great
effort, men traveled forth to explore the adventure, he suddenly found himself,
yet untrodden. at the age of fifty-four with nothing left
Modern progress moves so swiftly that to do, for he had hved to see the old
fact often transcends fancy. The dreams method "going exploring" become
of
of one age become the realities of the obsolete, and the new way wasn't his.
next, and today, as we wing our way in His whole fife had been one long, up-
comparative comfort, cutting the years hill struggle in the face of terrific odds
to hours in our swift flight over the un- mental as well as physical. Lack of funds
known, the stories of hardships and suffer- had forced him to rent a bakeshop and
ings endured by those travelers of yester- with his own hands prepare all the pemmi-
day seem as remote as lessons taken from can used on his South Pole expedition.
the Old Testament. On one of his Arctic voyages, he told
But
in the ages to come, the navigation me, he had to "turn to" as cook for
of the northwest passage, the attainment his men in order to keep up the morale.
of both Poles and the first crossing of the But where there is a will there is a way,
Polar Sea by Roald Amundsen, will ever and Amundsen always found the way
remain a monument to an heroic effort with that courage born of the right,
a symbol of devotion to an idea: "To which, through hfe, held him ever true
seek, to strive, to find and not to yield." to his ideals.
Whatever its value to civilization, the Of such stuff was the man Roald
102 NATURAL HISTORY
Amundsen. He had acquired a Could I, who have been made
better by
philosophy of life that taught him to his influenceand example, give adequate
accept, with equal equanimity, whatever expression to the tribute due him, it
the day brought forth. I cannot see him would be "as a fadeless garland in which
other than the great leader he was, — the laurel of victory is entwined with the
man inspired by the highest ideals and roses of love."
responsive to all the finer and nobler So ''SKOAL"! Roald Amundsen.
things of life, beloved and admired by all
"The winter's cold, that lately froze our blood,
those with whom
he came in contact. Now were it so extreme might do this good,
His supreme effort, while it cannot be As make these tears bright pearls, which I
measured in terms of human lives saved, would lay

will go down through the ages as one of the
Tombed safely with you till doom's fatal day;
That thy soUtary place, where none
in
finestexamples of self-sacrifice ever made.
May ever come to breathe a sigh or groan,
He gave of his best, and God grant that Some remnant might be extant of the true
in so doing he may receive of the best. And faithful love I shall ever bear for you."
BASHFORD DEAN
By henry FAIRFIELD OSBORN
President, American Museum of Natural History
ON December 7 word was received

the American Museum of Natural
at ology and herpetology.
of delay and disappointment his labors
After many years
History of the death on December were crowned by the construction of the

6 of Honorary Curator Bashford Dean, hall of fishes on the first floor of the new
who has been connected with the Museum Asiatic wing of the Museum. With Mrs.
in the department of fishes since 1897, Dean, he was expected as the guest of
receiving his first appointment in the honor at the opening of this hall on
Museum not long after receiving his Wednesday, December 5, for which occa-
degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Colum- sion thousands of invitations were sent to
bia University. all the members of the Museum. On the
Dean was the most brilHant and promis- morning of the opening of the hall. Profes-
ing student of John S. Newberry, a distin- sor Osborn received a beautiful letter from
guished professor of geology and palae- Doctor Dean expressing his deep regret
ontology in the strong School of Mines that he could not be present, for about a
faculty of that day, and Dean fell heir to fortnight before he had left for the Battle
Newberry's remarkable collection of ex- Creek Sanitarium. Not one of his col-
tinct Devonian fishes, which is now in leagues in the Museum was prepared for
the American Museum. He soon became the sudden announcement of his death,
master of this collection and began a very which was due to a serious operation.
remarkable series of restorations of the His career in the Metropolitan Museum
Devonian fishes of Scotland and North of Art was no less distinguished and in-
America. This estabHshed his fame as an fluential. Because of his life-long interest
ichthyologist. in armor and the armored fishes of the
In the American Museum Dean rose Devonian period, his native sense of form
year by year until in July, 1909, he and of beauty had developed rapidly and
achieved the rank of curator of ichthy- is superbly expressed in the great armor
BASHFORD DEAN 103
hall of the Metropolitan Museum. He known as the Bibliography of Fishes, for

rose to the first rank as a leading authority which Professor Dean was awarded the
on armor not only in America but in Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal for 1923 by
Europe, where his name the National Academy
was a household word of Sciences.
among connoisseurs. The fourth feature of
He frequented museums was his career as
his Hf e
and private collections an explorer in ichthy-
in Europe and was abso- ology, which carried him
lutely famiHar with the to the seas of the Far
very last of the rarissima East as well as to the
in the field of armor. rivers of America, re-
With consummate
his sulting in a superb col-
knowledge, taste, and lection illustrating the
authority, he combined embryonic development
a sense of evolution of fishes to be published
of design and of mech- in a memorial volume
anism so that it may be by the American
said that in our great Museum of Natural
museum he laid the History.
foundations of the President Osborn,
evolution of fishes, and BASHFORD DEAN, 1867 -1928 Professor Gregory, and
in the great sister mu- In the uniform of a major (of ordnance) Dr. E. W. Gudger, life-
during the Great War
seum across Park
the long associates of Cura-
the cognate evolution of armor. tor Dean in his great works in ichthyology,
His third activity, which occupied the were shocked and inexpressibly grieved
early years of his professional life, was by the news of Doctor Dean's unexpected
first as assistant, and then as full professor death. They had been rejoicing with
of vertebrate zoology at Columbia him in his prospect of retirement from
University, beginning in the year 1904. his very active life after a service of
Here he became the master of several now thirty-eight years in the two great institu-
famous ichthyologists and comparative tions as curator and collector. He had
anatomists, including especially Professor been relieved by both institutions of all
WilHam K. Greogry, who has continued administrative duties, and intended to
Professor Dean's researches in the series of devote his remaining years in his beautiful
publications covering the whole field of home at Riverdale-on-the-Hudson to the
recent and extinct fishes. completion of several volumes on ich-
Throughout his entire career he had a thyology and armor, summing up his life-
very strong phylogenetic or evolutionary long researches and describing some of
sense, both as to the beginnings of ich- the most remarkable and beautiful of the
thyology and as to the beginnings of types which he had been able to coUect
armor. This expressed itself in one of for the two institutions. To no other man
his most fundamental undertakings, has been granted to leave such monu-
it
namely, a catalogue of all details relating ments of an intelligent, energetic, and un-
from the earhest classical times.
to fishes tiring spirit as Doctor Dean leaves in two
Aided by Dr. E. W. Gudger, this cul- of the great museums of the modern
minated in three monumental volumes, world, the Metropolitan and the American.
1. Central Asiatic; 2. Beck, New Guinea, for birds; 3. Whitney South Sea, Solomon Islands for birds; 4. Vernay-
Faunthorpe for Asiatic mammals; 5. Stratis Abyssinian for birds; Sanford-Patterson-Legendre Abyssinian for mammals;
6. Tanganyika for birds and mammals; 7. Sao Thome for birds (Thorne-Correia) 8. Klingel, Haiti, for birds; 9.
;
Chester A. Reeds, Lake Passaic varves; 10. Sante Fe for fossils (Frick-Rak) 11. Vaillant, Mexico, for archaological finds;
;
12. Benson, East Panama for birds; Chapman, Barro Colorado for birds; Curran, Panama for insects; Blick, Honduras
for fossils; 13. Tyler Duida, Venezuela, for birds and mammals; 14. Southeastern Brazilian (Naumburg-Kaempfer)
15. Byrd, Antarctic.
THE FIELD OF
IN
NATURAL HISTORY
Expeditions — Scientific Research —
Conservation
Books — Meetings of Societies
Edited by A. KATHERINE BERGER

EXPEDITIONS African Hall, left New York in April Mr. Rad-
Central Expedition. Walter
Asiatic — datz, of the department of preparation, followed
Granger and Albert Thomson are spending the shortly after, to make preliminary arrange-
winter months at the expedition's headquarters ments. Mr. Wilham R. Leigh, the artist selected
in Peking, busily engaged inpreparatory work on to make studies in the field for the painted back-
the specimens collected during last summer, grounds, left in May, and Mr. James L. Clark,
while J. MacKenzie Young is overhauling motors departed soon after. All the members met in
and equipment for next season's trip. Doctor Nairobi, Kenya Colony, about the middle of
Andrews will tell of some of the unusual hard- June, when final arrangements were made, and
ships and difficulties of the season of 1928 in the in a short time they were headed south in Tan-
March-April issue of Natural History. ganyika Territory, under the guidance of Mr.
Alfred J. Klein, the professional hunter.
The Carlisle-Clark Expedition has been Two months were spent in virgin territory
brought to a successful conclusion, and all the where Mr. Clark secured a very fine group of
material collected, including films and photo- lions. As this country had not been hunted
graphs, are now safe in the Museum. before, there were exceptional opportunities for
Mr. and Mrs. G. Lister Carlisle, Jr., who very the selection of fine specimens. Lions were found
generously financed this expedition on behalf of in the open in daylight, and thus could be care-
IN THE FIELD OF NATURAL HISTORY 105
fully selected for types and condition. Seven Museum sent as its representative Mr. T. D.
specimens were collected, including a very large Carter of the department of mammals. In addi-
fine male. Mr. Klein stated that this was one of tion to the specimens of nyala, the party plans to
the five largest specimens he had ever recorded make as extensive a collection of study specimens
out of the five or six hundred he had seen shot. as is possible, and to take stiU and motion pic-
Accessories for the groups, including trees, tures. Abyssinia is a region practically un-
bushes, soil and rocks were also collected, and represented in the collections of this Museum,
careful color notes of the leaves and flowers and this is an unusual opportunity which the
were taken to insure the finest results in design generosity of the Museum's friends has made
and detail. possible.
Mr. Clark made a complete miniature scale
model of the hon group in the field, which in
Tyler-Duida Expedition. Letters from the —
Tyler-Duida Expedition have notified the Mu-
itself estabhshed all the actual and natural records
seum that Mt. Duida has at last been conquered.
to insure final success. Mr. Carhsle, leader of the
On October 24 Tyler and Tate managed to reach
expedition, concentrated on wild life motion
the summit after a hard struggle. For weeks
picture photographs and secured 8000 feet of
prior to that time they had been engaged in a
really remarkable motion pictures of approxi-
systematic campaign collecting at base camps
mately thirteen varieties of big game, including
near the foot of the high country, cutting trails,
the first pictures of a leopard ever taken and
and otherwise preparing for a deeper penetration
some exceptionally fine ones of Hon. These, with
into this unexplored area. One of the difficulties
Mr. Clark's close-up motion picture of two hons
in the way of the expedition is the fact that this
on a kill, are perhaps second to none. Hun- mapped and the method
region has never been of
dreds of still photographs of the country, the and
attack had to be very largely one of trial
people, and details for the group were also secured.
error. The dense tropical forest, which prevented
After the hon group had been successfully
a comprehensive survey of the terrain, and heavy
completed, the expedition moved to another
mountain hampered
fogs on the also progress.
section of Tanganyika, some eighteen miles south
The ascent of Mt. Duida proved to be steep
of Moshi, where they secured material and back-
and arduous. Mr. Tate wrote that a series of
ground studies for the lesser kudu group. A few
ladders would have to be constructed to pass an
odd specimens wanting for the African Hall
interval of 900 feet before the main work of the
collections,were taken as opportunity presented.
expedition could go on. Following this prehmin-
Mr. Clark plans to begin the modeling of the Hon
ary reconnaissance, the party will move equip-
group within a very short time, so that it may
ment up to base camps on the top of the elevated
not be long before the public will see this im-
plateau and should secure material of great value
portant acquisition. The motion pictures are
and interest.
now being edited and it is hoped they will be
The Tyler-Duida Expedition is a joint under-
ready for a showing to Museum members within a
taking by the department of birds and the de-
few weeks.
partment of mammals. The expedition was made
possible through the generosity of Mr. Sidney
The Sanford-Patterson-Legendre Abys-
F. Tyler, Jr., who is work as weU as
financing the
sinian Expedition left New York on December
taking an active part in it personally. Mt. Duida
1, for Abyssinia, via Havre and Marseilles.
is situated in a remote section of Venezuela and
This expedition has for its goal the collecting of a
the region has never been adequately explored
group of nyala, or mountain bushbuck, which
will be mounted in the new Akeley Hall of African
by any scientific party. The progress indicated
by these letters from the field shows that aheady
Mammals. The expenses of the party in the
field are generously being met by Miss Gertrude
the American Museum expedition has accom-
plished much. The successful conclusion of this
Sanford, Mrs. Grace Patterson, and the Messrs.
undertaking will constitute an outstanding
Sidney and Morris Legendre. Mr. John Sanford,
achievement in South American exploration.
father of Miss Sanford, has shown his great inter-
est in the American Museum by offering to defray The Straus Abyssian Expedition. On —
the costs of building the group and mounting the January 19 the Straus Expedition sailed for a four
animals. months' trip to Africa to collect birds for the
At the time of departure Mrs. Patterson was American Museum. The party, which includes
detained by poor health but hoped to join the Mrs. Oscar Straus, her grandson Mr. Edward
party later. Mr. Gordon MacCreagh, who had Schafer, and Mr. and Mrs. Rudyard Boulton,
recently returned from a lengthy sojourn in plans to go up the Nile, through Uganda by
Abyssinia, was in charge of the expedition, and the automobile to Nairobi, and spend about two
106 NATURAL HISTORY
weeks visiting the big game fields there. Mr. Many members of the Association took ad-
and Mrs. Boulton will then go on to Lake Nyasa vantage of a wonderful lecture which Dr. Harlow
to study and collect the birds of that region, and Shapley gave on "The Galaxy of Galaxies" be-
expect to return home by way of South Africa. fore the A. A. A. S.
The expedition is made possible through the
On February 6, Mr. Edward J. Gounod will
generosity of Mrs. Oscar Straus.
speak on "Why Is Mars Red?"
William J. Morden, field associate in mam- On February
20, Dr. John H. Pitman, profes-
mology, returned from Russia in December, sor ofastronomy at Swarthmore College, will
after having visited Moscow, Leningrad, Tiflis, speak on "The Dimensions of the Stellar Uni-
Batum, and Odessa. His purpose in visiting verse."
Russia was to obtain information and permits
BIRDS
from Soviet scientists and officials in order that
he might make his preparations for the Morden New Woodcreeper from Peru. Among —
North Asiatic Expedition which will operate in several new from Ecuador and
species of birds
Eastern Siberia beginning in 1929. He reports Peru recently described by Dr. Frank M. Chap-
that he received every courtesy, and that the
man {American Museum Novitates No. 332) is a
remarkable woodcreeper from the Rio Ucayali to
Soviet Government would be glad to assign a re-
which he gives the name Anachilus ucayalce. The
presentative toaccompany the expedition.
The plans for the Morden North Asiatic Expe- bird is distinguished by the peculiar shape of the
dition are now being prepared and will be an-

bill, in which the mandible or lower portion is
nounced later in Natural History. strongly recurved or turned upward at the end.
The occurrence of a similar type of bill in two
To Haiti for Reptiles. — Mr. Gilbert C. other genera of woodcreepers and in a genus of
Klingel of Baltimore has organized an expedition antbirds, none of which is closely related to the
to Haiti to study the life histories of reptiles of new bird, is believed to indicate that this structure
that island. He has sent many encouraging is due to parallelism of development. Whether
reports from the field, and has shipped 194 lizard it is related to the birds' manner of feeding is
eggs to be hatched out in the laboratories of unknown.

experimental biology in the American Museum.
THE NEW HALL OF FISHES
Barro Colorado Island. —Dr. Frank M. AMERICAN MUSEUM
Chapman is continuing his scientific studies The opening on December 5 of the new
of the birds on Barro Colorado Island. Hall of Fishes at the American Museum
marks the culmination of many years' work, be-
Arthur Vernay sailed recently for Bombay,
gun by Dr. Bashford Dean, founder of the de-
where he hopes to obtain a pair of Indian lions
partment of ichthyology, and continued by Dr.
Mammals at the American
for the Hall of Asiatic
W. K. Gregory, its present curator. Addresses
Museum.
were given by President Osborn, Doctor Gregory,
ASTRONOMY Doctor William Beebe, and Director Sherwood.
The lifelike groups and undersea scenes have
Dr. Seth B. Nicholson of the Mount Wilson
been prepared by highly skilled artists and pre-
Observatory in California gave a talk on January
parators, working under the direction of Doctor
2 before the Amateur Astronomers Association,
Gregory and of James L. Clark, assistant director
in which he described how he has been measuring
of the Museum.
the heat from individual stars and planets by
The darkened inner hall of undersea life con-
means of the thermo-couple. This instrument is
tains a series of seven panels of deep-sea fishes
so tiny that it is manufactured under a microscope,
modeled by Dwight Franklin, and represents
and when completed, weighs but a tenth of a
a descending series of zones of fish life. The
milligram, or about one one-thousandth the
original materials and data for these groups were
weight of a drop of water.
for the most part collected by the "Arcturus"
At the January 16th meeting, motion pic-
expedition in the Pacific Ocean, in the neighbor-
shown to the
tures of the planet Jupiter were
hood of the Galapagos Islands.
members of the Association. These motion
pictures, the first of their
kind ever made, are the HISTORY OF THE EARTH
work of Prof. W. H. Wright
of the Lick Observ- Childs Frick Tertiary-Quaternary Ex-
atory in California, and Dr. C. E. K. Mees, —
plorations, 1928. The search for additional
director of the Research Laboratory of the evidence regarding the animal groups of the Late
Eastman Kodak Co. Tertiary-Quaternary, their differentiation, hori-
zons, and distribution, was carried on in six lo- spent three weeks of September with Mr. Rak in
calities, including our widely separated New study of the fossil occurrences and of interesting
Mexican and Californian key stations. problems of local stratigraphy. The great carni-
The investigation of the difficult Miocene beds vore, Amphicyon, seems to have been as rare
to the north of Barstow in the Mojave Desert, locally as Hemicyon and has for the first time been
California, was continued for the eighth consecu- checked as present. Replicas of the skull and
tive winter by Mr. Joseph Rak and assistants. jaw of our single Hemicyon have been given to
The season's collections include particularly im- several European and American museums in-
portant material from the until recently believed cluding that of Sante Fe. Aleurodon wolves are
non-fossil bearing strata, Joseph Rak Beds, which common in the upper beds. A unique block
unconformably underlie the typical Barstow holding the beautifully preserved, practically
formation. complete, and gracefully grouped skeletons of
Work Hopi Indian Agency was resumed
in the three young Oreodonts {Merychyus medius race
in the early spring by Mr. John C. Blick, assisted novomexicanus n. r.) has been recently placed on
by Messrs. Charles Falkenbach and Joseph exhibit in the American Museum.
Rooney. The great Upper Pliocene pocket dis- The Pleistocene exposures along the Niobrara
covered there the past season was completely River near Hay Springs, Nebraska, were visited
excavated by June first. It has yielded a grand during midusmmer by Messrs. Rak and Falken-
total of forty-one large cases of skulls, jaws, and bach, and subsequently a considerable amount of
other remains of the huge extinct camel, Mega- fragmentary material was obtained there by Mr.
camelus blicki n.g. andn.sp., (facial fossa marked Falkenbach. The tapir has been added to the
and p |- absent). Perfectly preserved skulls previously known fauna, and the Museum's
testify to a head in the flesh of over a yard in collections of local camel remains more than
length, and limb elements to an occasional quadrupled. On the basis of certain specimens
height at the withers in excess of eight and one- with p -3 typically present, Camelus americanus is
half feet. Partial reconstructions of this massive transferred to a new genus Prochenia.
limbed beast and of a widely different and also The exploration of beds of Devil's Gulch-Valen-
newly discovered elongate-limbed form, Alto- tine Pliocene affinity, in the vicinity of Ains-
meryx raki n.g. and n.sp., from the Lower Pliocene worth, Nebraska, was continued for the second
of New Mexico have been temporarily installed summer by Mr. M. F. Skinner, who has sent us
in the Museum's camel alcove. This Arizona additional specimens of rhinoceroses and long-
investigation was undertaken originally through chinned mastodons, dentitions of horses and a
the courtesy of the Department of Indian Affairs half dozen partial camel mandibles of the rare
and the National Museum, and has been greatly "P. vera" type.
facilitatedby the Hopi Reservation's able super- Exposures in the neighborhood of Elephant
intendent, Mr. E. K. Miller. Mr. Bhck, at the Butte and Benson, Arizona, have for a second
present writing, is in Central America investigat- time yielded Mr. Rak, while en route to California,
ing a reported occurrence of Pliocene mammals. a small but useful collection of Late Tertiary
Researches were carried on in the Miocene, and Pleistocene remains. Mr. Falkenbach will
Pliocene, and Pleistocene to the north of Santa spend the coming months in further investiga-
Fe, New Mexico, for the fifth full May to Novem- tion of this southern Benson phase, where Dr. J.
ber season, the party as usual being under the W. Gidley several winters past was so successful
capable direction of Mr. Rak. Our collections in obtaining Stegomastodon and Glyptodon. For
from this area are several times greater in size the good reason that the handling, figuring, and
than collections from any other American Late preparation of material demand both time and
Tertiary locality. Erosion annually uncovers skill, our little staff, Miss D. G. Tagert, Miss H.
material but that of the past season was secured de Berard, Mr. Charles Hoffman, and Mr. Joseph
only through hard and skillful work. The Rooney, have been constantly occupied
collections are rich in remains of horses, rhinoc- These explorations, originally undertaken for
eroses, long symphysised mastodons, antelopes, the purpose of obtaining through adequate collec-
and above all, of camel forms. The latter vary tions from definite horizons a more exact
in size from a diminutive to a giant-giraffe-like knowledge of the history of the horses, have con-
species, in which the metatarsus (650 mm.) is tinued (as noted above) to yield a surprising
A previously
four times the length of the former. number of camel specimens, which both in
unrecognized uppermost horizon has yielded a number and variety exceed the horses. Eventu-
widely different, heavy limbed camel suggestive ally the camels should afford a most valuable
of that of Arizona. The writer and Mrs. Frick guide and check in the interpretation of fossil
108 NATURAL HISTORY
evidence as to conditions existing in the American Tahiti, a fish hook made used by the
of stone
Late-Tertiary-Quaternary — including continen- natives of this island. The hook
is a unique
tal changes and the coming and going of animal specimen of primitive stone work not heretofore
forms. On the completion of the preliminary represented in the Museum's collection. It is
descriptions of the new camel species and the re- exquisitely and in every way a fine
finished
classification of the group, it is planned to exhibit example of Easter Island art. Some time ago
the more striking of these forms in a new and Doctor Gudger of the department of fishes made
much enlarged alcove in the Hall of Tertiary a detailed study of the Museum's collection of
Mammals, so that the entrance to this hall will fishhooks from the islands of the Pacific Ocean,
be flanked on right and left respectively by in- which appeared in the Anthropological Papers.
structive series of the extinct American fore- This publication attracted a great deal of atten-
runners of man's two most doughty helpmates tion, especially among students of primitive and
the camel and the horse. Childs Frick. South Sea Islands, and
prehistoric fishing in the
encouraged them to take up new investigations.
HONORS Mr. Nordhoff is making a detailed study of fish-
Dr. Frank E. Lutz, curator of insect life at the ing among the natives of the Society Islands, and
American Museum, has been made a member of cooperating with Doctor Gudger in determining
the Committee on Experimental Animals and the distribution of fishes in the Pacific Ocean.
Plants recently appointed by the National Re- The Museum is indebted to Mr. Nordhoff, not
search Council. The functions of the committee only for the gift noted above, but for many past
are tomake arrangements for central supplies of courtesies. —C. W.
animals and plants of known value in experimen-
African wood carvings for the American
tal biology and to test hitherto unused species of
promise.
—
Museum Collections. Mr. George D. Pratt
has presented to the Museum some wooden
Mr. H. E. Anthony, curator of the depart- statuettes and a bronze casting made by the
ment of mammalogy in this Museum, has been Negroes of west Africa. Native African carving
elected a fellow of the New York Zoological in wood and ivory is recognized as one of the
Society, a class of membership the qualifications world's most characteristic types of art. While
for which rest upon scientific achievement. it is true that a certain grotesqueness pervades
Curator Herbert African carvings, yet there is symmetry and

P. Whitlock of the de-
partment of minerals and gems at the American beauty of form. The educated Negroes of
Museum has recently been appointed honorary America are taking an intelligent interest in this
art as a part of the aesthetic heritage of their
curator of minerals by the Trustees of the Wads-
worth Atheneum at Hartford. Connecticut. race. The Museum now has collections from
the Congo and adjacent parts of Africa in which
MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES wood carving is -C. W.
well represented. —
The American Association for Advance- The Museum Acuuires Important Series
ment OF Science. —Once every twelve years this —
of Eskimo Hair Samples. Among other inter-
Association comes to New York during the Christ- esting materials brought back by Mr. Edward
mas holidays to hold its annual meeting. The M. Weyer, Jr., archseologist on the StoU-
fifth New York meeting, and the eighty-fifth in McCracken Expedition, are a series of measure-
its history, convened from December 27, 1928, ments of one hundred Eskimo men. In addition
to January 2, 1929. he was equipped with a set of Binet tests
The convention proved to be the largest that by which their mental rating could be made.
has ever occurred in this country, with an attend- This is probably the first attempt to apply a
ance of about 5,000 men and women of science, series of such tests to an adult Eskimo. That
drawn from the whole of English-speaking North Mr. Weyer is a diplomat when among such
America. A brief summary of the notable people is further indicated by a complete collec-
advances reported in science during 1928 will tion of hair samples. According to Eskimo
appear in the next issue of Natural History. belief, giving away a lock of one's hair puts one
in the power of the recipient. Consequently,
SCIENCE OF MAN asking an Eskimo for a lock of hair is about the
Easter Island Stone Fish Hooks. Easter — equivalent of asking him for his life. Neverthe-
Island is a land of mystery and romance, and less,Mr. Weyer convinced them that he could be
anything that hails from its shores has unusual trusted and so came away with a full series of
interest. Recently the department of anthro- hair samples. These samples are an important
pology received from Charles Nordhoff of Papeete, addition to the Museum's collection, in which is
I
to be found authentic hair samples from different foremost conservationists and the Boone and
races of the world. Such a collection is important, Crockett Club one of its most active members.
because hair is one of the outstanding racial char- Charles Sheldon, after graduating from Yale
acteristics, a character in which there is the least in 1890, spent four years in Mexico in the railroad
variation and, therefore, one of the best char- business. During this time he made many
acters by which to make classifications of racial hunting trips into the least known parts of that
types.— C. W. country and acquired an extensive first-hand
knowledge of its wild life. Returning to the
Masks made of Whale Bones Discovered United States, he decided to devote his time to
ON THE Alaskan Peninsula. The recently — exploration and hunting in Alaska and Mexico,
returned Stoll-McCracken Alaskan Expedition
with especial reference to the distribution of the
brought two unique masks carved from bones of
various species of mountain sheep. He first went
whales. These masks were found by Edward M.
to Alaska in 1902 and in the following years ex-
Weyer, Jr., archaeologist of the expedition, while
plored the mountains of southeastern Alaska and
digging in a shell-heap on the Alaskan Peninsula.
the adjoining parts of British Columbia, where he
No masks made whale bones have been re-
of
hunted in the Cassiar Mountains and the ranges
ported, and while it seems likely that these were
lying to the north. In pursuit of his favorite
made by an Eskimo people, they were in a deep study of the big horn sheep, he passed an entire
deposit and so of considerable age. They also
winter on the northern slopes of Mt. McKinley,
show a high degree of workmanship and unusual
and he later hunted in company with Frederick
symmetry of form. C. W. — Courtney Selous in the headwaters of the Lewes
Aleutian Burials. —In a recent number of and Hootalinqua Rivers.
Natural History appeared an article on the The specimens he secured in these hunting
Aleut of the Aleutian Islands in which, among trips he forwarded to the National Museum at
other information about their daily lives, was an Washington, where he worked in close coopera-
account of the peculiar way in which they used to tion with C. Hart Merriam and E. W. Nelson.
prepare their dead The StoU-

for burial. The results of all these expeditions to
Alaska and
McCracken Expedition discovered such a burial British Columbia have been embodied in a series
on a small rocky island of the Aleutian chain. of books, the best known of which were entitled,
The tomb was constructed with logs carefully The Wilderness of the Upper Yukon and The
fitted together and enclosing three bodies. Two Wilderness of the North Pacific Coast Islands, 1912.
of the bodies are well preserved like mummies After his marriage in 1909 to Miss Louise
enclosed in wrappings. Most unique of all is the Gulliver, he settled down in Washington, D. C,
head one body found in a fine condition, fully

of spending his summers in Nova Scotia and making
equal to that of the best Egyptian mummies. occasional trips to his old hunting grounds. He
These Aleutian mummies have been placed on devoted himself to the interests of the Boone and
exhibition in the Museum and the discovery of Crockett Club, of which he was First Vice-Presi-
this tomb important in that it gives us com-
is dent at the time of his death. For many years
plete information as to the mode of burial he represented the interests of this club at Wash-
formerly practiced by these natives. Also, the ington.
costumes and other objects accompanying the He developed the laws of game conservation
mummies will give data as to the weaving and along the European ideas of administration of
tailoring arts of the Aleutians. The idea of the game. In this matter he was in advance of his
Aleuts was to keep the dead with them as long as countrymen, since, as yet, few of them realize
possible, so the bodies were preserved as well as the necessity of "administrating" game as it is
they knew how. The procedure in brief outline done in Europe. The reckless depletion of our
was to open the abdomen, remove the viscera, game supply will soon force all Americans to
close the body, and then wrap the whole in skins. accept his views on this subject.
Prepared in this way, the flesh dries hard and a Much of Mr. Sheldon's time in recent years has
true mummy results. Ultimately, these bundle been devoted to the collection of a library which is
bodies were placed in dry caves in the rocks or in absolutely unique in the field of hunting and
tombs built of logs, as was the case in this in- conservation. This collection of books repre-
stance. —C. W. sents a large outlay and should be kept as a unit.
Efforts to accompUsh this end are being made
CHARLES SHELDON by his friends.
In the death of Charles Sheldon, on the 23d of Mr. Sheldon's death occurred suddenly in his
September, 1928, the country loses one of its camp in Nova Scotia. Madison Grant.
no NATURAL HISTORY
PETER SUSHKIN late G. Stanley HaU led a movement in this
The Academy of Sciences Leningrad in country for the study of adolescence as the critical
announces the sad news of the death of Prof. transition period in life. According to the
Peter Sushkin on September 17, 1928, at Kislo- conception of the time, the adolescent period was
vodsk, Caucasus. A special celebration had regarded as the critical stage in the individual's
previously been planned for October in honor of development, especially with respect to morals,
Professor Sushkin's fortieth year of scientific re- religion, and general social adjustments. From
search and educational activity. The American that time to this our own youth have been studied
Museum of Natural History shares in the deep intensively, more intensively than in any other
sorrow at the passing of this eminent ornithologist country. So far, however, little attention has
and palaeontologist. been paid to the comparative study of adolescence
among other types of civilization and among
CHARLES H. GARDNER primitive peoples. Doctor Mead's book is there-
In the death, on December 7, of Charles H. fore a welcome contribution, since it gives us for
Gardner, a Vice-President and Manager of the the time a picture of adolescence in a primi-
first
79th Street Branch of the Colonial Bank, Ameri- tive The author presents clearly and
tribe.
can Museum employees have lost a friend who for directly the main features in the life of the
more than twenty-five years gave them his most adolescent girl in Samoa, as well as the social
helpful assistance, and the Corporation has lost setting in which she must find her way. The
one ever willing to serve it. No appeal for his author sees a sharp contrast between the situa-
experienced judgment was ever denied and none tion confronting the Samoan adolescent girl and
ever found him other than considerate and that confronting our own children, a situation
courteous. due in large part to the simple, easy-going life of
Mr. Gardner's kindly attitude and genial per- the Samoan. Doctor Mead believes that the
sonality made for him a large circle of friends who adolescent who has trouble in adjusting herself to
greatly deplore his sudden and unexpected death. Samoan society is the exceptional girl who is
ambitious to be recognized by her elders and to

LOUIS AGASSIZ FUERTES
achieve something worth while, whereas the ideal
IN MEMORIAM
ofSamoan civilization seems to be an easy-going,
February 7,marks the 55th birthday
1929,
complacent life, accepting conditions as they
anniversary of Louis Agassiz Fuertes, whose un- In our own society, the author beheves
come.
timely death by accident at a railroad crossing that the reverse is true, that the adolescent who is
near Unadilla, New York, on .\ugust 22, 1927, so complacent that nothing much matters is the
brought to a close an unusual career as one of one that gets into trouble and develops a case of
the leading bird-life painters of the world. maladjustment. However this may be, the
He has created well, since we partake thoughtful adult will find the book provacative
Of countless treasures here that bear his mark.
For him there is no ten or in the dark of reflection upon the more intimate aspects of
Where soon the throbbing, golden dawn will break.
His feathered friends that with tomorrow wake life. Clark Wissler.
And sing their hearts away:—the meadow-lark.
The thrush, the chickadee, with song embark ''blazing the trail to THE
Upon their journey, though their throats must ache DISTANT PAST"
With dismal longing, since he hears them not.
Grant that he rest within some silent spot The cover design for this number of Natural
Beloved by him, when evening shadows fall:
A garden filled with flowers, moss, and grass. History is reproduced from another painting
Where he can hear the autumn winds that pass
And spattered rain upon an ivied wall. by Mr. Arthur A. Jansson of the American
So willhe dreamless sleep, and well-content, Museum staff, and represents a party of palaeon-
With bird and tree for earthly monument.
— Marguerite Janvrin Adams. tologistsuncovering a fossil skull of the dinosaur
Tyrannosaurus. In the distance, outlined against
BOOK REVIEWS the sky, is the artist's conception of what these
Coming Age in Samoa, by Margaret Mead,
of scientists are able to visualize as they struggle
Ph.D. William Morrow, New York City, 1928. with the huge fossil skull. Tyrannosaurus was,
Dr. Margaret Mead, associate curator of during the Cretaceous period, the most terrible
ethnology in the American Museum, is now on of all the "terrible lizards" —
a beast of prey
her way to the South Pacific to continue her before whom even Triceratops, the greatest of the
studies of adolescent girls among the native horned dinosaurs, probably fell. Tyrannosaurus
populations. Recently she brought out a book attained a length of about thirty-five feet, and
Coming of Age in Samoa, presenting some aspects was surpassed in size by other creatures, but no
of her earlier studies along this line among the other dinosaur yet discovered had such powerful
Samoans. Some thirty or more years ago, the jaws and teeth.
OUR CONTRIBUTORS
Young aspirants to the art of palaeontology will be inter- many strange lands, and her
countless expeditions through
ested to knowthat in the year 1876 Henry Fairfield experiences have been presented to the pubhc in lectures
Osbom, the author of "The Revival of Central Asiatic and articles. She has done much original research work
Life," began hunting invertebrate fossils in the Palaeozoic in botany and with Prof. Cockerell, developed a new
beyond the Catskill Mountains; in 1877 and 1878 he was species of sunflower in her sunflower garden at Boulder in
chosen leader of a party of Princeton students in a hunt 1010. Her article in this issue of Natural History entitled
for fossil vertebrates in Wyoming, and between these "New Caledonia —A Fragment of the Ancient World" will
two expeditions he worked very hard cleaning and prepar- interest many of our readers who like to study every angle
ing and illustrating fossils. In 1890 after several years' of the history of this old world of ours.
research in comparative anatomy, he resumed fossil clean-
ing and preparing and describing in the top of an old Dr. Clyde Fisher's practical experience in the schools of
elevator shaft of the American Museum with Doctor Ohio and Florida, his training at Johns Hopkins University
Wortman, and thus with a handful of fossils from the where he received his doctorate in botany, together with his
Wasatch Mountains was established the Department of enthusiasm as a teacher, have developed to a high degree
Vertebrate Palaeontology which, with the cooperation of a his natural, rare talent of stimulating interest,
and imparting
series of great fossil explorers— Wortman, Granger, Brown, knowledge to young people. He has been a member of the
—
Peterson, Gidley, Kaisen, Olsen is filhng the six great education department of the American Museum for fourteen
exhibition halls of our Museum and rewriting the palse- years, and has rendered exceptional service in promoting
ontological history of the world. Meanwhile hundreds of the growth of the Museum's methods of visual instruction.
pamphlets, bulletins, and volumes were issued describing His article" How Nature Plants Her Flowers" is a charming
these fossils, including in 1890 a prediction regarding the example of his method of sharing his wealth of botanical
ancient fossil hfe of Central Asia, which has been brilliantly knowledge.
verified by Andrews and Granger as partly described in the
present article.
The group of insects which includes flies and mosquitoes
and which contains more than twice as many species as there
Henry Field, author of "Early Man in North Arabia,"
are vertebrates, including birds and fishes, has been a su :>-
is one of the most promising recruits in the younger school
ject for particiilar research on the part of C. H. Curran,
of American archaeologists who are specializing in the Old
assistant curator in charge of Diptera, at the Vmerican
Stone Age of western Europe. Beginning his original archae-
Museum. He tells in "Mosquitoes and Other Flies" of
ological studies in England, France, and Spain, he is now
some of the strange habits of these common insects, as well
extending his work into the Near East, Palestine, and Syria,
as of the remarkable formsand beauty with which they are
which promise to form the connecting half-way point
sometimes endowed. Mr. Curran came to the Museum
between the European and Central Asiatic archaeology of
from the entomological branch of the Department of Agri-
the Stone Age. The Field Museum of Chicago, now under
culture, Ottawa.
the acting direction of Stanley Field, has entrusted to Henry
Field the design and arrangement of the entirely iinique
exhibition hall in which the various phases of the Stone Age Observations made during eight years in the Indo-
are shown somewhat after the manner of the habitat groups AustraUan region form the basis of the present article on
of zoologists. Natuhal History is indebted to the Field "Strange Animals of the Island Continent" and of other
Museum for the opportunity of publishing the present articles which Henry C. Raven has contributed to Natural
narrative of Henry Field's reconnaisance in Syria. History. Mr. Raven, who is associate curator of the de-
partment of comparative and human anatomy at the Ameri-
H. E. Anthony, who tells of the quest of the Schooner can Museimi, has done extensive zoological field work in
"Morissey" to the Arctic for walrus, and how, homeward the Dutch East Indies, Africa, Australia, and Greenland.
bound, she beat the ice packs crowding down from the
Polar Seas, has traveled more than 100,000 miles on expedi- Of the gallant companions of Roald Amundsen on
all
tions in North, South, and Central America, the West Indies, that now historic
airplane flight to the Pole in 192.5, and the
Africa and the Arctic. Mr. Anthony began collecting Transpolar FUght of the dirigible Norge in 1926, from
mammals while he was stiU in high school, and he had more Spitzbergen to Alaska, no one held a deeper or mort, lasting
than 1500 specimens before his association with museums friendship for the great Explorer than did Lincoln Ells-
left him no further time for private collecting. His first worth. His tribute to the sterling qualities of this heroic
trip for the American Museum took him to Lower Cal- personality of the world's famous polar explorations appears
ifornia with Dr. C. H. Townsend in 1911. Since that time in this issue under the title "Roald Amiindsen."
he has been a member of the department of mammals of
the world at the American Museum. He is the author William G. Hassler, a new contributor to Natural
of A Field Book of North American Mammals, as well as a
History, originally planned to perfect himself in electrical
frequent contributor to Natural History. He
engineering. spent his simimers at the Boy Scout Camp
at Bear Mountain, and became so interested in studying the
Dr. Chester A. Reeds is familiar to the readers of reptiles and amphibians of that region that his knowledge
Natural History, through the many fascinating and of these creatures soon fitted him for a position on the
instructive articles on geology and fossil invertebrates that camp staff. Later he was invited to affiliate himself with
he has contributed for manyyears. "When Winter Comes" the department of herpetology and experimental biology at
is cramfull of information about such everyday things as the American Museum, where the care of the live reptile
how snow, ice, sleet, hail, and frost are formed. material is his responsibility, together with the preservation
and supervision of the study collections of that department.
Wilmatte Porter Cockerell has accompanied her hus- Some experiences in hunting salamanders are told
of hi'?
band, Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell of Boulder, Colorado, on in "Salamanders of the Great Smokies."

112 NATURAL HISTORY
NEW MEMBERS
Van Valzah, Maegabet B. Veab, F. A. Walsh, Doeo-
Since the last issue of Natural Histort, the following
persons have been elected members of the American
Mu- THY Payson Watson.
seum, making the total number 10,893. Misses Jeanne Bbasheaes, Maby Pbiscilla Collins,
Patron
Maby N.Cook, Margaret L. Grouse, Barbara Edwards,
Nancy N. Edwards, Mabgaeet Evans, Caeoline Haeri-
Mr. Wm. Halls, Jr. SON, Maby E. Heeemans, Isabel Estblla Humphbey,
Helen C. Hunt, Maby L. Mabtini, Mabjobie McColl,
Fello'J.''s Maegabet McLaughlin, Mab.iorie K. Mestayee,
Messrs. Otto I.. Dommerich, Walter Gurnee Dyer, Colette Ostheimbb, Aldyth Pinkham, Hulda Gobdon
W. C. Spruance.
Rhodes, Maby Elisabeth Simons, F. D. Smith, Molly
Elkins Tyler, Maude Van Woy, Chi Nyok Wang.
Life Members
Reverends Joseph S. Didusch, Wilfbid Scott.
Mesdames Leonard Ahl, Wm. Adams Kissam, Acosta
Nichols. ViGGO Andbbsen, Juan D. Campos, Pedeo Chutbo,
Profs.
Capt. Henry B. Heylman. H. Dubeck, Boyd R. Ewing, Jb., W. F. Langwobthy,
Messrs. Arthur W. Butler, Jr., Newcomb
Clevel.ind, Kurt Lindig, C. Lee Shilliday, Melvin J. Vincent.
E. Hope Norton, Arthur Emebton
Obvis.
DoctorsJohn M. Gitterman, A. R. Gould, H. E. Haze-
winkel, Wm. F. Jacobs, Oliver A. Lothbop, John I.
Sustaining Members Mabkee, Henby J. Off, Nobman W. Pbice, Fbancis
Mesdames David Dows, C. H. Matthiessen. MiNOT Rackemann, Wm. H. Rendleman, William O.
Arthur B. McGbaw. Rice, Douglas J. Robeets. John A. M. Stbwabt, J. N.
Doctor H. Winstanley.
Stoops, Kuno H. Stbuck, J.
Mr. E. W. MuDGE.
Major A. B. Welch.
Annual Members
Capl. H. C. Beocklehuest.
Mesdames Chauncey Belknap, Judson S. Bradley,
Earle p. Charlton, Wm. F. Dominick, S. O Harvey,
Evans,
Messrs. Nobman L Adams, W. H. Adams, Robert E.
Everett W. Fabyan, S. Friend, Elbert A. Lemaibe, Alexandeb, John S. Allen, Whbeleb D. Allen, Bbookb
Charles D Hilles, Arklay King, Florence O.
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77th STREET and CENTRAL PARK WEST
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NATU RAL
HISTO
March-April Price Fifty
1929 Cents
SUNSET IN THE GOBI DESERT

NEW YORK, N Y.
Henry Fairfield Osboen, LL.D., President
George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed.D., Director and Executive Secretary
James L. Clark, Assistant Director, Preparation
I. DIVISION OF MINERALOGY, Fishes Science of Man {continued)

GEOLOGY, GEOGRAPHY, William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Curator William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Associate
John T. Nichols, A.B., Curator of in Physical Anthropology
AND ASTRONOMY Recent Fishes Clarence L. Hay, A.M., Research
Henry Fairfield Osborn, LL.D., E. W. Gudger, Ph.D., Bibliographer Associate in Mexican and Central
D.Sc, Curator-in-Chief and Associate American Archseology
Francbsca R. LaMontb, A.B., Assist- MiLO Hellman D.D.S., Research Asso-
ant Curator ciate in Physical Anthropology.
A stronomy Loois HusÂKOF, Ph.D., Research George E. Brewer, M.D., Research
Associate in Devonian Fishes Associate in Somatic Anthropology
G.Clyde Fisher, Ph.D., LL.D., Curator Charles H. Townsend, Sc.D., Re-
search Associate IV. DIVISION OP ASIATIC EX-
Minerals and Gems C. M. Breder, Jr., Research Associate
Van Campen Heilner, M.Sc, Field PLORATION AND RESEARCH
Herbert P. Whitlock, C.E., Curator Representative Roy Chapman Andrews, Sc.D.,
George F. Kunz, Ph.D., Research Curator-in-Chief
Associate in Gems Walter Granger, Curator in Palae-
Lea McIlvaine Luquer, Ph.D., Re- Amphibians and Reptiles, and
ontology
search Associate in Optical Mineralogy Experimental Biology Charles P. Berkey, Ph.D., [Columbia
G. KiNGSLBY Noble, Ph.D., Curator University], Research Associate in
Clifford H. Pope, B.A., Assistant Geology
History of the Earth Curator Frederick K. Morris, A.M. [Central
Henry Fairfield Osbokn, LL.D., Bertram G. Smith, Ph.D., Research Asiatic Expeditions], Associate in
D.Sc, Honorary Curator-in-Chief Associate Geology and Geography
A. B. Dawson, Ph.D., Research Asso- Amadeus W. Grabau, S.D. [Geological
ciate Survey of China], Research Associate
Fossil Vertebrates William Douglas Burden, A.M., Re-
search Associate
Walter Granger, Curator of Fossil V. DIVISION OF EDUCATION
Mammals AND PUBLICATION
Barnum Brown, A.B., Curator ot Birds
Fossil Reptiles Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D., Curator-in- George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed.D.,
George G. Simpson, Ph.D., Associate Chief Curator-in-Chief
Curator of Vertebrate Palajontology Robert Cushman Murphy, D.Sc.,
Charles C. Mook, Ph.D., Associate Curator of Oceanic Birds Library and Publications
Curator of Geology and Paleontology W. DeW. Miller, Associate Curator
William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Research James P. Chapin, Ph.D., Associate Ida Richardson Hood, A.B., Acting
Associate in Paleeontology Curator of Birds of the Eastern Curator
Childs Frick, B.S., Research Associate Hemisphere Hazel Gay, Assistant Librarian
in Palseontology Elsie M. B. Naumburg, Research Jannbtte May Lucas, B.S., Assistant
Associate —
Librarian Osborn Library
Geology and Fossil Invertebrates Mammals of the World Education and Public Health
Chester A. Reeds, Ph.D., Curator H. E. Anthony, M.A., Curator George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed.D.,
Robert T. Hatt, A.M., Assistant Curator-in-Chief
Curator G. Clyde Fisher, Ph.D., LL.D.,
II. DIVISION OF ZOOLOGY, George G. Goodwin, Assistant Curator Curator of Visual Instruction
William Morden, Ph.B., Field Grace Fisher Ramsey, Associate
AND ZOOGEOGRAPHY Associate
J.
Curator
Frank Michler Chapman, Sc.D., William H. Carr, Assistant Curator
N.A.S., Curator-in-Chief Comparative and Human Nancy True, A.B., Staff Assistant
Elizabeth A. Eckiils, Ph.B., Staff
Anatomy Assistant
Marine Life William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Curator Paul B.Mann, A.M., Associate in
Roy Waldo Miner, Ph.D., Sc.D., H. C. Raven, Associate Curator Education
Curator S. H. Chubb, Associate Curator Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D., Research Asso-
WiLL.^-KD G. Van Name, Ph.D., Marcblle Roigneau, Staff Assistant ciate in Outdoor Education
Associate Curator J. Howard McGregor, Ph.D., Re-
Frank J. Myers, B.A., Research Asso- Human Anatomy
search Associate in
ciate in Rotif era Dudley J. Morton, M.D., Research Charles-Edward Amory Winslow,
Horace W. Stunkard, Ph.D., Re- Associate D.P.H., Honorary Curator of Public
search Associate in Parasitology
I
Health
A. L. Treadwell, Ph.D., Research III. DIVISION OF ANTHRO- Mary Greig, A.B., Assistant Curator
Associate in Annulata of Pubhc Health
POLOGY
Clark Wissler, Ph.D., Curator-in-
Printing and Publishing
Insect Life Chief
Hawthorne Daniel, Curator, Editor
Frank L. Lutz, Ph.D., Curator Science of Man of Natural History
A. J. Mr tchlbr, Associate Curator of A. Katherine Berger, Associate
Coleopt.era Clark Wissler, Ph.D., Curator-in- Editor of Natural History
C. H. CuRU\N, M.A., Assistant Curator Chief
Frank E. Watson, B.S.^§taff:Assistant N. C. Nelson, M.L., Curator of Pre-
in I,epidoptera historic Archaeology Public Information
William M. Wheeler, Ph.D., Re- Harry L. Shapiro, Ph.D., Assistant George N. Pindar, Chairman
search Associate in Social Insects Curator of Physical Anthropology George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed.D.
Charles W. Leng, B.S., Research Asso- Margaret Mead, Ph.D., Assistant William K. Gregory, Ph.D.
ciate in Coleoptera ? Curator of Ethnology Wayne M. Fauncb, Sc.B.
Herbert F. Schwarz, A.M., Research George C. Vaillant, Ph.D., Assistant Clark Wissler, Ph.D.
Associate in Hymenoptera Curator of Mexican Archaeology Hawthorne Daniel
Advisory Committee on Natural History JVIagazine

Hawthorne Daniel, Chairman
A. Katherine Berger
VOLUME XXIX NATU
1^/Vl RAL
r\UVL^ \J MARCH-APRIL
Number 2
HISTORY 1929
T/ie Journal ofThe American Museum of Natural History
Hawthorne Daniel ^^^SÂ A. Katherine Berger

Editor ^HHHV Associate Editor
CONTENTS
Sunset on the Gobi Desert Cover
From a Painting by Arthur A. Jansson. See page 224
The Central Asiatic Expedition in the Shadow of the Great Wall . . Frontispiece
Further Adventures of the American Men
OF THE Dragon Bones Roy Chapman Andrews 115
The Activities of the Fourth Central Asiatic Expedition
At the Edge of the Antarctic Ice John T. Nichols 129

The Animals and Birds on the Edge of the South Polar Continent
Fossil Bones in a Persian Garden Otis Barton 143

The Remains of Prehistoric Asiatic Animals Recently Uncovered
Wide-gab, the Angler Fish E. W. Gudger 155

How the All-mouth Sometimes Attempts More than It Can Accomplish
Experiments with "Wonder Creatures" Frank E. Lutz 160
Insects Can Withstand Conditions that Humans Cannot Possibly Survive
Eleven Weeks in a Lion Pasture.. G. Lister Carhsle, Jr. 169

The Story of an Expedition Led by a Conservationist
The Odyssey of a Ground Squirrel Robert T. Hatt 181

The Tragic Life Story of a Rodent
The Ruddy Wanderer of the Sky Clyde Fisher 190

The Planet That Most Interests the Inquiring Mind of Man
The Second of Two Articles Descriptive of Animals of the Austrahan Region
A Trail That Led to Mongolia Stewart A. McWilliams 208

The Story of Roy Chapman Andrews
Odgen Mills, 1856-1929 210
Frederic Augustus Lucas, 1852-1929 Robert Cushman Murphj^ 211
"The Brain From Ape to Man": A Review William K. Gregorv 215
In the Field of' Natural History 218
Published bimonthly, by The American Museum of Natural History, New York, N. Y. Sub-
Subscriptions should be addressed to James H. Perkins, Treasurer, American Museum of XaturaJ
History, 77th St. and Central Park West, New York City. 'y
Natural History is seni to all members of the American Museum as one of the privileges of membership
Entered as second-class matter April 3, 1919, at the Post Office at New York, New York under
Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October

THE CENTRAL ASIATIC EXPEDITION IN THE SHADOW OF THE GREAT WALL
The expedition's motor cars stop while the members have lunch on the way to the Gobi Desert
See "Further Adventures of the American Men of the Dragon Bones," Page 113.
VOLUME NATU RAL NUMBER
XXIX
HISTORY TWO
MARCH-APRIL, 1929
FURTHER ADVENTURES OF THE

AMERICAN MEN OF THE
DRAGON BONES
An Account of the Activities of the Fourth of the Central Asiatic Expeditions
in Their Work of Reconstructing the Pre-history of the Vast and Arid
Region Which Includes the Gobi Desert Further Proof that Central
.
Asia Was One of the Chief Centers from Which the Reptilian and
Mammalian Life of Europe, Africa, and America Radiated
By ROY CHAPMAN ANDREWS

Ijcader of the Central Asiatic Expeditions
and Curator-in-Chief of Asiatic Exploration and Research, American Museum
PANIC among the foreign population in the hearts of most Chinese. The mur-
of China is rare. In fact I had never der of white residents and mysterious
seen anything approaching a panic disappearances of others happened fre-
there until I reached Peking in April, 1927. quently. had ordered their
All legations
Then I found most of the foreigners nationals to the seacoast. Every ship
thoroughly scared. Even the year before, that left China was packed to the rails
when the gates of Peking were closed and with missionaries, merchants, and others
sand-bagged, and Chang Tso-lin's wild who had resided for years in a country
Manchu hordes were looting and burning which had suddenly gone mad as though
the country-side, few foreigners in the smitten with an attack of the rabies.
capital were even nervous. Dinners and Such was the situation when I arrived
dances, polo and tennis went on as gayly in Peking in early April. It was a pretty
as before. hopeless outlook for continuing the work
But in the winter of 1926-27 the Han- of the Central Asiatic Expedition in
kow and Nanking outrages had been per- Mongolia. Even had we been able to get
petrated. I need not enlarge upon the the expedition away from China, the
details. It is a disgracefulpage in China's American Minister would have prohibited
modern history. The result was to in- our leaving. Common sense dictated that
flame the anti-foreign feeling which exists policy. Still, it was rather disheartening
THE EXPEDITION LEAVES FOR THE GOBI
Escorted by a troop of fifty Chinese cavalrymen, the expedition starts across the plain beyond
Kalgan Wan Chuan Hsien
to the foot of the pass near
THE LEADER OF THE CAMEL TRAIN REPORTS

Doctor Andrews greets the leader of the camel train, which, because camels are slow-moving beasts,
has been on the trail for many weeks longer than the automobiles
THE CAMEL TRAIN ARRIVES
Doctor Andrews and Tserin, the leader of the camel caravan,
go out to meet the newcomers who
are arrivmg with the all important supplies
TRANSFERRING SUPPLIES
The camel train having arrived with supphes, the goods are checked and repacked for
transportation
m the cars and for use in camp
118 NATURAL HISTORY
A LINK WITH CIVILIZATION

A telegraph operator of Northern China and his family, with their sole means of transport
to face another season of inaction, for to come out for the spring expedition. At
heavy fighting about Peking had pre- Christmas it looked bad. By mid-
vented us from going the previous year. January there were slight signs of improve-
It looked very much as though every- ment. It all depended upon whether I
one would have to leave China, and we had guessed right as to what would
proceeded to liquidate certain immovable happen. Anyway, I decided to gamble
effects of the expedition, to put others in and wired for the staff to come.
a place of comparative safety, and to It would take too long to describe the
reduce current expenses to the minimum. delicate diplomatic negotiations which
I decided to hang on during the summer had to be carried on to get the expedi-
and winter, hoping that one of those tion away. It is enough to say that they
sudden changes that so frequently happen were successful. We slipped out during
in Chinese politics would give some the month of comparative calm which I
encouragement for an expedition in 1928. had anticipated would precede the
The hoped for happened. Chang Tso-lin usual spring offensive.
raided the Soviet Embassy in Peking and For 120 miles north of Kalgan the
disclosed world-wide plots. North China plateau swarmed with bandits, all soldier
quieted almost in a day. Still it was deserters. Nothing could pass un-
months before foreigners were allowed to molested without an arrangement with
return to the interior. Then they began the brigands. We made such an arrange-
to trickle into the back country without ment. The brigand transit tax cost me
the official sanction of their legations. two and a half each camel. The
dollars
I had promised to cable the Museum regular price was five dollars, but we got
by the first of February if the staff were cut rates because the bandit chief was an
I^M
A SHRINE IN THE DESERT

This Mongol shrine is situated in the vast expanse of the Gobi at a spot called Lybaghrin Gol
DESERT ENTERTAINMENT
For the amusement of these native callers, the electric victrola played the latest tunes from America
"THE TREE"
This lone tree was the first seen by the expedition in MongoHa, and advantage was taken of its
shade at hmch time
"NAVIGATING" IN THE DESERT

Hill and Granger, with the aid of a Gurleytransit, determine the position of the expedition by
taking the elevation of the sun. As being used here in the desert, the transit takes the place
it is
of the sextant, which is used at sea
GATHERING DATA FOR A MAP OF THE DESERT
Throughout most of the country traversed, the expeditions have made maps as they have advanced,
thus adding exact t;n30graphical knowledge to their great fund of palaecntological information
NEW USES FOR AUTOMOBILE TIRES

In the Gobi even the camels sometimes travel "on tires." A cameleer is shown here sewing a
section of the tread of a tire over a wound in a camel's foot. It is no more painful to the animal
than is the process of shoeing a horse, and the cut is thus protected
122 NATURAL HISTORY
't M
THE FURIOUS WINDS OF THE GOBI

No photograph can even vaguely suggest the force of the desert wind. This straining tent, torn
by the wind, illustrates an important phase of desert conditions
old friend and he knew that our camels Murun about three hundred miles north-
carried nothing that his men could use or west of Kalgan. We had discovered the
dispose of. But we refused to pay the and had done
locality the previous year
one hundred dollars fee for each of our some prospecting there. It was Eocene
eight motor cars which the brigands and very rich. All our plans had been
demanded. I felt sure that we could made to explore Inner Mongolia west-
protect ourselves against several hundred ward to Turkestan. Sven Hedin, the
robbers. The American Minister, Mr. famous Swedish explorer of Tibet, had
J. V. A. MacMurray, with his wife and gone that way, but our work was some-
sister,accompanied us to the top of the what different than his and we hoped to
plateau when we left Kalgan on April 16. find a new route.
His presence was an enormous help to us While Granger carried on palseontologi-
in our departure. We owe him and all cal studies at Shara Murun, I went with
the legation staff our sincerest thanks for some others to hunt a western trail. We
the splendid support they have given all found that the one Hedin had followed
our expeditions. was the only possible route unlesswe
The first day's run through the bandit crossed into Outer Mongolia. That we
country was interesting, for we expected could not do, as we had no permits.
to be attacked at every village. But the Still it seemed wise to go west and we
brigands were afraid to meet us in open sent the camels forward.
fight even though there were some three On May 5, while hunting antelope, I
hundred in the vicinity. They tried to sustained an accidental wound in the

trick us into stopping at a fortified village, left leg from my heavy .38 caliber revolver.
but the plan did not work. We knew the The bullet entered in the middle of the
habits of the species too well! thigh, ranged downward, and emerged
Our first working camp was at Shara below the knee. By a miracle it did not
SCANNING THE DESERT FOR SIGNS OF A TRAIL
In the vast expanse of the Gobi there are few trails and the possible routes are difficult. Doctor
Andrews is shown here as he attempts to lay out a route for the expedition to follow
THE LEADER OF THE CENTRAL ASIATIC EXPEDITIONS

Roy Chapman Andrews, in camp at Urtyn Obo, takes time to feed two pet eaglets captured in the
desert. Appropriately enough, he is using chopsticks with which to feed these Mongohan birds
,f£WV
FURTHER ADVENTURES OF AMERICAN MEN OF DRAGON BONES 125
'^
^J
'#'
.V
THE DESOLATION OF THE GOBI

This difficult bit of terrain is a portion of the badlands at Urtyn Obo
smash the joint; otherwise I should have unlike the Gobi that we knew in Outer
had a stiff leg for life. Doctor Perez, our Mongolia. There the terrain is largely
surgeon, did a splendid job in getting me gravel, and motors can go almost any-
fit again. where. But toward Turkestan great
The accident delayed us nearly a month, areas of shifting sand and huge dunes
during which the members of the staff make the country a desolate yellow waste,
were busy whenever the sand storms gave impassable for anything but camels. The
them an opportunity to work. The fossil archaeologist, geologist, and topographer
deposits proved to be moderately good did find some things to interest them but
and the archaeological stations interesting. it was a land of utter desolation. Thus
Therefore no time was lost except the first two months of the expedition
through the weather. For six weeks we were a dismal failure.
had just one terrific sand storm after The only thing to do was to turn back.
another. Never have I seen such continu- It is hard for any explorer to do that.
ous bad weather. Many days it was Still the pill was not so bitter, because
impossible to work at all, and the nerves there was a great area in Eastern Mongolia
of all the men became strained to the still unexplored. In fact it was less known
breaking point. We were glad enough to than the country which we were in. We
leave as soon as I was able to travel. had intended to explore it next season.
The western trip proved to be bitterly We would do it now, instead, and leave
disappointing. Not only did we find no the west to Sven Hedin.
fossil deposits but the country was so It proved to be a wise decision. Back-
blanketed with loose sand that motor tracking by forced marches to the Shara
travel was impossible. It is really an Murun, we stopped near Hospital Camp
extension of the northern edge of the while five of us went off to make a recon-
Ordos and Alashan deserts and is quite naissance of the eastern country. After
126 NATURAL HISTORY
EXCAVATING A TITANOTHERE SKULL

This find was made in the lower white beds of the formation at Urtyn Obo
we had gone, Granger and Thomson made less complete. It is in such difficult
a great discovery of one of the richest matrix that much time and special prep-
fossil deposits in all Mongolia. Pond aration will be required for its removal.
also found an enormous residence site of We therefore had to leave it for next year.
the Mesolithic and Neolithic Dune Dwel- An extraordinary titanothere, unlike
lers, a culture discovered by Mr. N. C. any other known form, rhinoceroses of
Nelson, our chief archaeologist in 1923. new types, carnivores, and parts of the
On our part, we learned that the east giant piglike animal Entelodon came out
was well worth an extended exploration. of the red and white badlands at Urtyn
New geological horizons were discovered Obo. The deposit was merely scratched
containing a new fossil fauna. during our two weeks' stay, but we hope
Before we started eastward, the expedi- to prospect it thoroughly next season.
tion remained for two weeks at Urtyn Last summer the expedition's staff was
Obo, Granger's locality. It yielded a organized for reconnaissance and we
seriesof amazing mammals. Most could not settle down to intensive
spectacular of all is a giant beast allied to palseontological work without keeping
the Baluchitherium. It is certainly a many men idle.
new genus and is probably larger than the The
eastern exploration proved to be
Baluchitherium grangeri, a skull of which well worth while. A vast area of Pliocene
we discovered in 1923. We obtained deposits was discovered. Strata of this
many parts of the skeleton, from several age is almost non-existent in the region
individuals. Also Shackelford discovered of our previous explorations. In fossils,
a skeleton which we judge to be more or it yielded an extraordinary mastodon with
¥;
W-
"tfiîn
it
A RHINOCEROS OF THE GOBI

This photograph is of a prehistoric skeleton found at Gur Lung Khara
A FOSSIL FIND
Alonzo W. Pond, of the Central Asiatic Expeditions, is shown in this photograph at work excavating
the skeleton of a primitive man in the Sha Kang Usu country
128 NATURAL HISTORY
most the great expansion and contraction of
a shovel-like jaw which is one of the
the tins in the sun-heat and cool nights.
amazing adaptations in the animal king-
As a result our expedition ended two
dom; also many other less spectacular
weeks than we had intended.
but hardly less important specimens. Our
earlier
Nevertheless, we accomplished most of
topographer mapped thousands of square
miles of uncharted country; the archae-
what there was to be done in the way of
ologist discovered more than a hundred
new exploration. When we were forced
to return to Kalgan, we looked back over
stations of the Dune Dweller culture,
giving a very clear idea of the life story of the results of the expedition with great
There were 87 cases of
these primitive people. To me an inter-
satisfaction.
that without doubt Mon- containing some of the most extra-

fossils,
esting fact is
ago was much more ordinary and important specimens that

goha 20,000 years
we have ever found in MongoHa; there
densely populated than it is today.
The summer of 1928 proved to be the were 15,000 artifacts in the archôlogist's
collections, giving the story of the Dune
hottest that any of us have ever known
Dwellers in most of its phases. The
in Mongolia. For two weeks the tempera-
F and 140°
in the tents topographer had mapped 3000 miles of
ture stood at 110°
At night the thermometer virtually unknown country; the photog-
F in the sun.
dropped to 70° F. This extraordinary rapher had a superb collection of photo-
graphs and motion-picture film; the
change of 70' between night and day
temperature worked havoc with our geologist had filled in many gaps in the
geological column of Mongolia and eluci-
gasoline. Although we had devoted more
care and thought to the packing of our gas
dated the continental structure of thou-
than during any previous year, the loss sands of miles. It was a good season's
Out 4000 gallons we
of work, taken all in all, and we were well
was enormous.
lost nearly 1000 gallons. This was due to pleased.
DIFFICULTIES OF DESERT AUTOMOBILING

in a wet spot while on
This car of the Central Asiatic Expedition has bogged down unexpectedly
a scouting expedition to the west of the expedition's camp
Incubating king penguins of South Georgia, with Lucas Glacier in the background Detail of the
American Museum's now dismantled group
AT THE EDGE OF THE ANTARCTIC ICE

The Animals and Birds that Live Along the Perpetually Frozen
Shores of the Antarctic Continent, —Whales and Seals,
Sea Leopards, Penguins, and Others
By JOHN T. NICHOLS
Curator of Recent Fishes, American Museum
TO dwellers in north temperate lati-

tudes, the Arctic is comparatively
the air, or swimming under the water
(with their wings as their chief means of

close at hand and holds little in the locomotion)
way of wild life that is outlandish, new, or But the Antarctic is different. That
strange. Periodically blizzards come June midwinter there is not its only
is
whistling down out of the northwest and contrast with the north. Instead of being
bury us in snow. Shore birds that nest an intangible point on a hving, drifting
on the far northern tundras pass regularly ice pack which covers a wide, deep sea, the
north and south along our beaches and South Pole is situated on and surrounded
marshes in the spring and autumn. The by a high, more or less mountainous land
cool touch of the Labrador Current mass. This Antarctic Continent has been
permits the same kind of white whale that buried under ice and snow for so many
Amundsen and Ellsworth saw from the ages that such life as it may have had at
dirigible "Norge," when the creature some time in the distant past has ceased
showed itself in an open lead near the to exist. It is essentially dead year in and
North Pole, to disport for the edifi- year out. No
polar bear, no musk ox, no
cation of summer tourists in the Gulf of fox, or wolf, or hare, leaves its tracks
St. Lawrence; and along the Atlantic across the frigid deserts of never melting
steamship lanes in winter the identical snow and ice. No redpolls or snow bunt-
dovekies, or little auks, whose arrival will ingscome flitting back with the low sun
mark the return of spring for the Eskimos, during that travesty of spring that comes
are sometimes to be seen, flying about in in September and October to the far
130 NATURAL HISTORY
Photograph by R. C. Andrews
FLUKES OF A HUMPBACK WHALE
This photograph of a diving whale was taken in the North Pacific, but the same kind of whale is
also to be found along the edges of the Antarctic Continent
southern continent. No shore birds or southern sea, from which they turn away
wild fowl nest on the frigid slopes, which an ice-covered con-
in order to penetrate
never, even for the shortest of seasons, tinent that extends to and around the
thaw out. There is nothing in all Ant- pole.
arctica to compare with these creatures of Any Antarctic expedition, then, must
the north. have its base at or near the southern
On the other hand, this barren conti- shore of the Southern Ocean, the northern
nent of snow and ice is surrounded by a boundary of which is climatological
comparatively ice-free Southern Ocean rather than physiographical, and may be
fairly teeming with life, which, for the said to lie along the northern edge of the
—
most part as regards the higher animals —
Westerly Winds that is to say, somewhat
— is quite unlike that of the cold northern south of the thirtieth parallel of south
seas. latitude. The southern shores of Austra-
It is interesting to note that the area of lia, of South America south of Valparaiso
the Antarctic Continent is almost the on the west and of Buenos Aires on the
same as the area of the Arctic Ocean. east, and the Cape region of Africa, all
Where, in the north, explorers make their border on this ocean. It is the charac-
bases on the edge of the land masses that teristic life of this Southern Ocean that
extend toward the south, and turn north- Antarctic explorers encounter, and of
ward to cross the floating ice pack, ex- which they tell us.
plorers in the south do the reverse. Their To begin with fishes, several kinds of
bases must be at the shore line of the sculpins are plentiful in the far northern
^^
Drawing hy Lynn Bogue Hunt

A SCHOOL OF KILLER WHALES
These ferocious mammals, which reach a length of about thirty feet, arecommon in Antarctic waters.
They congregate in small schools and often attack whales much larger than themselves, tearing and
devouring pieces from these great mammals
132 NATURAL HISTORY
Photograph by R. C. Murphy
A SEA LEOPARD OF SOUTH GEORGIA
Napping contentedly on ice floes at the foot of Grace Glacier. His mouth is wide open in a comfortable
yawn, and the flippers are crossed on the breast. This particular animal was shot by Dr. Robert
Cushman Murphy. When dissected, it had in its stomach the remains of four king penguins with a
total weight of 136 pounds
seas, and not dissimilar appearing species there to serve as the piece de resistance
in the south were at one time classed with for this fierce and always hungry diner.
these. We know now, however, that the The killer seems to be the only whale that
resemblances are superficial, and the has the habit of deliberately raising its
southern forms belong to the family Noto- head out water and looking around
of the
theniidse, peculiar to those waters. — a highly disconcerting and apparently
Various whales, on the other hand, un-whale-like maneuver.
are like the northern whales, or show These killer whales, or orcas, remain
only slight differences which may or may throughout the year as far south as open
not have been described. Photographs water can be found. They are prone to
of humpback whales taken by Dr. Roy keep together in schools of varying size,
Chapman Andrews on the northwest and it is said that they often break up
coast of North America will serve equally heavy sea ice in their search for food.
well for southern waters. Sperm whales are rarely to be seen in
The killer whale is apt to be very plenti- the cold waters of the far southern sea,
ful along the edge of the southern ice. although occasionally one is captured by
Here also it is peculiarly dangerous, for it the whaling stations of South Georgia,
has developed the habit of bumping seals in the sub- Antarctic. Humpback whales
and penguins off the ice pans where they (Megaptera) and fin whales of several
have taken refuge from this wolf of the species (Balaenoptera) arecommon, how-
seas. With such a habit well developed, ever, even in the very shadow of the
the killer, which, naturally enough, does great Ice Barrier.
not differentiate between seals and men, Far southern seals are of species unlike
might readily enough bump some careless those in the corresponding north. The
explorer from an ice pan into the sea, widely distributed sea leopard is a partic-
/
>'
Photograph from the Australasian- Antarctic Expedition

AN ICE RAVINE IN ADELIE LAND
During the great Ice Age some 50,000 years ago, northern Europe may have presented scenes similar
to this
Ph olograph by J. Innes Wilson
ROARIXG HIS DEFIANCE
Male sea elephant, surrounded by his wives at Cumberland Bay, South Georgia. These sea elephants
are typically sub-Antarctic animals
A SEA ELEPHANT "PUP" OF SOUTH GEORGIA
The "pup" is pictured engaged in —
its principal occupation sleeping. These animals grow to great
size, sometimes weighing as much as two tons
I
Photograph by R. C, Murphy
SOUTH GEORGIAN TERN" SITTING ON ITS SINGLE EGG
The bird permitted itself to be touched while on the nest because a snowstorm was in progress. In
fair weather the terns are incUned to be shv
A MALE SOOTY ALBATROSS AND ITS OFFSPRING
The perch is a narrow ledge of a chff at South Georgia. A broken ring of white feathers behind the
eye of this finest of flyers gives it a perpetually astonished expression
136 NATURAL HISTORY
Photograph from the Australasian- Antarctic Expedition

BELOW ZERO, AND AN EIGHTY-MILE GALE
Life in the Antarctic presents extreme perils and discomforts, as is shown by the above picture of a
bhzzard in Adelie Land
ularly interesting solitary and preda- pelled to flap its wings, even for a few
cious species The primary food of this strokes, and, helped not hindered by the
creature is penguins, which, being numer- strength of the wind, it sails serenely on,
ous and unable to fly, fall readily enough leaning far to one side or the other as its
before the attack of the active, spotted curving course takes through the cold
it
seal. air. Sometimes the tip of a wing may cut

The great sea elephant, too, is a south- knifelike through the water, before the
ern form. It has a cousin that is found bird the other way and sails grace-
tilts
north of the equator, but that branch of fully and powerfully away on the other
the family is presumably of southern tack.
origin. This ungainly beast does not live Various smaller albatrosses are also
on the Antarctic Continent itself, but is plentiful. Among these, the dark-gray
common on certain of the sub-Antarctic sooty albatross, with its long, pointed tail,
islands that lie outside the zone of the ice is peculiarly graceful in the air.
packs. The heavier-bodied giant fulmar,

The Southern Ocean is alive with birds despite its relatively short wings, soars
— birds whose life and whose living are at with equal ease and control in high winds.
sea. All of these, however, must, at some Spotted Cape pigeons, looking for all the
time during the year, repair to the land to world like real pigeons, except that they
lay their eggs and raise their young. have the same sailing flight characteristic
Perhaps the most dramatic of all these
of the petrel-like birds of these stormy
is the majestic wandering albatross —bird seas, follow the few ships in flocks in order
of the Ancient Mariner. Its narrow,
to pick up scraps from the galley that are
bladelike wings, which may measure eleven
feet or more from tip to tip, are beauti- tossed overboard by the cook or the ob-
fully adapted to its perennial task of riding server bent on attracting them. The
the prevailing westerly gales. Only occa- more windy the weather, it seems, the
sionally is this master of flightcom- more certain these birds are to be about
Photograph from the Awtralasian-Antarctic Expedition
SUB-ANTARCTIC CORMORANTS AT HASSELBOROUGH BAY
The brilliantly white breast and neck of this far southern cormorant distinguish it from the northern
cormorants, which are generally dark
A GIANT FULMAR GUARDING ITS NESTLING
The cold blue eye and terrible beak of the parent are not its worst threats. It is capable of ejecting
thie contents of its stomach at an intruder, and its food is mainly carrion
A PAIR OF WANDERING ALBATROSSES
The male is tamping down the partly constructed nest with his huge webbed feet, while his mate sits
serenely beside him
A JOHNNY PENGUIN AND ITS TWO CORPULENT YOUNGSTERS
The Johnny penguins are roly-poly, interested in everything, and quite remind one of small boj^s.
The chicks are anchored to the nest by the weight of their stomachs
A DASH INTO THE SEA
These three king penguins are entering the water from the beach of South Georgia. Bands frequently
come out of the sea during the warmer part of the day to sun themselves on the beach
ADELIE PENGUINS IN THE ANTARCTIC ICE

These birds are quite fearless and courageous, and a human can easily come up close to them, but
if they are mistreated, they are likely to become shy and hard to approach
140 NATURAL HISTORY
A GIANT FULMAR'S NEST IN THE SNOW
Even when such birds are buried by snow, they do not leave the egg
any ship that may be voyaging in those birds? However, penguins are true birds,
tempestuous waters. though completely flightless and essen-
The silver-gray petrel (Priocella), Ant- tially adapted for a life in the sea compar-
arctic petrel (Thalassceca) , and pure white able with that of seals. Their wings have
snow petrel (Pagodroma) are similar in degenerated into flippers, covered all over
habits to the Cape pigeon, and the last with small scalelike feathers and used only
two are seldom seen even so far north as for swimming. They travel for consider-
the latitude of Cape Horn. The little able distances below the surface with brief
blue-gray whale birds, which skim close to periods of emergence for breathing. Some
the water in the troughs of the waves, are species, when traveling swiftly, leap or
in some places excessively abundant. "roll" as porpoises do, and in general,
Their peculiar color gives them an in- when at the surface, they swim and be-
tangible appearance against the sea back- have much like seals. Most species can
ground, and was studied for low visibility leap out of water to a height of three or
by United States camouflage experts four feet to land on an ice floe or a rock.
during the World War. A northerner is They nest on desolate coasts or shore ice,
apt to think of comorants or shags as sometimes in large close-ranked colonies.
being — as a rule —almost as black as Animals that associate in flocks usually
crows, but, in the Southern Ocean, species maneuver with a certain coordination and
with glistening white lower parts are precision, that, in the case of this peculiar
common. and almost wingless fowl, which stands
Penguins are probably the most inter- more or less erect on feet placed close
esting and peculiar animals of the South- under its tail, give the illusion of ranks of
ern Ocean. I once heard an intelligent trained soldiers.
ship's officer, who had long been familiar The emperor penguin, which is quite the
with them, express surprise and incredulity largest, stands about four feet high. It
that they were birds at all. They were not "nests," strangely enough, during the
seals, he realized, and they were certainly long Antarctic night (July to September)
not fish or porpoises, but why call them on the ice barrier on the coast of Ant-
Photograph from the Anstrnlnsian-Antarctic Expedition
ON "THE NUGGETS" BEACH, MACQUARIE LAND
From rookeries on the hills, royal penguine come down in long processions each day to fish from the beach
142 NATURAL HISTORY
arctica. During the period of incubation, latitudes it is difficult to say because of the
the egg — of
which there is but one is — from
difficulty of differentiating it at sea
carefully held on the bird's feet where it is similar terns which breed in the south.
covered by a fold of loose skin between The Arctic tern, of course, returns to
the legs. This, on a little thought, will northern regions with the sun to nest in
be seen to be an almost essential arrange- the ensuing year, but perhaps these other
ment, for an egg placed on ice might be terns, which nest on sub- Antarctic islands,
expected to go into permanent cold stor- are descendants of stragglers from such
age. Furthermore, the male and female migrants, that failed to find their way
take turns in thus brooding the egg, for, back to their northern homes.
in the frigid temperatures of the Ant- There are other birds to be found in the
arctic winter, even a short period during far south that are, undoubtedly, of north-
which the egg remained unprotected, ern origin. Among these are several
would almost certainly be enough to freeze species of the big robber gull, or skua,
the contents of the shell. birds with great powers of flight. One of
The second largest, or king penguin, these, observed by Douglas Mawson

Sir
bears a close resemblance to the emperor, on the Antarctic Continent 125 miles from
—
but is smaller about three feet and is — the coast, may lay claim to being the most
sub-Antarctic in distribution. It has been southerly of all birds. It is even con-
studied and photographed at South ceivable that such a skua might cross the
Georgia by Dr. Robert Cushman Murphy, South Pole itself, flying from sea to sea, and
some of whose photographs have been used who shall say that this has not been done
as illustrations in this article. There are — that birds, the most remarkable of
other species of penguins, the smallest of —
migrants are entirely without the true
which are about one half the size of the king. explorer's instinct?
As I have said, Desolate and
the higher forms I
devoid of life the
of life in the far Antarctic Conti-
south are, for the nent certainly is.
mostpart,peculiar But on its ice-

Yet there are
to it. encrusted shores
certain birds of and in the seas
northern origin to that break cease-
be found there. lessly upon its ti-
Furthermore, tanic fringe of ice,
there are a few Nature has made
that actually mi- possible a wide
grate from the range of unique
Arctic to high
and fascinatin,g
southern latitudes
creatures, with
and return. The
which, as further
Arctic tern, after
exploration of
nesting in the far
north, migrates the Antarctic is
south and crosses carried out, we

the equator. Just Photograph by R. C. Murphy shall become
how plentiful it is
King penguin South Georgia tucking the egg into
of increasingly
warm storage between its thighs after receiving it
in far southern from its mate familiar.
A LANE
NEAR MARAGHA
FOSSIL BONES IN A
PERSIAN GARDEN
Remains of Animals Caught by Streams and Buried in Their Deposits Fifteen
Million Years Ago Come to Light Amid the Fruits and Flowers of Persia
By OTIS BARTON
This expedition was organized in the summer of 1928 by Messrs. Otis Barton
and Eugene Callaghan, in connection with their studies in geology at Columbia
University. The fossil remains of Pliocene mammals collected by the expedition
were presented to the —
American Museum.- -The Editors.
LANDING at Batum last summer, we obtained in that region, nor would we be

found the Soviet officials courteous allowed to import one, for in Russia
and eager to help an enterprise on automobiles are still an infant industry.
behalf of the American Museum. The At present the cost of construction is
officers of the Near East Relief helped higher than in America.

us with our baggage. But soon we were We heard that there were rich fossil
in trouble. I had forgotten to declare a beds in Northern Persia, so we finally
Colt revolver, a very serious offense, for decided to turn our steps in that direction.
firearms may not enter Soviet territory, Nor was the Persian border difficult to
even in bond. Accordingly our boxes reach on the excellent state railroad.
were ransacked, and we had to send our Leaving the squalid Asiatic town of
entire armament back to New York. Tiflis in the evening, we awoke next
Neither were cameras allowed, but ours morning to find the train rolling over
were taken by the railroad in bond. fertile green plains, with snow-capped
EngHsh-speaking guides net only helped Ararat ruHng the western horizon. At
us at the station, but they always refused the border the regulations of the U.S.S.R.
to accept any tip, saying that their gov- again proved troublesome. Paper money
ernment did not allow it. may not be taken from Russia, and since
Our hopes of going to Western Turkes- no bureau of change was open, we were
tan to lock for fossils were dashed on obliged to take a receipt for 80 rubles.
finding that no automobiles could be This could only be cashed by returning
144 NATURAL HISTORY
our way about with
great difficulty, for
the mud walls around
the houses and gar-
dens made the crook-
ed streets look so
much alike that we
had difficulty in iden-
tifying them.
Our consul, Mr. A.
W. Ferrin, took us
to call on the gov-
ernor. The day of
our visit happened
to be a sacred one.
Passing through the
bazaar, we saw
throngs of young
Moslems beating
themselves on their
bare backs with
chains. The blows
resounded in time to
a dismal dirge, and
each blow left a
bloody streak. This
ceremony is a chas-
tisement for the mur-
der of Husein some
twelve hundred
THE "arc" in TABRIZ years ago.
The origin of this ruin is unkown, but it was the only thing leftstanding His Excellency was
after the great earthquake that completely destroyed Tabriz. In the old
days, it is said, women who were found to be unfaithful to their husbands exceedingly gracious.
were hurled from the top of the tower He gave us a letter
to the police in
over the same route. Our baggage was Maragha, where we wished to search for
again searched at length, so that it was bones, and offered every possible
fossil
with no small feeling of relief that we assistance.
carried our iron boxes over the bridge into Not often does the palasontologist fare
Persian Joulfa. Here automobiles were as well as we did after reaching Maragha.
obtained, and under a full moon we swept It is set in the midst of gardens and
southward through the Persian night. orchards and is the fruit center of Persia.
Northern Persia is the greatest carpet We were able to obtain five different kinds
market of the world. Even stables and of grapes, watermelons at two for five
garages have carpets on their floors, that cents, and walnuts
at about a cent a
elsewhere would grace a palace. The pound. Chickens cost five cents each,
streets of the great bazaar at Tabriz are and the bread came in great flat sheets
covered with carpets. Here we found from the mud ovens. It was the kind used
A BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF TABRIZ
Looking west across the Armenian section toward the plains
of I'r
A VIEW FROM THE TOP OF THE "ARC"

This garden, which has long been a prominent landmark in
Tabriz, is now turned into an open-air
restaurant every evemng m sumnaer. Beneath it is an elaborate system from which
irrigate the flowers and bushes ^
water is diWd to
146 NATURAL HISTORY
/"i
t_ i p i - Ml I
I
THE INTERIOR OF A LARGE CARAVANSERAI

Built originally to accommodate camel caravans, it now caters to modern automobile traffic
by the from the north.

by the Romans and helped very much to Pliocene rivers
piece out our supply of canned goods. But now the small streams are used by
We pitched our tent in a shady stream the poor folk of the mud villages to
bed, a day's pack ride with donkeys east irrigate their fruit trees. These people are
of Maragha. Our equipment was carried peaceable and docile, if one leaves their
in four iron cases.These rode well on mosques and their women
alone. We
employed an old man, formerly with a
mud guard, donkey, or camel, and in
camp their handles could be padlocked German expedition, three workmen, a
together, thus making it impossible for a water boy, and a donkey, for less than
thief to make away with the whole chain three dollars a day. For this they arrived
of heavy cases. For rent we promised at our tent at dawn and worked till dark.
pump. At first we searched the various dry
our army filter
Fifteen miles to the north, Mount stream beds and draws. Here and there
Sehend loomed serene and hazy, quite weathered bones were noticed in the dry
otherwise than in the early PHocene when bare banks. We marked the best places
this range blazed in a Hne of volcanoes. for preliminary surveys. One of the hard-
At that time several rivers flowed down est tasks, especially when time is limited,
past the present site of our camp into a is to determine at exactly what spot to
Of this sea Lake expend the effort of digging. After a few
sea to the south.
Urumiah is a remnant. days of exploring, however, we chopped
The surrounding country is today a down the bank in two or three places.
rolhng desert. The hills are of yellow Our the soft sediment and
steel pick cut
marls and conglomerates deposited in the laid bare the hard white bones. We
FOSSIL BONES IN A PERSIAN GARDEN 147
usually hacked away at random until a had all the skulls and jaws that a Chevro-
jaw or tooth was exposed by which we let truck could carry.
could identify the animal. A large block Our second search for bones proved less
was then cut out and carefully trimmed successful, however. South of Maragha
down. The crumbling bones were covered is a large cave in a cliff of Cretaceous lime-
with shellac, and finally strips of burlap, stone. In was said, were many
this, it
soaked in flour paste, were wrapped about pitfalls, which we hoped might have
the block. By the next day the whole caught some of the animals or even dawn-
would be a compact mass, ready to ship. men of late Tertiary time. We investi-
Rhinos, giraffes, horses, pigs, antelopes, The first
gated with ropes and lanterns.
and deer of fifteen million years ago had chamber was a veritable blue grotto.
been caught by the streams and buried Here many pigeons made their nests.
in their deposits. Most of these animals From it we passed into a smaller and dark-
differed but little from their living rela- er cave, where bats swooped above us, and
tives. One tooth puzzled us. It has since then down a slanting passage. Soon the
turned out to be Sivatherium, a gigantic first pitfall gaped before us. It extended
animal looking like a bull moose, but re- nearly across the entire passage. Only
lated by its teeth to the giraffe. Not along the left wall was it possible to pass
once did we find a skeleton completely on deeper into the mountain. Its edges
intact. But in less than three weeks we sloped off gradually at first and were
THE EAST GATE OF MARAGHA

Several native membersTof the expedition are about to pass through the wall, which is built of sun-
baked brick
A COUNTRY ESTATE NEAR MARAGHA
This estate belonged to four wealthy Persian brothers. Beautiful pools are common
in Persian
gardens, and are usually connected with the irrigation system
y T&f y' »./ <*»r'» jf <^ / » jgj' *af <g'jT>> * yry,im*':.'jrif'yj^ * mJ^^j' ir$ #V * / iJ<i^^ « /.
THRESHING GRAIN
This method of threshing has been in use since ancient times. The runners of the apparatus drawn
by the oxen, and the trampling beasts, break the grain from the husks
NATIVE SHOP IN MARAGHA
At the right, dressed in his best to say good-bye to the expedition, is the head man who superintended
the search for fossils
IN AN ORCHARD AT MARAGHA
Here fruit is washed and softened in water that has been boiled in buckets over an underground
oven. The fruit isthen dried and treated for shipment
150 NATURAL HISTORY
scratched in the loose debris
at the bottom but soon
struck hard rock. Farther
out we found the hat and
staff a worthy Sunday
of
School teacher, who, four
years before, when leading
a class of boys through
the cave, had ventured too
near the treacherous edge
and fallen to the first ter-
race. This discovery nearly
caused a panic among the
Armenians. Apparently a
supernatural return of the
deceased seemed to be fear-
ed. Further investigation
showed that the limestone
had been re-cemented, prob-
ably in the Pleistocene, so
that it was impossible to dig
for bones in the hard rock.
Persia, however, presents
other difficulties for the
fossil hunter. The head of
the customs at Tabriz con-
sulted his list of "antiqui-
ties," of which no one is
allowed to despoil the coun-

try. We stood before him,
explaining that antiquities
LOOKING OUT FROM THE BLUE GROTTO were works of man, and that
This is the entrance to a series of passages and sink holes which our collection antedated
probably extend'down to the floor of the canon Homo sapiens. Alas, "as
mummifice'' was one of the
smooth and slippery. This was the place items on his list. So there was nothing
we sought. One rope was tied about my for it but to take them over the long
waist. With the other a lantern was road to Teheran, where our minister, Mr.
lowered into the pit, which proved to be Phillip, could intercede on our behalf.
about fifteen meters deep. Both ropes The first night the boys wished to stop
were held fast at the upper end by our at the bizarre and lurid desert town of
Armenian companions. I let myself down Mianne. But we had been warned of an
hand over hand on the second rope, insect of this locality whose bite brings
while the first was kept taut at my waist. eight months' fever, and we refused to
Twice I was able to rest on projecting leave the truck. Eventually, we camped
terraces before reaching the bottom. farther on by the side of the road too —
Several of the Armenians followed me close, in fact; as I found when awakened
down into the pit in the same way. We by a gigantic and heavily-laden camel
FOSSIL BONES IN A PERSIAN GARDEN 151
stepping close to my face. Breakfast was the export tax of 3 per cent might be
taken in a caravanserai. I always hesitat- levied. I named the sum of fifty dollars,
ed to enter these filthy places, and finally which seemed to be unsatisfactory to the
sat down outside. ministry. A consultation followed, and
Near Teheran we were interested to see at last the assistant minister returned
some Persian women with uncovered and reported the findings of his colleagues.
faces. It has been the custom for all The bones, he was sorry to inform us, were
females of this country to wear a found to be worth one hundred and fifty
long, black cloak with a hood over the dollars.
head. To show more than one eye in After shipping our cases we were free
public was considered a sacrilege, but the to take the government airway from
new Shah has succeeded in abolishing this Teheran. Flying is at its best in these
time-honored restriction locally. regions. The desert air is still, and there
At the capital the fossils were isno fog. A landing can be made almost
eventually declared by the Persian anywhere, so that landing fields and
ministry of education to be antiques, but hangars are unnecessary. The Junkers
ofno historical value. (I am informed by plane took off at five in the morning,
Doctor Simpson of the American Mu- and soon we were sailing over deserts and
seum that the converse of this decision is ancient cities, and through the gorges of
actually the truth.) We were then asked the limestone mountains. This is a vast
to evaluate our collection in order that and miserably poor country, bare of vege-
MR. BARTON WITH A FOSSIL FIND

The were contained in this block. A wolf skull, apparently complete, together
skulls of several animals
with remains of rhinoceros, deer, and others, was contained in it
ON THE ROAD FROM TABRIZ TO TEHERAN
The car at the right belonged to the expedition. The others are trucks for freight and passengers
going to the capital
THE MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION IN CAMP

This photograph, taken in camp near Kijave Village, shows, from left to right, Barur Serunian, the
interpreter, Eugene Callaghan, and Otis Barton
THE WESTERN GATE TO TEHERAN
The city wall pierced by many gates, each individual in its decoration and design.
is Through
Kasvin Gate, shown above, passes the road from Tabriz, one of the most traveled roads in Persia
i^ <a* ,
y-
Î^^^ÂjHHf^^^^^^ "
THE BAS-RELIEF AT THE SPRING EAST OF RAY

The carvings originally represented Darius the Great and his court, who evidently visited the spring
to "take the cure.'" About 1 500 the warlike Fat AU Shab carved his own portrait over that of Darius
154 NATURAL HISTORY
tation except along the few streams which over the Jordan and saw Jerusalem in the
come down from the ranges. distance. About six we were over the
At Bagdad we changed to the Imperial Suez Canal, when the mechanic sent us
Airways. This trip was better than that back a note: "Passengers for the Rai-
of the famous jflying carpet. First, the putana: see your boat in the Canal."
date palms of the "Garden of Eden" Finally, at sunset we came down close to
passed beneath us. At its further edge the pyramids.
the Euphrates wound like a silver snake. During these flights we photographed
Here was the site of Babylon. Beyond many geological formations from the air
stretched the great Arabian desert. We with a view to locating by this means, if
landed for breakfast at a fort on the possible, new fossil beds. Even so erudite
"Beau Gest" plan near the oasis called a field as vertebrate palaeontology may,
Rutba Wells. In the afternoon we flew therefore, be subject to aerial exploitation.
THE JORDAN RIVER AND THE DEAD SEA

The expedition, in flying from Rutba Wells to Gaga, passed this well known Bibhcal spot. From the
air, Jerusalem could be seen in the distance as the plane passed the mouth of the Jordan
THE ANGLEB GENERALLY LIES ON THE BOT-
TOM IN COMPARATIVELY SHALLOW WATER
IN WAIT FOR FISHES. IF A DIVING BIRD AP-
PROACHES NEAR ENOUGH, THESDDDEN OPEN-
1^
ING OP THE fish's MOUTH WILL CAUSE IT
TO BE ENGULFED
f
WIDE-GAB, THE ANGLER FISH

How the All-mouth (Lophius piscatorius) Sometimes Attempts More Than It Can
Accomplish. Instances in Which It Has Tried to Swallow Geese and Sea Gulls
By E. W. GUDGER
Bibliographer and Associate in the Department of Fishes, American Museum
WITH THREE DRAWINGS BY LYNN BOGUE HUNT
about which I am indebted

THE ''angler" is so called because
he has on top of the head two or
for the facts
to Mr. Feodor Deguyieff Polevoy of
more spinelike tentacles with fleshy 100 Ridgewood Place, Staten Island.
lobes or lappets at the ends. Since the On November 19, Mr. Polevoy came to
days of Aristotle this fish has been my office carrying a gunny sac having in
credited with dangling the tentacles in it a rather large, weighty, and flexible
front of his mouth to entice fishes to object, which he said was a fish of a kind
approach, and when close enough, the unknown to him. This sack when emptied
victims are forthwith engulfed by the gave up a goosefish, which measured 3 feet,
rapid opening and closing of the angler's IK inches long "over all," 15 inches wide
mouth. This alleged habit has recently over the head, 13)2 inches wide just in
been established as a fact by a competent front of the pectoral fins, and 3K inches
observer. As may be seen in the figures, between the inner edges of the eyes. The
the angler does have a very ''open coun- huge mouth was 10 inches wide straight
tenance," and on this account two of his across from angle to angle, with a vertical
characteristic common names are "wide- gape of 6 inches.
gab" in Scotland and "all-mouth" in In both jaws the long, straight, conical
America. teeth are so hinged as to be depressible
Another common name is "goosefish," only in a backward direction. Further,
given because it is believed that he around the entrance to the gullet on the
swallows whole, geese, ducks, and such supra- and infra-pharyngeals are patches
other aquatic birds as he can lay hold of. of backwardly-pointing teeth arranged
Nevertheless, however common and wide- quadrant-fashion. These are hooked
spread is this belief, the supporting evi- and also hinged so as to
or sickle-shaped
dence is scanty. Hence I welcome the be depressible backward toward the
opportunity to present the following case, throat. A pull on any one of both lots of
156 NATURAL HISTORY
THE ALL-MOUTH ABOUT TO SWALLOW A SEA GULL

The sleeping gull floating on the surface has its head tucked under its wing, making it easy for the
wide-mouthed fish to gulp it in
teeth simply brings it to or (in the ease they saw about one hundred feet away a
of the pharyngeal teeth) toward the rather large object threshing around at the
perpendicular. Such teeth readily grasp surface of the water. In the poor light
and hold objects, are easily depressed to they were unable to make out what it was.
permit the inward passage of food, but Conjecturing that it might be a shark, a
absolutely prevent any "backing out" on dolphin, or an octopus, they cautiously
the part of any live object of prey. Fur- rowed around it several times, getting
thermore, since the bones and cartilages always closer. Presently they recognized
of both jaws and pharyngeals are freely the object as a large fish with a bunch of
moveable, it seems that this fish might be feathers protruding from its wide mouth.
able, by working the sets alternately, to The fish threshed about at the surface,
"hitch" its prey steadily backward into seemingly unable to sink. The men then
the gullet. drew the boat alongside, caught the fish
The fish in question had been caught with their hands, and hauled it aboard for
under the following circumstances. On examination. Whereupon they found
the morning of November 18, 1928, Mr. that this (to them) unknown fish had a
Polevoy and some companions had gone good-sized sea gull so stuck in its throat
out duck-shooting long before day on Rari- that it seemed equally powerless to swal-
tan Bay, New Jersey, in a rowboat cov- low or disgorge it. Just why the fish
ered with rushes for a bUnd. In the half seemed unable to sink is not clear, but
light of the early morning (about six it may be that, in seizing the bird, it had
o'clock) when some five miles off shore. gulped in and passed down into the
WIDE-GAB, THE ANGLER FISH 157
stomach, as its relatives the pufferfishes the fact that when the bird was carefuU}^
do, a quantity of air sufficient to float it extracted from the throat of the fish, its
hke them at the surface of the water. In head was found tucked under one wing
this case the bird, caught by the teeth set it had been asleep when captured. Unfor-
around the pharynx, could not be ex- tunately the bird itself was not brought in.
pelled, and for some reason could not be Now, lest the reader think this a not
swallowed, hence it acted as a plug to unusual case, let us examine the all too
retain this air. Once an aquarium pet of scanty literature dealing with the food
mine, a minute pufferfish about the size and feeding habits of the angler. The
of a 45-caliber bullet, while distended, most extensive investigation ever made on
got a bit of oyster lodged in its throat, the food of Lophius is reported by T.
could not descend despite violent efforts, Wemyss Fulton in a paper on "The
and nearly choked to death. Distribution, Growth, and Food of the
Such then is the account of the capture Angler" published in the 21st Annual
of this goosefish. It hardly seems likely Report of the Fishery Board for Scotland
that the fish could have caught the bird (Edinburgh, 1903, pages 186-217). In
close inshore and have brought it in its this able article, Fulton records the ex-
—
mouth five miles off shore the sea gull amination of the stomachs of 541 anglers
must have been taken while it was floating without finding a single bird in any of
on the surface of the water, which on them. However, he did find whole fish
this morning was perfectly calm and or fish remains in half of them (269),
quiet. This conjecture is supported by and concludes that the goosefish is almost
GOOSEFISH AND LOON

Goosefish have often been known to swallow birds of various kinds. The text describes an attempt
on the part of an angler fish to swallow a loon, but the powerful bird, though caught, kept the fish
at the surface where the struggle was witnessed by a fisherman
158 NATURAL HISTORY
wholly a piscivorous beast, as its specific had laid hold of while the latter was float-
name piscatorius implies. ing on the surface. The three-foot long
Nevertheless, the goosefish does, at any fish had gotten the body of the gull
rate occasionally, eat birds, as our case (which was 4 feet 6 inches across its
plainly shows. The few reported in- spread wings) down into its gullet and
stances make a background for Mr. Pole- stomach, but (here also) the tail, feet,
voy's interesting experience. The most and the hinder ends of the wings projected
definite, and likewise the earliest one from the fish's mouth. It could neither
known to me, is contained in a short note swallow the bird further nor let it go, so
entitled "Voracity of the Angler {Lophius both became the prize of the boatman
piscatorius) " found in the English journal and were sent to a local museum. Couch
The Zoologist for 1865 (p. 9470). This then concludes with another account of
was written from Dublin, Ireland, under an angler that tried to swallow a great
date of December 20, 1864. northern diver. Their struggles were so
The author, Mr. H. Blake-Knox, tells great that they also attracted a fisher-
us that there was once brought to him an man who captured them both.
angler (Irish, mullagoon) with a cormorant Francis Day, another English ichthyol-
in its throat. The fish had seized the bird ogist, in his Fishes of Great Britain and
with its portmanteau-like mouth and had Ireland (London, 1880, Vol. I, p. 75)
swallowed it as far as the shoulders. quotes the account of Couch just given
However, the cormorant was so strong and supplements it as follows. At Bel-
and its feathers were so light, that it had fast (Irish anglers seem especially fond of
raised both itself and the fish to the sea birds) an entire and perfectly fresh
surface, where they were caught while widgeon was once extracted from an
—
struggling an exact parallel to Mr. Pole- angler. At Youghal, another, while
voy's case. The bird was rescued from still alive, was once cut out of a goosefish.
the fish, but was so badly wounded by Further cases were reported to Day of
the fish's long sharp teeth, that it died anglers devouring guillemots and razor-
in a few days. bills, and the author expresses the belief
Mr. Blake-Knox adds that he had that they would probably swallow any
personally known of a number of cases bird which they could capture.
where anglers had devoured such diving Coming now to our own United States,
birds as guillemots and razorbills, and Dr. G. Brown Goode will be quoted from
that in one instance he had taken the his "Fisheries and Fisheries Industries of
remains of a great northern diver from the United States, Section I, Text — The
the stomach of a mullagoon. He had heard Natural History of Useful Aquatic Ani-
of two or three other instances where mals," published at Washington in 1884.
these birds had been killed by the angler. On page 169 he accounts for the name
Jonathan Couch's History of the Fishes "goosefish" because it has been known
of the British Islands (London, 1869) is to take in live geese. A fisherman once
full of interesting natural history matters. reported that, on investigating a struggle
In Volume II, page 209, he describes an going on in the water, he found an angler
incident that almost exactly parallels the that had swallowed the head and neck
two already given. A struggle was once of a good-sized loon. The loon actively
perceived going on at the surface of the resisted any further swallowing and in its
water some distance away. As the boat efforts to escape kept the fish at the
drew near, it was seen that a goosefish was surface.Goode wrote further that he had
trying to swallow a gull which it evidently "an authentic record that seven wild
WIDE-GAB, THE ANGLER FISH 159
ducks had been taken from the stomach of mergansers, in goosefish. However, he
—
one angler" surely the grandfather of doubts, and in this he is backed up by the
his tribe! local fishermen there, whether a large
Last of all, Dr. Henry B. Bigelow in the goosefish could pull down and swallow a
'' Fishes of the Gulf of Maine," published five wild goose, no matter how frequent
by himself and W. W. Welsh in the Bulletin the opportunity due to the great abun-
of the United States Bureau of Fisheries dance of wild geese in Pamlico Sound.
for 1924 (Washington, 1925, Vol. 40, pp. Here then is the evidence that Lophius,
526-527), discusses at some length the the goosefish, does feed on birds, and an
food of the common angler. He names interesting story it makes. And interest-
more than twenty-seven kinds of fishes ing, too, it would be to enumerate the
that have been taken from its stomach, kinds and quantities of fishes (some as
and then goes on to discuss the kinds of
birds that have also been found therein.
long as itself) found in it —together with
the story ofhow one angler tried to swal-
He affirms that, as its name goosefish
low another. Then again, there are inter-
infers, it feeds on birds, and says that
esting accounts of how they swallow such
"cormorants, herring gulls, widgeons,
scoters, loons, guillemots, and razor-billed
inanimate objects as the wooden buoys
auks are all on its recorded dietary." In of lobster pots and sink nets, seine corks,
Pamlico Sound, North Carolina, Doctor stones used for anchors, and in two cases
Bigelow himself had found grebes and anchors themselves. But all this, as
various diving birds, as scaup ducks and Mr. Kipling says, is "another story."
THE OPEN COUNTENANCE OF THE ANGLER

Showing the teeth in the jaws and on the floor of the mouth. On the latter,
birds are sometimes caught, and are held there to the discomfiture of the fish
EXPERIMENTS WITH
"WONDER CREATURES"
Insects Existed Before Man Appeared on Earth, Have Invaded Most of the Livable
World, Can Withstand Conditions that Humans Cannot Possibly Survive,
and Are Among Our Worst Enemies and Best Friends
By frank E. LUTZ
Curator of Insect Life, American Museum
ON inviting questions at the

his first
"
American
Mechanism of the Muscle," A. V.
lecture
end of
on the
katydids, and
originality that
their
is
relatives,
the more striking as
consider the multitude of conservatives,
with an
we
Hill was indignantly asked by an elderly have developed not only rather com-
gentleman, of what use were all the in- plicated sound-producing organs, but also
vestigations which he had been describ- apparently satisfactory ears. As is char-
ing. For a moment Doctor Hill tried acteristic of insects, they have gone about
stumblingly to explain what practical con- certain functions in a way and with struc-
sequences might be expected to follow tures that seem to us strange. An interest-
from a knowledge of how muscles work. ing essay could be written on this latter
Realizing suddenly how thankless a task point, telling about such things as that
it was to prove to his indignant questioner insects take air directly to the blood instead
that the work he was doing was useful. of the rather clumsy human method of tak-
Doctor Hill turned to him with a smile, ing the blood to inhaled air; and not the
and finished, least interesting thing about it is that the
''To tell you the truth, we don't do it insects' way seems to work better than
because it is useful, but because it is our way. An intimation of their success
amusing." will be found in the last of the experi-
"And if that is not the best reason why ments discussed here.
a scientist should do his work," says Several years ago, in reviewing work on
Doctor Hill, "I want to know what is. insect sounds, I confessed considerable
Would it be any good to ask a mother skepticism concerning the utility of these
what baby is?"
practical use her sounds to the sound producers; but the
This article is to give you a peep at chirping of crickets gave me considerable
some of our ''babies," glimpses of some of trouble both then and after the paper
the experiments we have been trying at was published. The chirping is done by
the American Museum's Station for the rubbing together highly modified struc-
Study of Insects in the Harriman State tures on the front wings which seem
Park and at the private laboratory of "made for that purpose." Furthermore,
Alfred L. Loomis in Tuxedo. They are crickets have ears on their front legs, and
"babies" in the additional sense that definite ears are unusual among insects.
none of them have gone far enough to Since only males chirp (although both
mature into a definite scientific report. sexes have ears) the conclusion has been
that the chirping is a sex call.
THE CRICKETS' CHIRPS Having somewhat questioned that con-
MOST of the more than half a million clusion, it seemed only fair that I should
different kinds of insects live their test the matter; but watching a female
lives without a sound that we can hear. cricket to see if she goes to a chirping male
A few, however, such as the crickets, is a time-consuming business and, so, it
EXPERIMENTS WITH WONDER CREATURES 161
seemed desirable to invent a machine tape moving at a known speed. Each

that would do the job as well or better treadle moved its own separate pen.
than we could. Consequently we made an Clearly, all we needed to do was to ex-
automatic "eavesdropper." It will have amine the tape at our leisure and we
to be improved and its first reports are could tell not only which window was
not to be taken too seriously. visited but how often the female came,
when she came, and how long she stayed.
AN AUTOMATIC EAVESDROPPER As I said, the experiment is not finished;
A BOX, broadly U-shaped

ground plan, was made to contain
the females. There was a window at each
in its many more must be made. Also,
trials
the apparatus must be improved, because
males do not chirp all of the time, and at
end of the U and where the two arms present our eavesdropper does not tell us
joined was food and shelter. Each win- whether a male was chirping at the time
dow communicated with separate boxes of a female's visit or whether she merely
containing males. One window was went there for the sake of some place to
covered tightly with thin celluloid that go. Undoubtedly we can, but not easily,
let through the chirps but kept back make the machine record on the same
odors. (Remember that insects have a tape the times when males are chirping.
keen sense of smell and many clearly In these preHminary experiments we
find their mates by this sense.) The other tried to dodge the issue by the rather
window was covered with wire gauze that clumsy device of occasionally offering the
let through the odors and would have let females their choice between a blank and
through the chirps also if there had been something else.
any in the box with which it communi- In ''chirp but no odor vs. possible odor
cated. But there were no chirps in that but no chirp " the females visited the chirp
box, because a simple surgical operation window 290 times and the no-chirp win-
on the wings of the males there had com- dow 307 times. There is practical
pletely "dechirped" them without hurt- equality here. When offered a choice
ing them more than a girl is hurt by between a blank window and one where
—
having her hair bobbed and the effect there were males that could not chirp the
was much the same in so far as they were score was 170 to 166. Again equality.
made more like the opposite sex. The ''Chirp but no odor" won out over
females in the central box could wander "blank" by 63 to 24 but the numbers are
about and go to either window. Would rather small and "blank" scored 65
they go more often to the one where there against 48 for a window where there was
were male chirps but no odor, or to the one both chirp and possible odor. Males
where there presumably was male odor which were offered several of the same
but certainly no chirps? This is where choices paid 86 visits to "chirp but no
the automatic eavesdropper comes in. odor" and only 40 to "possible odor but
On the floor of the females' box, just no chirp"; also 80 to "possible odor but
below each window, was a very deUcate no chirp" as contrasted with 44 to a
treadle. When a female came to either blank window. It seems as though males
window, she stepped on the treadle there are more consistently interested in both
and, her weight depressing it, closed an male chirp and odor than are females, the
electric switch that completed the circuit latter wandering about more or less at
through an electro-magnet. The magnet random; but that may be a too hasty
drew aside a pen that was otherwise trac- conclusion.
ing a perfectly straight line on a paper A few experiments were tried with un-
162 NATURAL HISTORY
mated females whose presumed ears had on the "absolute Centigrade" scale
been removed by the simple expedient of ("absolute zero" being about —273° C.
cutting off their front legs. There were or about —459° F.) and A is a constant
27 visits by these virgins to a window that is characteristic of the reaction.
where there were both male chirps and Some physiologists think that, by a com-
possible male odor and none to the other parison of the "temperature character-
window where there were no males. In istics" of various animal activities (as
another short series of trials where pos- shown by a curve representing the speeds
sible odor, but no chirps was opposed to of these activities at various temper-
chirps but no odor the score was 14 to 11 atures) with the "characteristics" of
in favor of odor, but the numbers are too various chemical reactions, we can dis-
small to be significant. On the other cover what chemical reactions control

hand, possible odor but no chirps won out these activities. Possibly we can but, at
over a rival blank window by the rather any rate, it is interesting to find out a
startling total of 106 to 1. Uttle more concerning the influence upon
One of two conclusions is fairly certain insect activities of all the environmental
either female crickets do not get wildly factors, and this seemed to require a new
excited over the music of possible mates or type of apparatus in which the insect
there something wrong with the appa-
is could walk straight ahead indefinitely
ratus. Since the machine practically without coming to a wall and in which
works itself, once it is started, we shall the environment could be controlled.
probably set it going when crickets chirp
again, especially if we can get a device
AN ENDLESS TRAIL
that will record the chirps.
TEMPERATURE AND WALKING SPEED
A DEVICE
in an
something
old-fashioned
seemed to be what we wanted, but we
like the
squirrel
wheel
cage
THERE is a very different sort of

wished it to be so delicately balanced and
problem which has greatly interested
so frictionless that even a tiny fruit-fly
some physiologists and which may strike
would easily turn it. However, if we did
rather deeply into the mysteries of animal
activities, either muscular or nervous, we
away entirely, or almost entirely, with
friction, the wheel, once it got started,
are not sure which. For example, Harlow
would go on and on even after the insect
Shapley, an astronomer apparently desir-
had stopped walking. Furthermore,
ous of improving dayhght hours when he
while we were at it, we wanted things
could not look at stars, watched ants and
fixed so thatwheel would auto-
the
noted the speed with which they walked
matically record both the speed and the
along a path at various temperatures.
direction of its turning. As I look back, I
The warmer it was, the faster they went.
do not wonder at the kind, solicitous
A curious thing is that the relation
inquiries of friends concerning the "fly-
between speed (Si) at a given temperature
wheel," and I even forgive the less kind
(Ti) and the speed (S2) at another temper-
ature (T2) closely accords with a com-
intimations as to "wheels" in my head.
plicated formula which represents the

The list of failures is a long one, but here
iswhat worked and it is quite simple.
speeds of certain chemical reactions at
various temperatures
The track where the insect walks is
something like an automobile tire with the
S2 = SieMi-i) insect inside of it. It is made of exceed-
where e is 2.7183, the base of "natural ingly thin, transparent celluloid, the
logarithms," temperatures are measured "valve" being a tiny, sliding celluloid
door for getting the animal in and out. choose to run but sat cahnly, as though
The spokes of the wheel are fine silk thinking about something. Others had
threads; the axle, depending on the size the will to walk but got tired, for the
of the wheel, is either a needle or the shaft inside of a freely turning wheel is a trail
of an almost obsolete thing, a hat pin. that has no end. Thus, a yellow-jacket
Over each end of the axle is an electro- wasp that, in ordinary life, flies much but
magnet whose strength can be quickly walks little, started off with an evident
and accurately varied by a rheostat con- intention of somewhere in a
getting
veniently located in the circuit. Now: hurry. For the twenty minutes it
first
An insect is put into the wheel, just kept steadily going at an average speed
enough electricity is sent through the of about 9.5 cms. per second. Then,
magnets to take practically all the weight temperature, light, humidity, and baro-
off of the bearings (a trick suggested to metric pressure remaining the same, it
me by Prof. R. C. Wood), and the insect began slowing up, its average speed in
can go as rapidly as it pleases but, like successive five-minute intervals being
Alice and the Red Queen, it never gets 8.3; 7.7; 7.4; 7.3; and 6.2 cms. per second.
anywhere. If it decides to stop, we can At the end of the three hours and a half
decrease the strength of the electric cur- it was still but going only 3.9 cms.
at it
rent; this lets the weight press on the per second, having had the longest walk
bearings and friction stops the wheel. of its life —
about two-thirds of a mile.
Since an observer is usually on hand Ground beetles (Carabidae) are much
when the apparatus is being used, there more used to walking than are wasps.
really was net much point in having it fly. A specimen which
In fact, they rarely
self-recording but, compared with getting Richard Iverson, one of our boys, timed
the wheel to work, that was easy, and for two hours with the wheel in the open
there is some satisfaction in finishing what laboratory started off with a speed of 5.3
one starts out to do. Accordingly, a disk cms. per second. Its average speeds in
of opaque paper was fitted to the wheel nineteen of the twenty five-minute inter-
and a series of openings was made in the vals for the last hour of the run were
disk. A was put back
photo-electric cell 5.4; 5.3; 5.1; 4.9; 4.8; 5.9; 6.0; 5.9
of the disk and a beam of light was (Dick took a five-minute rest); 6.0; 6.2
directed against its front. Every time an 5.8; 5.7; 6.2; 6.1; 5.5; 5.6; 6.0; 5.2
opening passed the beam of light, as the and 4.3. Apparently it could keep that
wheel turned, an electric impulse went up longer than we cared to watch and
through the photo-electric cell and worked record. Our automatic disc contraption
a pen on a recording tape much as did the would have been handy in this case.
cricket treadle already described. The The creature that best served our pur-
openings were so arranged that the turn- pose was not, strictly speaking, an insect
ing wheel "telegraphed" a cede message but Spirobolus marginatus, the large
that told exactly what it was doing. brown milliped ("thousand-legger") of
the late-summer woods. It is heavy
POOR WALKERS AND GOOD enough to turn the wheel without the help
HAVING the apparatus, there was an of magnets; it is a consistent walker;
obligation to use it and, I confess, and there is an absolute fascination in
this was more like work, although inter- watching the perfect rhythm of those
esting. Not every insect is fit to go in many legs hour after hour. Let us
such a wheel. Some are what the boys examine the effect of two environmental
called "Coolidge Bugs," they did not factors upon its speed of locomotion.
164 NATURAL HISTORY
A Spiroholus
CAfS.
was started off
at a temperature
of 32.5° C. (90.5°
F.); then the box
which contained
the wheel was
gradually cooled
to 18° C. (64.4°
F.); and finally
warmed again to
30° C. This took
about four hours
and a half, the
creature walk-
ing most of the
time. Distance
traveled, togeth-
er with elapsed
time, was elec-
trically recorded
on a rapidly
moving tape. If
you are used to
reading graphs,
the accompany-
ing one will
clearly tell the
story. The dots
on the graph indicate the average speed
of walking (see left-hand margin) at
various temperatures (see bottom margin)
and the slightly curved line is that given
by the formula noted above when the
constants are Speed of Walking (cms.
per second) equals
g3^^ ( Temp.— 300 )

2.238 e (300 X Temp.)
when temperature is given on the "abso-

lute " centigrade scale. It is quite evident
that "the warmer, the faster." What it
all means is another question.
AIR PRESSURE AND ALTITUDE
RATHER more startHng experiments,

perhaps largely because they were in
an almost unexplored field, were the effect
present purposes. Since we do not know prevent drying of the milliped by exces-
what the above
air pressure is thirty miles sive evaporation, we had water in the
sea level, about the best we can do is to vapor pressure of water
jar and, since the
take a very, simple formula which seems at ordinary summer temperature is about
to be "in the direction of the truth" even 22 mm., that was as far as we went, and
though it is known to be inaccurate. It is it seemed enough for the present. At
far
that altitude in miles about equals that, there was practically no air left in
the jar. Then we came by rather short
10.33 log.io (observed Pressure]
stages back to normal; then went to 100
It may be simpler to look at the curve and back to normal; and repeated this
on the following page which gives on the "round trip" three more times all in —
bases of known facts and of this formula two hours and a half.
altitudes in miles for various barometric Instead of walking more slowly as the
pressures. air became rarer, Spiroholus increased its
speed, all of its many legs functioning in
WALKING IN LOW AIR-PRESSURES absolute rhythm. This increase kept up
FOR this experiment Spiroholus was put on the average until the air was about
in a wheel; the wheel was put in a two-thirds gone, corresponding to pres-
bell-jar; and air was pumped out of or let sures at an altitude of, say, six or seven
into the jar according to whether we miles; then began to slow on the aver-
it
wished to decrease or increase the at- age and stopped (but not for good) when
mospheric pressure. It was absurdly easy there was practically no pressure left
to give the creature all of the air-pressure except that of water-vapor. As a matter
thrills of a super-balloon ride to, say, of fact, however, the fastest one-meter
fifteen milesabove sea level (air-pressure dash that it did was at an air-pressure of
of about 27 mm.) and return in less than only 105 mm. (representing, say, an alti-
three minutes. Of course, since it is well tude of about nine miles), making the
to investigate one factor at a time, meter in 59 seconds or a rate of about 1.7
temperature, light, and humidity were cms. per second. Of what stuff are these
kept as nearly constant as possible, and creatures made, at any rate?
for that reason we can speak here of only
the effects of air pressure and decreased AN AERIAL ADVENTURE
oxygen supply.
Suppose a man were being treated in
WE are all familiar with the tiny, red-
eyed fruit-flies that come about
this way. Even if the change were made over-ripe bananas and the like. Ten of
slowly, his gait would be wobbly and his these flies were put in a bell- jar with water
breathing very labored at a pressure of and the air exhausted to the vapor-
400 mm. of mercury, and Gray died, pressure of water in ninety seconds. The
whether accidentally or not, when it was flies stopped moving. Valves in the
about 150 mm. apparatus were then opened wide and the
Since we wished to time the speed of pressure almost instantly returned to
walking at various pressures, Spiroholus normal. Within four minutes all ten were
was subjected to graded series of them. walking about as though nothing had
Observations were made during the first happened. The same procedure was re-
hour at 740, 500, 400, 300, 250, 200, 150, peated again and again. After the eighth
100, 75, 50, 40, 30, and about 22 mm. trial one fly did not walk within seven
pressure in succession. In order to have a minutes and I did not wait for him but
constant degree of humidity and also to went on with the one- to three-minute
PRESSURE TO W/i/C/i FRU/T TL/ES ^
WERE SUBJECTED AL.TERNAT/NG
,
W/TH NORMAL PRESSURE .2^ T/ME5

/A/ 4 HOURS TWO DOT OE THE TEN
;
17
EL/ES LIVED AND BRED
IS
15 ^
MOST OE THE INSECTS WH/CH W£r/=?e 13

I-
-THE HIGHEST
TRIED STOPPED WALKING BY THE TIME \ POINT REACHED
THIS POINT WAS REACHED BUT STARTED BY 'SOUNDING
AGAIN A T H/GRE NORMAL PRESSURES 12 BALLOONS '.'
\
II
t
lO
PRESSURE AT WHICH SPIRDBOLUSt

WALKED ITS FASTEST METER. 9
\
- B -MAN HAS NOT
SURVIVED HIGHER
THAN THIS EVEN
WITH SPECIAL
APPARA TUB.
PRESSURE A T WHICH THE
AVERAGE SPEED OE SPIRO -
BOLUS WAS GREATEST.
700 GOO BOO ÔO BOO 200 lOO
Bardmetr/d Pressure
SUMMARIZING CERTAIN EXPERIMENTS WITH REDUCED AIR-PRESSURE
shows approximately the relation between air-pressure (horizontal scale)
and height
The curved line
At the right are human affairs, mcludmg
above sea level (vertical scale) under normal conditions.
given at the left
diagrammatic representations of the heights of mountains. Entomological facts are
swing^s from normal to "none" and back atmosphere at sea level, the pressure now
again. After the twentieth trial only six in the tube is of the order of one ten-
of the ten stalwarts were walking and I thousandth of one millimeter. It is
took time out for hea. After tea we (the probably lower than the vacuum of inter-
fliesand I!) made four more round trips stellar space. What would happen to a
and then only a male and a female of the "frail" butterfly or bee if subjected to
original ten were still alive. There such a vacuum and then suddenly brought
seemed no point in pushing the experi- back to normal pressures?
ment to their death and, besides, I wanted The answer is complicated by a factor
to see if they were really as well and already mentioned, one which we found
hearty as they seemed to be. So, I put was more important than sudden and
them in a cage with a nice ripe banana, great changes in air pressure. This factor
where they started breeding the next day. is that the pump which removes the air
Careful microscopic examination of their also removes the moisture; and insects
children, grandchildren, and great-grand- which are kept in a pressure much less
children failed to reveal indications that than the vapor pressure of water would
anything unusual in fruit-fly affairs had quickly dry up and die of desiccation.
happened. Water cannot be suppUed to them in this
Human endurance would fall so far apparatus, because some of it would evap-
below that of insects in such a test that no orate so quickly that what remains would
comparison can be made. An express be frozen to solid ice and, in fact, part of
elevator in theWoolworth Building or the the slowing effect of high vacuum on
dropping of a cage in a deep mine are slow insects maybe due to a marked lowering
coaches going a short block compared to of their temperature caused by evapora-
the ride these flies took twenty-four times tion from their bodies. However, let us
in four hours, but in what follows we tried see what happened.
to reach the limit of even insect endurance Three small bees belonging to two
—and failed as far as air-pressure is genera of the sort that live a solitary life,
concerned. instead of in colonies, two mound-build-
ing ants, a beetle related to fireflies, and
INSECTS AND SUPER-VACUUM an immature grasshopper were put in a
is well known that, in order to pro- tube and the ends of the tube were melted
IT
duce X-rays, the air is almost com- so that it was welded into the apparatus.
pletelyremoved from the X-ray tube and (Ordinary joints would not hold.) Since
then an electric discharge of very high moisture would ruin the pump and since
voltage is made to jump the gap between moisture was sure to come from the
two electrodes in this "vacuum." But insects, that part of the tube between the
the so-called vacuum, while nearly com- insects and the pump was packed in a
plete, is not entirely so; there are still mixture of solid carbon dioxide' and
enough ions left to carry the electricity acetone in order to freeze the water out of
from one electrode to the other. Further- the air on its way to the pump.
more, it is possible, by means of a pump The pump was started and the next
which Mr. Loomis has in his laboratory, three minutes were busy ones. First the
to exhaust the tube so completely that the vacuum-tube glow appeared, but before
X-ray dies out and even 30,000 volts will the end of the second minute it had died
not force a discharge across the gap. out, showing that a non-conducting
Instead of an air-pressure of about 760 vacuum had been reached. This was held
mm. of mercury, as we have in normal for 60 seconds, a rapidly growing pile of
168 NATURAL HISTORY
snow in the chilled connection being the creatures that can survive the most com-
moisture sucked out of these "frail" plete vacuum that man can produce with
creatures, and then the glass tube was exceptionally perfect apparatus. How do
broken at one blow and the insects were they do it ; why can they do it?
returned to normal conditions from their

journey into a ''complete vacuum." Not
THE WONDER CREATURES
one moved then but two hours later all ALLseemthatto bewebetter
can say that is insects
were active and apparently normal. A made than we are.
little laterone of the ants showed some They have invaded almost every bit of
signs of trouble but whether it was due to the livable world, including hot springs
the vacuum, the drying, or to some more and the highest mountains, the Arctic and
natural cause I do not know. The next the Tropics, in water and on water, under-
day that ant was dead but, when released, ground and above ground, in plants and
the other ant and all of its companions animals and on them. Only the ocean is
each according to its kind flew, hopped, avoided by them. Their structure and
or walked away. mode of living have stood the test of time
The same experiment was tried with a practically unchanged since the Carbonif-
bumble-bee and two kinds of butterflies, erous. Possibly Maeterlink was right
except that the insects were in a vacuum when he called them "beings so incom-
of less than one millimeter pressure for parably better armed and endowed than
four minutes and the extreme of 1/10,000 ourselves, concentrations of energy and
mm. was kept up for 90 seconds. In about activity in which we divine our most
ten minutes after the tube was broken, mysterious foes, the rivals of our last
instantaneously returning them to normal hours and perhaps our successors." On
pressures, the bee and one of the butter- the other hand, as has been pointed out in
flies began to show signs
of life. Five ''The Friendly Insects" (Natural His-
minutes later both were walking and the tory, Vol. XXVI, p. 147), relatively few
other butterfly was feebly moving its kinds of insects seriously injure us and we
legsand mouth-parts. By the next day owe much to many kinds. Possibly, with
the bumble-bee was active as ever but increased knowledge of insect habits, we
the butterflies had died. Possibly they may be able to swing the balance still
were unable to withstand the conditions more in our favor.

of the experiment, including the exces-
sive drying,
other,
and possibly they died from
more natural causes, but it did not
WHAT good these?
are such experiments as
Possibly collecting interest-
seem necessary to try the experiment ing information about the masterpieces of
again. There was no longer room for Creation is of no greater value than col-
doubt that insects and their near relatives lecting human masterpieces of art; and
are creatures that can not only exercise possibly writing about Nature is no more
vigorously at air-pressures which no man useful than writing music; but, until
nor any of the animals related to him some one is wise enough to be able to
could survive creatures that can not only
; predict the worth of any bit of pure (as
completely recover within a few minutes contrasted with "applied") science, we
from sudden and rapidly repeated trans- can at least say that it "amuses" those
fers from normal pressures to almost who do it and interests many who read
none and back again; but they are about it.
ELEVEN WEEKS IN A LION PASTURE
Collecting in Tanganyika for a Superlative Group for the New African Hall
That Is to Be Added to the American Museum
By G. LISTER CARLISLE, Jr.

Leader, Carlisle-Clark African Expedition of the American Museum
The Carlisle-Clark African Expedition of the American Museum was made

possible through the generosity of Mr. and Mrs. G. Lister Carlisle, Jr., of Norfolk,
Connecticut, and was intended to supply two finished groups for the Museum: a major
group of lions and a minor group of suni, the smallest of the world's antelopes. The
task of producing a wholly satisfactory lion group requires high talent, and in spite of
the press of work, Mr. James L. Clark, Assistant Director, was granted leave of absence
to carry out the work. The party consisted of Mr. G. Lister Carlisle, motion-picture
photography; Mrs. Carlisle; Mr. Clark, group work; Mr. William R. Leigh, artist;
Mr. Richard C. Raddatz, background accessories: and A. L. Klein, "white hunter."
One of the most important objectives of the expedition was to give to the members of
the Museum preparatory staff renewed familiarity with the anatomy of African animals
and with their habitats, in preparation for the work on the African Hall, and also, in
the case of Mr. Clark, the personal knowledge of the White Nile country so necessary
for representing that section of Africa. In view of the fact that the expedition was
fortunate in having an artist in the party, it was decided to substitute for the small
group, paintings for the lesser kudu group, which were needed by the Museum, but
were not on the original program. This, however, was in accordance with the plan
to render as much general service to the Museum as possible. The party was carefully
organized so that complete competency would be available for all of its activities, and
the expedition was to be on a non-killing basis, as far as it was humanly possible to
achice this and still succeed in its mission. It was intended to be an idealized museum
expedition. The illustrations used in this article are enlargements from motion pic-
ture films taken by Mr. Carlisle, and are hardly representative of the best, as it was
not desired to cut the film. —The Editors
EACH year we must change our few animals and no tourists. Now regular
mental picture of Africa and bring tourist steamers are run on the route, and
it up to date. animals are scarce indeed. Mr. Clark
Three years ago Mrs. Carlisle and I reports that he did not see a head of game
traveled eleven hundred miles south of on his way out from Kenya in 1928, and
Khartoum on the White Nile and found the distance from Nairobi to Khartoum by
170 NATURAL HISTORY
ZEBRAS IN TANGANYIKA
A typical scene along one of the water courses
car and boat about two thousand miles.

is Animal life does not spread itself evenly
And so T foundit in South Africa. In over a country. Instead, favoring condi-
traveling by train from Cape Town to tions cause local concentrations, with
Victoria Falls and out on the east coast at seasonal changes, to be sure, but with the
Durban, I saw just two hartebeests. range of movement quite limited and
The ©Id buffalo country around the easy to follow. Our objective in Tan-
present site of Nairobi is now given over ganyika was an area such as this, and it
to coffee plantations and charming coun- may be the last to be found in Africa.
try homes. The Rift valley, where This, I well remember, was Carl Akelej^'s
Theodore Roosevelt found such great opinion as we discussed the matter before
game herds, is now uninteresting, almost he left on his last African trip.
desert, or cut up into farms; and so it From one such area of concentration
goes over all Africa. in Tanganyika, more lions, probably, have
Tanganyika is the least altered area left been taken than from any other area in
to us, and shortly we may expect that it the modern world, but in spite of the fact
also will lose its wild-life interest. At that they are holding on, owing to the
present and for some years to come it will present abundance of game, they are
remain the grandest example left to us of doomed, as elsewhere, because the lion is a
the world as man first knew it. Here it plains animal, lazy and frequently easy to
was that we hoped, on our 1928 expedi- approach. Before the automobile and the
tion, peacefully to collect our lion group modern high-powered rifle he stands no
and 5êt leave the country as unspoiled as chance at all.
we possibly could for the next man and To my surprise I found that most people
the next generation. without actual experience in a lion coun-
ELEVEN WEEKS IN A LION PASTURE 171
try feel that the hon and leopard may many are shot by those privileged to shoot
properly be shot out of it; and so they over their preserves.
may, if needed for white
the area really is The game commissioners of Kenya are
settlement, but it is a mistake to kill selected from men of a very high type. At
them off from the waste places, as they are present both the commissioner and the
the most interesting animals there. One assistant commissioner are ex-army
soon tires of looking for expression and officers of standing in the community and
individual interest in an antelope, but the they are making an able and gallant up-
lions are different. Their rule over the hill fighb to preserve the game against the
animals has continued for so long and has inroads of all unnecessary killingby
been so absolute that it is reflected in their settlers and of excessive killing by both
expression, as in their actions, and if you sportsmen and some museum expedi-
shoot the hons out of a country it becomes tions. May they be successful!
"flat" and uninteresting in comparison The world will be the poorer when the
with its former proud state. last of the great African game herds has
A few years ago a party of hunters from passed into history.
our middle west went after a record on lions These were the thoughts that were
in this area and shot between sixty and uppermost in our minds as we traveled
sixty-five;and then the British changed many weary miles south of Nairobi with-
their laws. They are rather good lion out seeing more wild life than a small zoo
hunters themselves and are particular to might hold.
inquire how their lions are shot and how But at the end of a week, after two
WAITING NEAR A WATER HOLE

African animals are ever waiting and watching for the sudden attack of hons and leopards. Here a
group of zebras and wildebeests are facing in all directions and also watching the animals on the
other side of the hole. Sometimes they wait for hours before daring to drink
172 NATURAL HISTORY
AN EXHAUSTED WATER HOLE

Four days before this picture was taken a
flourishing water hole existed here, but in that time the
water supply had been exhausted by the thirsty animals and only mud remained
hundred had been covered, we

fifty miles hunt, nor an expedition organized for any
arrived in game country, and what a sight other purpose than to render service to
From then on, for three months, game was the Museum, and in so doing to enjoy the
always in view. At times we saw very picture of unspoiled Africa which lay
little because the game was "out," as is around us.
the local saying, or in other words the The making of a superlative major mu-
migration had passed on from the ex- seum group is an undertaking of size that
hausted water holes of the dried-up plains requires great expertness in execution and
to the lower reaches of the rivers where hard work, and we at once became the
they empty into Victoria Nyanza. Later, busiest party in Africa, with Mr. Clark
we followed the game down one of the directing his departments with energy and
rivers and there found it in its thou- ability.
sands. The herds were concentrated from Museum liongroups present a special
a vast area of country and an estimate of and difficult problem because of the per-
their numbers would be misleading and sonality that the lion himself possesses
harmful, unless reduced to an acreage and because of his predominant position
basis over their whole range, which is among animals. The design and execution
impossible. of a lion group, therefore, calls for the
The expedition established a base camp abilities of an able sculptor, as well as
three hundred miles south of the railroad, those of an artist and a taxidermist; but
and there our work began. It was serious all this talent had been provided in our
work that we had undertaken, for this organization and we went prepared for
was not a sporting event, nor a trophy success in our venture.
A present-day expedition to East by a superlative specimen of a dark-

Africa representing the American Mu- maned him be-
male, but where to find
seum of Natural History but follows others came the all-important problem of the
which have established a high reputation expedition. We ranged the country for
for the institution among the English fifty miles in every direction and inspected
residents, and there is a desire on their probably, three hundred hons, but the
part to assist in every way possible. My lion of our dreams was found only on the
own reaction to this condition was that it last day of the last extra week given to
was our clear responsibihty not to swerve the hunt!
from our intention to kill only the limited We are glad to
have him
number of specimens required for well- Every day we saw from two to twenty
defined museum purposes, and just enough lions, but they were mostly females or
of the common varieties of antelope for
young, and infrequently males with poor
food. I am glad to report that our expedi-
manes. The big fellow we needed appeared
tion lived up to
Mr. Clark collected
this.
to have left the country. As the country
for the museum Mr. Clark and Mr. Klein
;
we were any
in has not been shot over to
killed for food; but neither Mrs. Carlisle,
extent and some of it not at all, we knew
Mr. Leigh, Mr. Raddatz, nor I even took
out licenses to kill animals. Personally I
that lions there die of old age, and that
had a bird license, which I did not need. there must be many big males. But these
The scale model designed by Mr. Clark keep by themselves and during the day he
called for a group of seven hons, headed well hidden in the dongas, or stream beds.
lil«'
i;*ifr w^,t;<m- jL^
MERELY LAZY
In where lions are able to find food readily and where they have not learned to fear the
districts
attacks of man, they are often easily approached and photographed. Remarkably enough, they
seem to have no fear of motor cars
174 NATURAL HISTORY
IMPALLA AND THOMSON'S GAZELLES

Tanganyika stillsupports great heards of antelopes and other animals on which the lions depend
for food. In a land where such herd? abound, it is only natural that lions and leopards should be
both numerous and well fed
BIRD hunting in the hon country has one side of a small, high bowlder, but as
much to recommend an ex-
it as I was about to pass a nice, sunny cleft
hilarating outdoor sport. Although I did in the rocks, I heard a tremendous
not kill anything on the trip, I tried on one "whoof from around the corner and —
occasion to collect a few guinea fowl for then silence. I knew that I had not
the pot, but without success. stepped on him, but doubted whether
Mr. Clark and I were out looking for he was far enough off to allow me to swing
that elusive superlative male and a change my gun on him, if he charged. As I
of thought from lions seemed wise, so I stood there waiting for something to
went after a flock of guinea fowl traveling happen, with nothing but the "whoof"
in Indian file, toward a kopje, a small to work on, I ruminated on the effect of
tree-covered granite island that rose out a load of bird shot on a Hon's disposition.
of the level plain. Finally I decided that it was only a
As is usual, the tender, young birds warning. was not to disturb his dreams
I
were in the lead and the tougher old ones of fat zebra, and, having no further inten-
in the rear,and the best I could do was to tion of doing so, I went on about my
bounce a few shot from my twenty-gauge business of hunting guinea fowl. The
shotgun off the tough backs of the old hunting was all right, but just then I re-
birds as the line disappeared among the called that lions are said to come in fives,
rocks, and then go in after them. sevens, and elevens, so, not meeting any
My mind was on the birds and I was more birds and recalling the fact that they
not thinking of lions as I worked around were vulturine guinea fowl anyway and
not very good for the pot, T worked back still an elephant, and so they let it go at
to the motor truck. There I expected to that.
find Mr. Clark dozing at the wheel and A lion is like an old-time gun fighter in
the blacks dreaming of still more meat. our west. He is tremendously able to
On the contrary they were recovering protect his interests. You can play with
from what appeared to them to have him, but not against him. Otherwise
been an unprovoked assault by a lion. I you have to "blot" him, as Al Klein
will
had so frightened the beast behind the rock called it, and that spoils the wild-life
that he had dashed downhill and out on picture for the next man. Africa without
the plain directly toward the car, which lions and leopards would be devitalized.
he did not see until he almost ran over it. Lions add considerable zest to an after-
Then, with a quick swerve, he shot past noon stroll, as Mrs. Carlisle found one late
the rear end and was gone. Personally, afternoon when leaving camp alone for a
I never did see that animal. He was constitutional on the plain below. Hardly
decidedly jumpy and nervous for a lion, had she when two shadowy lion
started,
but perhaps he mistook me for Al Klein. forms passed close in front of her, bound
Lions are not afraid of cars, if they do for our camp water hole. They paid no
not wind them and hear no human voices. attention to her, but they left a decided
They look at an approaching motor car impression just the same.
very but if the approach is
critically, On another occasion we passed through
skillfullymade, they evidently decide that a group of which were leaving the
six lions
it must be an elephant; possibly a new wooded bed for an evening hunt.
river
sort of elephant with a rotary drive, but These hons were in a very different mood
FROM A MOTION PICTURE FILM

A very rare picture. The leopard isnocturnal and few motion pictures of uncontrolled and unafraid
wild leopards have been taken
176 NATURAL HISTORY
from those we had previously played with splotches on the grass. We saw seven
and photographed to our heart's content. hyenas slink toward cover in the dawn,
They were hungry, hunting, and truculent, with their mid-rib sections hanging low
and no doubt would have given us trouble from their meals of wildebeest flesh and
if we had troubled them, but we did not bones.
need any of them in our collection. It is fortunate that hyenas are not
The following night, when near Victoria, killersand that they feed only after the
we camped three hundred feet away from lion and leopard, as there are many of
a closely-packed herd of some five thou- them and they have jaws almost as power-
sand wildebeest, and I passed a wakeful ful as a lion's.
night with their lowing in my ears and my

mind occupied with the wilderness life THE object of our trip down the
around me. Blanketti River was to photograph
With the first light I was up to see what buffalo, and although we secured some
I could read of the night's happenings. good pictures the animals were camera shy,
There were wildebeest closely packed as and it was most difficult to drive them into
on the previous evening. Lions had taken the openings in the thorn bush where the
their toll during the night, as was evident light conditions were favorable. We
from the signs surrounding the herd. finally gave it up, as this particular herd
And then had come the hyenas and the of about fifty was not truculent enough for
jackals and the birds, and between them our purpose.
all there was nothing left of the kills but As we neared Victoria Nyanza we
THE ETERNAL TRIANGLE

—
This lion was gazing wistfully at the two others a male and a female. The evidence indicated that
this was the preferred male, but that the other was older and stronger and had apparently driven
this one away
A FINE CITIZEN OF TANGANYIKA

The opportunity to photograph a male lion in such a setting does not often occur
approached Wanyamwezi settlements and ings. Each family provides a line of

found the country ahve with native nooses of about one hundred fifty
hunting parties that were taking an in- feet in length, consisting of a single line
credible death toll of the wild herds there lightly supported four feet from the
gathered. We passed dozens of groups ground. To this are fastened and hung
that were killing wildebeest not for meat, single short lariats so arranged that each
but for their tails only, which they sell open noose touches the next.
for three shillings apiece to the members The rope, about a quarter of an inch in
of the Kavirondo tribe, bordering them diameter, is made from sansavera fibre
on the north, who use them in their dance found wild in the section. It is incredibly
ceremonies. strong, stronger and softer than sisal
Suddenly, when crossing a broad, grassy fibre, and likely in time (when a de-
plain, between mountains, we came on a corticating machine is invented) to super-
well-beaten human trail, the first we had cede it.
seen in two months, and we followed it for The method of operation is to group
several miles to its end. There we got these many noose lines on an area of flat
a picture. land near a hill along which it is easy to

The Wanyamwezi were operating a steer the game, and then the natives
game trap at the base of the mountain organize a great drive over the surround-
and were carving their kill into man-size ing country. In this case the noosed area
sections for transportation to their villages covered at least ten acres, and the result
near the lake. was a game trap as devilish in its effective-
Such game traps are village undertak- ness as any devised by the mind of man.
178 NATURAL HISTORY
practically everything that postpone their next drive until we left the
It caught
came in country, or, possibly, make us irresponsive
entered the area, whether they
to their affairs with poison arrows, so, as
singles or hundreds.
the light was unfavorable, and the pictures
Once an animal stampeded into the
were likely to
of the trap in action, if taken,
noose-covered area where the yellow ropes
were the same color as the yellow grass, it be so bloody that they could not be shown
an American audience, we sadly left
had no alternative but to try and break to
the scene.
through the maze, but few indeed succeed.
We did no shooting, not even for meat,
We saw tons of meat ready for trans-
There were remnants of all the local in that bit of country. We had no heart
port.
animals from Thomson's gazelles to zebra,
for it. My estimate of the animal life
giraffe, and we even counted five

striped taken by all these native hunters from the
surrounding country then filled with herds
unborn eland calves.
Such slaughter is supposed to be illegal, on their dry season migration is five
hundred per day.
but game conservation in Tanganyika
success of an expedition to Africa
The
has not aroused the vital and growing
interest that it has in America. depends largely on there being a similarity
game in the basic ideas of themembers regard-
Also, this may have been the first
by white men, ing kiUing. Those few who still enjoy

trap of this character seen
the primitive and now out-of-date pleasure
and Al Klein and I debated as to whether
of kilUng animals on the decline, should
we would spend some time in the vicinity
in order to photograph the trap in action. not be members of parties composed of
those who have risen above it. To my
We finally decided that the natives would
INTERRUPTED
A fine specimen of bull buffalo photographed in the late afternoon when he had come out of a cool
creek bed to feed
GIRAFFES ON THE SERANGETTI PLAINS

There are forty giraffes in this herd,but only a part of their number could be recorded by the
motion picture camera. Good Uon cover can be seen along a stream bed in the middle distance
joy, and rather to my surprise, I found Of Mr. Clark's work on the lion group
that our able "white hunter," A. L. it might be unwise for me, as a layman,
Klein, had progressed beyond this earlier to express an opinion, but certainly Mrs.
conception of the subject, and we had Carhsle and I are in entire sympathy with
some happy days photographing the his conceptions as to design and color,
animal life around us. and we look forward with keen anticipation
Al Klein is a great guide and hunter to the completion of the group, which will
and also an expert at wild animal be his and his associates' from the killing
photography. of the hons to the completion of the group
The combination of professional hunter on the exhibition floor.
and photographer found in Mr. Klein is An American mining engineer in Johan-
rare indeed, and these qualities together nesburg, long active in the preservation of
with his high spirits, added to our pleasure the game remaining in the Kruger National
and success. •
I Park, rather demurred that we planned
Mr. Leigh's study paintings for the to do any kilHng at all. He has taken
background of the Uon group are very- probably the greatest series of still photo-
beautiful, and we are glad that he was graphs of African animals in the world,
selected to do the work. Seeing an artist unless Al Klein has its equal, and he
go about his work with the purpose and has never had to fire a shot.
concentration of a business man, losing answered that as a conservationist I
I
neither time nor light opportunities, was a had considered his point of view and
new experience to me. arrived at the conclusion that public in-
If Iwere asked just what Mr. Raddatz terest in conservation can best be aroused
performed as his major duty on the ex- by public exhibitions of such beauty and
pedition, I would have to stop and think, excellence as those being created in the
for he covered a very wide field of useful- American Museum. A few may properly
ness. Mrs. Carhsle and I are grateful to be sacrificed for the good of the many.
Mr. Clark for making it possible for Mr. Having acquired the rudiments of a
Raddatz to accompany us. scientific education myself, I desired that
180 NATURAL HISTORY
the collecting should be done in the spirit for us to do than to shoot and re-stock
of science and service and not in that of and repeat the operation down the years.
the hunter. beUeve that a cut-over
I But Africa is different. There, with
forest or a shot-over country has lost its pubhc interest and individual work,
bloom and can never be brought back. sample areas may and should be pre-
Although we all know that the wild life is served, so that future generations can
going or gone, I, for one, do not wish to enjoy at least an unspoiled part of their
help push it over the brink. I beheve entailed wild life estate, instead of the
that at least sample areas should be pre- shadow}^ bankrupt heritage which is aU
served, where the balance of nature is as that now promises to be theirs.
itwas in the beginning. It was not in- Vision and enhghtenment must
come
tended that man should completelj^ cut to more men holding important and
the stream of animal Ufe that has come potentially influential positions for pre-
down to us from the distant time that ser\dng the great picture of nature; and
Professor Osborn portrays with such I am glad to reahze that the American
interest and accuracy, and this expedition Museum and its representatives in the
was planned to collect with one hand and field are at the forefront of the wave of
to preserve with the other. We repre- conservation that has swept America.
sented a scientific institution and desired We look to all of our natural history
to act in accordance with the responsi- museums in America to be effective agents
bility. In America the balance has been for conservation both at home and in the
destroyed. Some species were extermin- field. They teach the beauty of nature,
ated and many nearly so from five to fifty and, logicall}^, the objective also is to inspire
years ago and now there is nothing better preservation of the beauties of nature.
WANYAMWEZI WOMEN AND CHILDREN

According to the local chief, the Carlisle party were the first white visitors ever to come to his village
Photograph by
J.M. Johnson
HE CLIMBED
UPON A LOG
AND BESTED
IN THE SUX"
THE ODYSSEY OF
A GROUND SQUIRREL
How, after a Winter of Hibernation, a Ground Squirrel Awoke in the Growing
Warmth of Spring, How He Found His Mate, Raised His Family, and
Met His Dramatic End
By ROBERT T. HATT
Assistant Curator, Mammals of the World, American Museum
In the following article Mr. Hatt, from his ivide experience with rodents, has
told the 'partially imaginary story of an individual golden mantled ground squirrel.
Despite the fact, however, that the story is fiction the reader may accept as absolutely
accurate the information it contains, and can be assured that the impression he ob-
tains of these appealing creatures is in every sense faithful to Nature. —The Editors.
THE golden mantled ground squirrel

slept heavily. For five months he
But somewhere near the center of this
scarcely living ball must have appeared
had been lying thus in his nest. an uncomfortable sense of hunger, or
The grassy ball that surrounded him lay possibly the self-made drug of sleep had
which he had
at the foot of a short tunnel become exhausted. A tremor ran through
dug up on
in the crumbling granite high the numb circle of the little body from
the mountain. His nose was held between head to tail, and the tension lessened in
his legs and his tail curled up over his head. its back. Then the shaking stopped and
In this way he formed a furry sphere that for an hour the creature remained nearly
wasted little heat. Yet to the touch he motionless. This stillness was broken
was cold, insensible, and he was breathing when his head shook violently in all direc-
so slowly that the movement of his sides tions. The wakening proceeded slowly
was but faintly perceptible. Heart beats backward, affecting first the fore legs,
came far apart and seemed about to stop. then the trunk and rear legs. Eyes
His body was stiff as though it were opened, and he stretched out, heavy-
paralyzed. headed, dull-eyed. He tried to go to
182 NATURAL HISTORY
backward towards the nest in order to get

out. It was fatiguing to work on an
empty stomach, and the long-rested
muscles soon grew sere. When he was
about ready to give up from fatigue, the
last crumbling rock gave way, and before
him was a soft white mass that packed
down easily with little pressing. Where
earth walls ended and he had thought to
enter open air, this soft, cold stuff still
blocked the way. He pushed his nose into

it and struggled on and upward. Soon his
nose bumped a harder part, but here the
light came strongly in. Excitedly scratch-
ing at the hard crust, he broke through
into the bright sunshine on the mountain-
"the squirrel slept heavily" side.
The fast melting snow lay deep in the
sleep again, but he was cold, and it was hollows and under the trees, but here on
damp in his confined chamber. He the open, southward sloping hillside the
turned round, and yawned, stretching ground showed great brown patches
out his upward curving tongue. Then touched here and there with the delicate
each leg reached out, the toes spread wide green of newly awakened life. From a
with the exquisite tingling that follows
long disuse.
An urge came to find food. In October,
when last he had seen the sun, he had been ^^
rolling in fat. But now it was April and
the fat had disappeared. After struggling
to push through the side of his nest, he
emerged into a tunnel leading to a store-
room. Here were a few frozen berries of
the kinnikinnic that grew about his door-
way, but nothing more. And here he
nibbled a meager breakfast. Autumn's
cornucopia had filled the mountain val-
leys with a wealth of seeds, but few of
these were stored in the squirrel's store-
room. Sleep occupied so great a part of
his winter season that the labor of storing
up a hoard of food was not worth while.
But autumn days spent basking in the
sun must be paid for now by foraging out-
side, where there was little to find.
The tunnel was in bad repair. Freez-
ing and thawing had caused sections of
the roof to fall, and the awakened squirrel
had to break these up and kick the gravel
THE ODYSSEY OF A GROUND SQUIRREL 183
mountain torrent a hun-

dred yards below, arose
a roar that smothered
every other sound.
SqualHng, long-crested
jays hurled epithets at
the brightly striped
squirrel as he stood con-
spicuously on the snow,
but because of the roar-
ing water he could not
hear them. A golden
eagle screamed, poising
before the breath-taking
drop that might secure
a meal for him. The
squirrel did not hear the
bird, but a rapidly mov-
ing shadow appeared
near him on the snow.
What caused the shadow
he did not know, nor did
he try to learn. Instead,
he dropped abruptly
back into the steep tun-
nel that his hind feet
had never left, and a split
second later a set of
grasping hooks struck
the soft snow that over-
laid the crust. Such sea-
son's greetings from the 'WERE THEY GOOD TO EAT?"
air struck momentary
terror into that timid rodent heart. and that shunted off the wind pouring
But were the nervous systems of the down the valley from the high peak that
grass-feeding multitudes subject to last- had not yet awakened to the spring.
ing fear, they would soon die of fright Already a few tender shoots of the first
or of starvation. No
wonder, then, that spring flowers were up and these he nipped
in a quarter of an hour a brown, short- and devoured hastily. The branch tips
furred nose appeared again just where of a spruce brushed the ground near him
the eagle had struck. Cautiously, with and he saw the fresh and tender newly
slow, short advances, and shorter, though formed needles on the twigs. Were they
quicker, retreating movements, the good to eat? He'd try. Yes, when one is
squirrel emerged again and, after survey- hungry they would do, but one soon tires
ing the sky and land, dashed over the edge of their strange flavor. There were no
of his small snow bank to the nearest seeds about for this "beautiful seed-eater"
patch of earth. This lay on the slope {Callospermophilus, he was dubbed by
below a huge rock that caught the sun scientists). All those thathad not been
184 NATURAL HISTORY
ered form moved, and gave a rattling
kar'r'rW kar'rWW on seeing the squirrel,
before gliding to a log near by. The squir-
rel, startled by the nutcracker, gave forth
a single sharp, birdlike chirp. The note
was not, however, intended con-
versationally. It was given in
annoyance at being disturbed
'A FEW SLENDER SHOOTS HE
DEVOURED HASTILY" from a careful search for creatures
to be feared. No alarming thing was to
picked up by the provident chipmunks, be seen, and no other ground squirrels
the pine squirrels, mice, and birds were were about. He came out and ran up to
now covered over by the movements of the top of the nearest bowlder. Here he
the surface Such poor foraging! And
soil. was more exposed to attack, but it was a
being already fatigued, back he went to good point for observation and the sun felt
bed, where he slept for two weeks more. warmer there. For a time he sat as mo-
Spring had come hastily to the moun- tionless and upright as a stake upon the
tain-side. The stream was still swollen rock, but as all was tranquil, he settled
to the proportions of a small river, for the down and assumed a sphinxlike attitude.
snow was yet heavy on the upper slopes. An hour of basking made him comfortably
But here about the burrow all the snow warm. There was much to occupy his
was gone, and ground patches that before attention in this hour. The landscape he
were brown were now green and flecked knew well, but moving, must
living things
with the white of blossoms. be watched with care.
The squirrelemerged slowly, with all One thing the squirrel missed, and
his senses alert as was the custom and that was companionship. The others of
necessity of his kind. Once only in his his brood had disappeared. One had
hfe had he done otherwise, and then it been taken on its first day outside by a
was through the emergency door so well lucky coyote. A brother had been
hidden by the matted bearberry. That
time a weasel was close behind him and he
did not have time to consider the terrors
of the outside world when certain death
was at his tail tip.
But on this day he came with caution.
When his eyes were just above the level
of the ground, he froze all motion and
surveyed intently the hill and sky about
him. There, on a little flooded meadow
along the stream above, a deer was graz-
ing, but that was not alarming. Deer, it
was true, often stole the food about his
doorway, but in themselves they were not
a source of danger. If his eyes had been
made far-sighted, he might have seen a

small band of mountain sheep on the bare
shoulder of the high ridge across the valley. 'HE RAN TO THE TOP OF THE
In the nearest spruce a gray and feath- NEAREST BOWLDER"
drowned in his burrow built too near

the stream. Two others had moved three
hundred yards up the valley to less
crowded feeding grounds. In conse-
quence he never again saw them. Was he
the only one left of the lively company?
He arose and ran down the surface of the
rock to search for others. His hasty
descent was checked rapidly, for there
below him was another rodent, smaller,
sharp-nosed, nervous, and heavily striped
â chipmunk, distant cousin of the
squirrel. But, the nervous, jerky, little
one fled, tail straight up, and the squirrel

continued on his way. A trail, much used
and quite well worn, hugged the base of a
small overhanging bank, where from ''the nutcracker glided to a log"
above the squirrel could not be seen, and
this he followed. At one point a jutting and gives off an odor strong to squirrel
root stub just brushed the backs of pass- noses.
ing squirrels, though, should they choose, Our squirrelcame to the stub and was
they could avoid it. This stub was, in arrested by the information which it bore.
their social world, a signal center, for each One scent stood out clearly over all the
animal in touching it with its hair left a others. Some fellow squirrel had left
message on the stub. The vocal expres- that on the root not an hour before. The
sions of the ground squirrels are very few newcomer noted that the odor was that of
in number, so Nature has done the next a female and that she had been excited.
best thing and has placed glands in the Possibly the thing that had frightened her
skin of their backs. From these comes had by now caught and made a meal of
forth a secretion that clings to the hair her. More cautiously he moved forward,
stopping once or twice to sniff the air and
trail. As the wind was from his back it
gave no warning of what lay before him,
where, at a fallen log, the protecting bank
stopped and he would be in the open. So,
on he came, and was two feet from the
protection of the rock when there came
from what seemed to be a stump just at
his right, a sharp "woof." The stump
turned into a sitting bear that lunged at
the squirrel, butby wheeling sharply and
breaking into a mad burst of speed, he
reached the protection of the overhanging
rock, and dashed under the root stub,
quite unconsciously leaving a light odor
on it as he passed. In five seconds more he
1' holograph by J. M. Johnson
dove into his burrow. The bear arrived
'there below him was a sharp-
nosed SMALL CHIPMUNK" a moment later and tore furiously at the
186 NATURAL HISTORY
the following day he climbed up the
slope to ground he had never visited,
and there he came upon the object of his
quest. She whistled in excitement, but
stood her ground as he rushed toward
her. He checked his impetuous run when
he saw that she was not afraid. They
came together and he nosed her sleek
bright coat. But she broke away into a
circling run. Pursuit ensued. Round and
round they went in steeplechase. The
race became a game. She let him come
quite close, and then dashed awaj^ again.
At last he stopped quite out of breath,
and she started toward him, nosing the
Photogrvph by A. E. Butler ground as she came, but turned and ran
away again before she reached him. He
''NATURE PLACED A GLAND IN THE
SKIN OF THEIR BACKS" pursued her even into her burrow. There
they stopped and he adopted her dwelhng
burrow mouth while the squirrel trembled as his own abode.
and uttered a high-pitched querulous In the days that followed he had a new
whistle. By great good fortune the tunnel domain with which to famiharize himself.
had been excavated in a softer filling The tunnel had to be extended, an out-
between two solid rock masses and the pocketing made in which one could
bear could only scratch
up the surface of the
ground about the en-
trance. Unprofitable
work, and so soon ended!
The spring wore on
with one adventure
crowding upon an-
itself
other. The hawks were

an ever present source
of concern, but spring
had brought its pleasures,
too. One day, the squir-
rel again found an odor
on the stub where the
squirrels left their mes-
sages. A strange quality
in it excited him and
drove him off in search
of this member of his
tribe, after he, in turn,
had arched his back and
rubbed it against the
root. The morning of THE SITTING BEAR LUNGED AT THE SQUIRREL'
squeeze while the other

passed. The nest was en-
larged. Visitors arrived.
The ever present fleas
and mites were with

them always, but now
came ticks, and less an-
noying camel crickets,
millepeds, book scorpi-
ons, and ants.
Later came four other
warm, naked, blind, and
squirming guests. Our
squirrel became annoy-
ing to his mate, so, after
a time, off he went and
built another burrow
near at hand. When the
youngsters of the brood
grew to such a size that
they could venture out
on long forays, their
mother took them on a
journey to a house down
in the valley. Here the
ground squirrels and the
chipmunks were daily
fed flapjacks and bread
crusts, and all these
creatures from the slopes
about came to the repast. From a Group in the A.M.N.H.
Many of the ground THE YOUNGSTERS OF THE BROOD GREW TO A SIZE
WHERE THEY COULD VENTURE OUT"
squirrels had learned to
trust their human
benefactress and took the load, but yet he could move onward.
bits of food from her. The day the new Three feet up, a jutting pebble stopped
brood came they found their father all progress; but the squirrel threw his
already there. At the moment he was head still farther back in an effort to clear
driving away two chipmunks from a the obstacle, and over he tumbled, back-
large slice of bread. When the smaller ward down the rock, his booty released
creatures fled, he seized the bread, and and rolling after him. But like Robert
holding high his head, carried it away. A Bruce's spider, he at last succeeded and
precipitous rock confronted him. He hid the plunder in a crevice at the top.
could, of course, have gone around. I With he returned
this feat accomplished,
do not know whether he was too stubborn to the feeding ground below.
or too stupid to do so, but instead of tak- xA.t his approach a youngster in appre-
ing the easy route, up the rock he went. hension gave a whistle of alarm from his
Head thrown far back, and arms stretched lookout on a woodpile. The others came
out, there was but trifling clearance for to attention. Our squirrel rushed in and
188 NATURAL HISTORY
'here the ground squirrels were fed"
scattered them. An older, larger squirrel up and ran down to a point where the fine
took offence and came up to him, nipped head could be reached. He extended a
him on the flanks, boxed his ears, chased graceful hand and pulled it in, cut
him out of sight up the slope, and came off the seed-bearing section and cleared
back to feed. Sulkily the punished little it as a chickaree would a pine cone.
fellow climbed upon a log and rested in Delicious were these still juicy seeds. The
the sun. Spying the head of a big mullein Oregon grapes were hardly better. He
stalk near the other end of the log, he got was too occupied to notice that the little
'HE
THREW
BACK
HIS
HEAD"
J
"a youngster gave a whistle of alarm"
birds about had become silent, too busy The squirrel felt a rush of wind, and that
to see that over him circled a hawk. The was all. Two strong feet encircled him,
hawk circled twice to get the best position eight piercing claws sunk deep and did
for the plunge. Then with wings half their work. The hawk turned, crouched
folded,feet stretched out, talons held tense, down, and with a powerful first beat of
rocket-like the hawk plunged, using his his wings, lifted himself into the air and
wings only enough to steady his aim and sailed away down the valley to his feeding
to break the force of his final impact. tree.
'TWO
STRONG
FEET
ENCIRCLED
HIM"
Photograph by Barnard at Yerkes Observatory
Mars, showing south polar cap (top), and Syrtis Major, the wedge-shaped
extension of the darker belt toward the north
THE RUDDY WANDERER OF THE SKY

The Planet That Has Most Interested the Inquiring
and the Imaginative Mind of Man
By CLYDE FISHER
Curator of Astronomy, American Museum
"There is no light in earth or heaven

But the cold light of stars;
And the first watch of night is given
To the red planet Mars.''
—Longfellow
CONSPICUOUS in the spring (1929) between us and the sun, is within 26,000,-
sky, a httle southwest of the pcint 000 miles of the earth. Mars at a favor-
directly overhead at eight o'clock in able opposition, that is, when on fine
the evening on March first, is a planet opposite us from the sun, may approach
that looks Hke a red star of the first mag- as near as 34,600,000 miles from the
nitude, but it shines with perhaps a more earth. The last close approach of Mars
steady light. It is Mars, the most in- was in August, 1924.
teresting of the planets, —fascinating to At an average conjunction, that is,
the astronomer because of the man}^ con- when on the opposite side of the sun from
ditions that approach those on the earth the earth, Mars is 234,400,000 miles from
and the perplexity he has encountered us, is only about half again as bright as
in studying them, —intriguing to the the North and might readily be mis-
Star,
layman because of the perennial question taken for a red fixed star did not its motion
of possible inhabitants. betray its true character. At a favorable
Its orbit is next outside that of the opposition it is more than fifty times as
earth, approaches almost
and at times it bright as at conjunction, and surpasses
as near our planet as does Venus, whose Jupiter in splendor, being brighter than
orbit is next inside. Venus when at any other planet except Venus,
inferior conjunction, that is, when on line The diameter of Mars is 4200 miles, or a
THE RUDDY WANDERER OF THE SKY 191
little more than half that of the earth. It makes a complete revolution in 7 hours
requires 687 of our days for Mars to make and 39 minutes, which is less than one
one trip around the sun. It is a striking third of the planet's day. Phobos is the
coincidence that Mars rotates on its axis only known moon which makes the trip
in almost exactly the same time required around its primary in less time than the
by the earth. Another surprising coin- prunary takes to turn once on its axis. In
cidence is that the axis of Mars is inclined consequence of this unusual speed it rises
almost exactly the same as that of the in the west and sets in the east.
earth. Due to the last-mentioned condi- These small moons can be seen only
tion, there must be seasonal changes on with very large telescopes and when Mars
Mars similar to those on the earth. is at or near opposition. They have been
Two tiny moons attend the planet, photographed at the Lowell Observatory
having been discovered at the favorable at Flagstaff, Arizona, by Mr. E. C. Shpher,
opposition of 1877 by Prof. Asaph Hall, who has made many of the finest planet-
then an astronomer at the United States ary photographs ever secured. According
Naval Observatory. Their names Deimos to Professor Lowell, neither of these
and Phobos, are
those used by
Homer for the
fiery steeds
which drew the
chariot of the
god of war. They
are the smallest
known bodies in
the solar system
except the
meteors and pos-
sibly the smaller
asteroids. Dei-
mos occupies a
more than
little
30 hours in
making one revo-
lution and is
14,600milesfrom
the planet's sur-
face. Its diame-
ter is estimated
at about five
mUes. Phobos,
the inner moon,
isonly 5286 miles
from the surface
of Mars, and is
estimated to be MARS IN CRESCENT PHASE AS SEEN FROM PHOBOS
about ten miles An imaginative drawing of Mars as it would appear from its inner moon
which IS just a little more than 5000 miles distant. From a drawing by
in diameter. It
Howard Russell Butler, N. A.
I
192 NATURAL HISTORY
makes a hypo-
thetical inhabit-
ant of Sirius
take a celestial
voyage, in the
course of which
he visits Mars
and sees two
moons that are
intendedto make
up for the com-
parative feeble-
ness of the sun-
hght.
Like all the
planets and all
their satellites.
Mars shines only

by reflected sun-
light. This fact,
together with the

movement of
Mars and the
earth in revolu-
tion, causes Mars
to go through
changes of phase,
but not so great
as those of Mer-
MARS IN GIBBOUS PHASE AS SEEN FROM PHOBOS
the planet would go
To an observer on Phobos, the inner satellite of Marsdetails cury and Venus,
should be easily
through this phase. The polar caps and other surface A. the two planets
made out. From a drawing by Howard RusseU Butler, JN .
inside the earth's
At opposition, when the earth is

satellites shares the ruddy color of the orbit.
planet.
between the sun and Mars, the latter
Professor Howe has pointed out that shows a full, round disc; at conjunction,
is on the opposite side
of the
the discovery of these satellites was curi- when Mars
sun from the earth, it has the same phase,
ously anicipated by Kepler, Dean Swift,
and Voltaire. One of Kepler's strange but at intermediate times we cannot see
which he mentioned in a all of the bright hemisphere, that is, Mars
speculations,
is in a gibbous phase.
However, as seen
letter to GaUleo, was that Mars had two
from the earth, Mars never exhibits a
moons, Saturn six or eight, while Mercury
crescent phase, as Mercury and Venus
do.
and Venus were possibly blessed by a
single attendant each. Dean Swift repre- The planet is a beautiful object through
sents in Gulliver's Travels that the even a small telescope, the disc, as a whole,
being reddish or orange-colored, with
scientific LilKputians had telescopes of
diversified lightand dark markings. The
great power, with which they had dis-
covered "two lesser stars or satelhtes darker regions of "a bluish-gray or green-
ish shade" are mainly confined to
a very
which revolve about Mars." Voltaire
irregular belt around the tropical regions the winter solstice, and return gradually
of the planet. During a single night it is to its former tone as spring approached."
quite easy to observe the rotation of Mars The reddish portions of the surface do
on its axis by noting the change in position not change with the seasons, and it is
of some easily recognized feature such as thought that they are the bare and almost
Syrtis Major, thewedge-shaped extension smooth surface of the planet, upon which
toward the north of the dark belt. (See the other markings are to be seen.
p. 194.) These darker areas were long The polar caps, which were seen soon
supposed to be sheets of water, and the— after the invention of the telescope, have
adopted names derived from classical been observed ever since as conspicuous
sources were based on this theory, but — features on the surface of Mars. These
now it is practically certain that they are polar caps change in size with the Martian
not water. If they were water, it is be- seasons just as those of the earth do.
lieved that the sunKght would be more When Mars is at winter solstice for the
brilHantly reflected than it is, and that the northern latitudes, the north polar cap is
darker regions would be more uniform in very large, often extending halfway to
tone than they are, that is, that they the equator. A little before the spring
would exhibit less conspicuous detail. On equinox for the northern hemisphere of
two occasions Professor Lowell saw the Mars, the cap begins to shrink, and does
Mare Erythrxum "change from blue- so until late summer, when it becomes
green to chocolate-brown shortly after as small sometimes as two hundred miles
CANALS ON
MARS
At the Lowell
Observatory,
Flagstaff, Ari-
zona, is a series
of globes upon
whieh draw-
ings of Mars
were made by
the late Perci-
val Lowell,
who believed
the lines indi-
cated the exist-
ence of irrigat-
ing canals
which carry
the water pro-
duced by the
polar snows to
every part of
the planet.
Note the south
polar cap at
the top of the
picture
I
194 NATURAL HISTORY
MARS ROTATES ON ITS AXIS

The photograph on the rightwas made first, the
one in the middle second, and the one on the left
last,— and all three were made within an hour and
a half, yet a comparison of the position of
Syrtis Major, the wedge-shaped projection of the
dark belt toward the north (bottom), shows that
Mars rotates on its axis. Photographs by Barnard
at Yerkes Observatory
in diameter. Similar changes are observed

in the southern polar cap, but the shrink-
ing is greater, for at least twice the south-
ern polar cap has completely disappeared
toward the end of summer. Although it
has been suggested that these polar caps
may be sohd carbon dioxide, it is now
quite generally beheved that they are
composed of snow and ice, that is, frozen
water. Carbon dioxide volatihzes, at low
pressures as exist on Mars, at tempera-
tures much lower than those measured for
the polar caps, as pointed ouc by Professor
Russell and his associates.
The so-called canals, as they were called
by Schiaparelli fifty years ago, have been
perhaps the most puzzhng feature of the
planet. There are many narrow, dark,
straight lines crossing the ruddy portions
of the disk.No doubt such markings exist,
but the drawings and descriptions by.
various astronomers disagree surprisingly.
Professor Lowell observed and mapped
more than four hundred canals, which
formed a complex network of geometrical
THE MARTIAN POLAR CAP SHRINKS AS precision over both the ruddy and darker
SUMMER APPROACHES regions. From four to as many as four-
Drawings of the south polar cap of Mars, made teen canals come together at one point,
by Barnard through the 36-inch Lick telescope,
showing how this cap decreased in size from May usually a dark spot called an oasis.
earth
21 to July 30, 1894. The polar caps on the Some fiftv of the canals he observed to be
behave in exactly the same way
By Courtesy of the Illustrated London News
MARTIAN SCENERY: A THEORETICAL VIEW OF THE EDGE OF A "CANAL"
WITH A DISTANT SANDSTORM
The markings on Mars, which appear as dark lines from the earth, whether natural or artificial in
origm, are supposed to be strips of vegetation bordering streams, with
perhaps a Moroccan type of
climate, ihe actual canals would be too narrow to be visible to us. Drawn by Scriven
Bolton
196 NATURAL HISTORY
double. To be visible from the earth with can be photographed, the canals cannot,—
the large telescopes, it is estimated that therefore the problem cannot now be
these canals must be at least fifteen miles solved by the photographic plate. The
wide, and Lowell thought them to be not prevailing theory is that these markings
more than twenty miles wide at most. are waterways bordered by vegetation, as
On the other hand, most of our suggested by Prof. W. H. Pickering. The

astronomers have never been able to see valley of the Nile would appear much the
this elaborate system of narrow geometri- same to an observer on our moon, —

cal markings, but intermediate positions green streak across the African desert.
from Lowell's to a practical denial of the The question of most widespread in-
existence of these markings are held. terest concerning Mars is whether life
Although the coarser features of Mars exists there. The possibility and the
Photographs by Wm. H. Wright, Lick Observatory
MARS AND SAN JOSE AS PHOTOGRAPHED FROM MT. HAMILTON, CALIFORNIA

The two photographs at the left were photographed with violet light, and the two at the right with
infra-red light.The obscuration in the upper left is due to the earth's atmosphere, and the com-
parison is suggestive of the presenre of an atmosphere of considerable density on Mars. San Jose
is 13i miles distant from Mt. Hamilton
MARS
Showing thepermariant FEATURES
recorded by most astronomer's
also the faint and apf
Unas sugg<3r.tir>g vegi
ingthe 3o-cailec!"caoai5,construaetl
by reasoning BEiNGS tci carry the
Scarce water across Ihe DESERTS
to the dark cuittvsited'OASESi
TheEARTHas seen from

MARS when approaching
their nearest. When they
are near or at theirclosest
„ the EARTH is (NVISIBtE
to MARS altogether.
i. shows DESERT a. atm st BARREN Areas , Position of B fit mm

, VEGETATION
' .. SEA Areas
'..S » .Shallow SEA ^VALLEYS that cross DESERT
Areas would appear as
e extent of each tint of . DARK STREAKS.but
iirie indicates the Area note they are not
straight as on
kg,
, MARS, hence
" the belief that
the latter are
...
ARTiFlCIAL,
'jn
EARTH
SAMESCALEasMars,^
^^^^^^H
^^^^^^^HiH
Down as it would probably ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^|
as seen from, say ^^^^^^^^^^^^H
:/.NuS. It can be seen how ^^^^H^^^^^^H
n<? LAND OUTLINE would be
^'nfasedowingtothesirriUar ^^^^^RI^^^^H
^^H^H^^^H
iuishgreentrntof the SEA
ndVEOETATtON Areas, while ^^^^B^^^^l
he reddish OCSCRTportions
'^^H^^^^H
^^^HH^H|
ould be distinct as they are on Fârs^^^^^HHH
SouihPvlarC
198 NATURAL HISTORY
atmosphere. Mars is brighter near the
edge than in the center, since we are look-
ing obliquely through a greater thickness
of atmosphere and this reflects more
light. Although rare, clouds have been
observed and photographed on Mars.
The spectroscope shows that there are
oxygen and water vapor in the Martian
atmosphere, although in smaller propor-
tions than in the earth's atmosphere.
Although colder than on the earth, the
tem,peratures do not preclude the pos-
sibility of life. The temperature rises well
above freezing at noon in the equatorial
AS H.G. WELLS IMAGINES

THE MARTIAN JUNGLE
TO BE
"A jungle of big, slender,
stalky, lax-textured, flood-
fed plants with a sort of
insect life fluttering amidst
the vegetation."Drawn by
Wilham R. Leigh for "The Things That Live
on Mars," by H. G. Wells, Cosmopolitan Mag-
azine, 1908
probability of depend upon conditions.

life
no doubt that Mars has

First, there is
an atmosphere, although probably much
less dense than on the earth. If it were as
dense as that of the earth we could not see
MARTIAN ANIMAL LIFE AS CONCEIVED
the polar caps so distinctly. The polar BY MR. WELLS
caps themselves are pretty surely the "The same reason that will make the vegetation
precipitation of some substance previously laxerand flimsier will make the forms of the
held in suspension as vapor in an at- Martian animal kingdom laxer and flimsier and
either larger or else slenderer than earthly types."
mosphere. When Mars is in the gibbous
Drawn by William R. Leigh for "The Things
phase, the sunlit portion encroaches on the That Live on Mars," by H. G. Wells, Cosmo-
dark part, orAy explainable as due to politan Magazine, 1908
regions, and may reach or exceed 50

degrees Fahrenheit.
Water is present as vapor in the at-
mosphere, as snow in the polar caps, and
probably as liquid in the regions between
the polar caps. However, it is believed
that desert conditions prevail over a great
portion of the surface of the planet Mars.
With these conditions established, it is
very probable, —but not surely proved,

that there is hfe on Mars; very probably
plant life — possibly animal life as well.
Professor Lowell maintained that there
are intelligent beings on Mars, evident
IMAGINARY INHABITANTS
OF MARS, ACCORDING TO
MR. WELLS
"There are certain features
in which they are Ukoly to
resemble us, and as lively as
not they will be covered with
teathers or fur. It is no less
reasonable to suppose, instead of a hand, a group

of tentacles or proboscis-like organs." Drawn
by William R. Leigh for "The Things That Live
on Mars," by H. G. Wells, Cosmopolitan Maga-
zine, 1908
from the engineering skill necessary to

construct the intricate system of canals
which he considered a great irrigation
Drawn by Warwick Gohle
enterprise, but his whole theory rests upon
ANOTHER OF MR. WELLS'S IMAGINARY conclusions that are not generall}^ ac-
MARTIANS
cepted by astronomers.
This octopus-like creature is one of the highlj'
intelligent Martians, who, in H. G. Wells's novel No careful scientistwould deny the
The War of the Worlds, invade the earth, and for existence of intelligent beings on Mars,
a time terrorize England, where the story is laid. but most will want more evidence before
There is, of course, no evidence to suggest that
such creatures Uve on Mars. This novel first
coming to a positive conclusion concern-
appeared in the Cosmopolitan Magazine in 1897 ing the question.
Courtesy of the
N. Y. Zool. Soc.
ECHIDNA, THE SPIXT AXTEATER

Note the peculiar, long,
recun'ed claw on the
hind foot
STRANGE ANIMALS OF
THE ISLAND CONTINENT
The Second of Two Articles Descriptive of the Many L^nique Animals of the
Australian Region
By H. C. raven
Associate Curator, Comparative and Human Anatomy, American Museum
AMONG of the
the many unique
Australian
animals
region with
more time, he might well
pletely out of sight in a hurriedly
burrow com-
dug hole
which I have come in contact in slanting slightly from the perpendicular.
the few are more interesting than
field, With such ability to bur^^ himself, it
the echidna (Tachyglossus). These spinj^ can readity be seen that the echidna is
creatures, while they are rare enough on not one of the simplest creatures to find
the mainland of Australia, are compara- when one is hunting for him in more or
tively common in southwestern Tasmania, less wild country", where tufts of grass,
and I consequently expected little trouble irregularities of the earth's surface,
in studjdng and collecting them there. bushes, fallen trees, et cetera, all tend to
That, however, was before I had a great aid him in his desire to escape detection.
deal of first-hand information about the The result was that I had very little luck
ability of echidnas to hide. If one should indeed, and the echidnas I saw were very
set down a full grown echidna on a few and far between.
smoothly clipped lawn, it would take the By great good fortune, however, I met
animal only a short time, were he so in- a prospector who was thoroughly familiar
clined, to dig a hole straight down quite with the country and its wild citizens.
large enough to shield him from inquisi- In a talk with him I told him of my difficul-
tive eyes, for as an echidna digs down, the ties, and he assured me that my troubles
earth falls in over him. A few square were over. He had a dog, he announced,
inches of prickly spines might still pro- that was especially interested in the
trude slightly above the ground level pursuit of echidnas. What the dog's idea
spines which, while not barbed, as are was in such a hobby I cannot imagine, for
those of the American porcupine, are quite once he located them he usualh' damaged
sturdy and sharp enough to protect him his nose and paws on their spines, for
from rough handhng. Or, with a little echidna spines are notorious^ hard on
inquisitive dogs. However, I was less animals are subject to considerable varia-
interested in the dog's reasons for his tion in color, but the variation limits
interest than in his efficiency in locating itself to shades of brown.
the creatures, and asked to see the beast.
I The spines are much shorter in propor-
I was introduced to a thoroughly mon- tion to their diameter than are the quills
grel creature that had all the friendliness and they are not barbed.
of a porcupine,
of the average mongrel, and after a try- Furthermore, they are attached quite
out, in which the dog promptly located an firmly to the animal's back, and do not
echidna and barked madly while I cap- come out when they impale an object, as
tured it, I purchased the ''echidna hound" porcupine quills do. They are two inches,
from his master. From that moment on or a little more, in length, and at their
my luck changed for the better, and echid- bases may measure as much as a quarter
nas no longer presented the problem that of an inch in diameter.
had troubled me before. The animal's nose is long and thin,
An adult echidna is likely to be in the ending in two tiny nostrils and a mouth
neighborhood of sixteen or eighteen which, when opened to its greatest extent,
inches in length. It is thickly covered is hardly more than a quarter of an inch
with short, heavy spines that normally in diameter. There are no teeth within
lie slanting backward. When the animal this cavity, and the long tongue, which
is frightened, however, these spines stand may be extended from two to three inches
much more nearly perpendicular, and beyond the end of the nose, is supplied
present a phalanx of spear points that with a mucilaginous substance from large
demand respect. Growing thickly be- salivary glands, thus making the tongue
tween these spines is the creature's hair, a sort of natural strip of sticky fly paper.
the longer portions of which are stiff, while The forefeet of the echidna are armed
underneath is some verv soft fur. The with very powerful claws, and with these
Courtesy of the N. Y. Zool. Soc.
THE PLATYPUS
(Ornithorhynchus anatinus)
This the strangest of Australian mammals and the most primitive.
is Superimposed on its lowly-
heritage are many striking specializations for an aquatic life, to wit: short legs, large webbed feet,
a flattened beaver-like tail, dense fur, and a duckhke snout
202 NATURAL HISTORY
the animal can tear apart the rotted

little lumber camp in northwestern Tasmania,
and porous logs inhabited by the insects, and kept an echidna as a pet. He lived
the larval insects, the grubs and worms in the board-floored place for some time,
that make up its diet. Once the claws and, after I had thrust his nose into tea-
have made an opening in a log inhabited spoonfuls of milk several times, he learned
by a colony of termites, for instance, the to accept this new food. The room was not
thin, sticky tongue darts out and explores plastered, and I found, before long, that
the numerous passages cut by the termites the little fellow could climb very well
through the wood. The unfortunate indeed. On one occasion saw him waddle
I
residents of that raided colony then find to the corner of the room, cling with his
themselves stuck to the rapidly moving claws to the inequalities of the inside of
tongue, whereupon they are drawn into the the clapboards, and mount slowly to the
mouth of the echidna and crushed between very ceiling. He clung there for a time
a rough pad that forms the back part of and then, quite abruptly, fell to the floor
the tongue and a series of horny spines with a thump. He lay still for a minute
that grow, in heu of teeth, from its palate. and then ambled off, none the worse.
To see one of these animals wandering Occasionally I took him out and placed
slowly across an open place, when it has him on some insect-infected log, where-
not been disturbed, is instantly to be re- upon, with no hesitation, he would tear it
minded of nothing less than a tiny ele- open and search out the insects with his
phant, for its long nose, pointing toward long, sticky tongue. If I picked him up he
the ground, has a most humorous would promptly curl up defensively, but
resemblance to an elephant's trunk, and after a time, if I handled him gently, he
its body and short neck appear, at a would uncurl, and struggle mildly to
distance, to be more or less the same in escape. During the cold weather he loved
proportion as those of an elephant. Dis- to approach the fireplace and lie on his
turb it, however, even ever so slightly, back before the blaze, soaking up the heat.
and changes its appearance utterly.
it The fere claws of this animal are the
It tucks its nose safely underneath. It more powerful, but each of the hind feet
sinks down on its short legs. It erects is equipped with an extraordinary in-
and lies still, having now be-
its spines, strument as well. As can be seen from the
come almost turtle-like in shape. photograph of the echidna at the head of
These animals do not bring forth their this article, one claw on the hind foot is
young alive, but following the methods of exceptionally long, and curves out in a
birds and reptiles, lay eggs. Only one egg truly remarkable fashion. This is useful
is produced at a time, and this, which is when the animal is burrowing in the
about % of an inch in diameter, white, and ground, and is then used to push the loose
more or less spherical, resembles a turtle's dirt out of the way. Its greatest value,
egg more than anything else, its shell however, seems to lie in the fact that it is
being leathery and tough. As is the case long enough to be inserted between the
with so many Australian animals, the spines and used as a back-scratcher. I
female echidna has a pouch, and in this have often seen my pet echidna thrust
the egg is carried, and, thus protected, the that long claw in between the spines on
baby echidna is hatched. Nor is the new his back, and scratch himself with what
arrival thrust out into the cold world seemed to be the greatest satisfaction.
until, his spines beginning to develop, he The echidnas of the Australian main-
makes it too uncomfortable for his mother. land have more spines and less hair than
For a time I occupied a shack in a those that live in the colder climate of
Courtesy of the N. Y. Zool Soc.

THE RABBIT-BANDICOOT
One of the rarer and more specialized bandicoots. Its pelage is soft, and in color pearly gray and
white, with some black on the basal part of its tail. Its hind feet are elongate, resembling those
of the kangaroos
Tasmania, but aside from that there are remarkably similar, superficially, to that
only minor differences. There is a related of a duck. The bill is broader and heavier,
—
animal, however the proechidna (Za- it is true, but its shape is not greatly differ-
glossus) —
that is about twice the size of ent, and the creature's mouth, too, is
the echidna. It lives only in New Guinea ridged more or less as is a duck's.
at present, although some remains of the In addition to possessing a ducklike
animal have been found in the Pleistocene bill,the animal has webbed feet. In this
deposits of Australia. It has longer legs case it actu-ally outdoes the duck, for the
than its Tasmanian and Australian cous- web extends beyond the claws, although,
ins, has fewer spines, and a very much when the platypus wants to use its claws,
longer snout. Its habits, however, are the web can be folded back, leaving the
somewhat similar to those of the echidna. claws exposed.
Another Australian animal that is as The platypus feeds in a manner closely
unique as the echidna, and is, perhaps, resembling that of certain wild ducks, in
even more intriguing to the average per- that it dives to the bottom, secures a
son, is the duck-billed platypus (Ornitho- mouthful of material, and comes to the
rhynchus anatinus) . streams and
1 1 lives in surface, where it washes the mud and other
ponds where it on larval insects and
feeds matter out before swallowing the food.
the various invertebrate and perhaps If one should add to this that the creature
vegetable life that it finds in the mud and lays eggs, one realizes what an amazing
sediments at the bottom. parallel this is.
The largest platypus lives in Tasmania Actually, of course, the platypus is a

and attains a length of about two feet. mammal with a coat of heavy, dark
The smallest is found in tropical North brown fur. As with the beaver, the outer
Queensland, where it is not likely to coat is coarse, while underneath there is a
grow to a length of more than eighteen coat that is very soft and heavy. The
inches. As everyone knows, it has a bill animal's tail, also, is beaver-like in shape
204 NATURAL HISTORY
Courtesy of the N. Y. Zool. Sac.
THE TASMANIAN DEVIL

An ungainly carnivorous marsupial, whose head is extremely large and powerful, but
whose brain
is not much larger than that of a rabbit
—that is, it is broad and flat and rather and under the banks of streams, they are
heavy—but, unUke the beaver, the tail not caught readily. I have, however,
is covered with coarse hair, although on occasionally caught them ahve, and
the underside the hair is very short. though the males are armed with short
The platypus does not have a pouch, sharp spurs on the inside of their hind
and it lives in tunnels dug in the banks of feet, through which run ducts supphed
streams or ponds. The entrances to these with poison from poison glands situated
are about at normal water level, but the on the backs of the thighs, I have never
tunnel tends to rise at an angle until the had one of them attempt to use his spurs
end of the burrow where —the nest is built on me. The actual use of these spurs is
— is only a little distance under ground. not thoroughly understood, nor is much
This is probably done in order that the air known about the strength of the poison.
may penetrate the ground to the nest. From my experience with platypusses, it
The nest itself is made of grass roots, would seem that they do not inflict poison
leaves, or twigs, of bits of bark, and other wounds consciously.
material that might be found floating in a As is the case with creatures adapted
stream or stranded along the bank. Here to aquatic hfe, such as beavers, croco-
two eggs, attached 'to each other, are de- diles, and hippopotami, the platypus
—
posited hke those of the echidna, these has eyes, and its nostrils all
its ears, its
are covered with white and leathery shells situated on the upper part of its head and
— and from them two platypusses are nose. Thus with a minimum of exposure
hatched. Being mammals, the baby above the surface of the water, it can hear,
platypusses live on milk, yet the mother smell, and see. One can guess from this
has no teats. Instead, the milk oozes how difficult these animals are to capture.
from special pores in the skin, and adheres There are many other animals in Austra-
to the mother's fur, from which the babies liathat are strange and unreal to the in-
obtain it. habitant of other portions of the world.
Because these animals live in the water Among these the rabbit bandicoot should
not be overlooked. It is a creature about large rats they live in the pouch, but then
the size of a large cotton-tail rabbit, and they are turned out, although they often
although it, too, is called a rabbit bandi- staj^ with their mother for months some- —
coot, it is not a rabbit at all. Its Latin times as much as a year. They live in the
name, Thalacomys lagotis, might be trans- dry country of Australia, although they
lated "pouched mouse with ears like a are not desert dwellers. Their burrows are
rabbit." Its long ears are somewhat dug in the plains, and their food is made
rabbit-like. Its nose is decidedly like that up of grubs that they obtain from about
of a shrew, but except for these superficial the roots of plants, and from vegetable
resemblances, it is decidedly a marsupial. matter as well. Their fur is a beautiful
It is a pouched animal, that brings pearly gray, and their tails are tipped
forth from four to six young, each of with white, although most of that
which, at birth, about three quarters of
is appendage is black.
an inch in length. As is the case with all The Tasmanian devil (Satxophilus
pouched animals, the young are born ur sinus), on the other hand, is a carnivo-
when very much underdeveloped, and rous animal, limited, now, to Tasmania.
they live in the pouch until they are able It is not greatly different in size from the
to hop along with the mother. This American badger, but its head is very large
mother, however, travels on all fours, in proportion to its body. It is an eater
unlike the kangaroo, and the pouch is of carrion, but is perfectly wilhng to
ingeniously turned around so that the attack any animal that not too large.
is
entrance is toward the rear, thus keeping It is even said that, formerly, when these
twigs and other foreign matter from stick- ''
devils " were more numerous, they would
ing into the pouch when the mother is enter sheep pens and kill sheep.
walking or running. was out one night looking over some
I
Until the young are about the size of traps and had with me a dog that normally
-T**^^
- - Courtesy of the N. Y. Zool. Soc.

THE WOMBAT
A robust bearlike vegetarian that spends its daj's resting in long deep tunnels of its own making.
At night it wanders about searching for leaves and roots of various grasses and shrubs
206 NATURAL HISTORY
seemed able enough to care for himself, are to be found in the southern half of
when I was suddenly startled by a series Australia and in Tasmania, where they are
of frightful wails not greatly unlike those hunted for their skins, which are sold
of a cat. The dog appeared from nowhere widely in the fur market. The fur is
in the dark and stood tightly against my somewhat and their color is a
grizzled,
leg, the bristles on his back erect, and his grayish brown, but it must not be supposed
legs quivering with fear. Investigation that every skin one sees for sale as
showed that two very lively and indignant "wombat" iswombat. Other
in reality
Tasmanian devils were caught in two skins often bear that name by the time ,
traps that were near each other, and they appear in the shops of furriers.
although the dog had not been harmed, he It cannot be said that wombats are
certainly showed no inclination to attack dangerous, and yet one should use
the animals. As soon as I drew near the some care in reaching into their burrows
captives, however, they ceased their cater- after them. makes the
If the collector
wauling, and did nothing except open mistake of putting his hand into a burrow
their mouths and hiss in a manner not and getting it between a wombat's power-
greatly different from that of an American fully muscled rump and the stones and
opossum. I picked them up by their tails gravel of the burrow wall, the animal is
and carried them to camp, and although likely to push it very hard against the
they protested a little, their protestations stones, and from such a predicament one
were so mild as to make no trouble. can pull his hand only at the risk of leav-
On another occasion one of them ing a certain portion of the skin behind. I
(during the night apparently) got into the have been told by experienced hunters, and
kitchen at the lumber camp where I was I know personally, that the safest way to
staying, and proceeded to crawl into the extricate one's self from such a painful posi-
oven of the stove, in which there was no tion is to reach in with the other hand,
fire. In the morning the cook closed the and touch the wombat on the other side,
oven door, lit the fire, and was amazed, whereupon he will immediately push to-
when the stove began to heat up, to hear a ward the opposite wall, thereby releasing
frightful rumpus proceeding from his the imprisoned hand. The hunter must,
normally well behaved stove. Investiga- of course, see that he withdraws both hands
tion showed him what caused the trouble, quickly else he will merely be out of the
he promptly closed the stove again, and frying pan into the fire.
left it closed until the poor beast was dead. The largest of the marsupial carnivores
It was with great difficulty that I per- to be found in Tasmania is the Tasmanian
suaded the men at camp that the animals wolf (Thylacynus cynocephalus). Form-
could be carried safely by the tail. erly it inhabited Australia as well, as
Another pouched animal of Australia numerous fossil remains in caves testify,
and Tasmania is the wombat (Phas- but it is now restricted to Tasmania.

colomys), a good-sized specimen of which These animals are as long as a wolf, to
will weigh more than a hundred pounds. which- they bear certain superficial resem-
Fossil wombats have been found of great blances, but they are not so tall, nor
size —
some of them must have weighed as are they sc efficient. The dingo, which is
—
much as a grizzly bear but nothing a real dog, has probably been responsible
approaching that size is extant. They are for their extinction in Australia, but as
vegetarians, living mostly on grass and this animal, which apparently came to
leaves They dig deep burrows, and bring Australia, probably from Asia, during
forth their young one at a time. Wombats the Pleistocene, has never penetrated to
Covrtpsy of the N. Y' Zonl. Sor.

THE TASMANIAN WOLF
(Thylacynus cynocephalus)
The largest flesh-eating pouched animal known. It is at present very rare and inhabits only the
dense forests and scrubs of western Tasmania
Tasmania, the Tasmanian wolf has been them. Platypus, too, if stringent laws
able to hold on there. These animals travel protecting from man are put into
it
alone, while dingos, travel in packs, and effect, will probably manage to survive,
with both man and dingos as enemies fre- but other than these, it seems highly
quently the Tasmanian wolf was forced probable that every animal that I have
to give way. It seems possible, however, mentioned is doomed to extinction within
that his lease of life will still continue to a tragically short period.
hold in Tasmania. The modern world is not kind to
•
Australia is still the home of many animals.Man, and the animals that man
unique animals, but already many have has introduced, will most certainly
been eliminated. The Australian native eliminate the major portion of the strange
black, together with the dingos, some of and fascinating creatures that are typical
which he has tamed, may possibly have of Australia and the adjacent islands.
been the cause of the extinction of the For millions of years these animals have
giant wombat as well as of Diprotodon, been able to develop and thrive because
which was a huge, wombat-like animal as the open seas protected them from more
large as a rhinoceros. It seems possible, powerful and more efficient animals of
too, that Palorchestes, a kangaroo that
other portions of the world, but now,
stood, perhaps, fourteen or more feet in and with
with man's lust for killing, his
height, was eliminated by the same ene-
introduction of foreign animals, the
mies and the future of many of the present
;
Australian and Tasmanian animals de-

native species are bound to go. No
longer do the seas protect them, and as
pends upon their protection from these
same enemies. Some of them such as — yet man has not realized that it is to his
certain of the arboreal, leaf-eating phal- interest to do so. The time has not yet
angers the food of which is not effected by come for their epitaph, but there can be
rabbits —may survive, if their habits make little doubt that it will be in order before
it difficult for dogs, cats, and foxes to catch many more generations have passed.
A TRAIL THAT LED TO MONGOLIA
The Story of Roy Chapman Andrews, Whose Unquenchable Enthusiasm
Has Carried Him to His Spectacular Achievements
By STEWART A. McWILLIAMS
TWENTY-THREE years ago a shm, assistant director of the Museum in

young man, fresh from
light-haired charge of .preparations, at Amagansett,.
Beloit College, came into the office Long Island, in 1907, where they skele-
of Dr. Hermon Carey Bumpus, director tonized a whale.
of the American Museum This was only the start.
of Natural History, and The next year he traveled

applied for a job any kind— and explored in Alaska. He
of a job would do since was recalled from a trip
there were no openings on up the St. Lawrence River
the staff. He got the job to be sent as special natura-
as a taxidermist, but for on the U.S.S. ''Alba-
list
some time his main occupa- tross" for a two years'

tion was washing floors. voyage to the Dutch East
That was the initiation of Indies, Borneo, and the
THE MEDAL OF THE GEOGRAPHICAL
Dr. Roy Chapman Andrews SOCIETY OF PHILADELPHIA RECENTLY Celebes. He explored
PRESENTED TO DB. ANDREWS
into the realm of science. North Korea in 1911-12,
''I didn't mind it, though," he says, and went with the Borden Expedition in
"for I was working in a place where the 1913 to Alaska, where he made a series of
men to me were as gods." studies of whales and other water mam-
On January 21, this year, Henry G. mals which gained him recognition as a
Bryant, president of the Geographical leading authority on that subject.
Society of Philadelphia, conferred upon In the performance of these tasks the
Doctor Andrews the highest honor in the qualities he constantly displayed of
gift of the Society —the Ehsha Kent leadership, as well as his scientific ability,
Kane Medal, emblem of dis- attracted attention. More
tinguished work in the field than a decade previous,
of exploration, and hailed Prof. Henry Fairfield
him as being not only a Osborn, president of the
distinguished scientist but American Museum of Nat-
also a great leader and ural History and one of the
executive of the same type world's foremost palaeontol-
as Commander Byrd, the ogists, had prophesied that
last man to receive the Central Asia would prove
medal two years ago. to be a great center of origin
THE REVERSE OF THE ELISHA KENT
During the years since for much of the mammal
KANE MEDAL
he began washing floors in life of Europe and North
the American Museum, Doctor Andrews' America. The time had now come when
career has been one of varied and fre- the American Museum was prepared to
quently spectacular achievement. His test out his theory, and Roy Chapman
first field work —
as a taxidermist —
was Andrews was made the leader of the now
carried out with James L. Clark, now famous Central Asiatic Expeditions.
A TRAIL THAT LED TO MONGOLIA 209
The progress of the four expeditions his own achievements not much by so
sent out under his leadership so far has their actual scientific value asby the mag-
been marked by a series of epochal dis- nitude of the difficulties overcome. It was
coveries. They have explored Thibet, this unquenchable spirit which gave him
Southwest* China, Burma, North China, the courage last year to turn back with his
outer Mongolia, and are now delving into expedition after months of dismal failure
the great treasure house of pre-historic in the desert sands of southern Mongolia,
remains they have uncovered in the Gobi and to strike into new territory to achieve
Desert. Their finds have ranged from a success even greater than he had hoped.
fossil mosquitoes to dinosaur eggs. It is this attitude that enables him to
They have discovered the oldest known keep his enthusiasm. One is inclined to
mammals, hundreds of new species of feel that life is a succession of thrills to
animal and remains of primitive
life, —
him the thrills that come from over-
human life and other evidences which coming great difficulties, from doing the
have convinced Professor Osborn that in things
'
which could not be done
' When . '
'
Central Asia lies the cradle of man. asked what has given him his biggest
They have used motor cars for the first thrill, he confessed, "It is hard to tell,"
time in their Gobi Desert explorations, and after much hesitation he named the
opening this vast plateau to modern com- finding of the skeleton of Baluchitherium
mercial methods of transportation. They "because of the great size of the animal."
have found many geological strata pre- In his belief the personnel has been the
viously unknown, the skull and parts of biggest factor in the success of his expedi-
the skeleton of the largest known mam- tions. The scientific abihty of his assist-
mal Baluchitherium — and the bones of ants is only a part of their quahfications.
other creatures stranger than anything He declares that at least fifty per cent of
man had ever imagined. their value is their ability to get on with
was "in recognition of the unusual
It other men.
executive abiHty shown" in organizing Next to the human element he ranks a
and completing these expeditions, his complete knowledge of the problems to
"high qualities of leadership" and "the be faced and careful preparation down —
remarkable results obtained in different to the smallest detail, ehminating every-
branches of science " that the Kane Medal thing which may cause trouble by prepar-
was awarded to Doctor Andrews, as Mr. ing for advance as much as is possible.
it in
Bryant declared, when presenting it to Then, when the unexpected does occur,
him. But in this tribute he failed to men- the emergency can be handled with the
tion the outstanding and perhaps the smallest amount of difficulty.
greatest quality of theman. "But, no matter how carefully you
Today, Roy Chapman Andrews is just prepare and study things out before-
as enthusiastic about his work as was the hand," he told a friend just before he
young hero-worshipper who came to the started back to China, "something will
American Museum years ago. In a sense always happen that you cannot possibly
he is still a hero-worshipper. He is a firm foresee. You never know what to expect.
believer in the qualities of scientists as Still, thatone of the things which adds
is
men, and one suspects that he measures zest to the undertaking."

OGDEN MILLS
1856-1929
the death Ogden Mills on

of on exhibition in the Eastern Woodlands
BY January 29, the American
1929, and Plains Indian Hall. When the oppor-
Museum has lost a rare friend and tunity arose to acquire these originals by
a generous patron. He became a Trustee the famous Indian painter, Mr. Mills,
in 1910, when he succeeded his father, realizing their historic importance, at once
Darius Ogden Mills, whose many enter- made their purchase possible.
prises and he so faithfully
interests The Library, too, was favored by his
carried on. During 1912 and 1913 he interest. It had been his habit for some
served as a member of the Auditing Com- years to present, as they came into the
mittee and in 1914 became a member of market, rare volumes in Americana and
the Executive Committee. The Museum in various branches of natural history,
has successively elected him a Patron, an especially ornithology, including a number

Associate Benefactor, and an Associate of first editions. Among them are:
Founder, in this way expressing esteem —

Gould, John 27 volumes, including most of his famous
monographs on the birds and mammals of Europe,
and gratitude to one who has been helpful Asia, and Oceania.
—
DE Bby, Theodorus Peregrinationes in Indiam Occiden-
in reahzing the Museum ideal. talem. First Edition. 1590-1602.
DE Bry, Theodorus —
Peregrinationes in Indiam Orien-
In building up an institution such as talem. First Edition. 1598-1613
—
KiNGSBOROUGH, LoFD Antiquities of Mexico. Colored
ours, with its wide scope and far-reaching Edition. 9 Folio Volumes. 1831-1848.
—
DE Spix, J. B. Avium species novae, quas in itinere per
influence, much depends upon the unseen BrasiUam annis MDCCCXVII-MDCCCXX . . . col-
legit et descripsit . . . J. B. de Spix.
forces which guide and shape its growth.
Vision is needed, coupled with unerring By by the gift
these gifts and finally
judgment in choosing for development some twenty thousand
of the collection of
those phases of Museum activity which volumes belonging to the New York
will prove of greatest benefit. Mr. Mills Academy of Sciences, Mr. Mills brought
showed, through the many years of his the Library of this Museum to its present
useful life, just these needed qualities, and high rank among scientific institutions of
his fine discernment and square dealing the world. Having learned of the desir-
in the field of capital and industry were ability of a permanent amalgamation of
carried over into the field of Museum ad- theAcademy Library with that of the
ministration. Known to his associates Museum, he paid a personal visit of
as a shy, kindly man, he had the under- friendly inquiry and shortly thereafter
lying strength and wisdom characteristic offered to purchase and present to the
of all great men. Museum the Library in question. It is
Besides subscribing generously of his due to his foresight, therefore, that the
resources as need arose, he also chose tc Museum now owns not only many rare
give of his interest and support to certain monographs but also those early volumes
definite projects. Thus his name is of scientific periodicals around which it
closely associated with the construction had for years been building up its files.
of the fur seal group and with four of On January 4, 1926, Mr. Mills was
the Museum's expeditions, namely, the appointed chairman of the Trustees'
Crocker Land, the Fourth Akeley African, Library Committee and he continued in
the Canon del Muerto, and the Java ex- this office until his death. Always a
peditions. The scientific results obtained friend, he left as a final token of his high
by each of these have amply proven their regard for the aims of the Museum a
worth. Another of Mr. Mills's gifts is the bequest which will greatly increase the
series of Catlin paintings, which are now present endowment fund.
FREDERIC AUGUSTUS LUCAS
1852-1929
By ROBERT CUSHMAN MURPHY

Curator of Oceanic Birds, American Museum
He was then fifty-nine

TO speak of Frederic A. Lucas as a
many-sided personality would not
Natural History.
years old, a slight man physically but
do him justice. In reality he be- springy and vigorous. In appearance and
longed to a dis- bearing he had
appearing genera- changed very httle
tion of wise men, for ten years.
schooled during a Neither did the suc-
period when minds ceeding decade
were not so highly bring perceptible
specialized as to- alteration, for it was
day, unafraid to not until he had
contemplate the passed three score
whole scope of nat- and ten that he can
ural science and be said to have felt
capable of becom- the weight of age.
ing familiar with a As the newly chosen
surprisingly large director of the
part of it. In him Museum he was en-
were traits reminis- tering upon the last
cent Benjamin
of stage of his career.
Franklin. Both What a foundation
men had enjoyed his extraordinary
a minimum of for- life had given him
mal education, but Photograph by Champlain Studio for this post
both shared the in- FREDERIC A. LUCAS, SC. D. From early child-
quisitive intellect,
Director of the American Museum of Natural hood in Plymouth,
History 1911-1923, and honorary director
the shrewd under- 1923-1929 Massachusetts,
standing, and the where, according to
retentive memory that enabled them his own memory, his thoughts centered on
to store away, and yet have always at animals, fishing, and other aspects of the
hand, a fund of information amazing in its out-of-doors, Lucas was taken by his
quantity and variety. Doctor Lucas' father, a chpper ship captain, to the ends
brain was a loadstone he was so likely to
; of the earth. Several times he crossed the
know the answer to things that he became Atlantic under sail. Twice he encircled the
the arbiter of all sorts of questions that globe, spending months at sea. He strolled
can arise to interest or perplex museum through the streets of Yedo (Tokyo),
men. when the mere presence of a white boy,
To appraise our late honorary director especially one with red hair, caused the
we must look
at the height of his career, Japanese to flock curiously in his foot-
back eighteen years, to the beginning of steps. He witnessed stirring and bloody
his term at the American Museum of events at Shanghai, when the Chinese
212 NATURAL HISTORY
showed early resentment against foreign various posts connected with administra-
penetration. He knew Peru in the terrible tion and with the sciences of anatomy and
heyday of the guano traffic. Square- palaeontology until he was called to be
riggers in which he sailed dodged Con- Brooklyn Museum
curator-in-chief of the
federate privateers through three oceans. in 1904. During his career at Washing-
And during all these wanderings his ton, however, he had been able to vary his
interest in natural history waxed con- routine by expeditions to the Gulf cf St.
tinualty; his notes and tabulations grew; Lawrence, to Funk Island, where he ex-
his clever and faithful sketches, which are cavated the bones of the great auk, to
somewhat akin to the marginal drawings Bering Sea for a fur seal investigation of
of a whaleman's logbook, multiplied. far-reaching importance, and to the
Seven pencil studies of totally unfamiliar modern whaling stations of Newfound-
fishes, made at the Chincha Islands in land, where he laid the basis of his wide
1869, are today positively identifiable as knowledge of the larger cetaceans.
to species. His notes on birds from the When he entered upon his work in
same region and period are just as usable Brooklyn, Doctor Lucas fully believed
as though made yesterday by an orni- that he had taken up his final task, and he
thologist experienced in that fascinating put his whole heart into a matured scheme
field. to express a new idea. Although
Following his youthful voyages. Doctor hampered to some extent by local tradi-
Lucas began his labors at Ward's Natural tions, he succeeded in developing a hall of
Science Establishment in Rochester, an vertebrates which in clarity of plan,
institution regarded as the great training beauty of material, and enrichment by
school of natural history museums in exhibits of biological significance, has
America. The hours work were from
of perhaps not yet been surpassed. Corre-
seven to six, and vacations were unknown, sponding exhibits of invertebrates were
yet one gathers from Doctor Lucas' also partly installed under his direction,
autobiographical notes that the leisure and an equally comprehensive botanical
time of the Ward force was general^ hall would have followed if the course of
devoted to occupations related to the his fife had not again been turned by the
tasks of official hours. Among his asso- totally unexpected, and half-regret ted,
ciates of that periodwere Akeley, Town- call to the American Museum.
send, and Hornaday, and the whole crew Of Doctor Lucas' eighteen years of
seems to have been filled with divine service to our institution others are more
afflatus. Aside from the training in taxi- competent to speak. It may be profitable,
dermy and other museum methods. however, to consider a little further the
Doctor Lucas acquired at Ward's that peculiarities of temperament and educa-
extreme familiarity with the plan and tion that fitted him for such eminent
variations of vertebrate skeletons which success. When and how had he acquired
was to serve him so well in subsequent hismultif old abilities? He was accustomed
years. As he has remarked, one simply to refer to himself as a man of scant
had to know bones before one could schooling, and yet, in addition to his
assemble perfect skeletons of a heron, an understandable knowledge of natural
iguana, and a spider monkey, from a history, he wrote peculiarly lucid and
common disarticulated mess at the bot- expressive English; he could quote Virgil,
tom of a maceration tub. his favorite Latin author, apropos of
In 1882 Doctor Lucas went to the Na- almost any occasion ; he could speak very
tional Museum at Washington, filling fair French. He knew the history of
FREDERIC AUGUSTUS LUCAS 213
biological science almost as well as the lationships of the families and higher
evolution of the museum idea, and he was groups of birds.
never at a loss for an apt citation of An outstanding example of the
Herodotus, Olaus Magnus, or Scripture, thoroughness and soundness of Doctor
as those of us know who are familiar with Lucas' anatomical investigations is that
some of thethousands of museum labels concerned with his views on the affinities
that have come from his pen. He could of the penguins. When Stejneger, a
navigate a ship or build a boat. He could master zoologist, prepared the text on
prepare exquisitely the skeleton of a tiny birds for the Riverside Natural History
and delicate creature, such as a nestling (1895), he grouped the penguins as a
humming bird. He was a good judge of distinct super-order, equivalent in rank
taxidermy because he was also master of with the ostrich-like birds on the one hand,
it. Dexterity in manual work, in fact, he and with the Euornithes, or carinate
always held in high regard; tools and a birds, on the other. Lucas held strongly
carpenter's bench were not considered against this view, presenting excellent
beneath the dignity of office equipment. morphological reasons for his conclusion
His penmanship was bold, clear, and that the flightless, marine penguins are
attractive, and he was a skilful drafts- merely highly specialized members of the
man. Many of his line drawings have carinate sub-class, deserving of no very
been published, not only in his own distinct rank in classification. Only in
scientific papers but also in encyclopaedic later years was this problem finally settled
works of a generation ago. by further illumination of the embryology
Although Doctor Lucas' fame will of penguins and by Wiman's researches
doubtless rest chiefly upon his accom- on fossil penguins obtained during the
plishments as a builder of museums, let Swedish Antarctic Expedition. The re-
it not be forgotten that the insight of a sults entirely confirm Lucas' opinion.
genuinely scientific mind lay behind all Another triumph of his observations
this wider expression. As a matter of and their interpretation relates to his
fact, he was a gifted research worker, report on the Alaskan fur seal, after his
and some of his friends among distin- residence at the Pribilofs during 1896 and
guished naturalists, including Dr. William 1897. The recommendations of the com-
D. Matthew, deeply regretted that force mission of which Lucas was a member
of circumstance had torn him away from were not only combated but were made to
the keenly analytical studies in compara- bear the brunt of violent calumny. We
tive anatomy which he had carried know, nevertheless, that the present
through earlier in life. These related to all flourishing state of the fur seal herds is
the classes of vertebrates. In ornithology, due to action which he sponsored.

for example, he was among the first in this Doctor Lucas was a genial, deferential,
country to turn from the inspection and always obhging, and sometimes almost
shrinking, man, but anyone who mistook
comparison of skins to more fundamental
his self-effacement for moral timidity, or
parts of a bird's structure, and a long
compromise with principle, was likely to
series of papers on the skeletons and soft
be speedily enlightened. In addition to
parts of swifts, humming birds, wood-
my association with him in museum work,
peckers, honey-creepers, titmice, gallinac-
we sat together for a number of years on
eous birds, Hesperornis, and others ap- the boards of directors of the National
peared chiefly between the years 1889 and Association of Audubon Societies and the
1900, throwing much new light on the re- Explorers Club, and I have had occasion
214 NATURAL HISTORY
to see how positive and unyielding be famous regulations for the conduct of
could be when the cause justified his posi- modern museums and the duties of the
tion. His philosophy enabled him to take staff, beginning:
disappointment cheerfully, and he rarely "A Museum is an institution for the
expected to see even cherished plans car- preservation and display of objects that
ried out in their entirety. He often used are of interest only to their owners.
an expression attributed to President "It is also a place where paintings,
Roosevelt, "Do what you can, now, with bric-a-brac, trophies of the chase, etc.,
what you have." may be deposited whenever their owner
The finest side of Doctor Lucas' char- wishes to have them stored temporarily
acter was always apparent in his courtesy, without expense to himself."
kindliness, and perennial humor. These Doctor Lucas lived a long and rich life,
traits never lapsed, even during times of and died practically in harness. We shall
trouble. He never wore his heart on his miss his comradeship and his inexhaustible
sleeve. During long weeks when he was funds of information, but the mellowness
worried to distraction by the last illness of of his spirit will remain. If he had fore-
Mrs. Lucas, he kept to his accustomed seen his end, I believe that he would have
Museum tasks as much and

as possible been content, and that he might have
preserved his usual demeanor toward thought of the couplet inscribed on the
friend and stranger. He was full of whim- title page of his unpublished bibliography
sical stories, and his humor sometimes "God be thanked, whate'er comes after,
took a highly sardonic form, as in his I have hved and toiled with men."
"THE BRAIN FROM APE TO MAN"
A Review of the New Book by Prof. Frederick Tilney
By WILLIAM K. GREGORY
Curator, Comparative and Human Anatomy, American Museum
and the throat muscles pass the meat

THE human
thousand milhon
brain with
odd nerve
its twelve
cells' down to the eagerly waiting stomach.
is an such staggering com-
affair of This, of course, represents the simplest
plexity that there is some excuse for those form of reflex action, uncomphcated by
who, hke the present writer, too easily inhibiting factors.
get lost in its super-labyrinths. Fortu- The shark's front and hind pairs of
nately, the brain of the humble shark paddles are represented in man by great
affords a key to the ground-plan of the bony and muscular outgrowths, which are
human brain. Broadly speaking, the shark the human limbs, including the hands and
brain^ as seen from above consists of a feet. The backbone, no longer horizontal,
"nose-brain," an "eye-brain," an "ear- has been turned in man into the vertical
brain," a "skin-brain," and a "taste- position, and the weight of the body is
brain," the latter grading into the spinal cleverly balanced on the hind limbs. Thus
cord, while the "little brain," or cerebel- the simple locomotor apparatus of the
lum, rides on top of the eye-brain and shark has given place in man to one of
the ear-brain. All these primary sen- great complexity.
sory centers are connected fore-and-aft The brain of man has likewise advanced
in very intricate patterns by nerve fiber beyond that of the shark in the elabora-
tracts.3 tion of a vast system of new control cen-
It has taken generations of
several ters, which have grown out of and around
scientists to find out in the most
even certain of the old ones and which have
general way how this simple brain works. greatly increased the complexity of the re-
Suppose the shark's microscopic smelling actions accompanying even the simplest
organs, that are packed up in his rosette- acts. The first and most conspicuous of
like nostrils, get the scent of a piece of these newer outgrowths is the greatly fur-
flesh floating on the water. The smelling rowed surface of the "neopalhum" or
organs thus stimulated send back their upper division of the forebrain. The
messages along the thick cable-like "frontal lobes" of the human brain are be-
bundles of fibres of the olfactory bulbs to lieved on good evidence to bf the supreme
the forepart of the primitive end-brain or court where the often conflicting impulses
cerebrum. Here the discharge of these in- from the lower centers are held in leash
coming currents sets off a new series of and directed toward the channels favored
impulses that pass backward to various by habit or by reflection. The "parietal
parts of the brain. Meanwhile perhaps region " of the brain, as is well known, has
the eyes have caught sight of the source much to do with the conscious control of
of the odor and taste messages from the
; the limbs; the "temporal lobes" and ad-
eye-brain are flashed forward to the nose- jacent parts are concerned with the
brain and backward to the taste-brain. memory of sounds, with the associations
In general, the incoming messages or of sounds with other sensory images, and
stimuli either reinforce each other or are with the correlated movements of the
balanced and played off against each organs of speech. The " occipital lobe " is
other, so that after a very brief interval a concerned especially with visualizing.
definite "pattern," or make-up of mes- The second major part of the human
sages is transmitted along the out-going brain, which reflects the greater complex-
motor nerves of the brain stem and spinal ity of the human organism, is the little
cord to the locomotor apparatus. The brain, or "cerebellum," which now con-
latter is set in motion, the shark turns and sists of three huge, greatly folded divi-
swims toward t,he desired object, and at sions, one ir the middle, the others on
the right moment the jaws open and snap, either side.
'Donaldson, quoted by C. Judson'Herrick in "Brains of Rats and Men," p. 4. -Ibid. p. 71. ^Tbid. p. 132.
216 NATURAL HISTORY
considerable series of primate mam-
mals from lemur to man. The
brain stem contains the great
conduction cables that lead
down from the higher surface
and
centers to the spinal cord,
Doctor Tilney has been able
to show that its complexity
varies almost directly with
that of the centers
above it.
One of the main re-

sults of the laborious
studies by Doctors Til-
ney and Riley is a fuller
All this is preliminary to a brief notice understanding of the evolution of neokine-
of a recent work of the highest importance sis, by which is meant, in simplest terms,
and interest entitled The Brain from Ape that in the mammals the new centers in
toMan, by Professor Frederick Tilney, the the neopallium and other parts of the
well known neurologist of Columbia brain are tied in with, control, and partly
University. The work also embodies take the place of the relatively simple
chapters on the reconstruction of the reflex centers of the old shark brain. This
brain stem of primates through the use "new movement" system becomes more
of serial sections, by Dr. Henry Alsop and more complex as the capacity for
Riley. The outer or surface areas of the skilled movements, as well as the general
brain having been treated by many other intelligence, steadily advances. There is
authors as well as in a previous worki by good evidence for the inference that in
the same authors, the main theme of the the higher mammals, especially in man,
present treatise is the comparative the patterns of every posture, of every
description and interpretation of the suc- flowing stream of postural changes in-
cessive sections of the brain stem in a volved either in locomotion or in various
special movements, as of the jaws and
^The Form and Functions of the Central Nervous System.
New York, 1921. tongue, are predetermined by the neo-
BRAIN OF MAN Same scale as
After Tilney
gorilla brain, above
THE BRAIN FROM APE TO MAN 217
pallium, made up chiefly by the cerebel-

lum and transmitted through the highly
complex brain stem to the
executive organs of the body.
The mammahan order of
Primates, to which man be-
longs, is remarkable for the
fact that, as compared with
many other existing orders, it
contains an unusually large
number of ''living fossils," or miss-
ing links, which in various parts of
the world have, as it were, fallen
behind in the ascent and have CROSS-SECTION OF THE CEREBELLUM OF GORILLA
been content to remain on lower Showing the complex folding of the lateral lobes and the
levels of existence, while some of high development of the dentate nucleus. The complexity
of these structures reflects the relatively high abiUty of
their more progressive relatives
the gorilla to perform skilled movements of the body
have toiled on toward the sum- and limbs
mit. Students of the evolution of
the skull, jaws, and teeth, of the hands and His studies also bring out more clearly
feet, as well as of the brain as a whole, than ever the fact that in respect to its
have long since recognized that while the brain structure, as in so many other ways,
existing lemurs, monkeys, and apes ob- the gorilla is far nearer to man than he is
viously do not lie in the direct path of to the lowest of the primates, so that
man's ascent, yet when studied in com- from an evolutionary viewpoint there is
parison with the known fossil primates now cumulative evidence for regarding
of past ages, they do preserve in varying the higher anthropoids as the backward
degrees the successive stages of that and in certain respects specialized early
advance. To this body of recorded facts branches from the primitive anthropoid
concerning the structural gradations base of the human family.
among the primates. Doctor Tilney has The publisher (Paul B. Hoeber) of this
now brought an enormous accession of great work is to be commended for his
new material, which sets forth the in- courage and hberality in placing at the
disputable general progression of the reader's disposal a store of costly, well
brain from the lowest primates to man. executed plates in half-tone and colors.
CROSS-SECTION OF THE Showing advance beyond the stage

illustrated in the gorilla (above,
CEREBELLUM OF MAN reduced to same scale)
'...., *m:,:nii-.wmmBBmam»iii
1. Central Asiatic; 2. Beck, New Guinea, for birds: 3. Whitney South Sea, Solomon Islands for birds; 4. Vernay7
Faunthorpe for Asiatic mammals; 5. Madagascar for birds, mammals, and fossils; 6. Sanford-Patterson-Legendre,
Abyssinia for mammals; 7. Straus, to Nyasaland for birds; 8. Tanganyika for birds and mammals; 9. Sao Thom6
for birds (Thorne-Correia) ; 10. Simpson, Florida for fossils; 11. Chester A. Reeds, Lake Passaic varves; 12. Sante
F6 for fossils (Frick-Rak); 13. Vaillant, Mexico, for archaeological finds; 14. Benson, East Panama for birds; Chapnian,
Barro Colorado for birds; Lutz, Panama, for insects; Blick, Honduras, for fossils; 15. Tyler Duida, Venezuela, for birds
and mammals; 16. Southeastern Brazil (Naumburg-Kaempfer) 17. Byrd, Antarctic.
;
INTHE FIELD OF
NATURAL HISTORY
Conservation

EXPEDITIONS procured fine specimens of a male and female
Central Expedition. Dr. Roy
Asi.4.tic — lion for the Museum's Hall of Asiatic Mammals.
Chapman Andrews sailed from San Francisco This animal formerly ranged all the way from
on March 1 for Peking, where he will complete India through Asia Minor to Persia, but has be-
his plans for the next season's fossil collecting. come extinct over a large part of that territory.
On February 4 President Henry Fairfield Today the Asiatic lion is found in only a small
Osborn gave a farewell luncheon for Doctor area in India, and is protected by the native
Andrews at the American Museum at which he princes. The Museum, therefore, feels that it is
said: most fortunate in being able to obtain the speci-

The last six years of Roy Chapman Andrews' work in mens.
Central Asia has probably made as large a contribution in
the development of palaeontology as have the preceding
fifty years of exploration in the western part of the United
Tyler-Duida Expedition. Mr. Sidney Tyler —
States. Jr., who was taking an active part in this
expedition, as well as generously financing the
A distinguished gathering of explorers and
project, has been forced to return to New York
scientists attended the luncheon.
because of a tropical infection which could not
Indian Lions for the American Museum.— be properly treated in the field. The other mem-
The American Museum has received a cable from bers of the expedition have remained at Mt.
Arthur S. Vernay, in India, stating that he has Duida where they continue to collect the mam-
mals and birds of this little-known district of The regular meetings of the Amateur As-
South America. tronomers Association are held everj^ first and
third Wednesday of the month at 8:15 p.m. For
Dr. Frank E. Lutz is now carrying on experi-
full information address Dr. Clyde Fisher,
mental work with tropical insects at the labora-
president, or Miss M. Louise Rieker, Secretary.
tories of Barro Colorado Island, Panama.
EDUCATION
Dr. George Gaylord Simpson, associate
curator of mammals, has been in Florida since
A JUNIOR astronomy club has been organized
as one of the activities of the Museum's division
February 1, and will continue during the month
of public education, in cooperation with the de-
ofMarch, making an extended trip over the entire
partment of astronomy. Miss EHzabeth A.
state, collecting vertebrate fossils in collabora-
Eckels, staff assistant in education, will direct
tion with Mr. Walter W. Holmes of St. Peters-
burg, and the State Geological Survey of Talla-
the members, who will be boys and girls from
hassee. In a letter dated February 13, Doctor
public and private schools that have attended
the fall term of lectures and talks on astronomy
Simpson reports finding a skelei/on of a Manatee
given by Dr. Clyde Fisher and Miss Eckels.
in a fuller's earth mine of Middle Miocene age
a rare fossil. Doctor Simpson's extended work
Children of members of the Museum will also be
represented in the club membership.
will clear up many problems relating to the dis-
tribution of late Tertiary vertebrates in Florida.
It has been arranged that one half of the mem-
bership will meet from 8 to 9 p.m. on the fourth
Friday of each month, and the remaining half at
ASTRONOMY
the same hour on the fourth Saturday, thereby
A
MOST GRATIFYING EVIDENCE of the growiug making it possible to keep the attendance at each
interest in the Amateur Astronomers Associa- meeting sufficiently small to afford the children
tion was the attendance of 1426 persons at the the best opportunity for star gazing through the
recent lecture by Oliver P. Medsger, on Jupiter, telescopes used by the adults of the Amateur
accompanied by the motion picture of that planet Astronomers Association.
made by Prof. William H. Wright of the Lick The following program has been planned:
Observatory.
March 29 and 30 Clyde Fisher, Jupiter
On March 6, Mr. Wallace J. Eckert, astronomer and His Moons; Orion, the Mighty Hunter.
of Columbia CoUege, gave an illustrated talk on April 26 and 27 Oliver P. Medsger, Venus and
"The Minor Planets: Asteroids." Mars; Canis Major, the Big Dog; Taurus,
March 20, Dr. Henry Norris Russell, director the Bull; Gemini, the Twins.
of Princeton University spoke on "Analyzing May 17 and 18 —
Miss Jean Conklin, The
the Sun." Moon; the Great Bear; the Little Bear.
June 28 and 29 Charles Liebman, Jr., Sun-
April 3, Garrett P. Service will tell of some
spots (A DayUght Meeting).
"Experiences of an Amateur Astronomer."
The Nature Training School, under the
April Mr. Worcester Reid Warner will
17,
general direction of the Coordinating Council,
describe a "Starry Night at the Lick Observa-
on Nature Activities, which was held last year at
tory."
Camp Andree, BriarcUffe, New York, will be held
Study Groups. —
The Amateur Astronomers at Gardner Lake, Connecticut (near New Lon-
Association now conducting the following
is don) throughout the month of June, with three
study groups for the benefit of its members periods of two weeks each, June 1-15, June 8-
at the American Museum: 22, June 15-29.
STUDY GROUPS OF THE AMERICAN ASTRONOMERS ASSOCIATION

Leadeh Evening Time Subject Meeting Place
Mr. C. A. Federer, Jr. Every Tuesday 7:30 to 9:30 P.M. Learning the Constella- Astronomy Hall
tions
Mr. S. L. Toplitz Every Tuesday 8:00 to 9:30 P.M. Location of Prominent Room 201
Constellations School Service Bldg.
Miss .Jean Conklin Every Wednesday 7:15 to 8:15 P.M. General Astronomy Astronomy Hall
Mr. Frank Reh First and Third 7:15 to 8:15 P.M. The Stellar L'niverse, Room 202
Wednesdays Nebulce, etc. School Service Bldg.
Mr. Paul Shogren Second and Fourth 8:00 P.M. Elementary and Gen- -Academy Room
Wednesdays eral Astronomy
Mr Cornelius Wolff Every Thursday 8:15 P.M. Light; and later. Ele- Room 202
ments of Physics as School Service Bldg.
Applied to Astronomy
Telescopes, apparatus, steropticon, charts, blackboards, etc., are used
220 NATURAL HISTORY
Courses will be conducted in Forestry and Syria, consisting of a collection of fossil fishes
Tree Study, Geology, Map Making and Survey- from the Mt. Lebanon district.
ing, Botany and Plant Ecology, Insect Life, Plant

CONSERVATION
and Animal Life on Land and Water, Bird and
Star Study, Outdoor Sketching, Photography,
Forestry in Motion Pictures. To show fire- —
fighting, woods management, and other forestry
Indian Gardening and Lore, Music Interpreta-
principles and practices visually, the Office of
tions with reference to Nature, Nature Educa-
tion, Nature Excursions, Trails, and Games.
Motion Pictures of the United States Depart-
Following these June courses, and correlated ment of Agriculture has prepared for the forest
with them, will be a trip of observation and study service of that department, thirty-five educa-
to the White Mountains in July, and in August tional motion pictures on forestry subjects. Fire
prevention, forest uses, reforestation, logging
a trip to Labrador especially for a study of
the geology, botany, and ornithology of the practices, recreation, and grazing are among the
Labrador coast area. subjects covered. The films are loaned free for
For full information concerning these courses short bookings, or may be purchased at cost
write to Dr. Bertha Chapman Cady, Coordinat- by outside agencies. Purchases are made
ing Council on Nature Activities, The Ameri- through the Department of Agriculture.
can Museum of Natural History, 77th Street and
Central Park West, New York City.
HONORS
Oglebay Park School at Wheeling, Virginia, Dr. Roy Chapman Andrews was awarded the
will also hold a training session from June 15 to degree of Doctor of Sciences by Beloit College,
Beloit, Wisconsin, on December 18.
29, after which the students are invited to partici-
pate in the intensive field work program in the Dr. Robert Broom, whose researches cover a
White Mountains and Labrador. period of thirty-three years in Australia and
At the Aviation Show held in New York City South Africa, was awarded the medal of the Royal
from February 6 to 13, the American Museum Society at the anniversary meeting November 30,
had a large booth devoted to a presentation of for his "valuable contributions to the determina-
the important part astronomy has always taken tion of the relationships of the main groups of
in world exploration, and its close affiliation with vertebrate animals, and to the definition and
present day exploration by air. The Museum's solution of the problems involved in the evolu-
collections of meteorites, astronomical instru- tion of the higher groups."
ments, paintings, and books of travel attracted The Museum Library has received as a gift
many visitors. the seven volumes of the Amiens Edition of
FISHES Sources Records of the Great War which have
A Memorial to Dr. Bashford Dean. As a— been published by the National Headquarters

of The American Legion. The volumes are
memorial to Dr. Bashford Dean, the present
exhibit of fossil fishes in the southeast rotunda
registered in thename of The American Museum
of Natural History and dedicated to the memory
on the fourth floor of the American Museum is
being enlarged and perfected, and will be known
of Charles A. Connolly of the American
hereafter as the Bashford Dean Memorial Ex-
Museum staff, who gave his life while in the service
of his country. Each volume has a distinct binding
hibit of Fossil Fishes. The work is in the hands
of the Bashford Dean Memorial Committee,
which in every case is a facsimile of the original
consisting of J. Leroy Conel, Hawthorne Daniel,

art binding on the official copy of the Versailles
Cleveland Earl Dodge, William King Gregory Peace Treaty belonging to a stated country.
(chairman), Eugene Willis Gudger, Francesca The records are non-partisan, non-sectional,
La Monte (secretary-treasurer), John T. Nichols, and non-sectarian, and will prove of increasing
Henry Fairfield Osborn, Mrs. George W. Perkins, value as time goes on.
George H. Sherwood, Bertram Smith. Alexander MINERALS

McMillan Welch. This committee is now en-
The advance in the science of mineralogy that
gaged in having made a bronze bas-relief tablet
has marked the year 1928 may be said to express
bearing a portrait of Doctor Dean, that is to be
a tendency rather than a notable achievment.
placed at the entrance to the exhibit.
The science has largely outgrown the period of
Fossil Fishes from Mt. Lebanon. —Through unrelated observation of facts, and has for more
the courtesy of Dr. Alfred Ely Day, the depart- than a decade turned to the broad interpretation
ment of ichthyology is in receipt of a valuable of existing data and those special investigations
exchange from the American University at Beirut, relating to the establishment of basic truths.
Much of this modernism in mineralogic research Lucas by the owner, Mr. P. L. Munford, of
dates from the definite estabhshment of a knowl- Decatur, Georgia. The tool, or weapon, in
edge of the atomic structure in crystals as revealed general outline and contour resembles a large
by the X-ray. Throughout the world more in- spearpoint. measures 2% X 4)2 X 11/4 inches
It
vestigators are turning each year to this new and and might have served a powerful man very well
fruitful field of scientific endeavor, and the as a stabbing implement. According to the
hterature of 1928 has shown a high percentage owner, this specimen, with eleven other flint
of papers embodying new knowledge of the atomic artifacts, was found by his father, about the year
structure and atomic groupings in crystals of 1865, at a depth of forty feet in the deposit com-
minerals. posing an old bed of the river Oxe, near Leeds,
In the field of mathematical crystallography, a Yorkshire, England. The rare piece is said to
valuable compilation contributed to the literature have been exhibited as a loan, in the British
of 1928 is the Crystallographic Tables for the Museum for about thirty years.
Determination of Minerals, the work of Victor Doctor Lucas very kindly brought the speci-
Goldschmidt and Samuel G. Gordon. men to the attention of the department of anthro-
A number of new species have been discovered pology and in response to our interest, and with
during the jêar, including two from the famous the owner's consent, he superintended the mak-
locality of Franklin, New Jersey. —H. P. W. ing of four excellent casts, scarcely to be distin-
guished from the original. One of these casts
SCIENCE OF MAN has been placed on exhibit in the English Lower
Mongolian Collections. ^The — latest collec- Palaeolithic section in the archaeological hall.
tion of archaeological material to arrive at the —N. C. N.
Museum is that obtained during the summer of —
Laussel Sculptures. Through the con-
1928 by the Central Asiatic Expedition in south- tinued interest and good offices of President
central Mongolia. Mr. Alonzo W. Pond of Osborn, the department of anthropology recently
Beloit, Wisconsin, who served as archaeologist received excellent casts of the two most impor-
for the season, brought on the collection toward tant of five remarkable human rock-sculptm-es
the end of January, having held it in Beloit since discovered about 1910 by Dr. Gaston Lalanne of
his return from the Orient last September in order Bordeaux at the great rockshelter of Laussel,
to prepare his report on the same. Before this near Les Eyzies, Dordogne Department, France.
report can be published, however, it will be neces- Doctor Lalanne having died recently, to the
sary to number and catalogue the specimens. great loss of French prehistoric studies, the
The new collection fiUed five moderate-size American Museum is
deeply indebted to Madame
cases and comprises probably between 10,000 Lalanne for permitting and superintending the
and 15,000 specimens. In quantity and general castings.
character this material corresponds pretty closely Illustrations of both these bas-rehef sculptures
to that obtained by Curator N. C. Nelson in 1925 are given in Professor Osborn's Men of the Old Stone
in west-central Mongolia. The 1925 collection is Age, pages 328-9. One represents a woman hold-
apparently stronger in culture levels; but the ing in her raised right hand a curved horn, and is
1928 collection is somewhat richer in varietj^ of executed in considerable detail, except that the
artifact types, especially in objects made of bone. lineaments of the face are not brought out. The
Both collections are however made up largely of other is the incomplete figure of a man, thought
flaked and chipped stone pieces; and of the by some to be represented in the act of drawing a
20,000 to 30,000 such objects now available, it bow or throwing a spear. Both figures are done
must be emphasized that only a very small frac- in about two-fifths natural size. The rockshelter
tion are real implements, the vast majority yielded three additional female figures, the best
being merely reject cores, flakes, and chips result- one of which found its way to the Ethnographic
ing from the production of implements. Never- Museum in Berhn, where it is to be hoped we may
theless,our collections do furnish duplicates of a ultimately obtain a suitable cast. The two speci-
goodly and weapons,
series of typical stone tools mens available have been placed in one of the two
some of which, as has been repeatedly indicated, Palaeolithic Art cases in the archaeological hall.
antedate the true Neolithic culture stage. —
N. C. N.
—N. C. N. The Shoemaker Loan Exhibit. Recently, —
English Coup-De-Poing. —An exceptionally Mr. Ernest Shoemaker of Brooklyn, a long-time
large coup-de-poing, or hand-held implement of friend of the Museum, placed in our archaeological
Chellean type, was recently brought for examina- hall an interesting loan exhibit of 1000 selected
tion to the office of Honorarv Director F. A. specimens. This collection, which is to remain
222 NATURAL HISTORY
on exhibit for a term of five years, is of interest the second floor, is a large case filled with a cache
for several reasons. It comes from the District of chipped blanks from which points could be
of Columbia and can scarcely ever be duplicated. made. This is one of the largest caches so far dis-
It comes from 22 definitely known sites, situated covered in North America.
for the most part along the banks of the Potomac
and Anacostia rivers. It is fairly complete and OBITUARIES
representative for the general region in question. In the death of Mr. Cyril Guy Harrold the
Finally, it represents the avocational interest of Museum has suffered the loss of a very able man.
Mr. Shoemaker —begun when he was eleven years Mr. Harrold was born in England in 1895 and
of age —during his residence in Washington be- died in New York, February 4, 1929, of meningitis.
tween the years 1877 and 1892. The collector For the past fifteen years he had been residing in
modestly explains, however, that he received his Western Canada and making expeditions into
inspiration, as well as some specimens, from his parts of Labrador, the Canadian Northwest,
uncle, Dr. Wm. L. Shoemaker, who began Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. His interest
collecting in the locality before the Civil War, lay principally in birds, and with them he was
and that, moreover, his own brothers. Dr. F. remarkably well acquainted.
Shoemaker, C. W. Shoemaker, and George Shoe- A recent paper written jointly with B. W.
maker, also made minor contributions to the Cartwright is entitled "An Outhne of the Prin-
final inventory, now totaling about 2500 pieces. ciples of the Natural Selective Absorption of
In other words, the Shoemaker collection is, as it Radiant Energy' and was published in The Auk
were, a family monument. — N. C. N. during 1925. In it is developed the author's
interpretation of the meaning of color in birds
Palestinian Flints. —A collection of 265
and of the nature of the chemical changes that
chipped flint artifacts from surface sites in
have to do with the seasonal fading in the hues of
Palestine and from rockshelters in the vicinity of
feathers.
Beirut, Syria, was transmitted to the department
Mr. Harrold was on the eve of sailing as a
of anthropology early in January. This shipment,
member of the Madagascar Expedition which the
together with a fossil collection, was sent to the
American Museum is about to send in cooperation
American Museum last summer by Prof. Alfred
with the British Museum of Natural History and
Ely Day, of the American University of Beirut,
the Paris Museum of Natural History. To this
and is important to us, being the first archaeo-
undertaking he had devoted his heart and energies
logical material from southwestern Asia so far
for several months. His passing is mourned by
obtained by the Museum. N. C. N. — all of those who knew him.
The American Museum's small but growing
collectionfrom Lapland has been enriched by As the magazine goes to press, word comes that
Lapp woman's fur coat, presented by
the gift of a Dr. Jonathan Dwight, research associate in
the noted author Hendrik Willem Van Loon. North American birds, died at his home in New
York City, February 22, 1929.
A cache of stone dart points has been
forwarded to the American Museum by L. E. William L. Underwood, widely known in the
Bryant, Roberta, Tennessee. Forty-seven of field of natural history, died on January 28 at
these points, all of the same form, were found in a Belmont, Massachusetts. Mr. Underwood
rockshelter, beneath a flat stone. From time to studied and wrote on bacteriology as applied to
time such caches are found, indicating that even the canning and preserving industries, and also
primitive man was thirfty in accumulating a store devoted much time to the problems of the gypsy
of weapons to be available in times of need. On and the browntail moths, and to mosquito
exhibit in the Museum's archaeological hall, on extermination.
NEW MEMBERS
Since the last issue of Natural History, the Associate Benefactor ;
following persons have been elected members of Mesdames William H. Bliss, G. Lister Car-
the American Museum, making the total number LISLE, Jr.
11,056.
Messrs. John F. Archbold, G. Lister Carlisle,
Benefactor Jr.,Clarence L. Hay, B. T. Babbitt Hyde, O.
Mr. Geo. F. Baker, Jr. G. Jennings, J. S. Morgan, Jr.
Patrons C. PuPKE, Maud Ransom, Pauline Robinson,

Mesdames A. Wentworth Erickson, George Elise E. Sage, Emily Schwab, Katherine
W. Perkins, Keith Spalding, Oscar S. Straus, Fisher Schwab, Delia G. Scott, Violet
Henry White. BiRSE SiME, Ruth M. Wallace, Regina W.
Winscher.
Misses Gertrude Sanford, Ruth V. Twombly.
Rev. Dr. William Prall, Theodore F. Savage.
Messrs. Edward Clark, Glenn Ford Mc-
S.
KiNNEY, George N. Richard, John L. Sever- Doctors J. Geiger, Henry T. Lee, Ralph
ance, Keith Spalding, George F. Tyler, Everett Lee, Howard E. Lindeman, Robert
Sidney F. Tyler, Jr. B. LuDiNGTON, H. H. Newcomb, Nicholas J.
POLTCHANINOFF, PhILIP CoOK ThOMAS.
Fellows Messrs. W. Clinton Allen, John J. Atwater,
Mrs. Katherine Pomeroy. Gardner R. P. Barker, Charles Chase
Bassett, H. D. R. Burgess. Paul J. Buttles,
Messrs. F. Kingsbury Curtis, Van Campen
Stuart E. Eldredge, M. Robert Ellis, E. W.
Heilner, Henry Hornblower, W. H. Perkins,
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224 NATURAL HISTORY
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Ottman, L. Rodman Page, Jr., Charles T. Master Donald Aspinwall Allan.
AUTHORS IN THIS ISSUE

Roy Chapman Andrews' brilliant of the
leadership By an interesting coincidence, the publication date of this
Central Asiatic Expeditions of the American Museum, and issue of Natural History is the twentieth anniversary of
the world-wide interest in his publications, both scientific Dr. Frank E. Lutz's coming to the American Museum as
and popular, have won him a whole succession of honors and assistant curator of invertebrate zoology. Later, when
international distinction among explorers. His article in entomology was restored to the dignity of a separate depart-
this issue "Further Adventures of the American Men of the ment, he was made its curator. In addition to carrying on
Dragon Bones" brings the reader up to date on the ex- the more ordinary museum activities, the department has
periences of the latest Asiatic expedition. for the past four years maintained in the Harriman State
Park a field laboratory where physiological work such as
A triparound Cape Horn when he was a young lad, that described in Doctor Lutz's article, "Experiments with
aroused in John T. Nichols so great an interest in the birds Wonder Creatures" has been done. However, this field
and the stormy Southern Ocean, that he later
fishes of station has not been devoted solely to research, for it was
made a second trip, and though he has been curaioi of there thsit Doctor Lutz developed the "Nature Trail"
ichthyology at the American Museum for a number of years method of outdoor education now being used in hundreds of
and has pub'ished much on fishes in general, his article in places throughout this country and al iroad
this issiie entitled "At the Edge of the Antarctic Ice"
proves to the reader how keen an interest Mr. Nichols still Robert T. Hatt, assistant curator in the American
retains in those southern seas. Museum's department of mammals, who writes the "Odys-
sey of a Ground Squirrel," has devoted several years of
G. Lister Carlisle, Jr., the author of "Eleven Weeks study to the life histories of various North American rodents.
in a Lion Pasture," was for eight years manager and part Readers of Natural History will recall with pleasure Mr.
owner of a gold mine in Honduras where, in the intervals Hatt's "Br'er Rabbit's Widespread Family" which ap-
left to him by his work, he developed that intense interest,
peared in the September-October number of last year.
in nature that ultimately caused him to organize the Car-
lisle-Clark Expedition to Africa. Mr. Carlisle's interest in Otis Barton especially interested in fossil primates of
animals is principally concerned with their conservation, the Miocene and Pliocene. His aiticle "Fossil Bones in a
and his own activities in the field are almost exclusively con- Persian Garden" describes his experiences in Persia last
nected with the making of motion pictures of wild life. He Summer while seaiching for fossil remains.
has generously donated the lion group for the Akeley African
Hall at the American Museum, his interest in which orig- Stewart A. MacWilliams, of the American Museum's
inated with his acquaintance with the late Carl Akeley. department of printing and publishing, is a co-author of
His article in this number of Natural History tells of the China's Backgrounds, a brief survey of China's art and
Carlisle-Clark Expedition, and especially reflects his interest culture. His interest in matters Chinese has fitted him
in conserv.ition. especially to give to the readers of Natural History the
personal glimpse of Roy Chapman Andrews that appears
When Rebecca Harding Davis, the authoress, visited in this issue under the title " A Trail that Led to Mongolia."
Waynesville, N. C, some fifty years ago in search of local
color, she bore a letter of introduction to the lawyer father of "sunset in the GOBI"
ten-year-old Eugene Willis Gudger. She took a liking to In A. A. Jansson's painting that appears as the cover
the boy, and when she returned home, sent him a copy of of this issue, the artist has caught, accurately, the color
John Abbott's Land and Wai-er. This Isook aroused in him and the atmosphere of the Gobi Desert as the sun colors the
a great interest in natural history, which subject he studied western sky. When the painting was shown to Dr. Roy
and afterward taught, becoming professor of biology at the Chapman Andrews, whose long experience in the Gobi has
State College for Women at Greensboro, N. C, in 1905. made him the ideal critic of such a painting as this, and he
Here, in his leisure hours, he managed to turn out research was asked to make any suggestions for changes or correc-
work of such quality as to attract the attention of Bash- tions, he looked at the canvas for a moment and shook his
ford Dean. As a result. Doctor Gudger was invited to head; "There is not a thing in it that I would have
come to the American Museum in 1917 to work on the changed," he remarked. "The coloring is absolutely faithful
Bibliography of Fishes, and in 1919 Doctor Gudger became to nature. The details are entirely correct. Even the man
editor of Volume 3 of this great work. His article in this in the foreground bears a close resemblance to one I have
issue
— —
"Wide-gab, the Angler Fish" lies in the field in long had on my expeditions. No, don't change it. That is
which he has specialized. the Gobi."
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American Museum the most fascinating and dramatic of the facts that are

NEW YORK, N. Y.
NATU RAL
HISTORY
May-June
1929
Price Fifty
Cents
THE GREAT WHITE HERON

NEW YORK, N. Y.
OsbokSt.LL.D., President
Hbnby Fairfield
Wayne M Faunce, Sc.B., Assistant to the Director and Assistant becretary
Fishes Science of Man (continued)

I. DIVISION OF MINERALOGY,
William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Curator William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Associate
GEOLOGY, GEOGRAPHY, John T. Nichols, A.B., Curator of in Physical Anthropology
AND ASTRONOMY Recent Fishes Clarence L. Hay, A.M., Research
Associate in Mexican and Central
LL.D., E. W. GuDGER, Ph.D., Bibhographer
Henry Fairfield Osborn, and Associate American Archaeology
D.Sc, Curator-m-Chiet Francesca R. LaMonte, A.B., Assist- MiLO Hellman D.D.S., Research Asso-
ant Curator ciate in Physical Anthropology.
Louis Hussakof, Ph.D., Research George E. Brewer, M.D., Research
Astronomy Associate in Somatic Anthropology
Associate in Devonian Fishes
G.ClydeFi.sher,Ph.D., LL.D., Curator Charles H. Townsend, Sc.D., Re-
search Associate IV. DIVISION OF ASIATIC EX-
Minerals and Gems C.M. Bbeder, Jr., Research Associate PLORATION AND RESEARCH
Van Campen Heilner, M.Sc, Field
Chapman Andrews,
Curator
Herbert P. Whitlock, C.E., Research Representative Roy Sc.D.,
Ph.D., Curator-in-Chief
SEORof F. KUNZ, and Walter Granger, Curator in Palae-
Associate m Gems Ke-
Amphibians and Reptiles,
ontology
Lev McIlvaine Luquer, Ph.D., Mineralogy
Experimental Biology Charles P. Berkey, Ph.D., iColumbia
search Associate in Optical
G. Kingsley Noble, Ph.D., Curator University], Research Associate in
Clifford H. Pope, B.A^, Assistant Geology
History of the Earth Frederick K. Morris, A.M. [Central
Charles E. Burt, EaB"., Assistant Asiatic Expeditions], Associate in
Osborn, LL.D.,
Henry Fairfield Curator-m-Ghiet Curator Geology and Geography
D.Sc, Honorary Bertram G. Smith, Ph.D., Research Amadeus W. Grabau, S.D. [Geological
Survey of China], Research Associate
A. B. Dawson, Ph.D., Research Asso-
Fossil Vertebrates
Curator of Fossil V. DIVISION OF EDUCATION
Walter Granger, William Douglas Burden, A.M., Re-
Mammals x, r^ 4. „f search Associate AND PUBLICATION
Barnum Brown,
.
A.B., Curator ot
George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed.D.,
Fossil Reptiles ^^ .„ . <.
Birds Curator-in-Chief
Associate
George G. Simpson, Ph.D.,
Pateontology Fr\nk M. Chapman, Sc.D., Curator-in-
Curator Vertebrate
of
Chief Library and Publications
Charles C. Mook, Ph.D., Associate Robert Cushman Murphy, D.Sc,
Cm-ator of Geology and Palaeontology Ida Richardson Hood, A.B., Acting
Curator of Oceanic Birds
William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Research W. DeW. Miller, Associate Curator
Curator
Associate in Pateontology Chapin, Ph.D., Associate
Hazel Gay, Assistant Librarian
.
James P.
Jannette May Lucas, B.S., Assistant
Childs Frick, B.S., Research Associate of Birds of the Eastern
in Palaeontology ^. , . ^^
m
Curator
Hemisphere
Librarian — Osborn Library
Field Assistant
, ,
Walter W. Holmes, Elsie M. B. Naumburg, Research

Pateontology Associate Education and Public Health
George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed.D.,
Mammals
of the World Curator-in-Chief
Geology and Fossil Invertebrates G. Clyde Fisher, Ph.D., LL.D.,
H. E. Anthony, M.A., Curator
Chester A. Reeds, Ph.D., Curator Robert T. Hatt, A.M., Assistant Curator of Visual Instruction
Curator Grace Fisher Ramsey, Associate
G eorge G Goodwin, Assistant Curator Curator
DIVISION OF ZOOLOGY,
.
II. William J. Morden, Ph.B., Field William H. Carr, Assistant Curator

AND ZOOGEOGRAPHY Associate Nancy True, A.B., Staff Assistant
Elizabeth A. Eckels, Ph.B., Staff
Frank Michler Chapman, Sc.D.,
Comparative and Human Assistant
N.A.S., Curator-in-Chief Paul B..Mann, A.M., Associate in
Anatomy Education
William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Curator Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D., Research Asso-
Marine Life H. C. Raven, Associate Curator ciate in Outdoor Education
Roy Waldo Miner, Ph.D., Sc.D., S. H. Chubb, Associate Curator
Curator Marcelle Roigneau, Staff Assistant
Willard G. Van Name, Ph.D., J. Howard McGregor, Ph.D., Re- Charles-Edward Amory Winslow,
Associate Curator Human Anatomy
search Associate in D.P.H., Honorary Curator of Public
Frank J. Myers, B.A., Research Asso- Dudley J. Morton, M.D., Research Health
ciate in Rotifera Associate Mary Greig, A.B., Assistant Curator
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search Associate in Parasitology III. DIVISION OF ANTHRO-
A. L. Treadwell, Ph.D., Research
POLOGY Printing and Publishing
Associate in Annulata
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Insect Life Katherine' .^Berger, Associate
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Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D., Curator Natural History
Science of Man Editor of
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historic Archeeology
in Lepidoptera
search Associate in Social Insects Curator of Physical Anthropology George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed.D.
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ciate in Coleoptera
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Associate in Hymenoptera Curator of Mexican Archteology Hawthorne Daniel

Hawthorne Daniel, Chairman ?
Henry Fairfield Osborn, LL.D., D.Sc Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D. 1
Clark Wissler, Ph.D. Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D. ,, .^ .^

A. Katherine Berger
VOLUME XXIX IN TV 1 \J Iv/v L MAY-JUNE
Numbers TTJ T ^ ' I '
^"^ ^^ ^X ^9^9
T/ie Journal ofThe American Museum of Natural History
Hawthorne Daniel ^^^^J^^ A. Katherine Berger

Editor ^S^^fl/l^K Associate Editor
CONTENTS
The Great White Heron Cover
From a Painting by Arthur A. Jansson. See p. 332
A Citizen of the Gulf Coast Frontis'piece
Wings Along the Gulf Alfred M. Bailey 227

Birds that Inhabit the Swamps and Islands of the l/ouisiana Coast
Masks and Dramas of Old Japan S. Ichikawa 241

The Traditions, Masks, and Costumes of the No Plays of Japan
Weather Prophets of the Sky Herbert P. Whitlock 251

The Significance of Cloud Formations in Foretelling Weather Conditions
By Motor from Nairobi to the Nile James L. Clark 261

An Automobile Tour Across Eleven Hundred Miles of Central Africa
Children of the Orinoco Plains Sidney F. Tyler, Jr. 273

The "Guahibos,"' a Little Known Primitive Tribe of South American Indians
Outposts of the Sea Roy Waldo Miner 283

Animals of the Tidal Realm that Are Assailing Our Continental Borders
Seeds of Disaster David Locke 296

The Fall of a Thriving Community of Bolivian Umbrella Ants
Acrobats of the Monkey World W. Henry Sheak 307

Personal Experiences with a Group of Mangabey Monkeys
Trailing Nature William H. Carr 312

How the Bear Mountain Natural Trails Are Operated
The Red Squirrel Farm Robert T. Hatt 319

A Unique and Palatial Sanctuary for Squirrels
Jonathan Dwight (1858-1929) Frank M. Chapman 327

Subscriptions should be addressed to James H. Perkins, Treasurer, American Museum of Natural
and Central Park West, New York City.
History, 77th St.
Natural History is sent to all members of the American Museum as one of the privileges of membership.

Photograph by Alfred M. Bailey
A CITIZEN OF THE GULF COAST

The brown pelican is the largest of the nesting birds of the Gulf Coast, and its island cities are crowded
with a dense population. When the downy young are quite small, the parents stand upon the edge
of the nest to protect the babies from the direct rays of the sun
— See "Wings Along the Gnlf"
VOLUME N ATU RAL NUMBER
XXIX
HISTORY THREE
MAY-JUNE, 1929
WINGS ALONG THE GULF

Birds that Inhabit the Swamps and Islands of the Louisiana Coast — Herons and
Egrets — Pehcans and Terns— Geese, Gulls, and Others
By ALFRED M. BAILEY
Director, Chicago Aoademy of Sciences
THE are
coastal marshes of
renowned as the
Louisiana
wintering
number of birds, but this flock of geese,
which was along the mouth of the Mis-
grounds of our northern breeding sissippi, numbered many thousands of
birds; hordes of ducks and geese wing individuals. I was so fortunate as to

their way from tundra lakes and arctic witness their arrival from their arctic
shores to the low lands bordering the breeding grounds, on October 25.
Gulf of Mexico and seek refuge on the When we were chug-chugging down the
wide-stretching savannahs. bayou to our photographic bhnd along
Many wild life reservations have been the shores of the GuK, at nine in the
set aside in Louisiana, and ducks and morning, we flushed a flock of more than
geese of many species find food and two thousand birds from the marsh.
safety within their borders. Snow geese, This horde went clamoring down wind to
their black primaries dark against the the mouth of Main Pass, where they
sky, are a common sight, and ducks often rested in a great sea bend and acted as a
are so numerous that it would be impos- decoy flock. We witnessed, in the next
sible to estimate their numbers. Blue few hours, the most interesting flight of
geese are in flocks of thousands, and their geese I have ever seen. From nine
quavering calls may be heard for miles o'clock to four in the afternoon, at which
when the wind from the right direction.
is time we left the blind, there was a con-
Last fall I worked the marshes at the tinuous arrival of geese from the north.
mouth making
of the Mississippi River, There were from one to three flocks in
my headquarters on the property of Mr. sight at all times, one flock following
Joseph Leiter. This is in the center of the after the other over the same air trail,
wintering grounds of the greatest flock of and the flocks averagedfrom 25 to 200
blue geese in existence. The blue goose birds in each! They seemed to be calHng
has a very restricted winter range, limited to one another, the flocks in front guid-
practically to the coastal marshes of ing those in the rear.
Louisiana. It is diSicult to estimate the Although Louisiana is famed for its
228 NATURAL HISTORY

A HOME ON AVERY ISLAND
Many species of herons and other water birds are common here and, owing to the protection given
them, are very tame. It has been Mr. E. A. Mcllhenny's custom to haul branches to the shores
of the pond during the nesting season that the birds may use them as nesting material
abundance of wintering birds, it also has terns and gulls, killing the birds by thou-
an enormous avian population during sands. The dull boom of black powder
the summer. The low marshes, man- could be heard from all sides, and the
grove swamps, and shell islands are the slaughter continued as long as a target
breeding places of thousands upon thou- was found.
sands of herons, gulls, terns, and other The result was inevitable; the birds
southern nesting forms. were practically exterminated. And then
The abundance of bird life along the came legislation to prohibit the killing
coast is a lasting monument to bird con- of birds for millinery purposes, and Presi-
servation and to the men who caused dent Roosevelt set aside many small
legislation tobe enacted for the preserva- islands as breeding sanctuaries.
tion of our wild life. For it was not For a few years it seemed the conserva-
many years ago that feather hunting was tionists were too late, but gradually
at its height; there was a great demand colonies were formed, the birds were al-
for the plumes of the egret and the wings lowed to breed in safety, and now, after
of the tern. twenty years of protection by the Federal
Boatload after boatload of hunters and State governments, Louisiana has a
left the small settlements and scoured wealth of bird life unequalled by any
the shores for birds. They visited the other state.
heronriesand shot the egrets as they were It has been my privilege to visit most
returning with food to their young, and of the interesting places among the low-
they raided the colonies of the nesting lands of Louisiana in company with Mr.
WINGS ALONG THE GULF 229
Stanley C. Arthur, director of the divi- thousands of " silver- winged " sea birds.
sion of wild life of the State Conserva- I doubt if there is a like area in the world
tion Department. The department has with a more numerous bird population.
several patrol boats and many efficient The little shell islands which a few years
wardens constantly on duty, but of more ago were barren of bird life, are white
importance is the campaign which it has during the nesting season, with compact
conducted to educate the people of out- masses of terns, gulls, and skimmers.
lying communities. The inhabitants of A cruise over the shallow waters of
the coast are a kindly and, for the most this little bird world is a delightful ex-
part, illiterate people, who make their perience. One season, Mr. Arthur and I
hving by fishing and trapping; they live started at Pass a'Loutre at the mouth
along the tortuous bayous that thread of the Mississippi, and worked north-
through the marshes, far from the center ward, visiting all the sand spits en route.
of civilization, and it was only through It was June 1, and as we chugged through
education that their cooperation could the pass late in the evening, we saw
be obtained. bands of pelicans stringing low over the
The nesting birds of these lowlands and water with slow, methodical wing beats.
of the islands lying in the Gulf of Mexico They were returning from their fishing
have always interested me. Offshore, grounds in the open gulf, and all were
to the northward of Mr. Leiter's hold- headed, like spokes in a wheel, toward
ings, at the mouth of the Mississippi the low-l}dng "mud lumps" which dot
River, are the nesting grounds of many the waters well out from the main land.

A SNOWT HERON
The majority of these birds feed in the open marshes, often miles away from their nesting site, but
occasionally a fisher bird may be seen stalking silently at the border of tangled growth, its wings
reflected in the quiet waters
r
THE PELICAN CAFETERIA
Self service in is vogue at mealtime, and the young pelican with the most determination secures the
lion's share of fish. The young are often so persistent in begging for fish that the adults often take
wing to escape them

A GRAVE ASSEMBLAGE
Many of the young gathered in small parties and stood with great dignity upon the muddy shores.
On occasion they have the bearing and solemnity of jurists drawn before the bar of justice, or of
white-robed choristers
232 NATURAL HISTORY
Photograph hy Alfred M. Bailey

A COLONY OF NESTING TERNS
These are exceedingly tame birds and will often allow the photographer to walk within a few feet of
them. Then, those on the outer fringe of the colony rise into the wind with the flashing of a myriad
pearl-gray wings
The next day we visited these pehcan

citiesand found birds in unbehevable
numbers. Each island was crowded to
capacity with great pouched, solemn-
eyed tenants, and with hordes of wing-
flapping, grunting, clumsy young, that
stumbled over the uneven ground with
greatwebbed feet splayed upon the heads
of other youngsters too small or too slow
to get out of the way.
As we landed from the skiff, all was
confusion. Adult pelicans flopped over-
head, making circles about their little
island, while the large young formed into
big bands and hastily swarmed into the
water. Weerected blinds that we might
take photographs, and pry into the family
secrets of the pelicans without their
Photograph by Alfreil M . Bailey being alarmed. Scarcely had we con-
A MAJESTIC SEA BIRD cealed ourselves when a few of the par-
Royal terns protect their young from the direct ents dropped back upon the island;
sun with drooping wings as they stand with crest
erect and shriek their defiance to the world those with small "India-rubber" babies
were especially solicitous, and sheltered

them with outstretched wings from the
fierce rays of the semi-tropical sun.
The large downy pelicans were great
beggars, and they pleaded for food from
every adult in the vicinity, but they were
usually received with vicious snaps of the
strong beaks. The old ones were quarrel-
some, and snapped bills at each other,
especially when one would try to steal
nesting material. The pelicans were so
numerous that the material for nest build-
ing was at a premium, so, unless the owners
held down their claims, other birds would
steal the sticks with which they were made.
It was amusing to watch a grotesque old
pelican waddling unconcernedly along,
untilhe came to an unprotected nest; he
would grab a few sticks in his mouth, in Photograph by Alfred M. Bailey
spite of the protests of the young bird, A LEAST TERN

and spreading his great wings, would lum- When the adults alight near their babies, they
hold their wings extended for a few moments
ber awkwardly into the air. and call excitedly with shrill, querulous voices
CABOT TERNS
The tern colonies are densely populated, each nesting'^bird owning as much territory as it can protect
with its beak. Sparring with rapier-like thrusts of sharp beaks seems to be a way of passing time
234 NATURAL HISTORY
Fluitngraph by Alfred M. Bailey

THE AVERY ISLAND HERONRY
When feather hunting had nearly caused the extinction of the snowy egret, E. A. Mcllhenny made
an artificial lake on his estate and kept several pairs of herons captive during the summer season.
These were liberated in the fall, and now the population of the colony is numbered in the thousands
An afternoon in a photographic bhnd There seems to be no peace in a pelican

on a pehcan island is like a three-ringed city. There is a constant racket, a
circus; there is something going on all combination of weird sounds ranging
the time. The young pelicans which had from querulous caterwauls to elephant-
paddled into the water on our arrival like grunts. Most disturbances seemed
soon returned, and cluttered up the to be caused by the constant begging of
foreground so it was almost impossible the young for food, and when half a
to get pictures of other birds. Two, dozen young pelicans, nearly full-grown,
three-fourths grown, were a nuisance, for mobbed a parent bird for fish, there was
they seemed to be attracted by the lens continuous action. The young would
protruding from the blind. They posed thrust their beaks into the throat of the
a few feet away, and refused to budge, in old one, in their anxiety for their sup-
spite of our efforts to have them move pers, and while one was being served the
along. Many old ones stood upright on others whined as they milled about, step-
their nests so that their shadows sheltered ping on each other's feet, and beating
the small babies, and when a neighbor each other over the head with their wings.
or a neighbor's offspring came waddling in Near our blind was a nest of newly
the way, he was greeted with an angry hatched young, black-skinned, naked
snapping of beaks. Even the young ones fellows. When the old female stood
would sit upon their heels and try val- alongside and opened her beak to feed
iantly to make noises with their rubber- one of them, the little pelican stretched
like mandibles. to his full height and put his wobbly,
bald head into the mother's throat, until spot, and on our return had no difficulty
he was completely within the pouch. in getting pictures of the nesting bird.
After a day among the pelicans, we A few hours we landed on Hog
later
sailednorthward over a rolling sea and Island, a small shell heap with a tangled
dropped anchor at Breton Island. This growth of wiry salt grass and low man-
was a favorite nesting place of the royal grove bushes. Louisiana and little blue
ternwhen Roosevelt made his cruise herons were nesting among the thick
among the bird islands, but we found growths, laughing gulls' eggs were found
only a small colony, and none of the eggs in the grass, and skimmers' and royal
had hatched. terns' upon the beach. I photographed
Skimmers and laughing gulls rested upon the Forster terns where they nested upon
the low bars, which were slightly awash floating masses of dead grass in the arm of
with the rising tide; a pair of oyster a sea bend; they were beautiful little
catchers were upon a shell reef, their fellows, with forked tails and bright
grotesque, orange-colored mandibles mak- orange-colored beaks and legs. They
ing them the clowns of the shore birds; were reluctant to return to their eggs and
while along the sandy,
wind-blown beaches
were many willetsand
Wilson's plovers. Nests
of both species were
found, the former in
cuplike depressions in
the wiry beach grass,
and the latter upon the
sand.
A willet staged a
pretty show as she
circled about us with
drooping wings and
cries of distress, flop-
ping over the ground
with all the appearance
of a crippled bird. One
of the men from the
crew was completely
fooled, and pursued the
willet for a long dis-
tance until she gathered
strength and took to
wing. A Florida night-
hawk was also flushed
from under foot, and
when we investigated,
we found two protec- Photograph by E. A. Mcllhenny
tively colored eggs in a THE SNOWY EGRET

slight depression in the This most beautiful of the marsh birds nests in colonies in dense
growths of button bush and willow, building its frail nest over the
sand. We marked the water
236 NATURAL HISTORY
THE YOUNG OF THE LEAST BITTERN

Buff-colored, skinny little fellows, they perch on their frail platform among the tules until danger
threatens; then they quickly tumble headlong into the rushes, where they remain quiet until the
alarm is over
young at but hovered over the Wind,

first, bird I desired to photograph was reluc-
uttering monotonous, querulous notes; tant to return at first, and stood behind a
finally, however, one of them dropped screen of mangroves for a long time,
behind a screen of mangroves, and then, while I waited motionless with the camera
one by one, the others settled alongside ready. Finally, however, she climbed
their nests with their immaculate, silver- upon the nest and dropped upon her eggs
colored wings upraised for a few moments before I could get a photograph of her
as they took a few short hops. The standing over them. It was intensely
downy youngsters had crawled into the hot, and the brooding bird panted and
shade of near-by vegetation, but when her body shook as she sat upon the nest,
the old ones alighted, they gave low calls, her mouth held open, and moisture drop-
and little, fuzzy bundles came tumbling ping from the tip of her beak.
from their places of concealment, and The next day we sailed over an opales-
took shelter under the drooping wings cent sea to Grand Cochere, where we had
of the parents. found a great pelican colony the year
Laughing gulls nested on a ridge a short before. The island was a foot under
distance away, the three large eggs being water! On Errol Island we found a great
laid in rather bulky nests of sticks and —
colony of sea birds, Cabots and large
grasses. The whole gull colony scolded royal terns. They were massed upon
overhead as I put up my blind, but after the gleaming shell keys in thousands,
I was concealed, it was not long until all and their continuous screaming made it
was quiet and life went on as usual. The almost impossible for us to talk with
each other. We erected our bhnd in cocks as they strut about with crests
their midst and made many pictures. erect and feathers ruffled. The Cabots
They were very quarrelsome and fought are contrasted by their smaller size and
continually. The Cabot terns were par- dark bills, but they are able to hold their
ticularly pugnacious and struck fiercely own in a world of quarrelsome neighbors.
with their sharp-tipped beaks at the There was a continual going and coming
royals or their brother Cabot s. The to the island as sea birds left for distant
terns, like the pelicans, were very solicit- fishing grounds, whfle others returned
ous of their own young, but were ex- with small fishes dangling from their
tremely liberal with cuffs handed to fcheir beaks. The old ones were so quick in
neighbors' children. They would peck feeding the babies that I was never suc-
the fuzzy little youngsters whenever cessful in getting a picture. They would
they toddled into range, seeking shelter stand off with the fish held crosswise in
from the hot sun. The light was blind- their beaks, and heads held high to ward
ing, as it was reflected from the shells off the attacks of others, and then one
and the water, and the heat intense, and would suddenly dart in and cram a fish
as there was no vegetation upon the shell down a gaping maw before I could register
of the nesting grounds, it was necessary it. The beach was so low that one catas-
for the babies to seek protection under trophe had already occurred, for we
outstretched wings. found one place where a wave had washed
The royal terns are strikingly hand- over a thousand eggs in one great windrow.
some fellows, and remind one of turkey At the north end of Errol Island we
m-t luiiiiif wi!'^ s-t t.

THE LAUGHING GULL
While gulls nest in colonies, the nests are usually isolated and hidden from one another by a screen
of wiry salt grass. They are most reluctant to face the camera
238 NATURAL HISTORY
Photograph by E. A. Mcllhenny
GUARDING THE NEST
Adult Louisiana herons are more aggressive than the small egrets in protecting their homes. On
one occasion Mr. Bailey found a yellow-billed cuckoo which had been killed with a jab from a
heron's beak, as the cuckoo was attempting to steal an egg
found another large colony of terns did not land on any of the low, mangrove-
about thirteen thousand, we estimated. grown keys, as there were few birds fly-
The Cabot terns were the most numerous, ing over them. Snowy egrets passed us
and fresh eggs were scattered about over on silent wing, overhead with
poising
a large area. Inland, on the higher their long necks outstretched, and an
slopes among the dense stands of man- occasional Louisiana heron made excur-
grove, was a colony of pelicans, and at- sions offshore to circle our boat, apparent-
tending them was a flock of several hun- ly out of sheer curiosity, but our time
dred man-o'-war birds. These predacious was and we did not care to investi-
short,
old fellows make an easy living plunder- gate the Chandeleurs on that visit.
ing the hard-working pelicans of their We headed for Free Mason Shoals, a
fish. There was also a small colony of great mangrove island with beautiful
Caspian terns along an exposed strip of shell beaches, and a long sand spit that
beach, while working the water's edge extended to the eastward. We saw
were several willets and Wilson's plovers. oyster catchers upon the spit, and black-
We were surprised to find two knots in crowned night herons among the bushes.
breeding plumage — sandpipers which A colony of one hundred Caspian terns
should have been north of the Arctic were on the highest part of the shell keys,
Circle at that time of the year. nesting among the drift, while a couple
We cruised along the Chandeleurs the of hundred royal terns were upon their
following day, occasionally taking sound- nests closer to the water's edge.
ings as we passed over low bars, but- we There were several thousand laughing
gulls scattered among the wiry grasses, fellows dressed in black and white, with
with fresh eggs in their nests, while of long slender mandibles, the lower one being
most interest to me was a colony of about much longer than the upper. They were
seventy-five pairs of least terns. They incubating their four speckled eggs which
flushed wildly when we came near, but were laid upon the bare shell. There
I erected my blind upon the ridge where were also many solemn, long-legged, gray-
I found a few sets of eggs in little hollows and-black youngsters, and they usually
among the gleaming oyster shells. The tried to escapeby taking to water or
little ''sea swallows" hovered anxiously dropping upon the ground, hoping
flat
overhead, their shrill, strident notes in- their dull colors would conceal them.
dicating their anxiety. When we were The terns, gulls, pelicans, and skim-
concealed, they began dropping to the mers are typical salt-water birds. We
shells, and few moments, what had
in a studied and photographed them to our
appeared a barren mound was alive with hearts' content on this httle jaunt just —
downy youngsters.
The babies were so
small, scarcely larger
than golf balls, and so
protectively colored,
that we had failed to
see them. They came
tumbling from all sorts
of places of conceal-
ment, from under shells
or bits of driftwood,
and many crawled
within the shade of our
blind for protection
from the sun. When
we lifted the canvas,
several walked in!
The adults alighted
within a few feet, and
one was incubating an
egg and sheltering two
fuzzy youngsters at the
same time; when we
waved our hands from
the blind, she would
dart into the air with
a quick stroke of the
wings, circle about, and
then alight, running to
her nest with wings
AN INQUISITIVE BIRD
haK hfted.
The Louisiana herons standing on their nests with necks silhouetted
On a high beach near
against the sky resemble a row They allow a
of question marks.
by was a large colony photographer to approach within a few feet of their homes before
of skimmers, grotesque Wi.
laiftijching awkwardly into the air
240 NATURAL HISTORY
—
one of many among the gleaming keys. and fulvous tree ducks are seen in flocks.
There are many places along the "Bird Island," a bit of woodland in
Louisiana coast of interest to the bird the marsh, has been set aside by the
lover, and I know of no spot more owner, Mr. William Lea, as a refuge for
delightful than "Willow Pond" on Avery nesting birds, and the last of the roseates
Island. This sanctuary has been de- in Louisiana dwell there in company
scribed elsewhere, so I will not attempt with American egrets, black and yellow-
to tell of the wealth of bird life that crowned night herons, the Louisiana,
congregates on that little place of refuge. little blue and little green herons.
It is enough to say that thousands of Farther down Black Bayou is an enor-
snowy egrets, Louisiana and little blue mous tract owned by Mr. Lutcher Stark
herons, least bitterns, gallinules, and that is one of the greatest wintering
anhingas nest there in security. grounds of wild fowl in America, and if
In the dense cypress swamps surround- one were to attempt to list the birds oc-
ing the "island," which, by the way, curring there, it would be necessary to
is merely a high bit of ground rising name most of the wild fowl of the Mis-
several hundred feet above the surround- sissippi Valley. Chenier au Tigre, the —
ing marshland, are many species of name brings back pleasant memories of
southern birds. The great horned owl high knolls along the gulf, with wonder-
is common, and the bald eagle is occa- ful moss-hung live oaks and thick-grow-
sionally seen sailing majestically over ing palmettos, of wind-whipped ridges,
the open marshes. He nests in the tallest hardy hackberry, ironwood, and acacias,
of cypress trees, the great bulky nest and fields of prickly pear. There are
towering against the sky line. wide stretching sand beaches, vast salt
To Cameron Parish,
the westward, in marshes, wooded areas, and compara-
is the picturesque Black Bayou meander- tively high prairies. Chenier au Tigre
its banks grown with
ing toward the gulf, is typical of many places I have visited
majestic cypress. Along this bayou and along the Louisiana coast, the climate
the adjacent marshland, are to be found is delightful, birds are abundant at all
the last roseate spoonbills in Louisiana; seasons of the year, and the kindly
wood ibis sail overhead on almost motion- people who dwell there always make the
less wing, and white-faced glossy ibis visitor welcome.
An Actual Stage Scene in a Japanese No Theater
MASKS AND DRAMAS OF OLD JAPAN

The Myths and Legends of the Ancient Orient Live Today in the No Play of
Japan — Its Traditions, Masks, and Costumes
By S. ICHIICAWA
Department of Anthropology, American Museum
THE MASKS ILLUSTRATED ARE FROM THE AMERICAN MUSEUM COLLECTIOXS
ALL great peoples have

some form of the drama and the
developed represents. The facial features of these
characters are also fixed by tradition and,
stage. With these are associated in consequence, the actor wears an
the great traditional literatures of the appropriate mask. Since the face is the
world. For the most part, drama precedes truly expressive part of man and the key
the art of writing and written literature, to his emotions, special attention is given
thus taking form in the age of myth and to these masks; indeed they hold a prom-
magic, and so it comes about that when inent place in Japanese art.
the art of writing develops and these old Recently, the American Museum ac-
dramas are set down on paper, they are quired and placed on exhibition in the
rich in mythical and magical elements. Japanese Hall a collection of these Japan-
Japan, like the other great civilized ese dramatic masks, the gift of Dr. W. L.
nations, cherishes her ancient literature Hildburgh. Such masks are carved from
and her traditional dramas. Among the kiriwood (Paulownis impenalis), or hinoki
most famous are the so-called No wood (Chamxcyparis ohtusa), and then
plays. These are highly individuahstic painted. The masks used in No dramas
types of drama and are still popular in number about 120, and are usually classi-
Japan. The No plays require a special fied in five types: old person, male, fe-
kind of stage and costume, for the char- male, god or goddess, de\dl or gobhn.
acters in these plays are prominent in Many masks still in use are of great antiq-
Japanese folklore, and the details of their uity, ranking as important specimens of
costumes are fixed by tradition, so much ancient Japanese sculpture. It is said that
so, that if the actor is correctly garbed, some masterpieces are carved in such a
the audience knows what character he way that they change expression when held
242 NATURAL HISTORY
customs, the origin of
the iVo plays is believed to
have been supernatural,
and is accounted for in a
myth. This tale, as told
in the Nihongi, a book
written in 720 a d., re-
counts how once, in god-
land, the god Susa-no-
o-no Mikoto insisted on
tormenting his sister,
Ama-terasu Oho-mi-
kami, the Sun-goddess
and ancestor of the Japa-
nese roya family. He let
loose the heavenly pie-
bald coltsin her rice
fields; he insulted her.
All this she bore. But
last of all, when he saw
Ama-terasu Oho-mi-kami
in her sacred weaving
hall engaged in weaving
the garments of the gods,
he flayed a piebald colt
of Heaven and, breaking
a hole through the roof
DIAGRAM OF NO STAGE of the hall, he flung the
A. stage; B. chorus; C. stick drum; D. large Land drum; E. small skin in. Ama-terasu Oho-
hand drum; F. flute; G. back wall; H. gallery; I. J. K. real pine
trees; L. greenroom; M. porcelain tub; N. audience mi-kami started up in
alarm, and wounded her-
at different angles, so that when looking self with the shuttle. This last indignity
upward they appear cheerful, and when was too much to bear. She straightway
looking downward, melancholy. In all entered the Rock-cave of Heaven, fast-
cases the expression on the mask must ened the Rock-door, and dwelt in stub-
suit the character represented in the play.. born and haughty seclusion. Thereafter
There is an old story that a certain constant darkness prevailed on all sides,
mask carver carried off a lovely maiden and the alternation of night and day was
to a forest and, tying her to a tree, pricked unknown.
her body with a knife to produce in her Then the eighty myriads of gods met
face the expression of mingled emotions on the bank of the Tranquil River of
of anger, pain, and despair, so that he Heaven (Ama-no-yasu-kawa) and con-
might model a mask vividly portraying sidered in what manner they should
these emotions. He did succeed in creat- supplicate her. One god gathered ''long-
ing a masterpiece, but only at the price singing birds of the Eternal Land " (cocks)
of his because he was put to death,
life, and made them utter their prolonged cry
in accordance with Japanese law. to one another. Moreover, he made
As in the case of many other ancient Ta-jikara-o-no Mikoto, the God of the
MASKS AND DRAMAS OF OLD JAPAN 243
StroDg Hand, stand beside the door, so resonance. This stamping of the shoeless
that in caseit were opened for even a foot isan important feature in the danc-
crack, he might force it open all the way. ing; and considering also the fact that the
Other gods dug up a five-hundred sun plays a significant role in the primi-
branched sacred tree of the heavenly tive drama, some authorities accept these
Mount Kagu. On it they hung strings of as light on the origin of the No drama.
jewels and a great mirror, and on its lower The No stage is about eighteen feet
branches they hung sacred offerings. square and of wooden construction
Then they recited their liturgy together. throughout. The back wall
is of bare
Last of all, the goddess Ama-no Uzume- boards decorated only with a painting of
no Mikoto took in her hand a spear a pine tree executed directly on the wood.
wreathed with Eulalia grass, and stand- The front and two sides of the stage are
ing on an inverted tub before the door open, no curtain being used. To the left
of the Rock-cave of Heaven, gave forth a of the stage runs a narrow, covered gallery
divinely inspired utterance and per- leading to the greenroom, the entrance to
formed a stately mimic dance, while the which is curtained off. Sometimes the
tub echoed sonorously
under the tap of her
dancing feet.
4'
Ama-terasu Oho-mi-
kami heard this, and
said: ''Since I have
shut myself up in the
Rock-cave, there must
surely be continual A-
f 4^ K
night in the Central
Land of Fertile Reed-
plains. How then can
Ama-no Uzume be so
gay?" Piqued by curi-
osity, the Sun-goddess
opened the Rock-door
for a narrow space and
peeped out. Then Ta-
jikara-o-no Mikoto
took her by the hand
and led her out, and she
consented not to return
to her cave.
In the modern stage
of the No theater,
arranged according to
tradition, a porcelain
tub is placed directly
under the stage, so that
the stamping of the
dance
actors' feet in the
will echo with greater
The print represents an actor impersonating the Yamauba,
or "old woman of the mountain." This spirit is always
represented as having long white hair, and carrying a
cane with a T-shaped head. A bimch of leaves is fastened
to the cane. As in all No plays, the actors are men. The
mask used in the impersonation is shown at the lower right
From a Modern Japanese Print
Kumasaka carries a halberd in his right hand and a short
sword on his hip. In the play he is killed by a small boy,
in reality a great warrior and fencer. This boy in his
disguise mingles wdth the servants of a rich merchant, who
is held up by Kumasaka and his gang of desperate bandits.
At the left is the mask used in this impersonation
246 NATURAL HISTORY
cians in stiff and stately movement marks
the opening Their retreat
of the play.
from the stage in the same formal manner
marks the end. There are in these plays
only two leading characters; they are
called "Shite" (doer) and "Waki"
(assistant —
always a male role). Each of
these main actors has companions called
"Tsure"; some plays, however, need no
actors but the two main ones; others
use asmany as ten or fifteen performers.
The female roles are taken by men. The
movement of an actor's body is prescribed
and regulated by severest rules. Every
step, every movement, in the dance
even to those of the toes and fingers—is
strictly governed by tradition.
The chorus is seated to the right of the
stage, the musicians upstage.The music
which accompanies the action consists
only of a stick drum, two kinds of hand
drum, and a flute.
THE WHISTLER
This particular mask is called "Usofuki" and be-
longs to a class of masks used in the Kyogen, or

farces
back wall of this gallery is painted with

bamboo trees. The pine tree back of the
stage is traditional, as are three small real
pine trees planted in front of and close
to the gallery. There are no "settings"
whatsoever on the No stage. The proper-
ties are few and of highly conventionahzed
type and weapons alone are reahstically
represented.
The No relies enormously for its effects
on gorgeous and elaborate costume. In
olden times, No plays were given by the
nobility only for members of their own
class, and feudal when entertaining
lords,
each other, prided themselves on their No
stages, and especially on the costumes,
vying with each other to produce a
dazzhng impression. Incidentally, this
fact stimulated the development of the art
of textile weaving in Japan.
THE JOLLY WOMAN
Another Kijogen mask called "Okame"ior
Since there is no curtain in front of the "Ofuku," a fun-making character known toâll
stage, the entrance of chorus and musi- Japanese play-goers
MASKS AND DRAMAS OF OLD JAPAN 247
The No dramas are based upon short,

taken for the most part from
lyrical tales,
the folklore of Japan, China, and some
adjacent countries. The texts are written
in exceedingly ornate language and con-
tain as quotations many ancient songs and
sayings. The ethical principles exempli-
fied in the plays are those of Shintoism,
Buddhism, and Confucianism. The plays
resemble the classic Greek drama in
being performed out of doors, and are
highly formalized in that the speeches
are entirely chanted, movements are styl-
ized, many wear masks,
of the characters
and the chorus takes up the action where
the dialogue leaves off.
In regard to this traditional formalism,

Mr. Arthur Waley says in his book,
The No Plays of Japan, that
The theatre of the West is the last stronghold of
realism. No one treats painting or music as mere
transcripts of life. But even pioneers of stage
"HANNYA," the CLASSIC FEMALE
DEMON
One of the most popular characters in the No
plays is represented by this mask
reform in France and Germanj^ appear to regard

the theatre as belonging to life and not to art.
The play is an organized piece of human experi-
ence which the audience must as far as possible
be allowed to share with the actors. A few people
in America and Europe want to go in the opposite
direction. They would like to see a theatre that
aimed bodily at stylization and simplification,
discarding entirely the pretentious lumber of
nineteenth century stageland. Such a theatre
exists and has long existed in Japan.
Today only 210 of these early No

plays are extant, but it is believed that a
considerably larger number of them
existed in olden times. There are still in
Japan five different schools in No perform-
ance, each school having a history and
tradition peculiar to itself. These schools
are: Kwanze, Hosho, Komparu, Kongo,
Kita. The story of the Sun-goddess and
the dance before the Rock-cave gives a
"SHIKAMI"—A MALE DEMON legendary explanation for the No drama.
The name of this No mask, representing a male It is interesting to note that this dancing
demon called "Shikami," means "a cross-looking
face" is supposed to have taken place before the
KWAGETSU —A WANDERER
Froin a Modern Japanese Print
A young ascetic and wanderer is the chief character in a No plaj^ "Kwagetsu." When only seven years
old, so the story runs, he was stolen by a goblin. His father became a Buddhist priest and by accident
found his wandering son at the temple of Kiyomizu at Kyoto. In the play the wanderer thinks he has
no enemies, so he carries only a small bow and a single arrow for driving away birds that he finds
spoiling the beauty of the flowers
THE MYSTIC SERPENT IN HUMAN FORM
From a Modern Japanese Print
In the play called "Dojyoji," a beautiful maiden loves a Buddhist monk who is
not permitted to marry.
IJie^monk flees from her and hides in the temple. The maiden pursues him but is stopped
bv a river
Mood, bhe IS transformed mto a large serpent and swims the river. The monk hides under
the great
bronze temple bell, but the serpent crushes the bell by the power of her coils, and
kills him
and herself
•250 NATURAL HISTORY
Japanese ( Yama- period produced
to) race migrated many No dram-
to the Islands of atists and No
Japan, and if we was considered
take into con- an essential part
sideration also of every aristo-
the factors of cratic entertain-
cave, river bed, ment, while the
and Sun-goddess Shinto shrine
(female rule of continued to be
the tribe occurs the principal
chiefly in the scene of its per-
southern part of formance.
Asia and Oce- TheiVo is state-
ania), we may ly and solemn,
reconstruct an but "Kyogen,"
imaginary pic- farces are given
ture of a tribal as interludes be-
dance of the an- tween the scenes
cestors of the or as part of the
THE DANCE OF AMA-NO-UZUME
Japanese living This old Japanese print shows the dance in front of the No play. Some
somewhere in cave to which the Sun-goddess retreated when insulted of these Kyogen
southern Asia also date from
under the sway of a female ruler. the Muromachi period, and may have
It is generally accepted, however, that had a development parallel to that of
the No play is a gradually integrated the No. The masks used in this type
development of Sarugaku (Shinto cere- of play are of course for the most part
monies). Dengaku (at first an acrobatic comic in appearance, as shown on page 246.
and juggling exhibition and later a sort At present there are three schools of
of opera), Gagaku (the Chinese dance —
Kyogen, Sagi, Okura, Izumi
practised at the Japanese court), and The No play was really the source of the
various sorts of recitation and ballad Joruri (epical drama) and the Kyakuhon
singing, —
a composite, in other words, of (which is nearly the same as the European
the sacred with the secular, of ceremony drama), both of which were developed
to honor the gods and entertainment for during the Tokuzgawa period, 1603-1867.
human beings. The Such, then, is a
rehgious No dance brief outline of the
led to the secular A''©
history of the pecu-
play. In the Muro- ^^-^-i:t''^^-
•i^--^':-^
liar ancient drama
machi period 1392- V-^4' <};
y \ :A- of Japan, a most
1603), the No play
X- interesting field for
underwent popular-
ization, becoming the student of
an adjunct of con- drama and the
gratulatory or com- dance.
memorative occa-
sions, and also pure
a page from the play
diversion. This "hagoromo"
Photograph by W. A. Bentley
The rounded summits of this cumulus cloud show distinct thunder heads
WEATHER PROPHETS OF THE SKY

Significance of Cloud Formations in Foretelling Weather Conditions. The Importance
of a Knowledge of Air Currents in the Layers of the Atmosphere
By HERBERT P. WHITLOCK
Curator of Minerals and Gems, American Museum
Then follow you, wherever hie

The travelling mountains of the sky.
—
"Song of the Road," Stevenson
CLOUDS always have had and always of which we crawl or scurry according to
will have a special appeal to people our mood. Since we have begun the
who love the out-of-doors; they —
mastery of the air, the only portion of our
are distinctly part of the facts, fancies, environment not yet wholly conquered,
and phenomena that we group loosely clouds have assumed for us a very vital
under the term "natural history." But interest, because they clearly indicate the
to what realm of nature do clouds owe currents and conditions existent in the
allegiance? The answer is that they are various layers of the atmosphere.
—
forms of mineral for water is a mineral Above the highest range of an aero-
in spite of its usual state of fluidity. plane move the delicate, wispy plumes of
When we contemplate a cloud-flecked cirrus clouds that often presage the move-
summer sky, perhaps from a hilltop, or ments of air currents in the lower depths
from the open fairway of a golf course, our of our atmospheric ocean, and as we come
imagination may need to stretch to a to consider the clouds of lower elevation
considerable degree to bring home to us above the earth, their significance as fore-
the truth that these shreds of water vapor tellers of weather conditions becomes
and masses of snow particles are floating more obvious and imminent.
suspended in a sea of air at the bottom Sailors, fishermen, and in fact all men
Photograph hy TT. .4.. Bentley
FRACTO-CUMULUS CLOUDS
The characteristic flat lower side of this 2;roap of bro'cen-up cumulus clouds of the alto le/el is well
brought out in this photograph
Photograph by TT'. .4. Bentley

HIGH FOG
This is still a cloud even thoughit has come to earth. Such a fog climbing up a hillside gives
promise of sunshine before long
Photograph, by W. A. Bentley
CIRRO-CUMrLUS FORMATION
This is a typical mackerel sky. The small white clouds flecking it are familiar to everyone as
prophets of rain in the near future
Photograph hy W. A. Bentley
ALTO-CUMULUS WAVES
Aviators know that a wavy, cloud-streaked sky such as is shown above betokens treacherous air
conditions, because the ribbons of cloud mean bands of unequal air pressure
254 NATURAL HISTORY
CUMULO-NIMBUS CLOUDS
Ascending air currents have caused this cumulus cloud to build itself up to a vast altitude. The
summit is probably five miles above the earth
whose on or near the sea,

lives are spent Of course to make a record of an un-
are well versed in the meaning of cloud usual cloud form, a camera equipped with
forms, but something of what they have a simple color screen necessary, and
is
learned at the price of long and often since all but the darkest and most lowering
hard experience may be added to our nat- skies register very rapidly on the photo-
ural history knowledge by the easier and graphic plate, the slowing effect of the
shorter route of study and intelligent color screen is neutralized. A little ex-
observation. Cloud Studies, by Arthur perience enables one to time exposures
W. Claydon, published by John Murray, correctly and to achieve good results.
London, is one of the best books I know The camera has also been used to good
of for information on this subject. effect in determining the height of clouds.
To equip ourselves for ''intelligent ob- For two cameras are employed, set
this
servation" requires a very simple appli- at ends of a measured line and
the
ance; all that is necessary is a black arranged to give simultaneous exposures.
mirror made of a small sheet of glass With the lenses covered by color screens
painted on one side with a black varnish and well stopped down, the cameras are
or lacquer. In this simple contrivance directed at the sun's disc, the image of
one may reflect the brightest sky without which is bisected by cross wires placed
undue eye strain and, once accustomed to back of the lens combinations. As a cloud
seeing the sky as if it were in an inky pool, approaches the position of the sun, the two
one will find even the thinnest and most exposures are made at the same instant,
evanescent thread of cirrus reflected with with the result that the position of the
startling clearness and detail. cloud with respect to the sun is not quite
WEATHER PROPHETS OF THE SKY 255
the same in both negatives, and the closer

the cloud is to the cameras the greater will Tmiles
be the difference. The paired negatives
are carefully measured with respect to SmiWs
this difference, and a mathematical
formula, of course involving the distance
between the cameras, is applied, which 3rniWs
gives the height of the cloud. A glance at
the diagram on this page in which the 2«o ^{^vrcLs
cloud is represented by a flying bird may
help to make this plainer.
Owing to the temperature of the air, inl Tmiies
clouds of a certain type are higher in
summer than in winter.
In naming the various types of clouds,
in general, three descriptive words are al5 mues
used:
(a) Cirrus (combining form, cirro-)
includes cloud forms resembling delicate
threads, feathers, or strands of wool.
al^mles 3C
(b) Stratus (combining form, strato-)

is applied to clouds that extend in more or DETERMINING THE HEIGHT OF A CLOUD BY THE USE OP
less level sheets.
TWO CAMERAS A3 EXPLAINED IN THE TEXT
CUMULUS CLOUDS
An approaching thunderstorm is indicated here in the billowing masses of towering clouds. These
forms are often seen on hot August days
Photograph by H. P. Whitlock Photograph by H. P. Whitlock
LONG, NARROW SHEETS OF CIRRO-STRATUS BEGINNING FORMATION OF
CLOUDS IN FORMATION ALTO- WAVE CLOUDS
Photograph by H. P. Whitlock Photograpli by H. P. Wliitlock

CIRRO-STRATUS CLOUDS CLEARLY ALTO WAVE STRUCTURE PARTIALLY
DEFINED FORMED
Photograph by W. A. Bentley Photograph by H. P. Whitlock

CIRRO-STRATUS CLOUDS BEHIND DENSER CRESTED ALTO WAVES FULLY DEVELOPED,
ALTO-CUMULUS A SURE STORM SIGNAL
Photograph by W. A. Bentley Photoyraph by H. P. Whitlock
THESr, HIGH CIRRUS CLOUDS OF WIN^D- TAILED CIRRUS— EACH THREAD A
BLOWN SNOW AIIN'IATURE SNOWSTORM
Photograph by W. A. Bentley Photograph by H. P. Whitlock

THREAD CIRRUS—A HARBINGER CHANGE CIRRUS —CONSTANTLY DISAPPEAR-
OF GOOD WEATHER ING AND REFORMING
Photograph by H. P. Whitlock Photograph by H. P. Whitlock

HIGH CIRRUS— THIN WISPS OF BAND CIRRUS—ALWAYS FOLLOWED BY
SNOW CLOUDS STORMY WEATHER
258 NATURAL HISTORY
CUMULO-NIMBUS CLOUDS
The shadow cast by these dense thunder clouds as they come over the hills gives warning of the
rain that will follow in their wake
(c) Cumulus (combining form, cwmMZo=) depth, covering the whole range of the
denotes the rounded, lumpy shapes of middle lower atmosphere in height, and
cloud. the mountainous cumulo-nimbus, which
Then we have the division of clouds herald a thunder storm on a hot summer
according to their relative heights above day, tower some eight miles from the
the earth, as, the upper clouds, the inter- ground. Still nearer to the ground are
mediate clouds, and the lower clouds, as the stratus, which merge into the high
well as those towering cloud masses that fogs that we often see on summer morn-
extend from the lower up into the inter- ings suspended in air halfway up a hill-
mediate regions of the air. side.
In general the highest clouds are of the Since the rarified upper air, which is the
cirrus and cirro-stratus types, which region of clouds of the cirrus type, below is
means that they occur as high as seven- freezing point in temperature even in
teen miles in summer, and fifteen in summer, it follows that cirrus clouds are
winter. The intermediate division rang- formed of ice particles or minute snow-
ing from fourteen to eight miles in sum- flakes. In one of the illustrations, show-
mer, and twelve to six in winter, includes ing cirrus (page 257), we can
tailed
the types that are named cirro-cumulus, actually see a series of small snowfalls,
alto-stratus,and alto-cumulus. Nearer each descending from its own cirrus cloud
the earth form the strato-cumulus, cumu- until melted and dissipated in the warmer
lus, and nimbus, or storm clouds, ranging layers of the atmosphere below.
from five to two or three miles in the air. Indeed, continual forming and melting
Cumulus clouds are often three miles in away is a conspicuous characteristic of all
WEATHER PROPHETS OF THE SKY 259
cirrus clouds. A good instance of this denser than the air filled with a light fall
tendency is illustrated in the photograph of snow. In this category belong alto-
of change cirrus (page 257) which shows cumulus clouds of several variations,
a stratum of the air that has just become including the familiar mackerel sky, and
saturated with moisture to the point of the less common, high, ball-cumulus,
forming a cloud. both of which change in
foretell a rainy
Windy cirrus shows the effect of rapidly the weather. Alto-cumulus clouds will
moving air currents in the upper air and always merit close watching, as they
foretells strong winds at the earth level. often precede the formation of the huge,
Band cirrus, the broad radiating fans lofty, thunder clouds whose menace is
of cirrus cloud, is a sure omen of ill weath- unmistakable.
er, falling barometer, and general storm Clouds of the cumulus type, par-
conditions. The usual forms of cirrus ticularly those of the intermediate layers
cloud, particularly those with threadlike of the atmosphere, constitute the most pic-
and feathery outlines, mean fair weather turesque and obvious of the cloud forms.
for at least a day after they are seen, and As alto-cumulus and cumulo-nimbus they
probably for several days to come. furnish us with the piled-up rounded
It is not possible to draw a sharp divid- masses of water vapor so dear to the
ing line between the high clouds of the hearts of painters and etchers. Each
cirrus types and those of the intermediate large cumulus cloud may be regarded as
layer which are often called the alto clouds. the visible top of an ascending pillar of
In general we may assume that the alto moist air, the upper part of which is con-
clouds are composed of liquid instead of densed by contact with the cold of the
solid particles, and consequently they stratum of air at which it becomes visible.
appear somewhat denser, in the same way These are the clouds that cast shadows
that a fog at the ground level seems over the landscape of field and hillside,
ANOTHER FORMATION OF CUMULO-NIMBUS
The torn, dark masses bear all the indications of a rapidly approaching thunder storm
260 NATURAL HISTORY
and the fact that they cut off, in a measure, ments of cloud caused by alternate form-
the sun's rays, does more than create a ing and dissolution of cloud masses.Such
pleasing picture. This shadowed part of waves of clouds, traveling much as do the
the ground is cooler than where the sum- waves on water, occur at all altitudes.
mer sun has unobstructed power to heat Seen during a period of fine weather, they
the surface stratum of air, so that by invariably mean a change, with either
means of the unequal temperature, a ris- wind or rain or both.
ing current of air is set up, carrying Alto waves are fascinating cloud types
moisture with it to augment and heighten to watch, particularly if one is fortunate
the cumulus cloud which is its top. Such enough to see the preliminary steps in
a cumulus is generally formed during the their development as well as the phenom-
afternoon of a warm day when there has enon at its height. In three of the series
been httle wind, and the almost inevitable of cloud photographs used in this article,
result is a thunderstorm. It follows, a succession of stages in the formation of
from the mechanics of this cloud type, alto wave clouds is shown, the plates
that its base is nearly flat, and it takes the having been exposed a few minutes apart
shape of an irregular cone. (See page 256).
The atmosphere, a knowledge of which Several delightful books have been
is of great service to aviators, generally written on clouds, but the best way
consists of lajêrs unequal pressure.
of to learn about them is to sally forth
Many have been
disasters to aeroplanes into the country-side with stout heart
caused by their unexpected entrance into and shoes, and see the clouds in their true
one of the low-pressure areas. Now, when environment, which, to my thinking, is
a series of high and low-pressure zones of not where one's vision is interfered with
the atmosphere encounter air almost by a skyscraper or a church steeple, but
saturated with moisture, there will be where the sky line is fringed with trees and
condensation in the high-pressure areas haj'^stacks above which one may study
and evaporation in the low-pressure ones. to his heart's content these weather
The result is a series of wavelike move- prophets of the sky.
"trailing clouds of glory"
A sunset sky, even without the color, is a thing of supreme beauty
Native road workers in the Sudan doing their part in modernizing Africa
BY MOTOR FROM NAIROBI TO THE NILE

An Automobile Tour Across Eleven Hundred Miles of Central Africa Roads and —
Hotels, Rest Camps and Bridges, Factories and Golf Courses How Central —
Africa Is Changing, and the Effect of the Change upon the Animal Life
By JAMES L. CLARK
Assistant Director, In Charge of Preparation, American Museum
STANLEY'S ''Darkest Africa" has It has been my privilege to visit East

long since given way to Carl Akeley's Africa three times. In 1909, when I first
"Brightest Africa," but even yet entered that animal Eden, the plains were
there are a great many misconceptions literally swarming with herds of wilde-
abroad regarding that continent. beest and zebra, gazelle, impalla, eland,
That the great herds of game are giving and scores of other animals.Rhinos and
way before the advance of civilization is a lions were numerous. Elephants were
widely accepted fact, but the extent to to be found in tremendous herds Every-
which civilization is penetrating the where one went there were animals and
districts where the gigantic herds formerly signs of animals. Settlers were few. The
ranged unchallenged is not widely under- natives had long since adapted them-
stood. There is a great deal of criticism selves to life in a land teeming with game.
of the sportsmen who take their safaris There was little interference with the
into that land and bring home "trophies" animals and as yet civihzation had made
with which to decorate their walls and little impression upon the creatures of the
floors, but that the settlers are killing far wild.
more game than are the sportsmen, and The railroad had been built from Mom-
are driving the remnants of the herds from basa to Nairobi, it is true, and a little way
their natural grazing grounds into more beyond, but aside from that route of
remote regions, is not so often called to travel there were few in the whole land.
the attention of the world. Roads led a little way from Nairobi in
262 NATURAL HISTORY
A ROADWAY IN THE NEW AFRICA

On broad avenue, bordered by acacia trees, Mr. Clark drove into Naivasha.
this Just beyond this
1100 miles of travel

—
spot a few kongoni and Thompson's gazelles were seen practically the only game in evidence during
various directions, but they did not go that is common on the roads ofthe United
far,and only the native trails led farther States. Bridges cross innumerable
across the plains and through the jungles. streams. Highways stretch in every
Thus the range was not cut up. The direction across the plains, and the range
natural migratory movements of the ani- is consequently broken up into small
mals were not interfered with, and the districts entirely surrounded by routes
regime that Nature had built up during intended for the mechanical horse.
thousands of years was still in force. Now it is obvious that all of this is
In those days, the person who wished having its effect upon the game. There
to see British East Africa did so with a are all sorts of laws protecting the animals,
slowly moving safari that made ten or fif- of course, as there should be, but law can-
teen miles a day — sometimes more, but not stop the advance of the settlers. As a
rarely. The automobile had not entered matter of fact, the law aids them. And
the wilds. Automobile roads were un- how can the settlers erect their fences
heard of, and the game was not tremen- and plant their fields if herds of elephants
dously impress 3d by the activities of are permitted to wander about the place,
sportsmen or professional hunters. stamping whole fields of corn into the
But all that is changed. Where, in ground, tearing down structures, and
1909, not an automobile road existed in otherwise interfering with the develop-
all of British East Africa, now there is a ments and the labor upon which the
network of such roads over which one may settler's success depends?
drive at much the same breakneck speed In the United States the bison gave way
BY MOTOR FROM NAIROBI TO THE NILE 263
before the same inexorable advance of comparable to what it was in our middle
civilization,and for identically the same west, but already there has been a tremen-
reason. It was impossible for the farmer dous decrease in those numbers, and not a
on the Nebraska plains to make a success year passes but what the herds are smaller
of what was, at best, a difficult job, if, in than they were before. Not a year passes
addition to the other difficulties that had but what British East Africa comes closer
to be overcome, herds of bison were to the situation, in regard to game, that
permitted to stamp his wheat into the Nebraska and Kansas are in today. Nor
earth and otherwise interfere with the are the sportsmen principally to blame.
labors upon which the citizens of that new They kill many animals, it is true, but
land were forced to depend. We have advancing civilization is the greatest
bewailed the passing of the buffalo, of killer of them all. Even if there were no
course,and have managed to save a few sportsmen, the final outcome would be the
because they are hardy beasts with — same, although, of course, the finale would
which to decorate our parks and zoos. not come so soon.
But if we could have the old herds back Last year, after the work of the
field
for the asking, would we accept them? Carlisle-Clark Expedition had been com-
Naturally not. They could not be made pleted, I decided to go from Nairobi to
to fit into the present scheme of things. the headwaters of the Nile, rather than to
That is identically the situation that is sail from Mombasa. It was my desire to
facing British East Africa today. The see that portion of Africa between Lake
game, of course, in that land of animals is Victoria Nyanza and the head of river
CROSSING THE DIVIDE

As one nears Uganda, the roadway stretches through dense forests of cedars and bamboos. This part
of the country being mountainous, good roads are doubly appreciated. The above picture was taken
at an elevation of 8500 feet, after leaving Molo
264 NATURAL HISTORY
A MAIN THOROUGHFARE
Typical of the roads passing through banana tree groves is this one in Uganda. A subsurface of hard,
volcanic rock, called ironstone, lying from one foot to eighteen inches underground, makes the con-
struction of good roadbeds easily possible in Uganda
navigation at Rejaf in order that I might As it was, Mrs. Clark and I packed
more properly attack certain problems in what belongings we needed in the tonneau
the Museum having to do with specimens of a touring car, hired a native "boy" to
that come from that region. And I natu- serve as general factotum, and left Nairobi
rally chose the easiestmethod of trans- at noon on October 18, 1928, intent on
porting my and myself across that
wife reaching Molo, 134 miles distant, that
eleven hundred miles of what, only a few evening. That alone shows how shrunken
"
years ago, was comparatively unknown are the gamefields of Africa. A "march
country. Many people living today recall of 134 miles twenty years ago would have
when Speke, in 1858, discovered the consumed a week at least, and that would
source of the Nile, and the route I chose have been very rapid indeed. Further-
was to lead us past Ripon Falls where the more, from fifty to one hundred porters
mighty river of northern Africa has its would have been hired in order to carry
beginning in the waters of Lake Victoria the equipment for the outfit. The leader
Nyanza. would have looked over his guns and am-
It will be seen, therefore, that we were munition with the utmost care, and more
to go through a land upon which civiliza- than one adventure with animals would
tion has had only a few years to work in — probably have befallen some one in the
which the game formerly was to be found party during the course of that week.
in enormous numbers —
to which sports- With us it was very different. At the
men have never gone in very great num- last minute, as I entered the car, Mrs.
bers. Furthermore, twenty years ago, a Clark asked where our guns were, and I
crossing of this very land would have smiled as I admitted that I had forgotten
called for a very wellequipped expedition, to include them. We were not intending
and would have demanded the utmost to hunt anything, of course, and guns,
care in plans and leadership. consequently, would have been used, if at
merely to protect ourselves. But so

all, Imagine yourself on a motor tour
changed is Africa that I decided we did not through a magnificently beautiful country
need even that protection, so I stepped on with good roads and almost no one to use
the starter and we began our journey them but yourself. There was no one
without spending the fifteen minutes it —
ahead of us no one behind. There was
would have taken me to get the guns and no dust, few bumps, and the day was fine.
ammunition that would have been abso- Through the foothills of the Aberdares
lutely essential a few years ago. wound the road, past native garden
Nor was this mere bravado. The truth patches, open fields, and stretches of dark,
is thatwe had no need for them. Eleven primeval forests where once roamed the
hundred miles of automobile roads lay buffalo and elephant. Now this is the
ahead of us. Several towns of fair size Ejkuyu Reserve where those natives
were on the way. We did not even have a grow their patches of maize. The huts
tent, for we would stay at hotels and rest and ''shambas" of these natives are neat
camps each night, unless, of course, some- and well kept, for the Kikuyus are in-
thing unfortunate befell us, and then we dustrious, which cannot be said of all the
would spend the night in the car. native tribes of Africa.
It took us less than seven hours to reach Leaving this undulating country, we
Molo, after averaging twenty miles an wound our way along hillsides and down
hour. We could have done it in less time, valleys to Lumoro, where we dropped
but as Mrs. Clark preferred not to ride too down the escarpment into the Kidong
rapidly, we took our time. To the hunter Valley. There lay Lake Naivasha sur-
in Africa afew years ago it would seem rounded by weird and rugged mountains,
downright inane to say that we "took our —
with a crescent-shaped island a part of
time" and still covered 134 miles in an the rim of an extinct volcano —
showing
afternoon. clearly above the smooth blue water.
THE RAILWAY HOTEL AT KISUMU

In this thriving little town a comfortable rest house in conjunction with the station accommodates
both automobile and train tourists. Kisumu also boasts garages, and a number of small shops
ON THE WAY TO RIPON FALLS
What many readers imagine to be the "wilds" of Africa often prove to be similar to portions of
still
Long Island. Here a modern golf course completes the illusion, heavy traffic and billboards alone
being lacking
FOR THE BENEFIT OF TOURISTS

In ceremonial attire of grass headdress and white clay smeared on their bodies, these Uganda natives
wait by the roadside for passing wayfarers. They then dance and pose for their pictures in return
for small change
h^ . -ifi
A PRACTICAL USE FOR THE NILE

The British government has recently completed this new power plant, which takes advantage of the
power of Ripon Falls to supply lighting for the town of Jinja. Native workers are employed under
white supervision
THE HEADWATERS OF THE NILE

The Ripon Falls, sliding smoothly from the level of Lake Victoria Nyanza and dropping about twenty
feet to start the White Nile, resembles a stream of cold, liquid glass. Bird life is particularly abundant
about here
268 NATURAL HISTORY
AN AFRICAN TREASURY AT KAMPALA

These ivory tusks, laid out for inspection by the government treasurer, are part of a collection worth
$100,000. Some have been paid in as taxes, others have been found, and many have been con-
fiscated because they were secured illegally by hunters
We drove along avenues of acacia trees there by patches of deep green trees. All
into the town of Naivasha, and ascended this scene was enclosed by distant rugged
the rise to the northwest on the road to hillsthat were tinted with late after-
Gilgil. As we rolled away with Naivasha noon hues that radiated from the setting
behind, we saw a few kongoni and Thomp- sun.
son's gazelles, — —
a dozen or so and later, Leaving this, our sienna-red road un-
as we sped over better roads than we had dulated still upward into grass lands
had, we spied four or five impalla. interspersed with great forests. As we
We had dropped into the Kidong Valley entered these we became lost in big cedars
when thirty-one miles from Nairobi, and forming a jungle rain forest, but on
we followed the floor of the great rift through the dense growth our smooth
which is divided into a series of basins road ran, until, finally, we reached the
holding lakes of varying Black
sizes. little town of Molo which lay surrounded
rain clouds hung about sky and

in the by the vividly colored open glades filled
showered us twice, but always there were with Kikuyu corn. Behind the corn lay
bits of blue sky visible, and the landscape the heavy forest beneath a black rain
still stayed bright. cloud upon which glowed the setting sun.
From Nakuru north we could see great We stopped for the night at "The Cross
sweeping valleys, now taken up entirely Roads Inn."
by ranches. There were enormous areas For nine days we drove through this
given over to corn and wheat filling land of beauty. We passed through
the valleys for miles, broken here and luxuriant forests and bamboo thickets.
We rolled past parklike open spaces that from what otherwise was a charming
were dotted with table-topped acacia picture.
trees, through the wide-spreading Beyond Kisumu we skirted the shore of
branches of which we saw wonderful Lake Victoria Nyanza, and passed
vistas bathed in sunlight. We took the through a country very similar indeed to
wrong road in one place and went sixty Connecticut. Had there been more road-
miles out of our way, but we did not mind, side signs and more houses along the
for the road was good and the views were route, the comparison would be more
delightful. Here and there, during those exact. As it is, this portion of Africa has
nine days, we did find sections of the road all the attractions of the Long Island
—
that were bad sections that showed only Sound without the unattractive
coast,
as discolored lines stretching across the elements that have been added.
grassy plains, and in one place a make- We
crossed an arm of the lake on a
shift bridge across a stream barely sup- ferry,and near its terminus we spied a
ported the weight of the car. For the charming golf course which borders the
most part, however, the roads were fine, waters of the lake and swings around to
and throughout the trip our enjoyment Ripon Falls, the headwaters of the Nile.
of Africa was tremendous. A new power plant, too, stands near by,
In the country of th Kavarondo the taking advantage of the power that for
roads were often lined with natives, but ages has been sliding smoothly over the
they were dressed in dirty white ''Ameri- falls to create the river that is the chief
cano," which completely took the romance artery of Egypt.
J^tr. ^
270 NATURAL HISTORY
EVIDENCE OF ADVANCING CIVILIZATION

The Motor Tours Rest Camp at Soroti provides a comfortable overnight stopping place. The main
dining hall and community house, shown here, surrounded by a cluster of smaller thatch-roofed
is
sleeping quarters and a kitchen. Tourists usually bring their own food, but "in season" they can
buy it on the premises. The camp accomodates about twenty people
The falls are impressive as one ap- changed gears, we arrived at that charm-
proaches the edge of the stream and sees ing little city, where we put up at the
that tremendous volume of water flow- Imperial Hotel for the night.
ing through this outlet of the lake like At Kampala, which lies on an arm of
cold, liquid glass. A little below, the Lake Victoria Nyanza, we found a thriv-
water breaks into a turmoil of foam, but a ing little town —a town with garages,
V of smooth water penetrates that bril- with shiny automobiles offered for sale in
liant display of white, as if fighting to clean and attractive show rooms, with
quiet the broken surface below. shops the equal of many small towns in
Bird life is abundant about the falls. the United States, selling goods that were
White egrets, snake birds, cormorants, not dissimilar.The hotel was good, and
and others are numerous. Almost every we were not unduly tired, despite the fact
rock is the resting place of cormorants, that we had driven 150 miles through
and others swim and dive in the white what some people still imagine to be the
water below the falls. Fish, too, are "wilds" of Africa.
numerous, and schools of them weave Except for the few head of game just
idly about, their dorsal fins showing outside Naivasha, we had seen none since
almost as if they were small sharks. leaving Nairobi, but now we saw, when we
Returning over the ferry, we started went to the government offices the next
toward Kampala, fifty-four miles away, morning, about $100,000 worth of ivory
and two hours later, without having laid out on the ground to be examined by
the inspector. Because of the ivory trade, we stopped for the night in the Motor
and the business that civihzation has Tours Rest Camp at Soroti. What more
brought in, Kampala is a busy place. It is needed to tell of the advance of civiliza-
is not as large as Nairobi but is much tion into central Africa? Later we stopped
cleaner. The stores are up-to-date, shops again at these camps, which are all alike,
and garages are numerous. There are and are anything but scarce in this region.
several small brick factories, one of which They are built with a large grass hut in
is a bottle factory, no less. On a high the center, which is a dining room and
hillabove the town is an old fort, below community structure, and about this
which is an excellent golf course. central house, smaller grass huts, fifteen
The sultani of the Wagandas rules bedrooms
feet or so in diameter, serve as
here, and enjoys considerable prosperity and bathrooms. Truly, Central Africa is
under the British. The natives are excep- rapidly becoming devoid of its former
tional and very independent, although difficulties.
they are said to be past masters at the The natives, after we had gotten well
art of stealing. The automobile roads away from the larger towns, were dressed
are in excellent condition, with a na- — if one calls is that —in native fashion,
tive road-maker to every mile. Twenty and there was a very atmosphere
definite
pounds a year are spent per mile of of Africa in when such
the landscape
roads in this district, and they are uni- natives appeared. But, having traveled
formly excellent. five hundred miles or more from Nairobi,
A couple of days beyond Kampala we expected this, for I do not mean that
USING EMERGENCY PROVISIONS

Occasions still arise which require that tourists be prepared for unexpected delays. Here Mr. and Mrs.
Clark were held up for thirty-six hours by a swollen stream. They are pictured lunching with two
other automobilists also delayed bv the flood
272 NATURAL HISTORY
all Africa is given over to automobile land was plentifully watered, and game,
roads and rest camps. consequently, did not find it necessary to
At Torit, in the Sudan, we had to ford a congregate at water holes. At another
stream, but the water was shallow and we season of the year, hundreds of head of
had no trouble. Shortly beyond this spot animals would be seen on the same route.
—not more than a few hours—we found But the farms, the ranches, and the towns,
more trouble of the same sort. For fully the automobile roads, and the other intri-
three-quarters of a mile the road was cate trappings of civilization are rapidly
under water. It was too much for our car, converting all this land into a gameless
but after waiting a day, two small trucks region. The time is not far distant when
appeared. We talked of all sorts of to the of Nairobi and
inhabitants
methods of crossing that section, and Naivasha, herds of game will be as rare
finally decided to leave our own car for as they are to the inhabitants of Kansas.
our "boy" to take back to Nairobi, if we At Rejaf I was told that the tusks of
could get the trucks across. plugged We 1500 elephants are shipped through that
the carburetors and other openings in point each year. Such killing of elephants
the motors, and with a small army of is rapidly bringing to extinction these
natives managed to tow those trucks ponderous and slow-growing animals.
through. If, in any single district, a thousand ele-
was necessary for us to attempt some

It phants lived, it would be impossible to
such method, for we were trying to catch killmore than thirty or forty a year if one
a boat downstream from Rejaf, which wished to keep from reducing the herd.
lay not far ahead, and it was important Thus it can be seen that these most ap-
that we get through. Beyond this flooded pealing creatures are rapidly headed for
section the roads were less good, but we practical, if not actual, extinction.
had no and late that evening
difficulty, In telling this story of the "New
reached the banks of the Nile directly Africa," it is not my purpose to present
across from Rejaf. It was by moonlight too pessimistic a picture. Many things
we crossed the three hundred yards of the are being done in that continent in order
smoothly flowing Nile, and earlj'- the next to protect the animals. But no longer is
morning, from the deck of the river Africa the Africa of Stanley, or even of
steamer, we saw Rejaf slide away astern Akeley. Sportsmen have been guilty of
and realized that we had crossed 1100 more than a httle killing, and they, quite
miles of what was once "darkest" Africa properly, should be carefully controlled.
— had crossed it without a gun and with- But civilization — and civilization only
—
out any need for a gun had crossed it, will, before many years, practically elimi-
—
furthermore, and this is the most strik- nate the animal life of the greatest of
—
ing fact without having seen any game animal lands. It is the duty of all of us
aside from those few animals that we had who are interested in the preservation of
passed near Naivasha. We had seen a this animal life, to do what we can to
herd of about fifty baboons, and had interest others in proper conservation,
seen an occasional animal here and there and that, in the final analysis, will be
elsewhere, but game, as game has alwaj^s brought about only by the creation of
been known heretofore in Central Africa, more animal preserves, where hunting
was entirely missing from the picture. aRd collecting will be prohibited by law,
This does not mean, of course, that and where that prohibition will be rigidly
there was no game in the country. The and honestly enforced.
Guahibo Indians in front of one of their grass huts
CHILDREN OF THE ORINOCO PLAINS

The Guahibos, a LittleKnown, Primitive Tribe of South American Indians,
Impulsive, Moody, Curious, Unsophisticated as Children, that
Wander Over the Plains of Eastern Colombia
By SIDNEY F. TYLER, Jr.
Mr. Tyler went to South America in July, 1928, as historian and photographer of
the Tyler Duida Expedition, which is making intensive collections of the natural
history specimens of the region and gathering all available geological and topographical
data. The expedition had spent no more than a month at its almost inaccessible
destination, when the illness of Mr. Hitchcock, the expedition's topographer and
geologist, necessitated his temporary withdrawal in search of medical assistance,
there beingnone of any kind available in the vicinity. Mr. G. H. H. Tate, leader of the
expedition, was aware that a doctor was exploring on the Orinoco 400 miles below Mt.
Duida, and therefore thought it advisable that Mr. Hitchcock should depart in search
of him without delay. Mr. Tyler was asked to accompany Mr. Hitchcock on the long
journey. A canoe and five Indians were procured, with whose assistance the two
men soon reached the physician. It was here that an infection developed that brought
about Mr. Tyler's return to the United States. While they were both under the doctor's
care, they accompanied him on a short trip up the Tomo River in search of the
—
Guahibo Indians. The Editors.
EIGHT hundred above the

miles semi-nomadically over the plains of east-
mouth which forms
of the Orinoco, ern Colombia. We numbered ten persons
the boundary between Venezuela five peons, four Americans, and a jovial
and Colombia, lies the drowsy village Danish guide of true Falstafl&an propor-
of Perico. It consists of forty clay and tions.
palm-thatch hovels modestly huddled The equatorial sun shone brilliantly on
together, wherein some two hundred half- the lazy waters of the Orinoco. Its glassy
breed peons drag out a weary existence. surface, motionless beneath the weight of
It was from this village that our small a stagnant and breathless atmosphere, re-
party set out in search of the Guahibos, a flected with colorful fidelity the scattered
tribe of Indians that was said to wander bursts of purple and yellow bloom, the
274 NATURAL HISTORY
MR. TYLER IN CAMP NEAR THE ORINOCO RIVER

After five days of traveling in a simple native dugout, the expedition discovered a group of Indian
rafts. Camp was pitched at once in the hope of discovering also the owners of the rafts
playful lights and shadows of an im- bags and boxes of every conceivable shape,
penetrable vegetation, and its dainty, on the lids of which we took a cramped
lacelike silhouette. A thick barrier of and precarious seat. To us who crouched
shrubs and tough marine plants stretched in this fashion for so many hours, and to
endlessly along the water's edge, behind the peons who paddled so tirelessly, the
which rose in impressive grandeur the im- long days seemed unending; for the sun
posing trunks of great tropical trees. beat down upon our unsheltered heads
Their limbs were festooned with a curtain with pitiless intensity, and swarms of
of dogged parasitic vines which fell in insects transformed our hands and faces
tangled and riotous profusion to the into raw and smarting flesh.
ground. Macaws, parrots, parrakeets, On the morning of the fifth day we
and all company of Venezuelan
the garish quitted the Orinoco for the all but motion-
bird life darted restlessly to and fro, less waters of the Tomo, a small river
screaming and chattering harshly as they which flows in a northeasterly direction
flew. Their bright colors relieved the from Colombia. Late in the afternoon the
jungle's interminable greenness and their sharp eyes of one of the peons discerned
unmistakable joie de vivre dispelled its within the thick tangle of the bank several
loneHness and oppressive silence. gray objects half buried beneath heaps of
The vessel in which we were traveling dead leaves. We landed and investigated.
was a simple native dugout laboriously They consisted each of a dozen parallel
and crudely fashioned from the hollowed poles of moriche palm, a wood which is
trunk of a single tree. Its length did not extremely soft. Driven at right angles
exceed thirty feet. Into this were loaded through these poles were two narrow hard-
CHILDREN OF THE ORINOCO PLAINS 275
wood stakes, one at each end, which served demonstration of friendship by leaping
eJEciently as long nails. It was obvious and crowding frantically about us and by
that we had stumbled blindly upon a group pressing forward to touch hands. This
of Indian rafts; their discovery was our done, they turned their energies to a
first clue to the whereabouts of savages. searching examination of our clothes and
Camp was pitched and a large fire personal effects. Mystery and astonish-
lighted with the hope of attracting any ment struggled forsupremacy in their
Indians in the vicinity. None came that bewildered countenances. The culinary
night. The following morning, while we implements and the brightly labelled
were preoccupied with the business of bottles and jars of American canned
breakfast, a slight rustling caught my ears. goods seemed to attract them most;
I glanced over my shoulder and there to several of the bolder spirits indicated their
my amazement I beheld the motionless delight by deftly concealing some of the
forms of twenty Indians stonily observ- gaudier tins in the encircling underbrush,
ing our actions. In the dim and inter- a maneuver which exacted our unceasing
cepted light of sunrise they were scarcely vigilance.
visible, especially since not a ripple of The chocolate color of their bodies
motion disturbed their statuesque align- blended so perfectly with the shadows and
ment. They uttered no sound, and it dirty greens and browns of the surround-
was still too dark to take note of their ing forest that even in the growing light
expressions. they were, when motionless, almost indis-
Weadvanced at once to greet them. tinguishable. They were uniformly short
They responded with suddenness to our in stature, the tallest of them not exceed-
A FIRST GLIMPSE OF GUAHIBOS

Although a firelighted at night apparently failed to attract the attention of any Indians, the follow-
ing morning twenty of them appeared silently in the bushes about the camp
276 NATURAL HISTORY
CARRYING THE EXPEDITION'S BELONGINGS

Though the average height of these Indians is barely more than five feet, they do not hesitate to
carry great weights. They almost invariably travel in single file and usually at a great pace —
kind of jog trot
ing five and one half feet. Feline lithe- fire. In consequence of the harsh treat-
ness and grace marked movements.
their ment which had received, the cigarette
it
Their glistening bodies, naked save for a could not be made

to draw properly, to
loin cloth, were superbly developed, al- the owner's huge disgust. The loose
though many exhibited the swollen tobacco, furthermore, came apart, and
abdomens of hookworm and the scars of filled his mouth with fragments bitter to
numberless infections. Beards and mus- the taste; whereupon, after a few in-
taches were conspicuous by their absence. effectual puffs, he rose and cast it disdain-
The gloss of their straight black hair fully into the fire.
falUng thickly to their shoulders, the The distribution of Mr. Woolworth's

narrowness of their small, restless eyes, finest brass bracelets was received with
and the undue prominence of their cheek- boundless enthusiasm. Loud cries of
bones, gave to each head an unmistakable "Caripana!" rent the air. The Guahibos
Mongolian stamp. — for such they proved to be —
required
The behavior of an old Indian with a no further inducement to snatch our bag-
cigarette marked his tribe as one of the gage and set off for their village. Secur-
very few in South America unfamiliar with ing their loads by means of broad lianas
tobacco. He insisted upon tearing one slung across the forehead and shoulders,
end of it apart to examine its contents. they departed in high glee, chattering
His curiosity at length appeased, he hoarsely among themselves. The in-
placed the torn and ragged portion to his dividual burdens amounted in some cases
lips and lighted it with a brand from the to seventy-five pounds, but the ease with
which they bore them and the rapid pace The entire tribe,numbering at the out-
which, in single file^ they re entlessly main- side three hundred, had assembled to wit-
tained, seemed to give the scales the lie. ness our arrival. There were the long files
For six miles beneath a scorching sun of athletic males peering in silent astonish-
we followed the well-worn trail across arid ment upon the strangely garbed beings
savannas. At last the village came into approaching them, —the bright sun flash-
view. From a distance it resembled a ing and sparkling upon their feathered
group of stubby, yellow mushrooms, ornaments and bronze bodies; there were
nestling snugly in the withered grass. the dirty, unkempt women, their harsh
The delusion persisted until our arrival. voices momentarily hushed, snatching a
It was situated on the edge of the savannas few moments of welcome relief from their
with a thin border of jungle a hundred endless labors to gaze from behind the
yards behind it. Six large huts were forms of their august husbands upon this
grouped about a seventh, this last belong- unprecedented event and there were the
;
ing presumably to the chief. The dimen- groups of small, round-eyed children,
sions of all were alike, approximating clinging in nervous excitement to the rags
seventy-five feet in length, twenty in and tatters of their mothers' garments.
width, and twelve in height each hut , Well in advance of the multitude, where
being solidly constructed of closely woven he occupied a position in accordance with
palm leaves and stems. They seemed his rank, stood the thin but wiry form of
quite capable of withstanding the torren- the chief, his face heavily checkered with
tialwinds and rains which occur so often broad daubs of red paint, and in his hand
throughout the Orinoco basin. a wooden scepter bearing the crude.
- .-J^*!
'Mi..-
IN THE GUAHIBO VILLAGE

From a distance the seven large huts of which the village is composed resembled a group of stubby,
yellow mushrooms. They are solidly constructed, however, and can withstand heavy winds and rain
278 NATURAL HISTORY
i expression. These brief
^4 courtesies terminated, he
'*'-y
turned toward the multi-
tude and with imperious
gesture solemnly beck-
oned us to follow. To
one of the huts he led
us, through dense ranks
of gaping, motionless
Indians. His official
functions thus complet-
ed, he promptly left us
to ourselves.
It was indeed a relief
to escape the scrutiny of

the gathering outside.
We found ourselves in a
huge chamber which ran
without partitions the
entire length of the
edifice. Neither benches,
hammocks, nor other ar-
ticles were in evidence.
The floor was of plain
dirt, and the walls were
so closely thatched that
beam of light
not a single
succeeded in filtering
HARMONICAS CREATED ENORMOUS INTEREST through. The small size
As soon as these ten-cent -store harmonicas were distributed, bedlam
broke loose. The second Indian from the left is the "heir to the of the two entrances se-
throne" of the Guahibos verely restricted the cir-
culation of air, a condi-

mysterious carvings which symbohzed his tion which the heat and filth of the interior
office. His stalwart carriage and com- rendered almost unbearable. From the
m|inding mien betokened the forcefulness absence of any indications of former
of his character. occupancy we judged this hut to be re-
The silence which remained unbroken served for councils and important tribal
throughout the brief formalities of recep- meetings.
tion impressively bespoke the discipline The discipline which had ruled the as-
which the old chieftain enforced. There sembled Guahibos vanished completely
was neither sound nor movement among upon the withdrawal of their chief; and
the assembled ranks as he muttered a few the scene which had occurred in camp
incomprehensible words and with lofty that morning was reenacted in our hut
dignity nodded in sign of welcome. In upon an infinitely greater scale. They
return we presented him with an elaborate swarmed into the structure and filled it to
necklace of glittering beads, also from the the limit of its capacity. Men and women
house of Woolworth, which he donned vied with one another in striving for a
without acknowledgment or change of closer view and in fingering our persons
and possessions, at the same time panting about in aimless confusion. Everywhere
loudly from their exertions. In the there was poverty, squalor, filth.
presence of this gallery of constantly The lassitude of these people, remark-

changing faces peering at us with such able even for Indians, resulted principally
insatiable curiosity, we felt like the prin- from a dangerous habit that was rapidly
cipal exhibit of a museum, or, more ac- bringing about their destruction. From
curately, of a circus ''side-show." the leaves of the Erythroxylum coca,
Through the almost opaque darkness which they desiccate, pulverize, and then
came the immense murmur of countless mix with wood ashes, they obtain a sub-
voices sibilantly whispering. Blasts of hot stance which possesses powerful narcotic
breath smote our faces. But worse than qualities. Frequently we saw them,
the heat and darkness and confusion of women as well as men, inhaling the yellow
the situation was the pungent odor of over- powder by means of a highly painted
heated and underlaved women
fresh from snuffer, a strange tool which they fash-
and domestic toil.
their labors in the fields ioned from the hollow leg-bones of deer.
When the excitement caused by our It was this practice more than anything
arrival had subsided, and
the normal life of the
village had been in some
measure resumed, we
strolled leisurely through
some of the adjacent
huts. To each there
were, roughly, fifty in-
mates. The men reclin-
ed indolently in their
palm-fiber hammocks,
comatosely indifferent to
stranger and family,
lacking energy even to
brush the plagues of flies
from their faces; small
boys played casually in
the mud; while the wo-
men, assisted by the
girls, in accordance with
the immemorial custom
of tribal people, labored
mightily under their hus-
bands' eyes at the prepa-
ration of cassava and
at other menial occupa-
tions. The air was heavy
with nauseating odors.
Hammocks dangled idly
GRINDING MANIOC
from walls and roof, and As in the case of many other South American Indian tribes, the
simple baskets and wood- Guahibos use manioc as a staple food. From these roots they pre-
pare cassava. The man in the picture, though he appears to be
en bowls lay scattered working, is in reaUty merely superintending his wife's labors
280 NATURAL HISTORY
else that rendered them lazy to the point genus and contagiousness of the bacteria
of insensibility and destroyed so thor- which we were absorbing.
oughly the possibility of mental effort. It The overwhelming preponderance of
made them the constant prey of hardier women over men, a condition which re-
tribes who swept irresistibly down from sulted from the frequent predatory raids
the encircling hills to plunder and pillage of neighboring tribes, was responsible for
at will; and accounted for the lowness

it the low opinion of the former which the
of their cultural level, the absence of mor- male Guahibos universally entertained.
als, and in general the bestial conditions Under the surveillance of their overlords,
amid which they lived. Indeed, unless a to whom was reserved the pleasurable
speedier and more vicious fate in the guise pastime of shooting fish and game, the
of the white man's conquest should over- women of the tribe devoted themselves to
take them, their addiction to this drug the painful drudgery of gathering yucca
spells extermination. roots, otherwise known as manioc, and
That night we visited the chief and re- converting them into the indispensable
warded him substantially for countenanc- cassava. Yucca is a starchy, purple sub-
ing our observations and photography. stance not unlike our potato, which forms
We presented him with a large knife and throughout the year the staple article of
an assortment of bells and rattles such as their diet. The existence of the tribe
would have delighted the heart of any ten- depends upon it, for it yields them at once
months-old child. One stirred his martial their food, their alcohol, and their poison
ardor and the other flattered his vanity for tipping arrows.
and rhythmic ear. In recognition of this The women first rubbed the yucca up
he turned to one of his numerous wives and down inside a wooden trough, the
and ordered her to fetch the contents of a interior of which was rough and fur-
wooden bowl which stood in a corner near rowed with ridges, until the allotted sup-
at hand. She brought a foam-bespat- ply had been reduced to a moist paste.
tered, beery liquid, which she had trans- It was back-breaking work, for the trough
ferred to woven palm-leaf

a skilfully lay on the ground and the women for
receptacle. At we shuddered,
sight of this hours at a time were obliged to bend
and then bravely gulped down as small a nearly double. In this state the yncca
quantity as was consistent with politeness. was transferred to a narrow, cylindrical
It was chicha, warm and indescribably wooden bowl where, by means of a heavy
bitter, a fermented liquor that is imbibed pole, the poisonous juice was expressed.
only at monthly tribal feasts and on occa- The third step in the process was the
sions of great moment. The manner of its removal of the paste to shallow palm-fiber
preparation isrevolting. The women of baskets about eighteen inches in diameter.
the tribe, having ground yucca roots to Water was added and the baskets were
a sticky paste, fill their cheeks with it and then placed in the sun for their contents
chew it It stimulates the salivary glands, to rise. Finally the yucca was roasted
with the result that the women continu- over a huge fire and set aside to cool.
ally expectorate into a common bowl The result was a coarse, hard, breadlike
provided for the purpose. This is the substance that resembled a gigantic gray
well-known chicha, common among most buckwheat cake. If taken with water, it
of the tribes of South America. As the possessed a very agreeable flavor.
foul liquor coursed hotly down our throats, But the most striking instance of the
each of us ruefully speculated upon the male's adamant disregard for his wives
A VERY PRIMITIVE MEANS OF NAVIGATION

This inadequate little raft, which barely supports the wielder of the paddle, forces the navigator to
sit in the water. More primitive "boats" than this hardly could exist
was an event that occurred a few hours woman would undoubtedly have bled to
prior to our departure. It happened im- death. But to her callous husband the
mediately before our eyes, but so rapidly outcome in either case would have been of
that remonstrances or more cogent argu- little moment; did he not possess an
ments on our part were impossible. A abundance of wives and dependents who
young Guahibo ordered one of his older could easily minister to his whims and
wives to prepare additional cassava. He needs?
left his hut and returned a few minutes To us, however, who appeared to these
later to find that the work had not yet savages doubtless as creatures sent from
been commenced. Incensed at such another world to being them gifts, they
flagrant insubordination, he seized one of showed only the better side of their
the knives which we had given him and natures. In their exuberance, artlessness,
threw himself bodily upon the unfortunate and impulsive ways, there was undeniable
offender. The struggle terminated only charm. Unsophisticated children they
after he had in cold blood slit wide open truly were, with all the variable moods
the crown of the woman's head. Clean- and flights of fancy, the flashes of en-
ing the weapon by plunging it into thusiasm followed by depths of languor
the damp earth, he repaired nonchalantly and despair, and then again the fits and
to a neighboring hut where he proceeded starts of a restless curiosity which re-
to solace himself in the company of one of fused to be satisfied. They seemed so
his other wives. Had we not had with us perfectly contented with their lot, so
the services of a capable doctor who utterly oblivious to the world which throb-
promptly sewed up the gaping wound, the bed outside, and to the possibility that
282 NATURAL HISTORY
some day the white man would descend to ing, the vast, immeasurable curiosity,
put an end to their freedom and time- there was now an atmosphere of ill-con-
honored tribal hfe, that one contemplated cealed relief. Perhaps the constant glitter
with a pang the fate which must inevitably of many-colored beads and bracelets or
overtake them. the gleam of highly polished knives, had
There could be no better example of the dazzled their eyes and dulled for a time
plajrful unstableness of their natures than their senses. In silence they bore our
the contrast which, in spite of an uninter- baggage back to the canoes; their wild
rupted shower of gifts, marked the scenes natures could no longer brook the presence
of our departure with those of our arrival. in their midst of a disturbing, if benevo-
In place of the wild singing and shout- lent, element.
THE EXPEDITION PREPARES FOR ITS DEPARTURE

The Guahibos were delighted to receive the visitors, but lost their interest after the gifts had been
distributed
Animals of a submerged sandy sea floor
* OUTPOSTS OF THE SEA

The Animals of the Tidal Realm — Marine Hosts that Today Assail Our
Continental Borders, Endeavoring to Repeat the Conquest Attained
Ages Ago by the Ancestors of the Present Land-animals
By ROY WALDO MINER

Curator of Marine Life, American Museum of Natural History
THE daily rise and fall of
along the seacoast alternately sub-

the tides the extent to which
chff- walls of Bliss Island, at
it covers the vertical
the entrance
merges and lays bare a strip of the to the bay. St. Andrews Point, within
shore which varies in width from place the same bay, has a very gradual slope,
to place according to the local range of the and, at low water, is uncovered for two
tide. miles. Hence, the tidal zone varies
Thus, the vertical rise of the tides off greatly in area.
the New England coast south of Cape Cod The nature of the substratum composing
is only from one to two Within
feet. it also differs. It may be of rock in the
Cape Cod Bay and Massachusetts Bay, form of vertical cliffs, as above mentioned,
on the other hand, it rises nine to ten or sloping and, perhaps, broken into ter-
feet. This is also true along the Maine races. On the exposed shores it may
coast, where the tides are deflected to consist of sand beaches, or mud flats in
the northwest by the curvature of the sheltered coves and bays. It may be
shore, joining the incoming waters farther covered by rocky bowlders, broken down
north. These, in turn, are finally com- from the cliffs by wave action, or eroded
pressed into the narrowing funnel of the out from headlands of glacial drift by
Bay of Fundy with the result that huge the washing away of the soil enclosing
tides of thirty to forty feet are created them.
at its tip. The animal and plant life of the per-
In Passamaquoddy Bay, New Bruns- manently submerged continental shelf
wick, the rise is twenty-two feet, and this is has oveflowed into this stretch of semi-
284 NATURAL HISTORY
Photograph by Mary C. Dickerson

A SAND BEACH AT LOW TIDE, WOODS
tlOLE, MASSACHUSETTS
Long lines of seaweed, thrown up by the waves, are arranged in ribbon-like bands, beneath which
sand hoppers and beach fleas are concealed
terrestrial, semi-marine territory. The region marine creatures were crowded out
continental shelf is the submarine con- into the deeper oceanic waters, on the
tinuation of the tidal zone seaward. It one hand, or specialized for the pressures
slopes gradually to about one hundred and darkness of the deep abysses. On
fathoms, beyond which the bottom falls the other hand, they invaded the tidal
more rapidly to the greater depths of zone, the fresh waters and, finally, the
the ocean. This outer face of the shelf land. The evidence is strong that wher-
is known as the continental slope, and ever and whenever life originated, the con-
varies in its abruptness from a clifflike tinental shelf is the region of its greatest
drop to a gradually accelerated gradient evolution and the center of its radiation.
continuing the surface of the shelf itself. The very fact that its location has shifted
The width of the continental shelf also during geologic ages, as the continental
varies considerably. Itis extremely wide areas were thrustupward or were worn
in the North from the American
Atlantic, down again through erosion, until the con-
side around to the British Isles, but tinental shelf invaded their lower reaches
quite narrow off Spain and Portugal and as epi-continental seas, has caused the hv-
the western coast of Africa. ing creatures inhabiting the shallow waters
It is believed that the comparatively to be subjected to varying conditions and
shallow waters of the continental shelf an intense struggle for existence, result-
and slope witnessed the great evolution ing in the preservation of adaptive
of marine life. Here it became diver- changes and the elimination of those
sified and abundant, for here the condi- that were nonadaptive. As we see it
tions of life are at their best. From this now, the tidal zone and its inhabitants
OUTPOSTS OF THE SEA 285
represent a present-day phase of that verse circumstances. Those that in-

struggle, for here only those sea creatures habit the totally submerged shallow seas
can exist that are adapted to the strenu- find life comparatively easy, exposed
ous daily changes of environment in- as they are to the sunlight, yet covered
volved in being alternately exposed to the by oceanic waters chemically harmonious
air and submerged by the tidal flow. It with their body fluids —a fluid hydro-
is so striking an example of the results sphere filled with food and replete with
of natural selection on a large scale, and oxygen for the animals, and carbon
so accessible to everyone, that the think- dioxide for the plant life. Nevertheless,
ing visitor to the shore will have no many also struggle to live under;tne more
difficulty in reading the chief lessons trying conditions of the tidal zone, where
taught by the inhabitants of the tidal they maintain their position in proportion
region. to their hardiness and their capacity to
In the first place, it must be remem- withstand exposure.
bered that the tidal zone is the pulsating Everyone who walks along the shore
border of the great life-association of the at low tide is familiar with the zonal or
submerged continental shelf. Secondly, banded distribution of the animal and
life is so abundant that animals and plant forms. This is especially con-
plants of all species not only live where spicuous on the rocky shores of New
conditions are appropriate and easy for England, north of Cape Cod. The white
them, but also struggle to live under ad- band of rock barnacles (Balanus bala-
THE CLIFFS AT NAHANT, MASSACHUSETTS, AT LOW TIDE

The tidal zoneclearly marked on the vertical rocky face, as a band nine feet in width, showing
is
the white frieze of barnacles above the stratum of seed mussels and rockweed which extends to the
water line. A
rock tide-pool, overarched by a weed-festooned natural bridge, is shown in the fore-
ground. This locality is reproduced in the American Museum as the "Tide-Pool Group"
286 NATURAL HISTORY
bossed mosaic of the black
edible mussel {Mytilus
edulis), which encrusts
the rock up to the lower
limit of the barnacle zone.
Bright patches of gaily
colored and banded
"purple " snails ( Thais
lapillus) may be seen
grouped upon the mussel
colony, which extends
downward and below the
water mark. Here it is
succeeded in turn by
another zone character-
ized by the green sea
urchin, a small animal re-
joicing in one of the long-
est scientific names known
to zoology, Strongylocen-
trotus droehbachiensis.
The sea plants below
the rockweed zone include
the common pink coral-
line (Corallina officinalis),
the Irish moss {Chondrus
crispus),and the dulse
(Rhodymenia palmata)
A CROWDED COLONY OF MUSSELS AND BARNACLES These are laid bare only
Both mussels and barnacles can withstand long exposure to the air
by enclosing enough sea water within their shells to keep their breath- by the lowest tides, and
ing organs moist. Together with the periwinkles (Lditorina litorea) even then are continuous-
and "purple" snails (Thais lapillus), they invade the upper regions
of the tidal zone. The snails, especially, suggest a transitional stage ly washed by the surf.
toward terrestrial life Also at this level the two
species of the common
noides) is summit of the
displayed at the sea star {Asterias vulgaris and Asterias
zone, their close-set marble wigwams forhesi) are to be found, the former
crowding each other to form a snowy varying in color through red, orange,
frieze. Ambitious periwinkles {Littorina purple, and blue, and distinguished by a
litorea)swarm here and there, climbing white spot, the ambulacral plate, be-
slowly but surely upward over the house- tween two of its arms. The latter is
tops of the barnacle colony, and even usually greenish brown, with a bright
mounting far up the bare rocks above it. orange ambulacral plate. Associated
The barnacle frieze is overlapped below with them are the common sea anemone
by the rockweeds (Ascophyllum nodosum (Metridium dianthus) and two species
and Fucus vesiculosus) , their olive-brown of rock crab {Cancer horealis and Cancer
fronds draped in graceful fringes down irroratus)
to the water's edge, disclosing beneath This zonal arrangement depends upon
their parting masses the continuous em- two main factors, the exposure factor
and the food factor. It is obvious that The mussels, occupying the zone im-
the height above the low-water mark at mediately below the barnacles, can with-
which a sea animal can live depends stand exposure, but for a shorter time.
upon its ability to withstand exposure They, too, feed upon diatoms. Both
to the air, for the upper limits of the mussels and barnacles are preyed upon
tidal zone are, of course, left bare the by the voracious "purple" snails, which
longest. The periwinkle, in fact, is far also can withstand exposure at low tide,
on the way toward adaptation to ter- though many remain hidden under the
restrial life. As the tide falls, it cap- moist drapings of rockweed.
tures a few drops of water, which bathe The mussel zone is limited above by
its breathing organs and are kept from the barnacles, which tend to spread over
evaporation by a closely fitting horny the mussel shells and choke them by
plate closing the shell-opening. In this their more rapid growth, and below, by
way it may remain many hours out of the zone of green sea urchins, which feed
water. It is a vegetarian,
feeding not only on the
surface of rockweed, but
also on minute algae high
on the rocks and among
the barnacles.
The barnacles likewise
are provided with means
of retaining a few drops
of moisture or moistened
air beneath four little
valvelike plates that close
the top of their shells.
They feed on the micro-

scopic diatoms brought
on the incom-
crest of the
ing tide. When they are
submerged, each barnacle
may be seen to unfold
its quadripartite doors,
whereupon the little
plume of feathery feet
waves to and fro, and,
like a casting net, captures
its tiny prey, which is
immediately withdrawn
within the closing gates.
Agassiz has said that a
barnacle is nothing but
a shrimp standing on its COLLECTING IN THE TIDE POOL AT
head within a marble NAHANT, MASSACHUSETTS
house, kicking its food Basins and crevices in the rocks remain filled with water when the
tide falls below their level, and thus harbor not only the life of their
into its mouth with its
own zone, but also many creatures which ordinarily live below the
feet! low-tide mark
288 NATURAL HISTORY
upon the mussels. The latter are also ciously, and are the most hated enemies
preyed upon by dog whelks (Bitccinum of the oyster fisherman.
undatum and Lithodomus decemcostata) On terraced and sloping rocky shores
two large snails found on our northern there are many crevices and basins
rocky shores. The whelks bore round that are left filled with water at low
holes into the mussel shells and suck out tide. These occur at various levels and,
the animal. in the lower part of the tidal zone, are

Down near the low-water line vora- especially rich in concentrated animal
cious sea stars envelop the mussels with and plant life appropriate to the level at
their arms, attaching their tube feet to which they occur, and also to all the
the opposing valves, which they pull zones below that level. At flood tide
apart by gaining a purchase with their they are invaded by the eggs and larvae
arm tips on the surrounding substratum. of many creatures usually found only
Then each sea star protrudes its saclike below the low-water mark, which are
stomach from the central mouth on the able to live and develop in the pools
underside of its body, and inserting it because these are always filled with water.
between the valves of the mussel, pours Thus the pools become veritable sea gar-
out its digestive fluid. Thus, it digests dens of great beauty and fertility.
the poor creature within its own shells, Here gay-colored sea stars occur in
while it absorbs the fluid products of great abundance, hiding in crevices be-
digestion through its stomach walls. Sea tween bowlders covered with velvety
stars devour oysters even more vora- brown Irish moss glimmering with iri-

A SEA ANEMONE WITH BEAUTIFULLY EXPANDED TENTACLES
These flower-like animals (Metridium dianthus) live at or below the low-water mark, often ifi great
numbers. Their petal-like circlets of tentacles are armed with sting cells and surround a central mouth.
Free- swimming creatures, including smaJl fishes, are caught, stung to death, and devoured. The
anemones vary widely in color, from brown through pink, cream, white, and deep orange
descent violet tips and

overhung with clustered
chimneys of the gray-
green crumb-of-bread
sponge (Halichondria
panicea). Feathery, ruby-
hearted hydroids (Tubu-
laria crocea) fringe a shelf
occupied by sea anemones
with their rich stock-in-
trade of color, ranging
from brown, mottled with
white, through plain
white to rich pink and
deep orange.
Two green crabs
{Carcinides mxnas) are
sparring with each other
in a corner beneath the
ruffled overhanging
fronds of the brown kelp
{Laminaria agardhii)
The entire rock surface,
lining the pool, is gay
with sea mosses or en-
crusted with red-purple
and brown calcareous
algae. Thus the pool is Photograph by Mary C. Dickerson
replete with life, re-

PERIWINKLES AND SEA STARS EXPOSED AT LOW WATER
The ubiquitous periwinkles are abundant near the low-water mark»
freshed and renewedby as well as in the upper reaches of the tidal zone. The sea stars, on
the periodic incoming the other hand, can withstand exposure for only a short time, and are
therefore confined to the lower part of the tidal zone and the waters
tides with their floods below the low-tide mark
of food and oxygen.
While the northern New England tidal currents.Animals of sandy and
shore is characterized by its rock-bound muddy on the other hand, tend
regions,
coasts, sandy beaches occur here and to be of burrowing habits, while the sur-
there, hemmed in by granite headlands, face-living creatures are scavengers.
and mud flats are found in sheltered A sand beach, at low tide, appears to
locations. But southern New England be a particularly barren place. Yet the
is typically low and sandy, beginning close observer will detect signs of life.
with the great sand spit which is Cape For example, he may chance upon little
Cod. This forms a barrier hindering, heaps of sand here and there, which be-
to a degree, the intermingling of north- tray the presence of the sand-collar snail
ern and southern forms. {Natica dwplicata)
Animals of the rocky coasts and regions If one waits till the tide begins to rise
of high tides must be adapted for cling- and covers these burrows, a stirring of
ing to crevices and for withstanding the the sand may be seen, and soon the snail
battering of the waves and the rush of will issue forth and crawl slowly over the
290 NATURAL HISTORY
sea bottom. As it unfolds its foot and
expands its ''apron," it seems impossible
that so huge a creature could have been
packed into a spherical shell the size of a
tennis ball. Above the apron it waves
a pair of tapering tentacles, furnished
with eyespots near the base.
The egg-case of this snail is a flat,
nearly circular, collar-shaped structure,

to which the sand adheres. The under-
side is completely lined with transparent,
beadlike eggs. These sand collars are
often picked up on the beach in a dry
condition, when they crumble at a touch.
Other burrowing animals of the sand
beach are the razor-shell clam {Ensis
directus), so called from its elongate
bivalve shell suggesting the handle of an
old-fashioned razor; the lady crab (Ovali-
THE PLUMED WORM
This martial looking knight (Diopatra cwprsea), pes ocellatus), a swimming crab with
of the sea bottom, lives in a chimney-hke den, hind legs terminating in oval paddles
the upper portion of which projects into the
water above the ocean floor and a carapace beautifuly marked with
A FLEET-FOOTED INHABITANT OF SAND BEACHES

The ghost crab {Ocypoda albicans) is aptly termed, for its light, sandy markings so closely resemble
the color of the beach, thatit fhts like a shadow along the shore and seems actually to disappear from
the sight of the observer when it comes to rest

A COLONY OF GREEN SEA URCHINS
These sea urchins (Strongylocentroius droehbachiensis) are abundant at or below the low- water mark
on our northern rocky coasts. They feed upon the edible mussels (Mytibis edulis) and both, in turn,
become the prey of the voracious sea stars {Asterias vulgaris and forbesi)
small purplish spots; and the ghost crab

{Ocypoda albicans), found on sandy
beaches from Long Island southward.
This crab makes its burrows above the
low-water mark and its whitish carapace
so closely imitates the sand that it is
difficult to see it, except when in motion.

It runs with great speed, and, when it
stops, seems to disappear.

Mud flats are especially rich in sea
life. Everyone is familiar with the great
stretches of edible mussels {Mytilus
edulis) that are found on certain mud
flats between the tides, and the kind of
sandy mud in which one digs for clams,
whether the soft clam (My a arenaria),
or the "hard shell" {Venus mercenaria).
But let us take a water glass (which
is just a bucket with a glass bottom),
and wade at low tide in a sheltered cove A MEMBER OF THE STREET-CLEANING

near the edge of a patch of eelgrass.
FORCE OF SHALLOW WATERS
The hermit crab {Paguriis pollicaris) is one of the
Where the shallow sea floor is composed scavengers of submerged, muddy sea bottoms
292 NATURAL HISTORY
SEA STAR DEVOURING OYSTERS

The sea star mounts the shells of the living oj^ster with its five arms partly enfolding the two valves
of its victim. It then applies its hundreds of tube-feet to the outer surface of the shells by means of
small terminal suckers. With the tips of its arms it braces itself against the surrounding objects and
exerts a strong, steady pull, that gradually forces the oyster shells apart
of sandy mud, let us place the water glass submerged mud flat — and they are
on the surface and look through it. A thorough in their work. It is true that
busy scene at the edge of a miniature the hermits acquire their uniforms by
submarine forest composed of the eel- theft, for they appropriate the shells of
grass roots, is disclosed to our eyes. Tiny sea snails. Sometimes they find them
hermit crabs {Pagurus longicarpus) are empty and ready for use. At other times,
scuttling to and fro. Soon they gather they are said to eat out the former oc-
about a bit of decaying substance and cupant first, thus obtaining a meal and a
immediately begin to pull it apart. Mud home simultaneously. When they grow
snails {Nassa obsoleta), attracted by the too large for the shell they happen to
tumult, crawl up from various quarters, have, they hunt for another, and it is
leaving a little groovelike track in the amusing to see them make the change.
mud behind A larger hermit
them. They leave the old shell and, quickly
{Pagurus lumbers along and
pollicaris) settling into the new one, try it a few
scatters the smaller fry as he pulls the seconds, then change back to the old
decaying morsel to pieces. Small, trans- home. After a short interval the new
parent shrimp {Palsemonetes vulgaris) shell is tried again, and the process is
dart in to get their share. repeated several times. In the end, the
The hermits, the shrimp, and the mud hermit may walk off with the old shell
snails are the scavengers of shallow water after all!
—the street-cleaning department of the We now direct our gaze at the shallow
sea floor in the clear space between the which is a pair of long arms having
eelgrass and the shore. Here on the grooves lined with moving cilia. Then
sandy mud we begin to see certain details comes a pulsating cup, attached to the
that hitherto have escaped our attention. upper side of the body, followed by
Clusters of broken shell and bits of sea- three disc-shaped segments, and last
weed, apparently caught together by the of all is the tapering tail, disclosing
currents, now resolve themselves into through its transparent walls an internal
neatly cemented chimneys leading to structure brightly colored green, yellow,
some underground abode, for gently and pink.
waving filaments projecting from the The parchment worm lives in the bot-
summit betray the existence of an oc- tom of its tube, the three disc-shaped
cupant. segments fitting the cavity neatly. As
We down
carefully dig
into the sea bottom
around the structure and
remove a long, tapering,
parchment-hke tube, with
the thickened chimney of
shell-fragments at the
top. washing it,
After
we cut open in a glass
it
dish of sea water, and out

floats a beautiful, strug-
gling creature, clad in
segmented steel-blue
armor, and bearing sever-
al sets of blood-red plumes
upon its shoulders, while
five tapering, lancelike
palps are flourished in
front. This knight of
the submarine castle is
the plumed worm

(Diopatra cupraea).
Likewise, paired chim-
neys of smoother texture
a little nearer the shore
cause us to dig up a
U-shaped tube, also of
parchment, belonging to
the parchment worm
{Chaetopterus variopeda- A BUILDER OF SUBWAYS BENEATH THE SEA
tus). This is the most The parchment worm constructs for itself a U-shaped tube formed of
a gluehke secretion from glands in its own body, which hardens into a
curious worm of all. It parchment-like substance upon contact with the sea water. The
is a strange creature with strange looking architect lives in the bottom of his home, the two
chimneys of which project into the sea. By means of three disclike
a flat, shovel-like head, segments in the middle part of its body, which just fit the interior of
armed with bunches of the tube, the creature pumps a stream of water into one chimney
and out through the other, from which it abstracts the microscopic
golden bristles, behind creatures that form its food
294 NATURAL HISTORY
ANIMALS OF THE WHARF PILES

The piles of old wharves along our shores are completely covered with a great diversity of animal
forms, all of which are adapted to filtering out the microscopic food from the sea water in which they
are submerged
the worm contracts its body rhythmically, sponges, mussels, sea anemones, mem-
these segments move like the pistons of a bers of every animal phylum, all adapted
suction pump, drawing a stream of water to a stationary form of existence, equip-
into cne chimney, passing it through the ped with various contrivances for ex-
tube, over the body of the worm, and tracting minute creatures for food from
out the other chimney. The micro- the life-giving sea in which they are bathed.
scopic food contained in the sea water is Life pulsates wherever we search along
filtered out by the combined action of the borders of the sea. Living creatures
the arms and moving cup, and trans- endeavor to occupy every kind of habitat,
ported through a trough lined with mov- and, if it is favorable, swarm through it
ing hairs up the mid-line of the body to so vigorously that all the space is occupied
the mouth of the worm. and many are crowded to the limits where
It is obvious that not only the sea marine life is precarious.
bottom, but the beneath the sea as
soil The pressure to escape to an air-breath-
well, is alive with myriads of creatures, ing existence drives certain species to the
adapted by their structure for breathing limit of the tidal zone, so that we see, at
and obtaining their food in this particular the present time, compromises between
habitat. Likewise, if we examine the the marine and terrestrial form of life,
wharf piles of an old wharf, we shall find as in the case of the periwinkles and pur-
it clothed completely with sea grapes, ples among mollusks. These are closely
tube-building worms of brilliant, flower- related to other snails (Ampullaria and
hke hues, feathery hydroids, scarlet Siphonaria) which have both water-
breathing branchiae and air-breathing blood of terrestrial animals are the same
lung, and finally the snails, Cerithidea as those found in the ocean.
and Cyclophorus, terminate the series Thus the water of the seas, closely
with a complete air-breathing apparatus. adapted in its composition for the life
The same pressure now continues which, requirements of the lowest marine crea-
in the Carboniferous Age, forced the tures and circulating freely through their
conquest of the air by the lowly progeni- cavities, has been succeeded by a fluid
closed off from the outside within the
tors of the land vertebrates.
bodies of higher organisms, some of
The comparative anatomy of marine
which shook themselves free of
finally
invertebrates shows us that there has
their ancestral abode and emerged into
been a gradual closing of the body cavity
the upper air. It is almost as if the in-
and circulatory system in higher marine
vaders of the land carried a portion of
animals, thus segregating the body-fluid
their original habitat enclosed within
which bathes their tissues and is closely them to bathe their tissues with the
similar in composition to the salt solu- precious sea environment and so insure
tion that we call sea water. It is very their continued existence in their new
significant that the inorganic salts of the world.
THE SUN STAR OF OUR

NORTHERN SHORES
This brilliant creature, {Solaster pap-
posus), bright scarlet with white-
banded arms, is one of the most con-
spicuous inhabitants of our rocky
coasts
SEEDS OF DISASTER
The Tragic Account of the Fall of a Thriving Community of Bohvian Umbrella Ants.
How the SuppUes They Garnered Caused Their Dramatic End
By DAVID LOCKE
WITH FIVE DRAWINGS BY LYNN BOGUE HUNT
In the following article the author has told a story which, in part, is frankly
fictionized. has been carefully read, however, by Prof. William Morton Wheeler,
It
Research Associate in Social Insects, American Museum, and America's outstanding
authority on ants, who refers to it as follows:
"It seems to be correct and of interest as showing the variety of food and behavior
of Atta. I have some doubts about the last pari of the article describing the plundering
of the nests and killing of the inhabitants thereof by another colony of Atta. The
author s conjectures may be correct, although I have never seen any tendency of Alias
to war on their own species or plunder the contents of their fungus chambers."
With this introduction, Natural History Magazine presents it, glad to be able to
publish an account so filled iriih action and interest. —
The Editors.
UP and down the sandy streets of

Santa Cruz de la Sierra marches
woody
vines,
things will serve. Rose bushes,
and shrubs in Santa Cruz must be
Sepi, her green umbrella spread. surrounded by circular pottery gutters
Through flower-gardened patios and even sunk in the ground and filled with water
into neat white-plastered dwellings she so that the insects cannot cross, or some
blithely takes her course, serenely ignor- fine morning the gardener may look out
ing the chill welcome with which she is upon his patio and discover that the Sepi
received by the human beings who con- army has passed in the night, and that
sider as their private property the terri- cherished plants have been stripped to
tory she invades. bare and desolate stems. Consequently
On she marches, her lithe red body Miss Sepi is not popular with her human
borne rapidly along by its six slim legs, neighbors, and many and novel are the
toward the rounded dome surmounting schemes which have been devised to get
the subterranean city wherein the green rid of her, yet, despite them all, she
leaf umbrella will be stored for her fungus thrives and flourishes.
gardening. For Miss Sepi of the well- But, all you girls who take to business
known Umbrella Ant family is a strict and professional careers, look upon Sepi
believer in the patronizing of home in- and be warned in order that her fate
dustry, and an ardent advocate of scien- shall not some day overtake the human
tific truck farming. race. Miss Sepi knows none of the
No Battle Creek invalid was ever more simple joys of family life, nor has she
fixed in the determination of his diet than sweetheart or husband or child to cherish.
is she. No
manufacturer of bread or Neither is her way lightened by the pros-
breakfast can boast more truly
food pect of "dates," dances, or movies. Her
than Sepi of "food no human hand has only pleasure is in her daily toil and the
touched." Neither meat nor bread nor intervening periods of rest from it. By
anything that grows upon the surface of the same token, all you men who com-
the earth can tempt her from her home- placently look on as these girls usurp
raised fungus menu. your occupation of breadwinner, you, also,
Leaves, fresh or dry, she prefers for beware. For the gentlemen of Sepiland
her underground gardening, but other are few, and what may be their fate is not
SEEDS OF DISASTER 297
surely known, unless they furnish armor- sundry other things such as pink aquatic
plated hams and sides of bacon for some worms, several types of water bugs in-
cannibal and unvegetarian sprees of the cluding one closely resembling a minia-
unloved and unloving "poor working girl." ture submarine, and innumerable wiggle-
Our house in Santa Cruz, like innumer- tails which the local children were sure
able others, was of plaster on a frame would grow up into snakes. However,
of bamboo, unceiled and roofed with we resolutely refused to think of these
tiles. Theie was a large front room, or things when we drank water.
sala, which extended entirely across from All Santa Cruz houses had these things,
one adjoining house to the next. Back even more and better than our own, for,
file a series of
of this extended in single this being a rent house, it and its patio
other rooms somewhat less than half the had been poorly tended. Our house
sala's width. Beside these rooms ran a was by no means crowded with furniture
fcile-roofed gallery, also connected with either, whereas in even the most ordinary
the sala by a doorway. House and gal- Santa Cruz home the number of chairs
lery were floored with brick, by no means and sofas was limited only by available
evenly. Between the gallery and the space. We were, therefore, not a little
solid mud and bamboo wall of the proud that, as an added attraction of
neighboring house was the patio which our own, the sala boasted a populous
ran back some fifty feet behind our Sepi city beneath its floor, the entrances
house to a large area in the center of the being between the bricks, one large portal
city block. This patio contained a few and two or three smaller ones. We en-
rosebushes and other shrubs, two or joyed the company of our industrious
three papayas, and one tall algarrobo tree. fellow inhabitants, though they were an
Beneath the gallery eaves sat great endless source of concern to our visitors,
earthen jars, half buried in the ground, who put down our forbearance toward
containing the household supply of rain- the insects as another of the inscrutable
water. They contained, in addition, eccentricities of the gringo.
^'
SEPI, OF THE UMBRELLA ANT FAMILY

'Up and down the sandy streets marches Sepi, her green umbrella spread and her lithe red bodj' borne
rapidly along by six slim legs"
298 NATURAL HISTORY
The Sepis were a busy folk, but they her slim worker-size body.These prob-
preferred to do their work under cover ably acted as trafficthough I
officers,
of darkness. By Hght of day only half never saw an occasion where they exer-
a dozen workers and occasionally a great, cised their authority by directing the
—
square-jawed soldier perhaps an ''M. busy column, nor did there ever appear
—
P." strolled about the surface, but as necessity for straightening out a traffic
dusk came on, the city below began to jam.
awaken and the army of industry poured The habit of the Sepis of throwing
forth and set about their business of down their burdens exactly where they
collecting and transporting supplies from stood when the quitting-time signal was
the patio. radioed from the nest was rather untidy,
A handful of scouts appeared, darting for invariably each morning there was a
swiftly about the environs of the city to fine of assorted bits of trash strewn
see that allwas clear. Soon there was a thickly from the city gates across the
busy column of workers streaming across sala, over the doorstep and along the
the floor and on to the gallery. Lesser gallery, decreasing in volumes as the
columns diverged from the main one into branch roads ran off into the patio.
the patio. Seemingly the order of the At the doorstep of the sala entrance
day was given before leaving the nest there was always laid aside the greatest
and each knew just which turn she was heap of freight. Here was the chief ob-
to take at the branching of the ways. struction in the Sepi road. Here they
Having reached their field of operations, struggled ceaselessly to raise their heavy
they would begin the return journey to loads over the inch-high, vertical wall of
the city with bits of leaves and twigs and the doorsill. The angle between the
odds and ends of wood. The
all sorts of floor and the sill was particularly per-
outward bound ants dashed recklessly nicious. A long twig, say of half an
and with no thought of traffic regula- inch, would jam diagonally in the space,
tions through the slower-moving bearers and the bearer, holding the stick by the
coming in. Now and then there was a middle, would find herself lifted on to
halt and an exchange of greetings or tiptoes so that she could get no purchase,
gossip — if this feminine trait is still re- up, down, forward, or back. Here she
tained by the neutered maidens of Sepi- would wrestle and twist, sometimes with
land. the assistance of fellow workers, until
If a bearer appeared to have more the contrary burden could be juggled
than she could handle, she was often around to a manageable position or lifted
aid(^d by a passer-by, who either gave over by some Sepi clinging precariously
her a hand in fixing the load so it could to the edge of the sill above. It was not
be carried, or, if it was entirely too large so bad for the leaf bearers. They could
for one ant, made the whole return climb on over the barrier, balancing their
journey as an assistant. Often the ef- green umbrellas overhead. But leaves
forts of two ants on a load seemed far were rather scarce with our ant family,
from coordinated; in fact, it frequently for they had harvested the nearer end
appeared as though each were hindering of the patio pretty thoroughly.
the other, but somehow they always We annoyed the Sepis quite a little, no
progressed. Here and there along the doubt, by sweeping up the sala and gal-
way a soldier patrolled slowly beside the lery two or three times a week. Good
column of workers,
a creature with a housekeepers may hold up their hands
great bulldog head vastly too large for in holy horror at this, but, after all, two
"she prefers leaves"

"Rose bushes, vines, and shrubs must be surrounded by circular pottery gutters sunk in the ground
and filled with water so that the insects cannot cross"
lone men living temporarily in such cir- The ants must have scouted constantly
cumstances should be excused for not for new prospects and possibilities of
cleaning house every day, even though food supply. One day we incautiously
they had such careless companions as the allowed the protecting ring around a
Sepis. We never could determine how rose bush in the patio to become dry.
the ants reacted next evening to the dis- The observant Sepis discovered the fact
covery that the previous night's accumu- immediately and next morning our poor
lation of supplies had disappeared. This bush bore but a solitary leaf, the busy
could not have been unusual in the Sepi workers having stripped it bare of every
world, at least among the Santa Cruz other one and even gnawed the tips off
dwellers, so they probably took it philo- the smaller branches.
sophically. My bedroom was the last in the row
We must have trampled to death a from the sala. A door opened from it
number of ants, also, walking about in on to the gallery and patio. On a night
the evenings when we could not see our as dark as the proverbial sack of black
little neighbors.However, they accepted cats, I was awakened by a queer sound
this with the fatalistic unconcern of New —
near the open door a steady rattling,
Yorkers who see one of their swarming —
snapping, and rustling not loud but as
nest dwellers stricken down in some regular and unceasing as the rush of
traffic accident —
all in the day's work, water over a rapid. For a minute I lay
each survivor mildly thankful he was trying to determine what this strange dis-
one to escape. turbance could be. It was inside the
300 NATURAL HISTORY
room and near the door. It sounded not choice leaves and small bushes. But
unlike a slow fire in half-dry leaves, yet these may not have been suitable for ant
there was neither light nor odor of smoke. mushroom culture.
It was not, either, the sound of any In the meantime we had begun unwit-
creeping or crawling thing, animal or tingly to sow real Seeds of Disaster about
reptile; of that I was sure. My com- our Sepi city. was the height of the
It
panion in the next room, the wall of orange season. For a Bolivian ten-cent
which was just beyond the gallery door, piece, worth, say, three cents in United
snored peacefully.Evidently I was not States money, one could purchase seventy
deceived by some acoustic freak of the big juicy oranges of a fineness and flavor
building. The sound was not in his that would have caused a native Califor-
room; it was in mine. But what it was nian to drop dead of envy and chagrin.
I could not imagine. Every morning boys peddled them
With one hand I drew my six-shooter through the streets in squeaking carts
from where it hung under the head of with solid wooden wheels and drawn by
my bed and with the other I reached for yellow and white spotted oxen. It was
a match from the table beside me and hard to see how, at the price, they made
struck a light. Nothing unusual was the expenses of the distribution. Actu-
visible at first, but the sound continued, ally, I suppose, there were no expenses.
calmly, steadily as before, from the cor- The cars required no gasolene and it was
ner of the room just beyond the door. self evident to the ear that they received
Here stood our household broom, a bun- not even axle grease. The oxen ate
dle of young palm shoots with dry, spiny oranges. So did everything else in Santa
leaves, stiff and woody. In that was the Cruz, even dogs and cats and Sepis —
sound. Then I perceived a dark moving could find use for them.
band on the floor, extending to and be- Every morning before going round the
yond the doorway. I took another match corner to where that good old lady Doiia
and hopped out of bed to investigate. Lucinda served us breakfast, my partner
The broom swarmed with Sepis engaged and I ate from twenty to twenty-five
in cutting up those bristly spines and oranges apiece. We tossed the peels
hustling home with them. I left them in a heap at the back of the patio to dry,
at their work and returned to bed. after which we burned them. The seeds
It took them two nights of persistent we dropped along the edge of the gallery
effort to demolish that broom, denuding as we ate. A careless procedure, no
it to the bare stems. We never were doubt.
fully decided whether this was simply a Soon we noticed the Sepis were taking
foraging enterprise, or if the astute Sepis advantage of this windfall of supplies
had discovered in the broom the imme- and were nightly harvesting the seeds
diate author of the disappearance of of the morning before. We felt we were
many a night's supplies left along the doing our neighbors a favor and were
roadside at daybreak, and were taking careful to keep a good supply of seeds
remove, as they thought,
this occasion to on hand for them daily. A new and in-
permanently, the very troublesome and teresting feature came into their working
destructive nuisance. It seemed strange columns. Through the ranks of leaf- and
that they should have taken to such twig-bearers was a slower moving column
tough material as that broom, when in the of orange seeds, whole companies and
back of the patio were so many tenderer battalions of them, glistening hke ivory
and what appeared to us to be much more in the candlelight which served to make
HUMT
"the doorstep was the chief obstacle"

"Here they struggled to raise their heavy loads over the inch-high, vertical wall of the doorsill'
less visible the dark bearers in the at that bugbear of the road, the door-
shadows on the dark floor and gave the step! Every morning, when the weary
seeds the appearance of fat, shiny, white workers had retired within their brick-
bugs moving along in procession. capped city to rest and prepare their
The seeds made particularly difficult gardens from the woody supplies they
burdens both on account of their size had carried in the night before, we would
and of their shape. Also, it seemed re- find an embankment of orange seeds at the
markably hard to hold on to them, per- sala door. All night long a continual
haps because of their smooth, polished struggle went on to hoist the unwieldy
surfaces. A bearer, after much ma- objects across the wooden bar. Now and
neuvering around the seed and several then an ant would get a seed, longer than
tentative graspings, front, back, and sides, herself and far bulkier, balanced over her
would finally take hold and get all ar- head precisely like a leaf umbrella, and
ranged to go when suddenly the contrary with this great load would calmly ascend
object would slip from her grasp and spin the vertical wall, like an automobile on
away or roll over, Sepi and all, perhaps a Pike's Peak trial, and, crossing the top,
overturning a couple of other loaded ants unconcernedly fall off the other side into
in so doing, and occasion a whole new the sala, right herself, never losing hold
start. of the seed, and continue to the nest.
Such tugging, pulling, pushing, as But such feats of skill were rare. Usually
those orange seeds required! Then, when three or four Sepis might be seen strug-
they had been moved so far, what in- gling with each seed, beneath and above
describable difficulties were experienced it, the slippery seed escaping them again
302 NATURAL HISTORY
and again, rolling off over the patient so much hardship. What had the Sepis
toilers or dragging them down with it been collecting that night, we wondered.
from the sill. On investigation we were horrified to
It was a business which might well discover the red "sweeping compound"
have tried the patience of saint or Sepi, was all a tangled mass of little Sepi bodies
yet they kept perseveringly at it, buoyed, thickly heaped in fragments about the
no doubt, by the thought of the luscious floor. All were alike. Sepi had fought
orange-flavored fungus that was in store. with Sepi and here was the fruit of their
Perhaps they even boasted to strange nocturnal combat. What an awe-inspir-
Sepis of other cities of their good fortune, ing sight must have been that frightful
detailed the advantages accruing to the struggle between the hosts of diminutive
citoyennes of the sheltered City of the warriors. Alas, that on that night of all
Sala, and extolled the superiority of their nights something else occupied our time
mushrooms, nurtured on orange seeds. and the battle raging at our very side
Perhaps scouts from some rival city dis- went unobserved!
covered the treasure trove which our However, after a study of the battle-
Sepis possessed and from which they field, one may reconstruct all the catas-
garnered nightly. Since ant maidens trophe. Inasmuch as scientists hold
at least retain one old-fashioned maid- that ants of a city never fight among
enly virtue and seldom if ever speak to themselves, there must have been some
total strangers, even of their own race, outside enemy whi3h fell upon the in-
the latter supposition is more probably dustrious workers of the City of the Sala.
the correct one. Could we, then, have looked into some
Whatever the means, the report must neighboring Sepi city on that fatal even-
have gotten out, and, just as in the ing, we would have seen the warriors
human world the wealth and content- massing in the tunnels and passageways
ment which one nation enjoys invariably and moving up toward the surface, eager
arouse the envy and hatred of those and excited at the prospect of the com-
others that lack them, so the orange ing foray. Workers, too, are gathering
seeds, which our Sepis may well have to join in the raid and help harvest the
considered a dispensation from the gods spoils of victory. For long the dwellers
and an indication of special favor from of this city have struggled to find wood
their particular deity, turned instead into scraps and leaves in some barren patio
the precursors of destruction which war with which to raise their scanty gardens
and rapine released upon the happy city. of fungus, and much foraging has left
One day after we had acquired a new little to supply the needs of an ever-in-
broom, I swfept clean all the house increasing population. They are hungry,
cluding the Sepi road and the environs hving on short rations. But now, their
of their city. Next morning the sala scouts have told them, they will find
and gallery presented a strange appear- plenty, even overabundance of food in
ance. There were neither seeds, twigs, the rich and favored City of the Sala.
nor leaves to be seen, but everywhere Small wonder that the waiting Amazons
was some fine reddish stuff scattered and are eager, combing their feelers nervously,
heaped all about like a too plentiful the very taste of orange-flavoredmush-
sprinkling of cedar sweeping compound. rooms already in their mouths.
It was thickest about the city gates. Also With dusk they sally forth in a great
it was piled high on either side of that stream, marching swiftly, led by the
fatal doorsill which had caused the Sepis adventurous scouts who have already
LYNN _
"an orange seed made a difficult burden"

"Through the ranks of leaf- and twig-bearers was a slower moving column of orange seeds, whole
companies and battalions of them"
spied out the land. Into our patio they give battle, pitting their little cutting
go and across it to the brick-floored gal- jaws against the mighty crushing ones
lery. Meanwhile, the workers of our of the soldiers. In the patio and along
city have set out as usual, all unsuspect- the gallery they stand little chance. The
ing of danger, to their nightly harvesting. scattered hues are quickly overwhelmed
The branching columns have come down by the masses of the enemy. But the
into the patio among the orange seeds survivors retreat steadily toward the
and the leaders have already taken up city, their number constantly increasing
their loads and started back toward the until they make a decided stand at the
city, when the raiders strike. doorsill.
Some advance worker of the Sala city Here the battle rages furiously. Though
catches the signal of danger on her sensi- the workers lose ten to one, many an in-
tive feelers and sends the note of warning vading warrior dismembered, her legs
is
to her companions. But it is too late. and finally her great head hurled upon
A great noiseless telepathic cheer vibrates the field by the desperate and determined
from the forest of upraised feelersand working girls of the Sala, even though
the Amazons hurl themselves upon the those warrior jaws work fearful havoc
workers all along the gallery edge. with the smaller opponents ere they are
Through the heaps of orange seeds the torn from body and limb.
opening skirmishes are waged. The Gradually the invaders gain and hold
working girls of our city are no cowards. a footing on the disputed doorsill. The
Attacked, they unhesitatingly turn to workers are driven back and all the sala
NATURAL HISTORY
304
between the door and the city gates be- into its depths. Within they must have
I
comes a battlefield, a swirhng maelstrom "put to the jaw" every living inhabitant
of tossing bodies, writhing legs, and they came across. Queen, drones, cour-
slashing jaws of the frenzied combatants, ageous worker and cowering warrior
groups of workers fiercely cutting
of little doubtless suffered an equal fate. Then,
a soldier invader to pieces, of Amazons the battle won, the city theirs, the in-
charging back and forth, perhaps drag- vaders must have gathered mushroom
ging an enemy or two on their legs, gardens, orange and whatever
fertilizer,
slashing and crushing with their mighty else they considered of value, and re-
jaws. Nor is the battle noiseless. There turned in long triumphant column to
are quite perceptible sounds of combat. their own nest.
A scratching and by that

shuffling When dawn broke palely across the
myriad of tiny feet pounding upon the shadowed patio and sala, the field was
bricks of the sala. A faint cracking and again quiet after the storm of battle and
crunching as jaws grind through skulls plundering, and but deserted by the
all
and horny chest armor of smitten fight- living. Only

ghastly "sweeping
the
ers. Even, I can believe, there rose a compound" of heaped bodies remained,
tiny dust cloud from the field where these worker and warrior locked in the embrace
miniature Greeks and Trojans contended of death. Legs, hands, and dismem-
for a city and its wealth. bered torsos were everywhere. Scat-
Surely the question in every worker's tered among them were a few wounded,
mind as the battle raged must have been, pitifully struggling, less fortunate than
"Where are our own soldiers? Why don't those who had already died. A worker,
they come to our aid?" Truly, where head cling-
half her legs gone, a warrior's
were they? Why indeed did they not ing to one of the remaining members,
sally forth to aid their hard beset worker feebly tried to right herself and crawl
sisters?Were they so besotted and ener- away. A soldier, dreadfully battered,
vated by gorging on delicious orange writhed in futile striving to escape the
mushrooms that strength and courage grasp of workers whose jaws were for-
had left them? Were those beds of ever closed by death. Another dusty,
orange-seeded fungus a fatal formic bedraggled soldier, her abdomen nipped
counterpart of the Capuan baths that off, crept miserably about waiting to die.
enervated Hannibal's all-conquering Others, warrior and worker alike, lay
Carthaginians? Certainly, all the battle- there, mangled in every imaginable way.
field proofs indicated that not one war- In this the workers had a grim advantage.
rior issued from the portals of the Sala Though their dead far outnumbered
city to fight for home and country, not those of the invader warriors, their
even when the surviving working girls wounded were fewer. Jaws built for
rallied about the city gates and died fighting did their work better than those
there practically to the last woman. prepared by nature for the peaceful occu-
Over all that heaped field of dead, where pation of plant cutting. Altogether, the
worker clung to warrior and warrior to wounded of both sides were few. No
worker, there was no sign that even so quarter could have been asked nor of-
much as one warrior had come forth and fered in this battle between cousins.
laid jaw to enemy soldier. A few warriors were going over the
Next day the underground city held field when we came to investigate. These
secret from us what may have occurred must have been survivors of the Sala
when the conquering invaders poured tribe now tardily on the surface. They,
THE BATTLE IN THE SALA
ihe workers are driven back and all the sala
between the door and the city gates becomes a battle
field, a swirling maelstrom of
jW'
tossing bodies, writhing legs, and sla^shing
306
NATURAL HISTORY
slightest We left things as they were for twenty-
however, seemed to pay not the
four hours to see if additional survivors
attentionto the dead or wounded. Also
two were wandering
workers might appear from below ground, and if
one or
a dazed sort of way, still dust they would make any disposal of the dead,
about in
as evidence that they had done but in the evening no bustling workers
covered
sallied forth as had been their wont^ and
their share of fighting on that awful
They walked past the military next day foimd the field still heaped with
night.
did slain. Only a few despondent military
patrols without being noticed nor
patrols appeared at the portals between
they pay any attention to the soldiers.
They moved slowly with a manner of the bricks. We swept up the battlefield
and despair. About the that morning. An occasional soldier
utter weariness
gates of the city stood several more came from below ground that day, and the
and dispirited. The future succeeding night a half-dozen workers
soldiers, quiet
survivors of the catastrophe appeared and crawled aimlessly about.
for these
Then they also disappeared. Whether
must have been quite hopeless. They
of everything to the the handful of survivors migrated from
had been robbed
mushroom store, so the ill-fated city to attempt to found
last vestige of their
Un- another on what they had preserved
that starvation confronted them.
doubtedly their queen had been slain from the disaster, or whether they had
in the general massacre, and with
her merely retired to the depths to slowly
die, we could not tell, but during the
had perished the head and the vital
force of the tribe, the very city itself.

month of our stay in Santa Cruz after
this catastrophe, the Sepi city of the Sala
Nothing remained then for the miserable
little group of survivors but to perish also. remained as dead as Pompeii.
ACROBATS OF
THE MONKEY WORLD
The Antics and Marvelous Vitality of a Troop of Captive African Monkeys
By W. henry SHEAK
Naturalist and Lecturer
RECENTLY I had the good fortune He is the one monkey in the great African
to have under my care for about rain forest that will not bite when first
two months a collection of nearly caught. Of course there are exceptions to

fifty mangabey monkeys, one of which was the rule; some of the old males become
of the white-crowned species, Cercohus surly and will attack. But no monkey
hunulatus. She was one of the most de- makes such an ideal pet as the mangabey,
lightful pets I have ever had, as gentle as not even one of the capuchins of South
a kitten and as affectionate as a human America. Always active and playful, he
child. She seemed to take dehght in is a model monkey for exhibition.
my presence. Much of the time we had I had thirty-six of my sooty mangabeys
her tethered to a cage of mona monkeys, loose in an upstairs room. Instead of

and the top of this was her headquarters. being afraid of me and crowding into a
Whenever I came within reach, she would far corner when they heard me coming,
climb on my shoulder; when I stopped as did the green monkeys in an adjoining

to feed the monas, she would come and room, they would gather about the door,
sit on my knee, or snuggle up into my eager to see what I was bringing them to
arms, making it difficult for me to go on eat, and ready to pounce upon the buckets
with my work. A favorite approach was the instant I set them down. One speci-
to creep under my arm. She was a men, who was unusually tame and friendly,
shameless beggar, always teasing for would jump and grab hold of the rim of
something to eat whenever I was prepar- the bucket, when it was still in my hand,
ing feed. She would "talk" to me by the and climb inside of it. Often I would sit
hour in a low crooning voice when we over the bucket and hand out the bread
were alone together in the room. My or vegetables to them. Each would come
clothing was a source of great curiosity and take his share out of my hand. Some-
to her, and she never grew tired of times, with both hands full, a monkey
minutely inspecting my various gar- would walk away on his hind feet in an
ments, looking over them as one monkey upright posture. But more often, with a
looks over another. potato or other vegetable in each hand,
j
All the other monkeys in this coUec- he would walk across the floor, placing the
'
tion were sooty mangabeys, Cercocehus potato in his right hand on the floor
fuliginosus. This is a large species, dark at each step, while he carried his left hand
i
slaty-blue in color,and with the singular with its potato well away from the floor.
habit of carrying the tail always thrown Often when I was thus seated over the
forward over the back when standing or bucket, the pet I mentioned in the last
walking, as is well illustrated in the paragraph would come and crowd in
photograph showing the monkey perched between my legs and help himself to any
on my shoulders. choice bit the vessel might contain.
The sooty mangabey is an acrobat par He frequently sat on my knee while eat-
excellence. He good-natured and
is ing, sometimes even on my shoulder.
friendly, especially when taken young. He got to be a trouble maker. He would
308 NATURAL HISTORY
Photograph by N. H. Hartman
SHELLED CORN FOR DINNER
Nibs, the mischievous member ofMr. Sheak's troop of sooty mangabey monkeys, often would perch
on his master's knee while feeding
start a row with one of the other man- two older girls. If the monkey whimpered,
gabeys by snatching his feed or biting his one or another would hurry to him, pick
hand or foot, then run and jump into my him up, and get him something to eat.
lap where he was safe from pursuit. One So whenever he caught sight of me he
afternoon I was stretching a rope across began an incessant chatter, and kept it
one corner of the room, as a perch or up, until I satisfied his wants. I always
swing, making one end of it fast to a board had to attend to him first —before I did
nailed across the window. Nibs started anything for the others. One Sunday
the usual fight, ran and jumped into the morning he was tied outside on a window
window, and snuggled in between me and ledge. I was sweeping away some straw
the glass. Like all bullies he was a that one of the chimpanzees had thrown
coward, and while he did not hesitate to off the roof, when I happened to come
attack any of his fellows as long as I was near this mangabey. He caught me by
in the room, he always ran to me for pro- the hair and began to look over my head.
tection. Even when two other monkeys Deliberately and carefully he worked, all
got into a squabble in a far corner, he the time holding me by the left ear with
would run and jump into my lap with a one foot, the great toe and other toes
scream of fear. being just like thumb and fingers. When
Another mangabey had been a pet in a he was through with one side, he would
family where there was a small boy and give me a yank by the hair and pull me
ACROBATS OF THE MONKEY WORLD 309
around to where he wanted me. There bologna, which he proceeded to eat. At

were no "cooties," but every now and this was surprised, for, aside from
I
then he found something which went the baboons which are largely insectivo-
into his mouth and seemed to be to his rous in their diet, none of the monkeys
liking. are carnivorous to any appreciable ex-
Among the sooty mangabeys was an tent. Then, too, bologna is a highly
unusually fine large specimen which we artificialproduct. Later I offered some
called Max. Max was the most active of it to both the Guinea and Galada
monkey I ever saw. He was snatching baboons, but they refused it.
and grabbing at things from morning till This mischievous mangabey was
night. He was never still a minute. At strongly tempted by the rubber band I
first we had him in a small cage sur- wore about my shirt sleeve. His eyes
rounded by other similar cages. I had were very keen and he never failed to see
great trouble in feeding and watering the it, no matter how thread-like it was. He
other monkeys, be-
cause Max was
always snatching
what I wanted to
give them. Before I
could get a piece of
bread into an adjoin-
ing cage, he would
have it. When I at-
tempted to put a
pan of water into the
cage above his, he
would snatch it and
spill the water. If I
succeeded in getting
the pan into the next
cage, the chances
were about two to
one that with his long
arms he would be
able to reach it and
upset it. Even his
own food he seemed
to enjoy more when
he could snatch it
out of my hand, than

if he let me put t in
the cage. One day,
after I had divided
my own lunch with
him, he snatched From Elliot's "Review af the Primates"
out of my hand a THE WHITE-COLLARED MANGABEY

paper bag containing This monkey (Cercocebus torquatus) of west Africa lives in the forests of
southern Nigeria, Cameroon, and Gaboon. It has rather a shrill call,
a big piece of and frequently descends to the ground to feed
I
310 NATURAL HISTORY
almost always got it, too. One morning side,then from the other. He put his
he was chained on top of a large box- hand against the glass and felt of it. He
cage. I was cleaning a smaller cage near never before had seen a drinking vessel
it, and had to get down on one knee to use through which he could see the water.
the scraper. Max climbed on to my back, After examining the glass with his fingers,
got astride my neck, with his long legs he put his hand down into the liquid. He
hanging down nearly to the floor, and looked at it again from various angles,
had about
tried to untie a handkerchief I after which he took a few more sips.
my throat.Another time, when I was Once again he studied the glass from
standing, he cHmbed up and got astride different sides and felt all over it and
my neck. He had a very exalted inside of it. By this time he had lowered
opinion of his own importance. He the water almost half way. Finally he
seemed to entertain the conviction that, tried to drink through the side of the
instead of being subject to me, he was the glass on a level with the water surface.
—
master and I the slave that I existed for One evening Max had gone around a
the sole and only purpose of serving him. post of the balustrade inclosing the flat
One of Max's favorite performances roof of the porch, and wound his chain
was to rub his face with his feet or hind about he could not quite reach the
it till
hands, just as a laboring man rubs his pan of water I had placed on top of his
face with his hands in washing after a big box-cage. Seeing he was in a dilemma,
day of dirty work. He always used both I did not move the pan nearer, wondering
feet, going over his entire face, carefully how he would solve the problem. He
and thoroughly. was an interesting
It did not make any frantic efforts to reach
piece of acrobatic work, and bordered the pan, as I expected he would. Neither
on the realm of the contortionist. did he hesitate a minute, but went back
A certain hot morning in August I was to the post, followed the chain once
watering my charges before cleaning the around, then came and drank the water.
cages or feeding. Max was still in his big The species is marvelously intelligent and
box-cage. Bad as he was inside, he was quick in grasping a thought.
much worse on the outside because he
tS^ «S^ fjJ^
would climb all over me and appropriate
anything that struck his fancy. So I The African green monkeys and their
did not want to take him out till I had allies (Cercopithecus) might well be char-
cleaned the cage. There was no opening acterized as activity personified. They so
at the bottom of the cage and I had no abound in vitality that when confined to a
pan that would go between the wooden cage they are like a boiler under high pres-
bars. If I opened the panel that served sure of steam. I have seen the green
as a door, he would push his hands, if not monkey take a position on the floor of his
his head, through the portal, and I would cage, or on a broad, perch, jump sev-
flat
have difficulty in closing it. So I got a eral inches into the air,come down on his
drinking glass full of water and held it hands, rebound, alight on his feet, spring
out to him. This was a puzzle. He did again into the air, strike once more on his
not know what to make of it. I showed hands, and keep up this springing, rock-
him it was water by letting the fluid trickle ing motion for fifteen or twenty minutes
over the side. He was thirsty and drank with the regularity and precision of the
two or three swallows. But his curiosity swing of a pendulum. His muscles act
was stronger than his desire for drink. like elastic steel springs.
He got back, looked at the glass from one The vervet has a similar method of
ACROBATS OF THE MONKEY WORLD 311
relieving his pent-up energy. Without prominent, the eyelids an ashy-white,

touching his hands to the floor, he will and the size somewhat greater than in the
jump with his hind legs, well into the typical Cercopithecus monkeys. They are
air, and repeat, time and again, with often called "white-eyelid monkeys."
increasing rapidity, until the on-looker But like the typical members of the
becomes fairly dizzy. The seems
secret group, they are slender of form, have
to be that in the native free state they long hmbs and tail, and are extremely
live lives of such intense activity, that agile. The general color is dark or black-
when brought into confinement they are ish. The black mangabey is the Cerco-
compelled to invent some method of cebus aterrimus of the zoologists. He may
exercising their muscles and working off be known by his very dark slaty color,
excess vitality. They are all primates deepening to black in some places. The
of slender, graceful build, with attenu- collared mangabey (C. torquatus) has a
ated limbs and bodies, as well as long tails, well marked ashy-gray band or collar
adapted to seeking their food in the tops about the throat and nape;- also the
of tall trees. They must be alert of cheeks and chest are white. The white-
mind, stealthy and quick of movement, cheeked mangabey is C. albigena, in
to escape their numerous enemies, such which the forehead is also white or ashy-
as the leopard and the serval. gray, and the underparts whitish.
The mangabeys are a detached offshoot I have said that one of the distinguish-
from this group. Buffon so named them, ing features of the mangabeys is the back-
after a locality in Madagascar, under the wardly directed hair on the top of the head.
delusion that they came from that great But the white-crowned mangabey (C
island, the central home of the lemurs. lunulatus) is an exception. The hairs on
They Madagas-
are not only not found in top of the head are not only of a light
car, but are confined largely to western ashy-slate color, but are longer, erect,
Africa, and do not range very far to the though somewhat compressed or flattened,
south. They are forming a distinct
given a genus to crown, not unlike
themselves, called that of the bonnet
Cercocebus, and macaque, an
there are five or Asiatic species.
more species They
. The hair of the en-
are distinguished tire animal is more
by peculiarities of soft and furlike
the teeth; by the than in the other
backward direc- species, and is
tion of the hairs of slightly tinged
the crown, which over the body with
can be observed a soft slaty-brown.
plainly in the large At least twô other
illustration ac- species (C. albigena
companying this and C. aterrimus)
article; by having are also provided
the face more with crests.
lengthened, the
whiskers small, MAX, THE BIG SOOTT
MANGABET MONKEY,
STANDING OH MR. SHEAK's
the eyebrows very SHOULDERS
"gbologt point
bear mountain
TRAILING NATURE
How Nature Trails Are Operated at Bear Mountain, New York, by the American
Museum in Cooperation with the Commissioners of the Palisades Interstate Park
By WILLIAM H. CARR
Assistant Curator, Dept. of Education, American Museum
HOARSE,
A prolonged whistle echoes
up and down the narrow, rock-
lined Hudson gorge. It is eleven
o'clock in the morning and the first
It is
bear
notice a
when they have nearly reached the
pit, that some of the crowd
modest little sign announcing
may
crowded Dayhne boat is groaning to a THE BEAR MOUNTAIN NATURE TRAILS

protesting stop alongside the Bear AND TRAIIiSIDE MUSEUM
THIS WAY
Mountain dock. Before the day is over,
many more boats will pause here long
enough for some 40,000 persons to walk "Elsie," the disdainful black bear of
ashore in the hot summer sun. These Bear Mountain, is perched high up in the
people, of many nationahties, have come branches of an oak tree, sound alseep.
forty miles up the river from New York Her black muzzle rests on the tree trunk,
City to enjoy a breathing spell in the and she pays not the slighest attention to
open air. what is going on about her. Though
Like veritable sheep, they struggle up ''Elsie" is not interested in the people,
the steep, narrow path that leads from we are. It is for them that we have
the river level to the cliff top, above. labored for the past two years. Many
Here they come, a steady stream of persons who are "nature minded" and
perspiring, tired humanity, taking ad- many who are not, now leave the throngs,
vantage of what, to them, must be an and we know that presently they will pass
—
out-of-door Utopia the beautiful Harri- our first sign and stop before the "Nature
man section of the Interstate Park! The Trail Bulletin Board," beyond. A keen-
head of the hne reaches the upper level eyed young man, his wife, and his little
and pauses to look upon the rounded, boy, have stopped a moment to catch
quiet mountains. Just ahead is the their breath after the long climb.
covered ramp that leads over the bear "Nature Trails," reads the man,
dens to the Inn grounds. vaguely,
— "What are they? Where is
TRAILING NATURE 313
the 'Trailside Museum,' anyway? I and they you much more than just
tell
don't see it!" the names. The
best way is for you to
The bulletin board is there to answer follow the trail and read about the things
him. Nevertheless, we hear
his query that interest you."
and walk over to explain. There is noth- "How
about snakes," asks the man,
ing that can equal a direct, personal con- asthough he were in a department store.
tact, and we always Hke to make as many "Have you any? Junior wants to see a
of them as possible. rattlesnake."
"The Nature Trails," we tell the man, "We have no rattlesnakes just at
"are operated here by the American present," we answer; "but there is Ukely
Museum of Natural History in coopera- to be one along any day. How would a
tion with the Commissioners of the Pali- copperhead do? We have a mother and
sade Interstate Park." We then indicate four babies with grass-green tips on their
the first introductory label, which reads: tails!"
Junior is immediately anxious to see the
SIGNS ALONG THE TRAIL
babies with green tails. He forgets all
How many of us are able to read, un- about rattlesnakes in his enthusiasm.
aided, the 'signs' of Nature? Let the
guiding labels take the place of a nat- A sizable crowd now finds the trails and
uralist friend who has an interesting
pushes on past us. Nature Trails require
story to teU you as you follow the trail
no guides; nevertheless, we think it worth
while to accompany the httle family on
"I see," says the father; "We go along their way to the Trailside Museum.
and read a lot of labels that tell about Junior and his father are primarily inter-
—
things about trees and rocks. Is that it?" ested in the copperheads, yet they pause
"You are right," we answer. "The frequently to read labels as they go along.
labels are spaced about twenty feet apart The woman finds one on the chestnut oak.
AT THE BEGINNING OF THE TRAIL

An attractive bulletin board tells the interested visitor "What to look for this week'
314 NATURAL HISTORY
"TOAD HOUSE"
A home for transient toad residents is built in a tree at the side of the trail and constructed so that
visitors may become better acquainted with its occupants
"Is there a tree here that is just a plain enough for him to answer; for just in
chestnut?" she asks. front of the deserted nest is a small sign
Her question is answered automatically, upon which is mounted a colored drawing
for she comes upon another sign on a of the bird that made the nest. The
small oak tree that says, caption reads, "This is a last year's
catbird's nest." The nest is wired to the
the chestnut oak leat, though branches so that it cannot be dislodged.
differing somewhat from the
shapes of the american chestnut However, the wires are concealed and do
leaf, resemble it. thus the name
not spoil the picture.
'chestnut oak'
'What is a catbird. Daddy? "
"I don't know," says Daddy; "look
Underneath this label is another with a
at the picture."
drawing of both leaf types. The legend
"I see," says Junior; "but why do they
here advises that,
say 'catbird'?"
"Probably because cats like to eat it,"
there AKE some true AMERICAN
CHESTNUT sprouts NEAR THE SWAMP cheerfully returns father, with a happy
TRAIL. LOOK FOR THEM
burst of inspiration.
"You're wrong!" announces his wife,
We soon pass the granite ridge and have who has discovered another label. "This
nearly reached the Museum. The three sign says that it is named a 'catbird'
have read perhaps thirty labels
visitors because one of its calls sounds like a cat
and have missed as many more. Junior mewing."
discovers a bird's nest in the midst of a "Fair enough," says father.
clump of high-bush blueberries. we arrive at the Trailside
Presently
"What's this, Daddy?" he shouts. Museum, the focus point from which all
Daddy pauses and looks. It is simple of the trails radiate. It is constructed of
TRAILING NATURE 315
worn glacial bowlders, retrieved from a At last Junior gets his chance, and while
near-by hillside. It looks as though it he is squinting at the now discouraged
had always been there. little on and says:
"flea," father looks
"What a lovely place!" the wife ex- "I should think you would be afraid to
!
claims. " Let's go in let people use these instruments. It's a
Once inside, Junior, forgetful for the wonder they aren't broken!"
moment snake quest, locates two
o'^ his We explain that although many
microscopes on a green-topped table in hundreds of persons have used them, not
front of a window. once have they been injured
Daddy, come here " he cries
'
' What !
.
'
' "Why do you call this place a Mu-
are these things?" seum?" queries the man. "There are no
Daddy engrossed with a miniature
is stuffed birds or animals, here!"
model beaver pond, and is reading a
of a " This is no place for mounted animals,"
label that tells him to ''see the live beaver we answer. "There is no room, and if
in the pond below the bear dens" before there were, we would not use them, for
he goes home. Thus Mother walks over to this is an out-of-door museum. It is a
the table to aid that eternal little question museum without specimens. All you will
mark, her son. Here, once more, she finds see here are models, instruments, charts,
labels that tell a story. One of them reads and living things. That is the object of
THESE MICROSCOPES ARE FOR YODR

USE. TOU ARE INVITED TO GO WITH
THIS LITTLE ENAMEL PAIL TO THE
POND, JUST OUTSIDE, DIP THE PAIL
PULL or WATER, RETURN HERE, AND,
WITH THE AID OF THIS MEDICINE
DROPPER, EXAMINE YOUR FIND BE-
NEATH THE MICROSCOPE
Following his mother's instruc-

tions, Junior takes the much used
little pail and is soon back with
nearly as much water on his
clothes as is in the pail
Mother extracts a dropper full
of water from the pail, places it
on a glass slide beneath the lenses,
and in a moment, she, too, is call-
ing for father. She has seen some-
thing that she never saw before.
Responding to her call, father
comes and is soon looking ex-
citedly at the antics of a tiny
"water flea" that through the
microscope looks large indeed!
In the meantime, the restless
Junior is pleading for a "look."
However, he has to wait until his
A WINDMILL LABEL
parent has identified the "flea"
The geology of Bear Mountain is not overlooked by the
by means of the photographic Trailside Museum. The label under observation in this
chart that is near by. picture tells about the glacier that once covered the district
316 NATURAL HISTORY
this Trailside Museum."

"Good idea," volunteers the father.
'
' Something different always pays . There
are plenty of museums in the city where
they have stuffed things with glass eyes."
An hour soon passes, and still the
"sights" in the small building have not
been exhausted. Junior finds a hog-nosed
snake in a glass cage. He reads the sign
which says,
AN OPOSSUM OF THE REPTILE WORLD
We take the snake out and demon-

strate its "possum playing" capabilities.
Junior, despite his mother's pleas to the
contrary, picks the hog-nose up and
handles it, curiously studying its actions.
As soon as his mother observes that there
TRAILING NATURE 317
THE AMPHIBIAN TABLE IN THE TRAILSIDE MUSEUM

Salamanders, tadpoles, and young toads tell their own life stories with the aid of Museum labels
animals have attracted a good-sized Like his brothers in the wild, he never
crowd that stands looking at them with becomes offensive unless actually injured
mixed emotions. We walk around to the or very much frightened.
back of the cage and take out one of the Before the little exhibition is over, the
skunks, so that Junior may stroke its fur skunk has gained new friends. We put
and see it at close range. When we walk him back with his sister and watch him
toward the people, we notice that most of curl up and go to sleep. Perhaps there is
them fail to hold their ground. They re- no other small animal in the world more
treat to a respectful distance. independent than the skunk unless it be
"This is a tame skunk," we tell them. the porcupine This independence stands
!
"His name is 'Sachet.'" "Sachet" in good stead upon the Nature

The crowd, however, is not reassured. Trails, for he is never annoyed when
The spectators make no advances until visitors refuse to take a serious interest in
"Sachet" in his arms
finally Junior takes him. He regards all comers with an equal
and smooths the sleek fur gently with one indifference.
hand. Then the questions come thick "I should think," says Junior's father
and fast. reflectively, aswe walk on toward the
"Why doesn't he do something?" asks snake cages, "it would be quite an under-
one boy. taking to run a nature trail like this one."
"Because he doesn't want to," sug- "Well," we return, "it is a good bit of
gests another. work, but like many another educational
Eventually, many hands come haltingly projects, the result is more than worth the
out to touch the harmless "Sachet," who, effort."
though in full possession of all his weapons, "The building of a nature trail," we
refrains from using them due to the fact continue, "is something like the building
that he is not in the slightest alarmed. of a fire. The more carefully the kindling
318 NATURAL HISTORY
"
is laid, more readily will the wood
the see in the daytime Did you know that?
!
above burn when once the match has been Before father can answer, there comes
struck. In the instance of the nature from the docks a loud interrupting
trail, Nature herself has provided the whistle It is a warning that leaving time
kindhng in the way of innumerable out-of- has come.

door exhibits. remains for the trail
It The family misses seeing the hidden
builder to use that kindling in such a way label trail, the well without water, the
that he for whom the work has been done historical trail, "Virginia," the red fox,
may apply the match of interest and see the elk and the deer, and numerous other
the flame of knowledge." things. The whistle calls them again,
"There probably is never a lack of and with a "good-bye," a "thank you,"
fuel!" says the man, understandingly. and a promise to " come again," they walk
"No, there never is," we agree. " That off toward the waiting boat. Junior calls,
is the least of our worries, yet we must as he goes down the hill, "I'm coming
constantly remember that it is impossible back as soon as you get a rattlesnake!"
to tag and label trees, flowers, and rocks Tree shadows are lengthening on the
in the open as one would in a museum. open field as we go on up the trail toward
We try to make invitations of the signs the cabin. Wa pause for a moment be-
along the trail. They aim toward the inside the active ant hill with its descrip-
formal teaching of facts as well as of tive signs and its protective fence. An
ideas." elderly gentleman is here regarding the
At this point in our conversation, we are signs. He turns toward us with an ex-
interrupted by Junior who has deserted us pression of real appreciation in his eyes,
again. He hurries his father on to see associates us somehow with the work,
"Josephine, the Second," a dignified, and says, this is great! I have
"I think
great-horned owl, who perches important- been all over these trails and I want to
ly in her cage. thank you people for giving me an inter-
"Daddy, this sign says that owls do esting day!"
Drawn by Marion Dergner Carr

Maple sugar. — From the bark the squirrels get their vitamines and
a little maple sugar, much diluted
THE RED SQUIRREL FARM

A Palatial Sanctuary for Squirrels that Is the Most Unique in the World
By ROBERT T. HATT
HALF hidden among the peaceful

rolling hUls of Westchester
To understand this house one must
know those who have built their lives
County, New York, lies a farm into it. It is difficult to dissociate
that unique not only in the County but
is Doctor Powers from her squirrels, yet
in the world. Here in a large and ram- she is as versatile as she has been
bling house its owner has assembled a thorough, and she may claim distinction
collection of all things squirrel that has not only in her scientific study of squirrels
doubtless never been equaled for any but in her profession as a psycho-analyst.
other group of animals. One first sees Twenty-four years ago, traveling in
evidence of this when one turns into the Ceylon with her husband, she first be-
estate from the highway and passes became interested in squirrels. One day,
tween two stone pillars that bear at their while they were driving along a dusty
top a frieze of painted red squirrels, road, a small half-clad native boy held
which mutely let the visitor know that up to them a young palm squirrel in
this is the Red Farm.
Squirrel expectation of receiving a copper for ex-
One drives ^long a wooded lane until hibiting his captive. Through sympathy
the trees recede. Down an apple-bor- for the squirrel they gave the boy a sum
dered drive appears the great house of money sufficient to give them title to
whose mission is evident at first glance. the creature, which they took back to
The two upper stories are masked by a their hotel. The nights in Kandy were
great maze of outdoor cages and the chilly and the baby squirrel was doubtless
forest of branches within them. One at undernourished. As a result, in the
first sees little room for human habita- morning the young one was cold and
tion and, in fact, it seems more likely stni. Though they had at first taken
that the squirrels share their home with little interest in the captive, their neglect
Dr. miian Delger Powers and her husband made them remorseful. Fortunate it
than that they have given over much of was for the little squirrel that both were
their home to the squirrels. skilled doctors. They worked over the
320 NATURAL HISTORY
inert body as though a human life were showing squirrels, which they knew
at stake, and eventually, with the aid of would find a ready market.
hot-water bags and massage, the tide of Later Doctor Powers moved to New
life came back, the little one opened its York, where she lived for several months,
eyes and won their hearts. and then, in search of more suitable sur-
Afterward they settled down near a roundings, moved to her present paradise
German seaport. In Germany, squirrels of squirrels.Because the American reds
are considered great pets and here Doctor and the German reds were at that time
Powers started her collection. Sailors more numerous than all the other species,
soon learned of her interest and brought the farm took its name from the party
squirrels from all over the world to her, in the majority.
and as the collection grew so did her in- The guest S3rmpathetic with animals
terest. Noted artists were commissioned is welcomed warmly. When you first
to make portraits of her squirrels. Some enter the house, you may well be be-
worked in oils,, some in bronze, and some wildered, for the walls are literally cov-
in wood. Drawings and photographs ered with squirrel canvasses. Windows
supplemented the collection. Some of the contain stained glass squirrel panels.
pictures shown on these pages were made Sculptured squirrels are legion. Then,
then. Old sculptured squirrels, tapestry, from the floor above, you hear strange
paintings, stained glass, silver, porcelain, sounds descending. Two squirrels are
any art work showing squirrels was running exercising wheels and another
added. And theabout the
artisans is scolding vociferously. In a moment
country were not slow to turn their you ascend the stairs to the labyrinth of
hands to the task of making objects screen walls that divide the immaculate
COMRADES
Two gray squirrels rest between "shots" in the making of a fihn
THE RED SQUIRREL FARM 321
RED SQUIRREL FARM

With 150 squirrels inside and perhaps 50 more outside, the hub of the squirrel world might well
be here
linoleum floors into large compartments aggressive that even his keeper must lock
or, more appropriately, apartments. You htm box each time he wishes
in his nest
put in your pocket, from the ever ready to clean the cage, for an angered squir-
tray, a handful of cracked pecans and rel's bite is not a pleasant thing.
pine nuts to show your good will to those Not all squirrels get along well to-
squirrels you are to meet. Then you gether and those of bad reputation are
follow into one of the compartments isolated. It is sometimes possible to
and close the door carefully behind find three species of tree squirrels, a
you. Several squirrels come near and cockatoo, and some flying squirrels all
look down at you from the interlacing living together in peace. There are
branches above. They run over the screen fightsfrom time to time in almost every
walls near your shoulder. If you whistle cage, but no more than there might be
to them or move toward them suddenly, among the members of one family. Each
you are not likely to make friends with one knows his own bed and goes to it
many. If you move slowly, talk quietly, at about the same time every night to
and call them with a low "tchu-u-k, sleep.
tchu-uk,'" you may soon find one on your When a squirrel first arrives, it is
shoulder looking for the expected nut isolated for a time until it gets used
and showing a delightful confidence. Not to its surroundings and its neighbors.
all are so confident or friendly, however. Then it may be put in with a few other
Some squirrels come quickly to any squirrels. They get acquainted with one
visitor, some trust only Doctor Powers another in a short time (not always with-
and their keeper. One squirrel is so out a fight to force recognition of
322 NATURAL HISTORY
A PAIR OF NUTCRACKERS
Nuts on the farm are not opened for the squirrels. If they did not have hard-shelled nuts to
gnaw through, their teeth would soon grow so long that they would be beyond use and their
owner would starve, a martyr to the eflficiency of his own chisels
mastery) and then may be moved again. one not merely of squirrels of many hues
A few squirrels that are favorites are and sizes but one of so many different
moved every day to keep aHve their friends, not one of whom reacts the same
interest. Though each large compart- as does another.
ment has a passage leading to an out- Every squirrel bears a name. I sus-
side screened balcony where the squir- pect, though, that Doctor Powers has
rels enjoy the rain, the snow, and the often been troubled to find a new one,
sunshine, they like a change of scenery, with an average stock of one hundred
as do humans. Eighteen years is a long and fifty individuals. There is Gunga
time to spend in one abode, no matter Din, the friendly giant of the house, who
how large and fine. A privileged few traveled all the way from Malabar, and
have crossed the ocean several times his compatriot, Cleo, a charmer with
with Doctor Powers, but most of them, most engaging manners. One offers
of course, must stay at home when she Gunga Din a haff banana and he hangs
is forced to be away. Young ones born by his toes and eats it at his leisure.
within the house must early be taken In the pocket of an old coat hanging be-
from their mother or they become too hind a door you see something move.
wild. Trust, it seems, is in part born of Gently introduce your hand and lift out
dependence on food. Ultimo. Ultimo was born very late one
As one always finds with pets, every season to a proud mother flying squirrel.
animal is possessed of an individualism But Ultimo was such a tiny runt that
all its own that anthropomorphically we there was little hope of his surviving.
call personality. Thus the collection is Tender care and special feeding pulled
him through and now he is as fine a Httle Tico, a Prevost squirrel, takes first
ghded across a room in this
fellow as ever place in brilliant coloration. His back
house of wonders. His fur is like thistle- and tail are sable black; his cheeks
down for softness, his eyes like great and chin are gray. All his underside
ebony hazlenuts, and his tail like a and his arms are washed with a reddish
feather. chestnut and between the red and black
Curly, the most human of any, is of lies a band of hair as white as snow.
good gray American stock and shows The squirrel's whole apartment is his
great devotion to Doctor Powers. Every gymnasium, but he is given added
day they play together and Curly's pleasure with an exercising wheel. Every
favorite gesture is a gentle kiss with his compartment has one or more and they
sharp teeth which he will never use to are almost constantly in use. During
hurt one. Topsy Turvy over there is the day the big squirrels use them and
running her wheel like a conscientious in the night the tiny flying squirrels keep
lady doing her daily dozen. Sampson the wheels rolling. With squirrels it is
and Delilah were a faithful couple, and a great sport. They run furiously
will
when Delilah died one night of fright for a few minutes, leap out and back in
after a subway ride in my coat pocket, again while the wheel goes on. Some-
her husband was grief stricken and called times another squirrel leaps in, another
loudly night and day until he got back and another, all becoming one swirling,
home. Then there are Tinker-Bell, leaping mass of fast-moving fur. Then
Carola, Gabriello, Ariel, Puck, and Mus- one jumps out, and another, and an-
tard. other. The squirrels may turn around
m.
A EUROPEAN RED
The great graceful ear-tufts grow on the common squirrel of Europe. None of our squirrels equal
them, in this, though some try hard in winter to be good rivals
324 NATURAL HISTORY
THE KOAD WITHOUT AN END

A rat in less than three years ran his wheel 5447 miles. A squirrel doubtless runs the circumference
of the earth, ifhe lives to ripe old age
and race the other way. Perhaps one the case, for on rare occasions when
will try to keep pace on the outside of venturesome wandered away from
spirits
the moving drum, but rarely with suc- their paradise, they soon found their
cess. I always think when watching way back. Doctor Powers once opened
them of the work that could be done if a little window in the roof of a screened
all this energy were harnessed. balcony occupied by a group of flying
Food is a pleasure to the squirrels and squirrels, thereby giving them the op-
a problem to the owner of this *'Ritz portunity to come and go. For a long
Squirrelton." Nuts of every sort, pine time they went out at night and came
cones, vegetables, fruits, seeds — fully 57 back in the early hours. After awhile
come to every squirrel.
varieties Then they located in the neighboring trees
each must have his cod-liver oil on and only returned to the house to secure
schedule to keep in best condition. Not supplies. One of them still comes back
every one will eat alike. Some that in to the house every night to run her ex-
old age — due to a bad early —have
life ercising wheel. A Chinese squirrel gained
lost their teeth, can take only soft food. liberty several years ago, went out and
It is a tribute to Doctor Powers that she saw the world, and then apparently
can keep such poorly equipped squirrels decided that there was no place like
in good health. home and came back. gray
Several
With all this easy life, every want but were given the privilege of go-
squirrels
complete liberty supplied, no enemies ing and coming as they pleased. They
about them, shelter in all weather, it make free use of this opportunity. Some
would seem that the squirrels would come back to sleep in the house, others
never wish to leave, and this must be nest outside but come in to dine. One
sees the wild squirrels outside trying to every actor was a squirrel. The squir-
get in more often than the squirrels in- relsprobably knew no more about what
side trying to get out. Other animals they were acting than many Hollywood
sometimes are housed with the squirrels; stars, but they did lend themselves will-
guinea pigs, tree shrews, parrots, cocka- ingly to the task. One little red squirrel
toos and pheasants, but they are passing became so thoroughly absorbed in her
fancies. work under the strong lights that when
If this great colony were just a hobby, her task was done she died of exhaustion
giving to but one person, it
pleasure but, as a good actor, waited for the final
might be hard to justify. But this has curtain. From her long labor Doctor
never been the case. Doctor Powers' Powers made six film stories which have
collections have formed the bases for been shown in the large theatres and
several scientific works; her records museums and now are on the eve of
have all been carefully made and are re- achieving popularity in the home film
markably complete. At this writing she libraries. They were all titled by a
is engaged on her first book, which professional humorist who was partly
promises to be a splendid story. in control, and have proved popular
Perhaps it is not strange that it oc- with all audiences. We find such titles
curred to her to use her squirrels in mov- "The Romance of Curly
for the plays as
ing pictures. It is remarkable, though, Squirrel," "The Family Album," and
that even with all her resources she was "The Diary of A. Knutt." The leading
able to make successful plays in which comedienne of the films was a small red
ADOLESCENCE
All eyes and hands and feet, but accepting the commensalistic life of the Squirrel Farm as though
it were the only one
326 NATURAL HISTORY
squirrelnamed Hepsy, who continually then answered that more than any other
bury nuts in a tumbler of water
tried to thing he wished to have Miko reduced
and vigorously pushed them down be- in size. Thereupon he received the divine
neath the surface as rapidly as they mandate and went forth to the forest
arose. One sees, too, the flying squirrels where he met the bold, bad squirrel.
whose instinct to hoard food is so strong The old man raised his hand and Miko
that they usually fill up their nest boxes shrank to his present small proportions.
so completely that they themselves can- To this day he has been querulous at
not gain entrance. the sight of man. Many of us have tried
In Scandinavian legend the squirrel to overcome this fear and often, in our
was the messenger of the gods, carrying cities, some squirrels do become fairly
news to them of what went on upon the tame.

earth among the other animals. The All who have taken wild squirrels,
legend does not tell us what the other though, and tried to make them mem-
animals thought of the squirrel. In the bers of a household, will know that
Red Squirrel Farm the squirrels keep Doctor Powers has done the all but im-
their secrets to themselves. Among the possible. Gentleness, quietness, perse-
Indians of New
Brunswick a legend had verance, and some ingenuity, have been
it that the squirrel was an enormous factors in her success in taming squirrels.
creature and bore the name Miko. One She has made friends of creatures others
day the Great Spirit asked an old man keep as wild animals or kill.
of the tribe what he most desired. The Lucky is the squirrelwho lives his life
patriarch considered for a moment and in the shelter of the Red Squirrel farm.
HEPSY, THE COMEDIENNE

Hepsy's instinct told her that all these fine nuts should be buried to provide against a future
famme, but why the nuts would not stay under water when put there she could never understand
JONATHAN D WIGHT
1858-1929
By frank M. chapman
Curator-in-Chief, Division of Zoology and Zoogeography, American Museum
AFTER a prolonged illness, Dr. Jonathan done. He was

a pioneer in the study of the molt
/J^ Dwight died at his home in New York of birds; he formulatedand helped us thoroughly
City on February 22, 1929, in the seventy- to understand the laws governing the sequence
first year of his age. of plumages. He combated, vigorously and
Doctor Dwight was a research associate of the effectively, the theory that pigmental change
department of birds in the American Museum, occurs in the mature feather, and demonstrated
and for the last twenty-five years the Museum that the alleged cases of change in the colors of
has been his ornithological home. Here his col- birds' plumage without molt were actually due
lections were deposited, here he conducted his to new feather growth or to wear in the old
studies, and here, as a member of our staff, he feather.
shared in our counsels. His large and, in certain Doctor Dwight never fired until he was ready.
respects, unequalled collection of American birds, But, when he did train his guns, victory was vir-
with the exception of a representative series be- tually assured. He did not become the leading
queathed to the Museum of Springfield, Massa- authority on his subject without years of prepara-
chusetts, he left to the American Museum. tion. The earlier collectors of birds wanted only
Brought together with judgment and discrimina- specimens in perfect plumage. During the molt-
tion, it has exceptional scientific value. But as ing season they either did not go afield or dis-
we refer to it, we specimens alone
will find that carded specimens in worn or incomplete plumage.
cannot give us that special, authoritative informa- These, however, were the very birds that Dwight
tion which Doctor Dwight always so generously wanted. They told the story he was trying to
held at our disposal. put in words. But such specimens are not easy
Doctor Dwight was born in New York City in to acquire. When molting, birds are quiet and
1858 and lived here all his Ufe. He was graduated retiring. A special effort was therefore needed to
at Harvard in 1880 in the same class with ex- secure the material essential to his studies. No
President Roosevelt; and at this period both small part of ithe collected himself. After it was
young bird students attended meetings of the assembled, the technique required for its
NuttaU Ornithological Society of Cambridge, the interpretation called for that tireless spirit of
local organization, which in 1888, gave birth to investigation with which Dwight was so
the American Ornithologists' Union. abundantly blessed. Nearly thirty years have
Some years later Doctor Dwight took up the passed since his more important work on birds'
study of medicine and, in 1893, graduated from plumages appeared.^ It blazed a trail which has
the College of Physicians and Surgeons. He become a main traveled road.
practiced medicine for a short time from his then The subject was endless, and Doctor Dwight
home at No. 2 East Thirty-fourth Street, and treated it both objectively and philosophically.
from 1894 to 1904 was assistant surgeon in the In "The
Gulls of the World,"^ his last important
department of laryngology in the Vanderbilt work, Doctor Dwight's special knowledge of
CUnic. But his ever increasing interest in the plumage change was brought successfully to bear
study of birds and the attention demanded by his on problems in systematic ornithology which had
growing collections finally induced him to aban- long puzzled his predecessors.
don medicine and devote himself exclusively to If Doctor Dwight had not done so much for
ornithology. Doctor Dwight's special field in others he might have done more for himself. An
this branch of zoology was a study of the laws Associate Founder (1883) of the American Orni-
underl5dng plumage changes and of the methods thologists' Union, he was elected a Fellow in
by which these changes were effected. It was 1886, and up to his final illness never missed
characteristic of him to select a difficult problem, 1" Sequence of Plumage and Moults of the Passerine Birds
carefully lay his plans for its conquest, and then of New York." Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci., XIII, 1900, pp. 73-
360.
patiently, persistently, and with the utmost care 2The Gulls (Laridae) of the World; Their Plumages,
proceed with his investigations. Quality, not Moults, Variations, Relationships and Distribution. Bull.
Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., LII, 192.5, pp. 63-401; 384 figures;
quantity, was his motto. All that he did was well 10 colored plates.
328 NATURAL HISTORY
National Guard, and at this time won distinction
attendance at the annual meetings of the Union.
His devotion to the affairs of the Union was as a rifle shot. He was twice married, —in 1901 to
further expressed in the long period (1903-1920)
Georgina Gertrude Rundle, who died in 1903;
during which he served as its treasurer. in 1914 to Ethel Gordon Wishart Adam, who
To the National Association of Audubon So- survives him.
cietieshe also gave freely of his time. He was a Doctor Dwight wrote his name for all time in
director (1908-1929) and member of its executive the annals of the science of birds, but it is en-
committee from 1910-1929, and its treasurer graved far more deeply in the hearts of his friends.
from 1908 to 1929. The Linnsean Society was his He was a lovable man; gentle, kindly, con-
especial charge. He was elected one of its first siderate,and courteous. He inspired confidence
members, and for years rarely was absent from its that never was misplaced. He was responsive
meetings; while from 1901 to 1921 he filled the and sympathetic, a friend to share one's sorrows
It was, therefore, particularly
office of president. as well as one's joys. His own standards were of
appropriate that he should receive the medal of the highest and he adhered to them, but such was
this Society, which was awarded him on February the generosity of his nature that he never sat in
judgment on his neighbor. Never did I hear him
19, 1929.
For seven years (1889-1896) Doctor Dwight speak ill of others; never did I hear others speak
was a member of the Seventh Regiment of the ought but good of him.
WHO'S WHO IN "NATURAL HISTORY"
Dr. Boy Waldo Miner, curator of marine life at the submitted the article to Prof. William Morton Wheeler of
American Museum, has devoted many years to the study of Harvard, who is also on the staff of the American Museum,
marine life along the New England coast; he has taken in order to get the opinion of this outstanding authority on
part in several expeditions to Porto Rico and the Lesser ants.
Antilles, and more recently visited the Bahamas, where, Even Professor Wheeler, however, could not be certain
with the aid of the Williamson submarine tube he whether Mr. Locke's surmises are correct. Such a
descended to the floor of the sea, obtaining photographs and tragedy is not a matter of record, but it may be that Mr.
specimens from the living coral reef at Andros. The results Locke's conclusions are correct. In any event, Mr. Locke.
of the expeditions and studies have crystallized especially — —
as well as the editors of Natural History are endea vor-f
in many exhibits for the Darwin Hall including the recently ing to find out what did happen if Mr. Locke 's surmises are
completed Rotifer Group, and the great Coral Reef Group not correct. If any of the readers of Natural History
now under construction for the Hall of Ocean Life. can positively bear out or confute Mr. Locke's surmise, the
In "Outposts of the Sea" Doctor Miner touches briefly editors would appreciate hearing from them.
upon one of the great actsinthedrama of evolution, atheme
which will be developed in greater detail in a volume under W. Henry Sheak, whohas contributed "Acrobats of the
preparation. Monkey World" to this issue, was graduated from the old
United Brethren College at North Manchester, Indiana,
James L. Clark, author of "By Motor from Nairobi to with the Bachelor of Literature degree, but his student
the Nile," is assistant director of the American Museum, in days have stretched from the cradle down to the present
—
charge of preparation- that is, in charge of the preparation hour. He prepared for the ministry, but has spent most of
of all material used in the exhibits of the Museum. Articles his time in writing for newspapers and magazines, in the
by him have appeared often in Natural History, and his study of natural history, and in lecturing on animals. He
book. Trails of the Hunted, recently published, tells in detail created a sensation in the church and among the newspaper
the story of his twenty-five years of work in the field fraternity by joining a circus, where he earned the title of
and in his studio. Mr. Clark is a sculptor as well as a taxi- Circus Chaplain. He has traveled with Barnum and Bailey,
dermist, and hishunting has taken him to Africa three times, the Ringling Brothers, John Robinson, and several ex-
across Asia once, and many times he has been in the field clusively animal shows. He has studied in all the great
in North America. zoological gardens and natural history museums of America,
and has spent much time in original research in field and
In July, 1928, Mr. Sidney Tyler, who has written forest.
"Children of the Orinoco Plains" for this issue of Natural
History, financed the Tyler-Duida Expedition sent out by
the American Museum, and accompanied the expedition to In Japan an important part of the education of the cul-
Mount Duida, which hes in Venezuela far up the Orinoco tured classes is a thorough knowledge of the ancient litera-
River. He was to be historian and photographer of ture and traditional dramas of that country. The No
the trip, but having arrived at Mount Duida, he was plays and songs are famous among these, and Mr. S.Ichi-
"
kawa, author of Masks and Dramas of Old Japan," who
forced to accompany another member of the expedition,
who became ill, to the jungle headquarters of a physician has made a special study of them, gives a brief outhne of
who also was exploring on the upper Orinoco. During this their history and development. Mr. Ichikawa is in charge
difficult journey Mr. Tyler was himself taken sick, and the of the care and airangement of the Japanese and Chinese
physician, while permitting Mr. Tyler's companion to Halls at the American Museum, and recently accomplished
rejoin his party on Mount fDuida, advised against Mr. the restoration of the mosaic disc found at Chichen Itza.
Tyler's return. He consequently came back to the United
States, but is now once more on the Orinoco River —
this Previous to his connection with the American Museum as
—
time with D». Herbert Spencer Dickey in an effort to assistant curator in the department of education, William
discover the source of the Orinoco, which is the only large H. Caxr had much experience in establishing outdoor mu-
river in the world the source of which is still unknown. seums for the Boy Scouts and similar organizations.
He also was editor of The Camp Naturalist, a periodical
About a year ago the editors of Natural History re- devoted to camp life. For the last three years Mr. Can-
ceived a large envelope from Mr. David Locke, mailed from has been resident naturalist at the Bear Mountain Nature
Corpus Christi, Texas. The enclosures were the manu- Trails in Palisades Interstate Park. Here, during five months
script of an article entitled "Seeds of Disaster" which of each year, he has been developing the Trails and the
appears in this issue of the magazine, and a letter asking Trailside Museum that are being operated by the American
whether the author was correct in his surmise as to the cause Museum in cooperation with the Commissioners of the
of the tragic defeat of the ant colony he had so carefully Palisades Interstate Park.
watched while living in the town of Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Aday at the Nature Trails is described in Mr. Carr's
Boliva. The editors, being unable to answer the question. "Trailing Nature."
EXPEDITIONS
OF THE
AMERICAN MUSEUM
"/NATURAL HISTORY
NOWINTHEFELD
NUMBEKEO IH ACCOHOANCE
WITH THE LIST PttXtiTZD
BELOW
1. Central Asiatic; 2. Beck, New Guiana, for birds; 3. Whitney South Sea, Solomon Islands, for birds; 4. Vernay-
Faunthorpe for Asiatic mammals; 5. Madagascar for birds, mammals, and fossils; 6. Sanford-Legendre,
Abyssinia for mammals and birds; 7. Straus, Nyasaland for birds; 8. Tanganyika for birds and mammals 9. Thorne- ;
Correia, Sao Thom6 for birds; 10. Wm. G. Hassler, Florida for reptiles; 11. Chester A. Reeds, Lake Passaic varves;
12. Bernheimer, Southern Utah, for fossils; 13. Frick-Rak, Sante F6, for fossils; 14. Vaillant, Mexico, for archaological
finds; 15. Benson, East Panama, for birds; Blick, Honduras for fossils; 16. Shapiro, Polynesia, physical anthropology.
17. Tyler-Duida, Venezuela, for birds and mammals; 18. Naumburg-Ksempfer, Southeastern Brazil, for birds; 19. BjTd,
Antarctic
THE FIELD OF
IN
NATURAL HISTORY
Expeditions — ScientificResearch —
Conservation

EXPEDITIONS The Sanford-Legendre Abyssinian Expedi-
The Seventh Bernheimer Expedition of tion has informed the Museum by cable of
the American Museum left New York on Maj- 15. noteworthy success in collecting a group of
It will explore three different locaUties in the
nyala. Complete material has been secured,
Montezuma Creek Southern Utah,
region of
The
comprising males, females, and young. larg-
where one of Mr. Bernheimer's guides has located
est bull secured had horns 40 inches along the
dinosaur bones of major size. Mr. Barnum
Brown, the Museum's curator of fossil reptiles,
curve.Among other specimens secured for the
is accompanying the party, and will remain on

Museum collections are the Abyssinian red
wolf, the black bushbuck, Abyssinian duiker,
the ground for some time. The expedition will
oribi, and kUpspringer. The expedition expects
then proceed westward in quest of new archaeo-
logical data. Earl H. Morris, archaeologist at the
to go to the Omo River and later to the Kaffa
Carnegie Institution, is also with the expedition.

Forest to try for Museum desiderata.
Tyler-Duida Expedition. — -G. H. H. Tate, Mr. William J. Morden, field associate in

leader of this expedition, has returned to New mammalogy, .American Museum, and Mr.
York, thus bringing to a close a most success- George Graves, who is now on an expedition to
ful collecting trip and mammals of
for birds the Arctic, are to head an expedition that will
that previously unexplored territory of South spend the winter of 1929-30 in Siberia in search
America. of long-haired Amur River tigers. Mr. Morden
330 NATURAL HISTORY
August for Turkestan in order to
will leave in The first fairwas attended by more than 36,000
and will be joined in
collect the saiga antelope, children and A total of 130 awards was
adults.
November by Mr. Graves. Together they will given for the best exhibits and 3000 children
collect in the Amur River district during the participated.
winter. Natural History Magazine will
The annual Institute Children's Fair is "de-
pubhsh further details of the expedition in the
signed to focus attention on the sciences and to
next number. foster a scientific interest in agriculture, garden-
ASTRONOMY ing, nature study and conservation," among New
The Amateur Astronomer, official journal of the York school children. under eighteen
All pupils
Amateur Astronomers Association, made its years of age residing in any of the five boroughs
initial appearance the latter part of April. It will of Greater New York are eligible to exhibit.
be published on the 15th day of each month, Individual entries this coming fall will include
except in July and August, under the editorship homemade terraria, exhibits illustrating bio-
of Dr. Clement S. Brainin of the department of logical principles, exhibits relating to geology,
astronomy, Columbia University, and it is and living as well as mounted insects. There will
expected that it will prove of the utmost possible be a special section devoted to astronomy, in-
service and interest to the members of the Asso- cluding displays showing changes of the seasons
ciation. and their causes, phases of the moon, studies of
A supplement issued with this first number the various constellations, and homemade
bears a facsimile of the highly appreciated original telescopes.
letter of greetings sent by Prof. Albert Einstein
Entry of models and apparatus relating to the
to the Association on April 8, together with the
physical sciences and inventiveness in the city
following translation:
home be encouraged for the purpose of
will
Science must set itself not only the task of ever making
progress. In the first instance, made possible by the daily stimulating the ingenuity of New York City
work of thecommunity at large, science should in turn children. Another new feature of this year's
bring to the community both enjoyment and edification.
In this sense, I wish your undertaking every success. fair is the entry class called "Chemistry in the
—
A. Einstein
Home."
A map of the night sky for April and May also Camps, pubUc and private schools, and parks
appears in this issue.
willbe allowed to exhibit as organizations. These
At Its April 17th Meeting, the Amateur displays will appear under the following classes:
Astronomers Association presented a scroll to Gardens, Conservation of Forests and Wild
Mr. Worcester Reed Warner, electing him to Flowers, Conservation of Birds and Animal Life,
honorary membership in the society, in recogni- Park and Roadside Conservation, Conservation
tion of his outstanding service to Astronomy. in Industry, Conservation of Health, Biological
Most noteworthy among his achievements are Principles, Plants, Economic Crops, Plant and
the designing and constructing, on three succes- Animal Life for Classroom Use.
sive occasions, of the largest telescope in the Art Study in the Public Schools. —The
world, namely, the 36-inch Lick Refractor, the largest and most ambitious public display of art
40-inch Yerkes Refractor, and the 72-inch Van- work done in the regular classes of the New York
couver Reflector. public schools was on exhibit at the American
Mr. Warner was also the speaker of the evening, Museum for three weeks, beginning March 25.
the subject of his address being "A Starry Night The contributions were grouped in three sections
at the Lick Observatory." senior high, junior high, and elementary schools
Dr. W. H. Steavenson, F.R.A.S., of London,
will give an illustrated talk on " WiUiam Herschel,
—each individual high school having its own wall
space.
the Father of Amateur Astronomj'," on Wed-
Drawings and paintings on paper and canvas
nesday evening, June 5. This will be the first were displayed, as well as pottery, sculpture, wall
time the Amateur Astronomers Association will hangings, and shop work which showed particu-
have the pleasiu-e of being host to a guest speaker larly the influence of art study on mechanical
from a country other than the United States. operations.
EDUCATION Miss Edith L. Nichols, assisted by a corp of
The Second Annual Children's Fair. — helpers,was in charge of the exhibit.
In cooperation with the American Museum of The Japanese Association held an art ex-
Natural History and School Nature League, hibit in the Education Hall of the American
the American Institute will hold its second Museum from April 22 to May 10. All the ex-
Children's Fair at the Museum next October. hibits were made by children in Japanese elemen-
tary and junior high schools, and were sent here meet Friday, June 28, at 3 o'clock, and the
under the supervision of the Japanese govern- general section Saturday, June 29, at the same
ment for the purpose of increasing international hour. At both of these meetings sun spots will
good will by giving American children an oppor- be the study topic, with an introductory talk
tunity to compare their work with that done by by Dr. Clyde Fisher, who will also have charge
Japanese children. of the observation with the telescopes. The
On May 5 (Boys' Day in Japan), Japanese June meetings will mark the close of club activi-
children dressed in native costume gave an ties for the season. Meetings will be resumed in
entertainment at the American Museum which September.
included Japanese songs, a one-act play, and The groups were organized by Miss Elizabeth
special motion pictures on Japan. The children A. Eckels, staff assistant in the Museum's
in the audience were presented with rice cakes. division of education.
Crippled Children Guests of the Museum. Brazil Summer School. —Brazil is offering
—One of the annual activities of the School for the first time a summer school from June 29 to
Service Department of the American Museum is August 27, for North American vacationists,
acting as host to groups of crippled children, whether students, teachers, internationalists,
both in and out of school. Private cars or buses or professional men. The summer school is
bring the children to the Museum, where special under the supervision of the Brazil Research
wheel chairs are provided to take them through Institute, a subsidiary institution of the Instituto
the exhibition haUs. Historico e Geographico Brazileiro, and leading
One group about 20 children, who are not

of scientists and scholars of Brazil will give the
able to attend school, visited the Museum on lectures, all in English except that on tropical
April 18. After a tour of the halls, luncheon was biology, which will be given in French.
served to them in the Hall of Birds of the World. The subjects covered by the lectures are
For some of these children, this outing was their Physical Geography and Topography of Brazil;
first trip from home this year. One child, ten the Political and Social Development of the
years old, had never been away from home before. Brazilian People; the Historical Evolution of
Another group of 400 crippled children were Brazil from the Period of Colonization to the
guests of the Museum on April 25. They were Present Economic and Industrial Status of Brazil;
entertained with a motion picture of animals that and Tropical Biology as Observed in Brazil.
live in the vicinity of New York. A special tour has been arranged to leave
— New York, June 29. Full information may be
Baker Memorial Professorship. The
obtained from the Institute of International
Board Regents of the University of the Philip-
of
New York
Education, 2 West 45th Street, City.
pines has estabUshed a Baker Memorial Profes-
sorship in the College of Agriculture in memory
of Charles FuUer Baker, who was dean of the EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
College of Agriculture from 1917 until his death To Cuba for Reptiles. — Mr. C. Ralph
in July, 1927. DeSola, who was a member of the New York
This professorship provides for the services in Zoological Society's recent expedition to the
the college of a man from abroad, who shall be in Galapagos Islands, is traveling in Cuba in the
residence in the college eight months at least and interest of the department of herpetology and ex-
shall carry a teaching load of five hours a week. perimental biology ©f the American Museum.
It is the purpose to secure men who are specialists Reptiles have always proved difficult material
in the different sciences allied to agriculture. in the laboratory because of their requirements
This professorship in honoring Dean Baker of temperature and ultra violet. There are in
provides for incalculable benefit to the college the West Indies a number of nocturnal Uzards
which in itself is a fitting tribute to a man whose which have proved particularly hardy, as they
services to the institution were so valuable. often arrive in shipments of bananas or other
The Junior Astronomy Club has shown a produce from the tropics.The hfe histories of
phenomenal growth in the two months of its these species are known only in part and Mr.
organization, and announces an active member- DeSola hopes to work out their life cycles while
ship of more than 750 boys and girls. A monthly obtaining a series alive for the American Museum.
paper, The Junior Astronomy News, is being A wide knowledge of reptiles, and a perfect
published, the board of editors and contributors famiUarity with the Spanish language make
all being members of the club. Mr. DeSola well qualified to carry on these
The section for the children of members will studies.
332 NATURAL HISTORY
Metamorphosis in Amphibia. — One of the the water at any stage of their life history.
recent achievements of the Museum's new de-

Chinese Amphibia. —
Dr. AUce M. Boring of
Yenching University, Peking, China, has recently
partment of experimental biology was the demon-
an aquatic sala- spent several weeks studying the Museum's
stration that Cryptobranchus,
extensive collections of Chinese amphibians.
mander, which never metamorphoses completely,
After her return to China, this summer. Dr.
could be made to metamorphose in part by means
In continuing these ob- Boring will instruct her students in the taxonomy
of thyroid treatment.
of Chinese frogs and toads, in addition to working
servations on the processes of metamorphosis in
amphibia, Mr. Wm. G. Hassler of that depart- on special problems herself. It is hoped that
April for Florida to collect the study of Chinese herpetology will receive
ment, left late in
aquatic Siren, considerable stimulus as a result of this initial
numbers of another species,
Siren and Cryp- effort.
for similar investigations. If
tobranchus could be induced by any experimental —
Frog Photography. Mr. Wm. G. Hassler
treatment to metamorphose completely, they and Mr. E. J. Farris, of the department of
would change into a type of animal which has herpetology and experimental biology, have suc-
never been seen by man, for the metamorphosed ceeded by the use of flares in taking the first
form of no true perennibranch has ever been motion picture of breeding frogs ever made in
obtained either in the laboratory or in nature. nature at night. Several excellent shots of wood
Incidentally, the eggs of Siren have never been frogs and other species were obtained. The
described, and Mr. Hassler hopes to work out the picture was shown at a recent meeting of the
Ufe history of the form. A quarter of a century Linnsean Society when Mr. J. A. Weber, Mr.
ago the importance of larval stages in indicating Hassler, and Doctor Noble discussed some of the
relationships attracted the attention of many local herpetological problems of interest to the
zoologists. Many ichthyologists, including the New York field natxiralist.
late Dr. Bashford Dean, made important dis-
coveries in studying the life histories of fishes. BIRDS
Very recently, to a large extent through the
The Great White Heron, subject of Mr.
efforts of the herpetological staff of the Museum,
Jansson's striking cover design for this issue of
the importance of life history data in demonstrat-
Natural History, should not be confused with
ing the relationships of amphibia have been
the great white egret. Both are herons, both
brought to light. The field work which Mr.
are white, but there the resemblance ends. The
Hassler is undertaking is, therefore, of interest
egret is a much smaller bird that during the
from several standpoints.
breeding season bears aigrette plumes growing
from its back. It breeds from the more southern
AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES
United States southward to Argentina, inland
Courtship of Salamanders. Dr. G. K. — as well as along the coast.
Noble attended the recent meeting of the Ameri-
The great white heron is as large as the great
can Society of Herpetology and Ichthyology held
blue heron. It bears no aigrettes, and in the
April 9-10 at Ann Arbor, Michigan. He pre-
United States it is known to nest only in the keys
sented a paper on the courtship of the common
and on the coast of southern Florida. There it
two-hned salamander, which had not been
was discovered and, in 1835, named by Audubon.
hitherto described. Of special interest was the
Since then it has been an open question whether
description of a series of distinctive glands scat-
Ardea occidentalis, as Audubon called it, was a
tered over the body of the male and apparently
distinct species or a white color phase of the
serving to attract the female. The two-lined
southern great blue, or Ward's heron. The be-
salamander produces stalked spermatophores
lief that they were one and the same species was
which are carried within the cloacal Hps of the
supported by the fact that they interbreed,
female for long periods.
producing young Hke both parents, as well as
The Breeding of the Slimy Salamander. — others intermediate between the two. The latter
know
It will be of interest to local naturalists to was described by Professor Baird as Wuerdmann's
that the eggs of the common sUmy salamander, heron (Ardea wuerdmanni). We have in the
Plethodon glutinosm, have at last been found. American Museum three young herons which I
Dr. G. K. Noble and Mr. B. C. Marshall in a found in a nest on Clive Key, southeast of Cape
recent number of Nontates describe the eggs of Sable, on March 27, 1908. Two are in the gray-
the common species for the first time. They were ish plumage of Ward's heron, the other wears the
found in caves far
underground. Development is pure white of the great white heron. One of the
direct and the young salamanders never enter parents was of the last-named species, the other
was probably a specimen which unfortunately I he himself set a high standard in nature
collected as I landed on the key before I knew writing. His great legacy to mankind is his
that birds were nesting there. It is a Ward's books, and he has succeeded in putting himself
heron with some of the characteristics of Wuerd- in his books as few men of letters have done.
mann's heron. The first medal awarded went to William
In the succeeding years additional data have Beebe, nature essayist; the second to Ernest
accumulated and a consideration of them, in Thompson Seton, biographer of the animals;
connection with his own experiences, has led Mr. the third to John Russell McCarthy, poet of^the
Ernest G. Holt, in a paper published by the outdoors. This year the committee foimd no
xvv '-~^'-'^'^î•
THE JOHN BURROUGHS MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION MEDAL

Awarded to Dr. Frank M. Chapman
Cleveland Museum ofNatural History, in 1928 outstanding production of our nature-writers.

{Scientific Publications, Vol. I, No. 1) to express Therefore, it was voted that the time-limit be
his beUef that Ward's heron and the great white waived, and that the award be made to Dr.
heron are distinct species which hybridize. The Frank Michlek Chapman for his nature writ-
evidence supporting this view is presented at ing of the past years, without specifying any
length and seems conclusive. particular book.
It is a matter of especial interest that a large It will be of interest to state that the commit-
part of the breeding range of the great white tee learned, after voting the present award, that
heron is contained in the proposed new Ever- Doctor Chapman has written a book during the
glades National Park, the characteristics of which past year upon the wild life of Barro Colorado in
are described by Mr. Ernest F. Coe, in American Gatun Lake, Panama Canal, of a kind that the
Forests and Forest Life for March, 1929. The case asssociation feels would have been approved by
illustrates the extreme importance of conserv- John Burroughs. The book has just been com-
ing this unique area, where members of forms of pleted, but has not yet been published. Had this
animal life once common in Florida are now book been actually in print, it is probable that the
making their last stand. Frank M. Chapman. award would have gone to Doctor Chapman with-
out the suspension of the time-limit requirement.
HONORS Dr. Clyde Fisher, president of the John Bur-
Three years ago the John Burroughs roughs Memorial Association, made the presen-
Memorial Association inaugurated the policy tation. On account of the unavoidable absence
of awarding a medal to the author publishing,
of Doctor Chapman, Dr. Robert Cushman
Murphy received the medal on his behalf.
during the year preceding the annual meeting,
the best piece of nature literature, either prose or Ray Lyman Wilbur, Secretary of the Interior,
poetry. This was felt to be a most fitting func- has invited Dr. Clark Wissler, curator-in chief
tion of the Association, since John Burroughs' of the Museum's department of anthropology,
great work was that of a literary naturalist. From to serve as a member of the advisory committee
Wake-Robin, written in the Eighteen-Sixties, of seven to consider the educational and recrea-
to The Last Harvest, published posthumously, tional use of national parks and monuments.
334 NATURAL HISTORY
Doctor Wissler has also been elected a member tive Eurypterids about one foot to two feet in
of the National Academy of Sciences. length.

Professor David published a preliminary paper
of the American Society
At the annual meeting
on these remarkable fossils in 1928. Within a
of Mammalogists, held in Ann Arbor, Michigan,
short time he hopes to contribute one or more
April 9-13, 1929, President Henry Fairfield
additional articles to the Journal of Geology,
OsBORN was elected an Honorary Member by
Chicago, on this very ancient marine fauna. All
unanimous vote of the Society. This class of
geologists welcome Professor David's astonishing
membership has been voted to but few scientists,
and is given in recognition of outstanding and
find. May it provide material for another chapter
meritorious contributions to mammalogy.
to his new book, Geology of Australia, which
In kecoqnition of the splendid practical

recently appeared. — C. A. Reeds.
assistance given to Mr. Arthur Vernay and Col.
DISTINGUISHED GUESTS
J.C. Faunthorpe in securing specimens of Indian
Dr. C. C. Wu, Chinese Minister to the United
game for exhibition in the American Museum,
St ates. Madam Wu, and their party, were guests
His Highness, the Nawab Sahib of Junagadh
of the American Museum on Sunday afternoon.
State, Maharaj Kumar Sadul Singh of Bikanir,
Rijputiina, and Major F. Tinley, M.C., have
May 5. Director and Mrs. Sherwood, Mr.
Douglas Burden, Prof. Charles P. Berkey, Mr.
been elected to Honorary Life Membership in the
Barnum Brown and Mr. Pindar received the
American Museum.
visitors and conducted them on a tour of in-
HISTORY OF THE EARTH spe ction through the exhibition halls. Particular
attention was given to an examination of the
Pre-Cambrian Euryptbrids. In — a recent
Museum's educational activities in cooperation
letter, Prof. T. W. Edgeworth David of the
with the public schools system of New York
University of Sydney, Australia, writes to Prof.
City. After the inspection, the party gathered
Henry Osborn concerning the find-
Fairfield
in the Members' Room for tea.
"LipaUan" fossil marine fauna
ing, last year, of a
of Pre-Cambrian age in the hills around Adelaide, MAMMALS
South Australia. Doctor David states that the Curator H. E. Anthony attended the annual
strata containing this fauna range from 8000 to meeting of the Mammalogists at Ann Arbor,
14,000 feet in thickness, and that they lie below Michigan, as a representative of the American
the base of the lower Cambrian rocks. The fauna Museum of Natural History. He gave a lecture
is wonderfully interesting; its outstanding
on the evening of April 12, entitled 'Â Cross-
feature being the enormous dominance of large
section through the Sudan," which was an
Eurypterids of an archi-eurypterid type. He re-
account of the Taylor-Sudan Expedition.
marks that they were so abundant in a bed of The Museum Acquires a 1500-Pound Mana-
limestone five feet in thickness that fragments,
small and large taken together, occurred at the
tee. — Mr, Paul Moore, Jr., of Convent, New
American Mu-
Jersey, recently presented to the
rate of about 2000 for each square foot. This is a
seum a large manatee, estimated to weigh 1500
large number for a single bed. This bed, however, pounds. The specimen came from Lake Worth,
is but one of many, in a thickness of 6000 feet,
Florida, where it was struck and killed by the
which carries this very primitive fauna.
propeller of a speedboat. According to Captain
In 1906, Dr. C. D. Walcott, late secretary
Lockwood, three large manatees, resting on the
of the Smithsonian Institution and former
bottom of the channel, had risen, startled, to the
director of the U. S. Geological Survey, recorded
surface of the water. One of the creatures struck
fragments of plates and pieces of small limbs of
the propeller and its back was ripped open,
what he held to be Eurypterids, naming the form
causing damage to the boat.
Beltina danai from the Pre-Cambrian Proterozoic
Belt Series of Montana, U. S. A. Since Euryp- MARINE LIFE
terids are abundant in SUurian and Devonian The Constable Collection of Shells. —-By
rocks, most palaeontologists questioned Walcott's the wiU of Mrs. Frederick A. Constable the valu-
determination of these crustacean remains as able and important collection of shells gathered
those of Eurypterids, but Professor David states by the late Frederick A. Constable during the
that the evidence which has lately been collected years 1889-1897 was bequeathed recently to the
in South Australia is absolutely conclusive that in American Museum. This remarkable collection
Pre-Trilobite times the seas of this part of the includes a wide diversity of species noted for
world, and probably the whole world over, were rarity and beauty, numbering many thousands.
dominated to an extraordinary extent by primi- Its value may be conservatively estimated at the
present time as at least $30,000. Selections from OTHER MUSEUMS

the collection were recently on temporary exhibi- Dr. Herbert Spencer Dickey, who has spent
tion in Education Hall and have been twenty-seven years in South America, left New
permanently placed in the Hall of Ocean Life, York, April 25, on an expedition in the interests
where they may be seen by the public when that of the Museum of the American Indian, Heye
hall is completed. Foundation, to discover the headwaters of the
Orinoco River and to explore the wilderness of
SCIENCE OF MAN the upper Orinoco Valley. This territory, con-
Racial Survey ok the Polynesian Islands. 3800 square miles, has never before been
sisting of
— Several years ago the American Museum trodden by white man. Doctor Dickey will also
agreed to cooperate with the Bernice P. Bishop seek a tribe of white Indians which, it has been
Museum of Honolulu in a study of the Polynesian reported, exists there.
race. The home of this interesting people ranged Sidney F. Tyler, Jr., who sponsored the Ameri-
from New Zealand on the south toHawaii on the can Museum Tyler-Duida Expedition, and C. F.
north, occupying the intervening islands, Samoa, Polsten, topographer and radio operator, will
Tahiti, etc. This study was begun several years accompany Doctor Dickey. The party expects
ago by the collection of bodily measurements, to be away at least six months.
plaster face casts, and photographic studies of
native Hawaiians. Similar data from Samoa MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES
and the Marquesas were collected by the staff of The Fifteenth International Geological
the Bishop Museum. Dr. Harry L. Shapiro of Congress will be held at Pretoria, South Africa,
the American Museum is now on his way to from July 29 to August 12. The American
Tahiti to complete this survey of the Polynesian Museum will have as its representatives at this
race,and to make a final analysis of the data with congress Dr. Robert Broom and Prof. Charles
a view to determining the origin of this interesting P. Berkey.
people. A full-sized figure of a Hawaiian man,
The Fiftieth Anniversary of the appointment
cast from on exhibition in this Museum.
life, is
of Clarence King as first director of the Geological
Like other Polynesians, the Hawaiians are tall, Survey was celebrated at Washington on March
well proportioned, with smooth dark brown skin,
21. Among the distinguished speakers for this
handsome features, and pleasing in manner. occasion were Secretary of the Interior Ray
Pre-Columbian Sand-dune Burials in Lyman Wilbur, who spoke on "Science in the
—
Haiti. When Columbus discovered the West Govermnent," and Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn,
whose subject was "Thomas Jefferson, Pioneer of
Indies, he found there a well developed race of
Indians, practicing agriculture and well skilled American Palaeontology."
in pottery and other primitive arts. Recently, Dr. F. O. Colvlle represented the American
Mr. John Naugle of New York City called the
J. Museum at the Fourth Pacific Science Congress
attention of the American Museum to a number which was held in Java during May.
of sand-dune burials near the city of Santo
Domingo, upon what is usually known in this MEMBERS' DAY
country as the Island of Haiti. These burials In order that its members might become more
seem to have been made before the time of famihar with the great institution of which
Columbus and during a period when the heads of they are a part, the American Museum on April
infants were artifically flattened to give a sloping 24 inaugurated a Member's Visiting Day. Four
forehead. With the assistance of Mr. Naugle, it hundred and fifty members and their guests
was arranged to send Dr. Harry L. Shapiro to availed themselves of the opportunity —many
explore these sand dunes. In Santo Domingo, coming to the Museum from distant points. A
Doctor Shapiro was the guest of Mr. Thomas reception committee composed of members of the
Howell, upon whose plantation the graves had Museum staff, conducted the visitors in smaU
been discovered, and due to Mr. Howell's groups through several laboratories, the prep-
generous hospitaUty, he was able to make trial aration department, and exhibition haUs not
excavations in several places. These diggings yet opened to the public.
yielded a quantity of pottery and some skeletons. Following this tour. Director Sherwood greeted
One unique find was a bone image of excellent the members in the auditorium and showed a
workmanship, evidently representing a god. motion picture of Museum exploration. Dr. G.
The Museum is very grateful to Messrs. Naugle Kingsley Noble spoke on current research prob-
and Howell for the opportunity to collect this lems and the practical apphcation of research
interesting material. work.
336 NATURAL HISTORY
Tea was served in Education Hall where the hidden just beneath the surface. Flesh and bones,
Japanese School exhibit had just been opened. snulesand tears, all help to round out the picture.
So great was the appreciation of the guests that The skeleton of the book is bone, but the text is
the Museum is planning to estabUsh an annual not "bone dry." Illustration, though in some
Members' Visiting Day. cases abstract, is unusually complete, and well
fitted to the book. Doctor Gregory has dedi-
NEW BOOKS cated his work to Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn.
Our Face from Fish to Man. By WilUam K. —R. T. H.
Gregory, pp. 295. With 118 illustrations.
Putnam's, New York. 1929.
ERRATUM
The story of the changes which our face has In " Our Contributors" column of the January-
undergone since our early ancestors swam the February issue, it was erroneously stated that
coastal seas has been enchantingly and con- Prof, and Mrs. T. D. A. Cockerell had developed
vincingly narrated by one who is better qualified a new species of sunflower. The facts are that
than any other man to write this history. This Mrs. Cockerell found close to her home a "sport"
story, documented in the rocks and in our very with reddened rays, in no sense a species. Start-
faces, has been pieced together for the layman ing with this, crosses were made with the various
into language free of all the puzzUng intricacies cultivated sorts, giving a wide range of horti-
of the original record. Skin-deep beauty is peeled cultural varieties, which are still to be obtained
away to show the true family characters that are from Sutton in England and other seed firms.
NEW MEMBERS
Since the last issue of Natural History, the following H. Swayne, Howard P. Sweetser, W. B. Symmes Jr.,
persons have been elected members of the American Mu- Anson W. H. Taylor, Wm. A. Taylor, Jr., Ward E.
seum, making the total number 11,142. Terry, James A. Thomas, , Henry Varay, Edward
Wassermann.
Honorary Life Members Associate Members
His Highness the Nawab Sahib. Mesdames M. B. Biddle, Frank L. Bigelow, Frederic
Maharaj Kumar Sadul Singh. Godfrey Bird, Francis H. Coffin, Sarah B. Col well,
Major F. Tinlbt. Nettie L. Dugas, M. T. Edgerton, Stanley P. Embrick,
Life Members Isaac A. Hedges, A. E. Miller, Louise Welles Murray,
Mesdames Carl S. Petrasch, Anna L. Reilly, Charles Daniel R. Pinkham, John T. Pirie, Leslie L. Pontius,
A. Spofford, Rush Taggakt, Samuel Thorne, Graham H. L. Thrblkeld, Robert V. White, F. O. Williams,
Fair Vandbrbilt. Rose E. Wilson.
Misses Florence E. Quinlan, Gertrude S. Thomas. Afisses Sally Ballard, Lucille Barbee, Mary B. Bristol,
Messrs. LoRiLLARD Spencer, Edgar Speyer, Chauncey Mary Butterick, Ella M. Clark, Maria T. Dana,
D. Stillman, Robert G. Stone, A. Varick Stout, Jr., Julia Degand, Verda Doudle, Elizabeth Drumtra,
John F. Talmage. May Kellebhalb, Pearl H. Middlebrook, Margaret
Sustaining Members G. Montgomery, Mary W. Newberry, Isabel M.
Mesdames G. Macculloch Miller, H. W. Sibley. Powell, Mary Eaton Sisson.
Miss Virginia Thaw. Reverend W. G. Dousley.
Messrs. Howard Boulton, Oscar R. Lichtbnstein, L. ProfessorsWalter G. Cady, Harrison Harley, Tamiji
CoRRiN Strong, Edward Welles, Jr. Kawamura, Rodney A. Slagg.
Doctors Harold L. Amoss, Edmund Barry, G. Granville
Annual Members Buckley. Leo Burthe, Leonard Freeman, W. Bruce
Mesdames Stanley W. Burke, Victor W. Logan. Wm. H. Large, Malcolm Dean Miller, Theodore S. Moise,
Schmidt, Henry Schniewind, Robert Ryland Sizer. Frederick B. Noyes, H. M. Ogilbeb, Hiroshi Ohshima,
Charles Raynor Smith, Alexis Sommaripa, Henry B, Dallas G. Sutton, Carl Wiedenmayer.
Spelman, Emil Stein, Marie-Louise Stursberg, Commander Edward Breck.
Thomas W. Swan, Swen Albin Swenson, Samuel Thomas, Messrs. J. D. Adelman, Guilliaem Aertsen, Jr., H. S.
J. NoBRisH Thorne, John C. Tomlinson, Jr., Howard Aldridge, Edward W. Allen, Kenneth V. Ashley, A. J.
E. WuRLITZER. Barrett, W.B. Berger, M. H. Blakbslee, A. B. Brooks,
Sister M. Rose. E. P. Brunese, Sr., William M. Bush, Frank S. Butter-
Misses S. Louise Bell, Ann Bellis, Marion Coats, worth, Frank S. Butterworth, Jr., Arthur B. Cleaves,
Augusta S. Kalbpleisch, Antoinette Q. Scudder, Thomas J. Clifford, Frederick S. Colburn, Thomas
Marguerite D. Shepard, Augusta P. Slade, Marian Whitridgb Cutler, W. L. Dankmyer, O. Couto de
Swift, Agnes Gordon Tack, Frances V. Warner, Marie Aguirre, L. Sprague de Camp, Pierre de Coulon, Ray-
Zimmermann. mond De Lano, John S. Driver, Ariel Ballon Edwards,
Doctors W. N. Berkeley, Peter E. Demarest, Douglas Gordon F. Ekholm, Thos. H. English, Wm. Flemer,
Quick, E. Douglas Rudderow, Morris K. Smith, An- Jr., Ronald Frasek, John Frost, W. D. Gash, M. D.
tonie P. Voislawsky. Graf, Arthur N. Hall, Alfred E. Hammer, T. J. Hart-
Captain Monroe Mayhoff. man, Joseph J. Heard, Joseph James Hogan, John B.
Messrs. Alfred L. Aiken, Louis Ayres, Gordon K. Bell, Howard, Jr., Hillis L. Howie, Bertram W. Huffman,
Jr., Charles Bellinger, David D. Bellis, Anthony John G. S. Humphreys, Pemberton Lewis Killeen,
Desimone, John J. Duffy, P. A. L. Engelbhegt, M. A. O. Koppin, L. N. Leavitt, David Britton Little,
Douw Ferris, Jr., Carl Gerdau, Alexis G. Graam, JosiAH Marvel, T. H. Mather, J. B. McFarlin, Henry
Victor Graeb, Alwyn M. Hartogensis, Jacques P. McKean, E. F. McKeb, Leo Michl, Jr., J. E. Moore,
Hetteix, Harold M. Hirsh, Sydney S. Jalkut, Ellbhy Bertram Nicholson, I. H. Pierce, Charles Platt, G. M.
S. James, Theodore H. Joseph, S. Vernon Mann, Max Ponton, Charles P. Ravenburg, Clyde T. Reed, John
Meyer, Hudson Millard, Hubert S. Morgan, Alfred W. Ripley, Edward Francis Roy, F. S. Russell, M.
PiNCDS, Lyonel H.PxrrNAM, Archie M.Richards, Thomas D. RuTHERBORD, L. F. Savage, E. B. Sayles, John G.
Robins, Goddard Weld Saunders, Wm. B. Scarborough, Sims, Milton P. Skinner, Daniel Smiley, Jr., Henry P.
Ernest H. Schelling, Robert W. Sherwin, Leon Gil- Smith, Bert M. Snider, John L. Sperry, Roy N.
bert Simon, Augustus H. Skillin, Chas. Robinson Springer, Lape W. Thorne, A. van Zutphen, Jr., Pierre
Smith, Joseph Linden Smith, Herbert C. Smyth, Jr., A. Vogel, Lloyd Vosseller, Mangum Weeks, Reuben
Hamilton Southworth, L. Lee Stanton, Mason B. Weinstein, V. C. Bruce Wbtmore, William C. Whelan,
Starring, Edw. R. Stettinius, Jr., H. F. Stone, Edward Donald W. Williams, William A. Wiison, Thomas
Streeter, Robert T. Swaine, Thomas W. Swan, Alfred C. YocoM, J. Russell Yoder.
FOUNDED IN 1869
Board of Trustees
Percy R. Pyne, Secretary Roswell Miller
George F. Baker, Jr. Ogden L. Mills
Childs Frick Leonard C. Sanford
Felix M. Warburg


For trie its collections, for the support of its explorations and scientific research,
enrichment of
and for the nnaintenance of its publications, the American Museum of Natural History is dependent
wholly upon membership fees and the generosity of friends. More than 11,000 members are now
Associate Member (nonresident)* . . annually $3

Annual Member _ annually $10
Sustaining Member- annually $25
Life Member $200
Fellow . . $500
Patron $1,000
Associate Benefactor $10,000
Associate Founder $25,000
Benefactor $50,000

FREE TO MEMBERS
Natural History, published bimonthly by the Museum, all classes of members as one
is sent to
of their privileges.Through Natural History they are kept touch with the activities of the Mu-
in
of the globe.

them by members.

A room on thethird floor of the Museum, equipped with every convenience for rest, reading, and
guidance
SCIENCE M MUSEUM M RESEARCH
EDUCATION H KSS B EXPLORATION
Natural History a position of recognized importance in the educational and scientific life of
THE NEW
SCHOOL SERVICE BUILDING, with the increased facilities it offers, makes it
possible to augment greatly the Museum's work not only in New York" City schools but also through-
out the country. Fourteen miUion contacts were made during 1928 with boys and girls in the pubhc
schools of New York and the vicinity alone. Inquiries from all over the United States, and even
from many foreign countries, are constantly coming to the School Service Department. Information
is supphed to, and thousands of lantern sUdes are prepared at cost for distant educational institutions
and the American Museum, because of this and other phases of its work, can properly be considered
— —
not a local, but a national even an international institution. Through its loan collections or
"traveUng museums," which are circulated locally, 557 schools were reached last year, and 2,282,192
direct contacts were made with the pupils. More than a milUon lantern shdes were lent to the New
York City schools, and 4,851 reels of the Museum's motion pictures were shown in 223 pubhc
schools and other educational institutions in Greater New York, reaching 1,576,249 children.
LECTURE COURSES, some exclusively for members of the Museum and their children, and
others for schools, colleges, and the general public, are dehvered both at the Museum and at outside
educational institutions.
THE LIBRARY available for those interested in scientific research or study on natural his-
is
tory subjects. volumes, and for the accommodation of those who wish to use
It contains 115,000
this storehouse of knowledge, an attractive reading room is provided.
MANY POPULAR PUBLICATIONS, as well as scientific ones, come from the Museum Press,
which housed within the Museum itself. In addition to Natural History, the journal of the
is
Museum, the popular pubhcations include many handbooks, which deal with subjects illustrated by
the collections, and guide leaflets, which describe individual exhibits or series of exhibits that are
of especial interest or importance. These are all available at purely nominal cost to
anyone who
cares for them.
THE SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS of the Museum, based on its explorations and the
study of comprise the Memoirs, devoted to monographs requiring large or fine illus-
its collections,
trations and exhaustive treatment; the Bulletin, issued in octavo form since 1881,
deahng with the
scientific activities of the departments, aside from Anthropology; the Anthropological Papers, which
record the work of the Department of Anthropology; and Novitates, which are devoted
to the pub-
lication of prehminary scientific announcements, descriptions of new forms,
and similar matters.
The Librarian of the Museum, who may be addressed in
care of the Museum, may be called upon for
detailed hsts of both the popular and the scientific pubhcations with their prices.
mation in many odd corners of the world. During 1928 thirty-four expeditions visited scores of
different spots in North, South, and Central America, Asia, Africa, and
Polynesia, and nearly as many
From these adventuring scientists, as well as from other members of the Museum staff and
from
observers and scientists connected with other institutions. Natural History
Magazine obtains the
American Museum the most fascinating and dramatic of the facts that are
being added to the Mu-

NEW YORK, N. Y.
NATU RAL
HISTORY
July-August
1929
Price Fifty
Cents
RINGING THE TIGER

NEW YORK, N. Y.
LL.D., President
Henry Fairfield Osborn,
Director and Executive Secretary
George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed.D., Director, Preparation
James L. Clark, Assistant
Secretary
Wayne M Faunce, Sc.B., Assistant to the Director and Assistant
Fishes Science of Man (continued)

I. DIVISION OF MINERALOGY, Edward M. Weyer. Special Assistant
William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Curator
GEOLOGY, GEOGRAPHY, John T. Nichols, A.B., Curator of William K. Gregory, x'h.D., Associate
Anthropology
AND ASTRONOMY Recent Fishes
Bibliographer
in Physical
Clarence Hay, A.M., Research
L.
Fairfield Osbobn, LL.D., E. W. GuDGBR, Ph.D., Associate in Mexican and Central
Henry and Associate
D.Sc, Curator-in-Chief Francesca R. LaMontb, A.B., Assist- American Archeology
ant Curator MiLO Hellman D.D.S., Research Asso-
ciate in Physical Anthropology.
Astronomy Louis Hussakof, Ph.D., Research
Associate in Devonian Fishes George E. Brewer, M.D., Research
G.ClydeFisher, Ph.D., LL.D. .Curator Charles H. Townsend, Sc.D., Re- Associate in Somatic Anthropology
search Associate
Minerals and Gems
C. M. Brbder. Jr., Research Associate IV. DIVISION OF ASIATIC EX-
Van Campen Heilner, M.Sc, Field
PLORATION AND RESEARCH
Curator
Wfrbert p. Whitldck, C.E., Research Representative
SoRGE F. KUNZ, Ph.D.. Roy Chapman Andrews, Sc.D.,
Associate m Gems Amphibians and Reptiles, and Curator-in-Chief
Ph.D., Ke-
Luquer, Experimental Biology Walter Granger, Curator in Pale-
Tfa McIlvaine
searchAssociatein Optical Mineralogy ontology
G. KiNGSLEY Noble, Ph.D., Curator Charles P. Behkey, Ph.D., iColumbia
Clifford H. Pope, B.A., Assistant University], Research Associate in
History of the Earth Curator Geology
Osborn, LL.D., Charles E. Burt, M.S., Assistant Amadeus W. Grabau, S.D. [Geolugical
Henry Fairfield Curator-m-Chief Curator Survey of China], Research Associate
D.Sc., Honorary Bertram G. Smith, Ph.D., Research
Fossil Vertebrates
A. B. Dawson, Ph.D., Research Asso- V. DIVISION OP EDUCATION
Curator of Fossil
ciate
William Douglas Burden, A.M., Re-
AND PUBLICATION
Walter Granger.
search Associate George H. Sherwood. A.M.. Ed.D.,
bS^Âo^^. A.B.. Curator of
Birds
Curator-in-Chi ef
a^SMPSON, Ph.D. Associate

Geô°rge
Pateontology Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D., Curator-in- Library and Publications
Curator of Vertebrate Ctief
PttIrles C Mook;, Ph.D.,
Associate
Robert Cushman Murphy, ^^
D.Sc, Ida Richardson Hood, A.B., Acting
Curator of Geology and Paleontology Curator
Curator of Oceanic Birds
William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Research W. DbW. Miller, Associate Curator Hazel Gay, Assistant Librarian
Associate in Palaeontology Jannbtte May Lucas, B.S., Assistant
Childs Frick, B.S., Research
Associate
.
Jambs Chapin, Ph.D., Associate
Curator of
P.
Birds of the Eastern
—
in Palseontology ^. ,, , . :„ Hemisphere
Walter W. Holmes. Field Associate in Elsie M. B. Naumburg, Research Education and Public Health
Paleontology Associate George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed.D.,
Curator-in-Chief
Mammals of the World
Geology and Fossil Invertebrates G. Clyde Fisher, Ph.D., LL.D.,
H. E. Anthony, M.A., Curator Curator of Visual Instruction
Chester A. Reeds. Ph.D., Curator Robert T. Hatt, A.M., Assistant Grace Fisher Ramsey, Associate
Curator Curator
George G. Goodwin, Assistant Curator William H. Carr. Assistant Curator
II. DIVISION OF ZOOLOGY, William J. Morden, Ph.B., Field Nancy Trub, A.B., Staff Assistant
AND ZOOGEOGRAPHY Associate Elizabeth A. Eckels, Ph.B., Staff
Chapman, Sc.D., Assistant
Frank Michler Comparative and Human Paul B..Mann, A.M., Associate in
N.A.S., Curator-in-Chief
Anatomy Education
William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Curator Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D., Research AssO'
Marine Life H. C. Raven. Associate Curator ciate in Outdoor Education
Curator Mabcelle Roigneau, Staff Assistant
WiLLARD G. Van Name, Ph.D., J. Howard McGregor, Ph.D., Re- Charles-Edward Amory Winslow,
Frank J. Myers, B.A.. Research Asso- Dudley J. Morton, M.D., Research Health
ciate in Rotifera Associate Mary Gbeig, A.B., Assistant Curator
of Public Health
Horace W. Stunkard. Ph.D., Re-
search Associate in Parasitology III. DIVISION OP ANTHRO-
A. L. Trbadwell, Ph.D., Research Printing and Publishing
Associate in Annulata POLOGY
Clark Wissler, Ph.D., Curator-in- Hawthorne Daniel, Curator, Editor
of Natural History
Insect Life Chief Bbrger,
A. Kathebine Associate
Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D., Curator Editor of Natural History
Associate Curator
Science of Man Ethel J. Timonier, Associate Editor
A. J. Mutchler, of
Coleoptera Clark Wissler, Ph.D., Curator-in- of Scientific Publications.
Chief
C. H. CuRRAN, M.A., Assistant Curator
Frank E. Watson, B.S., Staff Assistant N. C. Nelson, M.L., Curator of Pre-
historic Archffiology
Public Information
in I>epidoptera
William M. Wheeler. Ph.D., Re- Harry L. Shapiro, Ph.D., Assistant George N. Pindar, Chairman
search Associate in Social Insects Curator of Physical Anthropology George H. Sherwood. A.M.. Ed.D.
Charles W. Leng. B.S.. Research Asso- Margaret Mead, Ph.D., Assistant William K. Gregory, Ph.D.
ciate in Coleoptera Curator of Ethnology Wayne M. Faunce, Sc.B.
Herbert F. Schwarz. A.M., Research George C. Vaillant, Ph.D.. Assistant Clark Wissler, Ph.D.

Hawthorne D,\niel. Chairman
Clark Wissler, Ph.D. Frank E. Lltz, Ph.D.
A. Katherine Berger
VOLUME XXJX iN/V 1 LJ rv/vL JULY-AUGUST
Number 4 T ¥ T O T^ ^^ "D 'X/' ^9^*^
The "J our nal of The American Museum of Natural History
Hawthorne Daniel
Editor
^^^J^M
^S^KI^^^^M
^- Kâtherine Berger
Associate Editor
CONTENTS
Ringing the Tiger Cover
From a Painting by Arthur A. Jansson. See page 410
A Japanese Sailboat in the Shadow of Fujiyama Frontispiece
TiGEE Hunting in Nepal William J. Alorden 339

A First-hand Account of a Tiger Hunt at the Foot of the Himalaya
Afloat on Many Waters 353

The Evolution of Boats from Floating Logs to Palatial Liners
The Conquest of Claudia Frank M. Chapman 367

Experiences with a Baby Howler Monkey on Barro Colorado Island
A Night with an African Herder William R. Leigh 380

An Artist's Adventure on the Shores of Lake Hanington
'Falconing George G. Goodwin 390

The Training of Hawks for One of the Oldest and Most Picturesque of Sports
The Black Art Margery L. Loeb 400

How Both CiviUzed and Savage Folk Practice the Arts of Witch and Wizard
Glimpses Along the White Nile Harold E. Anthony 410

The Taylor Sudan Collecting Trip South of Khartoum
Honey Wasps Herbert F. Schwarz 421
"Mexican Bees" Which Proved To Be Wasps That Produced Honey
Itatiaya —Brazil's Most Famous Mountain Ernest G. Holt 427

An Ideal liOcahty for Research in Geology, Botany, and Zoology
Inspiration , .
Harold T. Clark 437
The Story Back of Lincoln Ellsworth's Polar Achievements
''Air Pioneering in the Arctic": A Review 440
Our Contributors " 440
In the Field of Natural History . 441
and Central Park West, New York City.
History, 77th St.
Natural History is sent to all members of the American Museum as one of the privileges of membership.
Acceptance for maihng at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1103, Act of October
3, on July 15, 1918.
1917, authorized
A JAPANESE SAILBOAT IN THE SHADOW OF FUJIYAMA
Despite the fact that the Japanese and Chinese have been adept sailors, they have played no great part
in the modern development of ships. Long ago they developed boat- and ship-building to a point far
in advance of the other peoples of the Orient, but, until they came into commercial contact with the
Occident, they built no ships comparable with those that have been developed by Europeans and
Americans
See "Afloat on Many Waters" Page 353
VOLUME N ATU RAL NUMBER
FOUR
XXIX
HISTORY
JULY-AUGUST, 1929
TIGER HUNTING IN NEPAL

How, on the Grass-covered Plains at the Foot of the Himalaya, Tigers Are
Captured by Surrounding them with Numerous Hunters and
Beaters on Elephants. A First-hand Account of a Hunt
By WILLIAM J. MORDEN
Field Associate, Mammal Department, American Museum
All tigers, wherever they may range, belong to the same family, though they are
subject to considerable variation in size, coloring, and pelage. Those of the Amur
River district, to which Mr. Morden is shortly to lead an expedition to collect these
animals, are generally conceded to be the largest of the family —huge, long-haired
beasts with a noticeable amount of white and faces. They are
on underbodies, sides,
considerably larger than the southern Asiatic tiger of today, and closely allied with
them are the tigers of the Manchurian forests, while the Korean variety, also long-
haired, is somewhat smaller. In southern Asia, due to the warm climate, the tiger is a
short-haired animal, and in addition differs somewhat from his northern relatives in
size and coloration. It is of these tigers that Mr. Morden speaks in the following
article. —
There are, of course, no tigers to be found in Africa. The Editors.
TIGERS are usually associated with They are, of course, large and powerful
India, although as a matter of fact beasts, and there have been many records
they are quite widely distributed of Indian tigers measuring more than ten
throughout Asia. They are found in the feet in length, but it seems probable that
Caucasus, northern Persia, portions of these measurements were taken along the
central Asia, China, Manchuria, Mongolia, curve of the back, rather than in a
southeastern Siberia, and the
Korea, straight line from nose to tip of tail. It
islands of Java and Sumatra, though in is now pretty generally accepted that a
some of these localities they are not nu- ten-foot Indian tiger, measured in a
merous. They are hunted also in Indo- straight line from tip to tip, is a large
China, in Siam, and in the Malay States, specimen. Tigresses are somewhat
although not to the extent that they are in smaller; a tigress of nine feet is unusual.
India. It is only with the Indian tiger, The average weights of tigers and tigresses
however, that this article will deal, for it are about four hundre d pounds and three
is south of the Himalaya that I have hundred pounds, respectively, though
hunted them. tigers weighing more than five hundred
340 NATURAL HISTORY
THE CAMP OF LT. COL. SIR FREDERICK O'CONNOR, BRITISH ENVOY TO NEPAL
Mr. and Mrs. Morden were the Envoy's guests for a week at this camp while the "tiger
shoot" described in the accompanying article took place
pounds have been known. A full-grown the presence of game. His sense of smell,
tiger will stand about forty inches at the on the other hand, is much less sharp, and
shoulder. in questing after game he does not scent
Aside from sources of food supply, the along the trail as do members of the dog
necessary requirements of the tiger in hot family, but locates his quarry almost
countries are a sufficiency of water and entirely by hearing.
protection from the sun, and these In Mr. A. A. Dunbar Brander's excel-
requisites are found fairly generally lent book entitled Wild Animals in Cen-
throughout India, except in the deserts of tral India, the author tells of experiments
the Northwest Frontier, the Sind, and with a tame tiger which he kept for some
parts Rajputana and the Punjab.
of time. When this animal's food was taken
Although they have been killed off in some away from him and dragged through the
districts, tigers, generally speaking, are grass, he never attempted to follow up the
found all over the Indian Peninsula and trail by scent, but hunted around in circles
even into the foothills of the Himalaya. until he came upon it. As Mr. Dunbar
Dense forests, bush and scrub growth, Brander very aptly puts it, "Animals
and areas of high grass form the favorite develop this sense (i.e., smell) either to
haunts of the tiger; he is almost never hunt game, get their food, or for self pro-
found in open country or far from good tection. None of these causations apply
cover. to the tiger. They find their game by
A tiger's senses of hearing and sight are and eyes, and having stalked it,
their ears
both wonderfully acute, though it is on his they rush upon it. They have been
. . .
ears that he mainly relies for detecting 'top dog' in the country they inhabit for
TIGER HUNTING IN NEPAL 341
so long, their strength and ferocity have grass that extends along the southern
been all the protection they required." foot of theHimalaya in Nepal and Bengal.
Aside from the occasional man-eaters, It was there that I was so fortunate as to
which are usually old animals or ones be a guest at a tiger-shoot given by the
that have been partly crippled by wounds British Envoy to Nepal. This in-
or disease, the tiger varies his food ac- dependent state, which lies between
cording to the district in which he lives. India and Thibet, is closed territory to
Where game is plentiful, as it is in much of foreigners, and very few have been able
Central India, he preys on denizens to shoot there. I believe, furthermore,
of the forest such as the sambar, chital, that the method of tiger-shooting in Nepal
nilgai, and pig. When game is scarce, is peculiar to that country. Briefly, it
however, tigers often take to killing cattle, consists of surrounding the tiger with a
and then they become great nuisances. A ring of elephants, some of which carry the
full-grown tiger will average about a shooters in houdahs on their backs. The
hundred kills a year, so it may easily be procedure is as follows:
seen that, in districts where tigers are Word comes that a tiger has made a
numerous and are inclined to prey upon sometimes but a short distance away,
kill,
herds of domestic cattle and buffaloes, but more often several miles from camp.
they prove a source of heavy loss to the Mounted on fast riding elephants, the
inhabitants. camp's native shikaris, or hunters, ride
Such is the situation in parts of the out to inspect the kill, and if it seems prob-
Terai, the flat area of forests and high able that the tiger is not far away, word is
TEA AFTER THE DAY'S SHOOTING

The party included the Envoy and his aide, the Legation surgeon and his wife, Mr. and Mrs. Morden,
and a photographer. During the hunt about sixhundred natives and more than fifty elephants were
employed
342 NATURAL HISTORY
#yi M>^^^^^
THE WORKING ELEPHANTS LEAVING CAMP

When the shikaris learn of a kill by a tiger, the working elephants are sent out to form the ring around
the kill
sent back to camp. Then the so-called houdah carriers. Usually, the ring has
working elephants go out, each in charge been partly formed when the second party
of his mahout, or driver, with usually overtakes the first, and then a transfer
another man sitting on the pad, or mat- is made to the houdahs. If there is a
tress, tied over his back. With the great difference in size between one's two
working elephants go also the houdah, oi- elephants, the mahout of the larger makes
shooting, elephants, which carry the box- him kneel, so that one may
simply step
like houdahs on their backs. These are from the back of the pad elephant into the
the mounts of the shooting party, and houdah. After the transfer, all the ele-
they are always huge, steady, well-trained phants take their places in the ring, with
fellows, from the top of which one can get the houdah-carriers located at advanta-
a good view over the tall grass or through geous points. The size of the ring depends
the thick undergrowth. Altogether, upon the terrain ; in the flat areas of high
about fifty or sixty elephants go out in grass where our tigers were found, the ring
the working party, and they make a strik- was usually about three hundred yards in
ing picture as they file away from camp diameter at first. This distance is gradu-
and trail off into the forest. ally reduced as the work of dislodging the
The members of the shooting party tiger progresses. Somewhere inside the
allow the others a head start, depending ring hes the kill and, one hopes, the tiger.
on the distance from camp that the kill The reason why a kill may be sur-
has been reported, and then follow on rounded with the reasonable certainty that
"pad" elephants, which are smaller, the tiger is not far away, is the beast's
faster, and more easy riding than the big habit of gorging, then drinking and sleep-
A WORKING ELEPHANT
This photograph was taken in the dense grass of the Nepal terai. It is such cover as this that would
make it impossible to locate a tiger if the hunter were on foot
MRS. MORDEN ON HER RIDING ELEPHANT

When the working elephants go out, the houdah elephants, which are slow and hard riding, go with
them. The party follows on smaller, faster elephants
344 NATURAL HISTORY
THE PARTY GOING OUT

An hour's start has been given to the working and houdah elephants. When the party catches up. a
transfer will be made to the houdahs
ing. Where kills are found far from water, direction; even when I was mounted on
there is little likelihood that the tiger will my elephant's back, the grass-tops, in
be lying-up near by, for after his drink he many places, rose above my head.
will seldom move far before sleeping. The trampling out of a "field of fire"
So expert do the native shikaris become is the last operation in the forming of the
in judging the chances of there being a ring. Shouts from allsides announce
tiger near the kill, that in a total of nine that all is in readiness, and a general tense-
rings formed during our week in Nepal, ness becomes noticeable among the ma-
tigers were found in the seven of them houts. The shooters take their weapons
— and on two occasions there were three usually double-barreled shotguns loaded
in the ring at once. with ball, to lessen the possibility of
After the circle of elephants com- is dangerous ricochets in case of misses^
pleted, two or three near each houdah and stand to. Orderlies in the rear com-
carrier are brought forward and worked partments of the houdahs hold the second
back and forth in front of the line, to guns in readiness, in case the tiger comes
trample down the high grass so that it close and more than two shots are needed.
may be possible to see the tiger, should Then, into the high grass in the center of
one come that way. I had never realized the ring go two or three elephants, guided
how impossible would be to find a tiger
it by their mahouts. These animals are
on foot in such country, until I viewed always old timers, ones who know tigers
those great stretches of grass from the and are not to be bluffed by them. Or-
vantage of a houdah. From the ground I dinarily, a tiger will not attack an ele-
could see only two or three feet in any phant, though when hard pressed or
wounded he may spring at one. The ele- stand ready, leaning over the front of the
phants seem to enjoy the fun of rounding- houdah in case he breaks cover near by.
up tigers, and although they often show If he does come your way^ a snap-shot
excitement when the tiger comes close, I from the swaying houdah at a plunging
have never seen one exhibit fear. Once, yellow streak in the grass far below is
however, a hare broke through the line all that you will get, unless, as sometimes
and the elephants on both sides nearly happens, the first shot turns him and
stampeded. he dashes along the trampled area inside
The elephants moving about inside the the ring.
ring go "whooshing" here and there, Should he strike the ring at a point
tearing up great trunkfuls of grass and where there are no guns, the elephants,
generally making as much noise as pos- trumpeting and squeahng, let him pass
sible. The mahouts know that the dens- between them. After he has passed, the
est "cover will most likely hold the tiger, mahouts on each side of the break turn
and they guide their mounts toward the their steeds .and parallel his line of re-
thickest places. The tension around the treat, keeping track of his movements
ring becomes greater, and all ears are by the telltale shaking of the grass-tops.
strained for the first

sound which may indi-
cate the quarry's location
and his probable line of
retreat. Sometimes the
tiger is dislodged almost
at once; more often it
seems that every foot has

been covered and that
nothing larger than a
mouse can have escaped
being trampled.
Suddenly, from be-
hind one's back comes
the excited voice of the
orderly,"Baghhai, sahib,
bagh hai." (''Tiger, sir,
tiger!") The man's
trained eye has caught
a movement in the grass,
to which he points with
trembling finger. A mo-
ment only, then a snarl-
ing roar and a movement
of the grass as the tiger,
aroused from sleep and
thoroughly angry, dashes
for a place of greater con-
cealment. You follow his
TWO OF THE PARTY IN A HOUDAH
movements by the line and an orderiy in the rear
A mahout, astride the neck of his elephant,
of moving grass-tops and compartment of the houdah make up the elephant "crew"
% ^
Jk
S^'
If
... nMMm
RINGING THE TIGER
As many as forty or fifty elephants may start out in two groups, one walking to the left, the other to
the right until the two leaders meet, thus completing the ring
A BENGAL TIGER IN CAPTIVITY

Tigers in the wild state are likely to be stronger and heavier than specimens to be seenin zoos,
due to their more active lives
THE DEFENSE GUARD
In case the tiger breaks through the ring, his hne of retreat is paralleled by the elephants on each side
of the break, and when he stops, another ring is formed
MR. MORDEN IN HIS HOUDAH

In this photograph the mahout is hidden by the houdah. Sometimes, as in this case, an extra
man
rides behind the houdah to speed the elephants if he lags
THE RING CLOSES IN
After a tiger is shot, the ring closes in. A wounded tiger sometimes takes cover in particularly
heavy growth, and then it may become dangerous to the elephants and difficult to dislodge
A SHOT AT SHORT RANGE

A wounded tiger has broken cover and Mrs. Morden in the foreground has just fired at him. Mr.
Morden is taking aim
TRYING TO DISLODGE A TIGER

It is typical of tigers to take cover rather than to run any great distance. Thus the method of ringing
them is usually successful
When he stops, which he does at the Before the beast is moved, however, the
densest bit of growth, they surround the —
head shikari makes puja literally, "wor-
place and a new ring is formed. Were —
ship" a ceremony which is performed
the tiger to keep going, he would prob- after each kill. The shikari takes five blades
ably get away, but his instinct for con- of grass, dips them in the tiger's blood,
cealment is his undoing. and casts one to each point of the com-
Sometimes, as happened to our party pass; the fifth he buries in the ground, all
on two successive days, more than one the while uttering a sort of incantation.
tiger may be found in the ring. Then Thus the gods of the jungle are appeased
ensue a few seconds of the greatest excite- and good hunting is assured for the future.
ment, for they almost always break in One of the most interesting features of
different directions. Guns pop, elephants the Nepal tiger shoot on which I went
squeal, and mahouts shout on all sides, was the elephants, which were loaned by
two or three tigers dash through the ring the Maharajah of Nepal and the rajahs of
and are followed by lines of racing ele- neighboring states. To say that one
phants. It is an experience never to be becomes fond of one's hathi, is to put it
forgotten. mildly. They are such amazing brutes,
When a tiger is killed, the ring is gradu- clumsy in appearance, and yet remark-
ally closed in until it is but a few yards in ably quick and intelhgent. In mov-
diameter. Then, after making sure that ing along a forest trail, a low-hanging
the animal is dead, the mounts of the branch or creeper may look as though it
shikaris and those of the sahibs are made would brush the mahout and his passenger
to kneel, and the prize is examined. off the elephant's back. You prepare to
BEGINNING OF MAKING PUJA
A ceremony of propitiation is performed by the shikaris after a tiger is killed. Five blades of grass
are dipped in the tiger's blood, one is thrown to each of the points of the compass, the fifth is buried
in the ground.
THE RETURN OF THE SHOOTING PARTY

For return to camp a transfer is made from the houdah elephants to the riding elephants on which
long distances may be covered without discomfort as their motion is easy on the rider. Their average
travehng gait is about five miles an hour.
bend as low as possible, but just before The blow does not seem to hurt the ele-
reaching the obstruction, the elephant phant, however, who just shakes his head
stops, and you see his trunk reach up, a bit —and usually does what is required
curl around the limb, tear it down and of him without further ado.
throw it aside. Again, a tree of consider- One of the three other men assigned to
able size may bar your path. Your each elephant might be termed his groom,
mount just leans his head against it, his for this man sees that his animal is
trunk curled; an easy push and over properly bedded down —they are
at night
goes the tree. always kept chained in camp — that he
On arrival at camp after the day's is watered, fed, and generally looked after.
work, customary for the rider to give
it is The other two men cut grass during the day
his mount a piece of sugar cane, and one and pile it up in bundles, which are brought
of the camp attendants is always on to camp by the elephants themselves
hand with a bundle of short lengths for when they return from their day's work.
the purpose. Hathi knows about how Although in some districts, where game
long it should take you to dismount and is plentiful, tigers serve to maintain a
get his present, and he
waits quietly until he
thinks the time is up.
Then he becomes impa-
tient and "whooshes"
about with his tnmk un-
til the titbit is forth-
coming.
Each elephant has its
own personal servants,
four of them. The ma-
hout, who rides on his
neck and guides him by
prodding him with bare
feet behind his ears, is
usually a man who has

grown up in the elephant
service and thoroughly
knows his mount. Ma-
houts seldom speak loud-
ly to their charges, but
seem to do most of their
guiding by low-voiced
orders and by their toes.
Now and then a mahout
will bring the blunt edge
of his kukhri (the curved
Gurkha knife which they
all carry) down on an ele-
phant's head with a crack A TYPICAL TUSKER
The houdah elephants are large and specially trained for their
that one would think work. Due to this training they are not likely to become excited
would fell the animal. at critical moments
352 NATURAL HISTORY
balance of nature and prevent undue serve to keep down the numbers of other
multiplication, in others they are mali- animals that tend to destroy the native
cious marauders. In the Nepal Terai, crops. It is not likely, therefore, that
natives came to us and begged us to hunt the government will permit them to be
near their villages, where, they said, tigers exterminated. Where, however, they
killed enough of their herds to cause real prey too extensively on domestic herds,
hardship. Nor are these natives usually it is highly desirable that their numbers
able to protect themselves. be reduced, for thus, and thus only, can
Tigers undoubtedly play an important the proper balance between wild life and
part in the economic life of India, for they agriculture be maintained.
BRINGIXG IN A SUPPLY OF FODDER

Each elephant daily consumes several hundred pounds of leaves and smaller branches. This fodder
is cut by two of the four men assigned to each mount and is collected and brought to camp by the
animals after the day's work is over
Publishers Photo Service
AFLOAT ON MANY WATERS

A Photographic Series Showing the Steps by Which the Primitive Boats of Widely
Differing Peoples Have Been Developed from Floating Logs to Built-up Boats,
the Forerunners of the Ships that Ultimately Aided the White Man in His
—
Domination of the Habitable Earth Some of the Many Types that
Are in Use Today as They Have Been Since Before the Dawn of
Written History
LONG before the dawn of history lived gotten genius ultimately learned that by
the first sailor. Who he was we do using a stick he could propel his log in the
not know. Where he lived we can-
I direction he wished it to go, so long as he
not even guess. Probably in a thousand could reach the bottom of the shallow
different places at a thousand different waters upon which he was willing to risk
times a thousand different ape-men found his naked body. Later, probably, this
that by sitting astride floating logs they inventor's descendants learned that by
could ride upon the surface of the water. lashing lighter logs together they could be
Such, undoubtedly, was the beginning of made into craft more easy to propel
seamanship, and yet that first step could —
more comfortable more fitted to carrj^
hardly have been a conscious one. It is these early sailors and their meager be-
not likely that it was a clearly recognized longings.
discovery. It seems more probable that These steps, of course, simple though
it was merely an accepted fact even with they were, were long in coming. Even to-
the earliest of mankind. day there are primitive folk to be found in
Finally, however, this bit of information the world who do not construct boats
was improved upon, for some long-for- whose wanderings on the water are limited
Wide World Photographs
ONE OF THE MOST

PRIMITIVE CRAFT
IN USE TODAY
Built of a few slen-
der saplings lashed
together, this South
American raft
forces the navigator
to sit in the water.
Naturally with
such equipment,the
natives spend Mttle
time on the water,
and therefore have
not developed into
sailors
$
A PERUVIAN
"BALSA"
This boat-shaped
affair is actually
merely a raft, al-
though has been
it
developed far be-
yond the stage of
the other raft
shown above. The
rraf t is built of sev-
eral cigar-shaped
bundles of reeds
lashed together
© by E. M. Newman
Underwood and
Underwood
INFLATED SKINS
USED AS BOATS
Even today these
ingenious floats are
still in use on some
Asiatic rivers, just
as they have been
for thousands of
years. When Alex-
ander the Great
entered Asia, his
soldierssometimes
used such floats in
crossing the rivers
FORMOSAN RAFTS
These bamboo rafts
are highly devel-
oped and thorough-
ly practical craft
In Formosa, where
this picture was
taken, many oyster
fishers prefer them
to small boats
By Burton Holm
From Swing Gall
356 NATURAL HISTORY
Photograph by Carl E. Akeley 1
A PRIMITIVE AFRICAN DUGOUT

These natives have hollowed out the log but have not otherwise changed it. It is a present-day-
counterpart of boats known and used in prehistoric times
by the simplerafts that they still use. In Still other peoples even learned to'hol-
South America, for instance, a tribe called —
low out the larger logs with fire, perhaps,
the Cuiapo Pihibi navigate the streams and crude stone —andtools thus they
that flow into the upper Orinoco on rafts constructed dugouts — the first real boats.
so small that the navigators sometimes They learned, too, to make and use pad-
sit immersed water to their waists.
in dles, and were thus no longer limited to
Naturally, with such
equipment, they the shallow waters where they could pole
spend httle time on the water and have their crude and awkward vessels.
never become adept sailors. Dugout canoes have many advantages
Ultimately, in many parts of the earth, over and almost wherever trees of
rafts,
the size of such rafts was increased until were to be found, dugouts
sufficient size
they were capable of bearing greater at some time or another have been built.
weights and more men. The water, how- Even today the dugout is one of the com-
ever, still tended to wash across the logs, monest of boat forms and can be found in
and consequently low platforms were use in hundreds of widely separated dis-
built upon which the navigators could tricts of the world.
ride, keeping themselves and their be- It may be, too, that the hollowed log
longings above the wash of the waves. finally suggested the use of the curved
Even so advanced a people as the early bark of the tree as a boat, and in South
Greeks used "boats" such as these at the America today one may occasionally find
time Homer wandered bUndly up and a form of bark canoe that, undoubtedly,
down their land. is the simplest of all such craft. The
American Museum
Photograph
MORO BOYS IN
TINY DUGOUTS
In many parts of
the world dugouts
are in every-day
use . M oro boy s are
familiar with the
water almost from
the time they can
walk, and have
their own boats in
which they play
about the villages
that are built on
piles in shallow
water
BUILDING A SEA-
GOING DUGOUT
The Javanese, as
well as other
peoples of the South
Seas, are adept at
constructing large
seaworthy dugouts,
in which they some-
times make long
voyages across the
open sea
Brown Brothers
Ewing Galloway
SOLOMON ISLAND
WAR CANOES
The designs and
decorations of the
vessels of many
primitive people are
striking and unique.
Each of these war
canoes is large
enough to hold as
manv as sixty men
A BRITISH
COLUMBIA WAR
CANOE
The Indians of the
British Columbian
and Alaskan coasts
are adept workers
in wood, and their
dugout canoes are
beautiful examples
of their ar t So sea-
.
worthy are these

boats, that, a num-
ber of years ago,
Captain Voss, a
Canadian, sailed a
forty-foot canoe of
this type 40,000
miles from British
Columbia through
the South Seas,
around the Cape of
Good Hope and
north in the Atlan-
tic to England
Ewing Galloway
A TAHITIAN OUT-
RIGGER CANOE
Many natives of
the Pacific Islands
build dugout canoes
that they fearlessly
use in rough water.
In order to give the
canoes more sta-
bility an "outrig-
ger" is attached
PORT MORESBY,
NEW GUINEA,
OUTRIGGER
CANOE
This photograph
shows clearly how
an outrigger
operates. The boat
is so narrow that
platforms are built
out on each side,
and the balance of
the whole is kept
by the outrigger
that floats far out
at one side
Ewing Galloway
360 NATURAL HISTORY
1
- -- . ^ .._ _. 1
American Museum Photograph
AN OLD SAMOAN STATE CANOE
Chiefs of native Pacific tribes often possess very large and highly
ornate canoes. This Samoan
cratt IS an outrigger canoe built especially for use on
important occasions. Often outrigger canoes
have outriggers on each side. This is particularly true when they are
intended to carry sail
Carapuna Indians of the Amazon Valley development, mankind had made a

sometimes cut the bark from a tree — tremendous step toward the ultimate
section eighteen or twenty feet long and — construction of ships.
this bark, naturally, tends to remain In many portions of the world, how-
curled up as a scroll is curled. With a ever, trees and bark are
scarce, and other
few sticks they spread it halfway between methods were developed. Basket-like
its ends, and thus create the very simplest
"boats" were woven, and in order to
of bark canoes, for the ends tend to re- make them float, they were daubed with
main rolled up, and with the weight of the
passengers amidships, the ends tend also
pitch. —
Such boats still merely over-
grown baskets, oval or circular in shape
to riseabove the water level. are used to this day on the Tigris and
Such a canoe, of course, cannot be Euphrates rivers and elsewhere. The
strong, and the next step in its develop- Mandan, Sioux and other Indians, who
ment is a frame to stiffen the pliable bark. formerly lived South Dakota, also
in
Such a frame naturally is subject/to con- made circular boats, quite similar in shape
siderable refinement, so, eventually, these to those of Mesopotamia, but they were
crude bark canoes were brought almost to circular frames covered with hides, in-
perfection m
the birch bark canoes used so stead of baskets daubed with pitch. The
widely by the Indians of North America. Eskimos, more dependent upon the water
Here a frame supports the weight of pas- than the Mandans, learned to construct
sengers and freight, while a covering of more refined skin-covered boats, and even
bark keeps out the water. With this today the kayak and the umiak are in
Brown Brothers
BIRCH BARK
CANOES
No more nearly
perfect boat
light
has ever been de-
veloped by primi-
tive people. These
canoes, built of
birch bark over a
hght but sturdy
frame, were form-
erly widely used by
many American In-
dians. So thorough-
ly practical was
their design, that
the white man dup-
licates them in
wood and canvas,
and uses them in
large numbers
THE CRUDEST
TYPE OF BARK
CANOE
The crudest of bark
canoes is shown be-
side a white man's
canoe that has been
built of wood and
canvas in imitation
of the North Ameri-
can Indian's birch
bark canoe
Brown Brothers
Underwood and
Underwood
A CIRCULAR BOAT
ON THE
EUPHRATES
These strange craft
are merely large
circular baskets. In
order to keep the
water out, the
basket work is
daubed with pitch
or any other ma-
terial that will
serve. They are
much used in Meso-
potamia
$
THE ESKIMO
KAYAK
Where bark is
scarce, natives have
developed boats
covered with other
materials. The Es-
kimos commonly
use skins stretched
over frames of wood
or bone. A "kayak"
takes the form of
the one shown here
a larger, open boat,
they call an 'umiak"
'

-"^jm i
i »«,; -.g-
Ewing Galloway
A NILE RIVER
"DHOW"
Though sails
were in use be-
fore the dawn of
history, appar-
ently these grace-
ful "lateen" sails
were not used
until about the
time the follow-
ers of Mohammed
conquered Egypt
AN OUTRIGGER
CANOE UNDER
SAIL
This Philippine
"prau" requires
two outriggers in
order to offset
the pull of the
sail
American Museum
Photograph
364 NATURAL HISTORY
Brown Brothers
A PRIMITIVE BUILT-UP BOAT
For thousands of years built-up boats have been lashed together as is this boat from the Bay of Bengal.
The lashings are often made inside, but boats of this type either have no frames at all, or have simple
frames placed inside as strengtheners after the planks have been lashed together. Not until this type
of construction was developed, were boats of considerable size possible
common use.Elsewhere in the world, size possible,even though the planks were
too, boats of similar construction have tied together at first with thongs.
been used, but such construction does not These thong-tied boats then gave way,
permit of much increase in size, with the in large part, to boats fastened together
result that larger craft could not be built with pegs made wood, which were in
of
until wooden planks and finally steel plates common use on the Nile two and even
came and bark.
to take the place of skins three thousand years before the dawn of
Itwas the desire for larger boats for — the Christian Era. This method is still
mankind early turned to trade and needed widely used, and "treenails" are to be
—
means of water transport that taught found in many wooden boats, and even
someone, somewhere, to increase the sea- in wooden ships of considerable size.
worthiness of his dugout canoe by the During all this tremendously long
addition of boards along the sides. Thus period of development, the propulsion of
he could carry heavier loads without lower- boats had been making progress just as
ing his canoe so deep in the water as to hull construction had been. Poles were
risk the loss of cargo and hfe. Such boats, succeeded by paddles, and paddles by
too, were ultimately perfected, until the oars which, having appeared, were the
original dugout became merely the keel, most important means of propulsion for
while the planks that had originally served thousands of years. Today, of course,
only as additional ''freeboard" served we think of paddles and oars as the
now as integral parts of the hull. Such means of propulsion only for small boats.
construction made boats of considerable In ancient and medieval times, however,
Underwood and
Underwood
A NILE RIVER
BOAT AT PHIL^
The earliest known
historical records of
boats are those
found on the ruins
of Egyptian
temples, though
boats were well de-
veloped at that
time, as is wit-
nessed by the fact
that together with
s&me of the very
earUest records of
boats are accounts
of naval victories
over invaders who,
even then, had en-
deavored to raid the
Egyptian coast
A NATIVE BOAT,
CALCUTTA
The resemblance
between the hull of
this Hoaghly River
boat and the hulls
of those in use on
the Nile three thou-
sand or more years
ago is starthng
© by Underwood and
Underwood
'^ ^^ iA
Underwood and
Underwood
A SAILBOAT OF
LOWER BURMA
The divided mast
of this boat is very
similar to the masts
often used by the
early Egyptians.
The sail on this
boat could not, by
any chance, serve to
propel the boat
"into" the wind
ON THE PEARL
RIVER, CHINA
For thousands of
years Chinese junks
and sampans have
been used in much
the same form in
which they are
found today. Awk-
ward though most
of the vessels seem,
many of them are
remarkably sea-
worthy. On more
than one occasion
Chinese junks have
crossed the Pacific
Ocean
Underwood and
Underwood
A CHINESE JUNK
UNDER SAIL
A favorite and very
disconcerting habit
of Chinese seamen
isto sail their awk-
ward boats across
the bows of steam-
ships, steering as
close as possible, in
order that the
steamer may cut
offthe devils which
apparently are for-
ever pursuing these
far-eastern vessels
SMALL BOATS OF
ASIA MINOR
When the Crusad-
ers brought their
north European
ships out to Con-
stantinople, to Asia
Minor, and Pales-
tine, they found
that the peoples of
these lands had
many nautical im-
provements to off er.
As a result the ships
of England, France,
and the Low Coun-
tries were greatly
improved
Brown Brothers
368 NATURAL HISTORY
seagoing ships —some of considerable size an was great, and many were the ships
—were propelled by oars, many ships that were built upon her shores. Thus,
being rowed by hundreds of slaves chained in the thousands of years of civilization
inhumanly to the crowded rowing benches. that preceded the days of Prince Henry
Long before the earliest history, the Navigator and Columbus, on the very
sails were widely used, although, waters that washed the shores of the lands
strangely enough, among the peoples of where these two men were born, the craft
North and South America they were were developed that ultimately made possi-
almost entirely unknown at the time of ble the Era of Discovery that preceded and
Columbus. In two or three widely scat- resulted in the era of European expansion
tered and very limited districts American and the development of the modern world.
Indians did use the sail, but very little. Today we sail the Seven Seas on ships
Even the Aztecs, highly civilized though so amazing as to surpass the wildest
they were, had no understanding of the dreams of the old navigators, yet here
sails that propelled the ships used by the and there about the world are to be found
Spaniards. counterparts of the very boats upon
In European and Asiatic waters, on the which the early development of man-
other hand, sails had been in use for thou- kind so largely rested. Rafts, dugouts,
sands of years, and bark canoes
though, until the marked some of
introduction of man's very earh-
the compass, few est steps toward
voyages were civilization and
made far out of the mastery of
sight of land. the world, yet
The Vikings, of we have them
course, crossed with us still.
the Atlantic, The gap between
partly under sail the dugout of
and partly by the savage and
using oars. the palatial liner
But few sailors of the North
were so daring as Atlantic seems
the Vikings, and almost immeas-
so far as those of urably vast, yet
the Mediterrane- the oneis but the
an were con- outgrowth of the

cerned, their voy- other. From one
ages were almost the other has
wholly close a- evolved through
long the shores the medium of
of their own land- the restless, nev-
Underwood and UnderiLwod
locked sea. Still, A present-day replica of a Viking ship. —În a vessel of er satisfied, and
this type Leif Ericsson voyaged to America. Probably
the commerce of clever mind of
the sail was introduced to the Norsemen by the Roman
the Mediterrane- conquerors of Britain man.
Claudia often rested bj^ straddling a horizontal limb
THE CONQUEST OF
CLAUDIA
How One of the Notoriously Untamable Howling Monkeys Caught ,
in Its Infancy on Barro Colorado Island, Responded

to the Friendliness of Its Captors
By frank M. CHAPMAN
Curator-in-Chief, Division of Zoology and Zoogeography, American Museum
ONE need not be a professed

malogist to yield to the singular
mam- in spite of our bipedal, terrestrial habits,
they are impressed by a relationship all
fascination exerted by a band of who can say? But there
too evident to us,
monkeys in its native haunts. When, is something in the howler's steady,
therefore, these indigenes appear near the intent, prolonged stare, in the efforts of
laboratory on Barro Colorado the botanist the capuchin to obtain a nearer and a
deserts his plants, the entomologist his better view, in the night monkey's keen
insects, the ornithologist his birds, all peering, and the marmoset's awareness,
impelled by a community of interest that that warrants the belief that we are some-
expresses the vaHdity of a zoological clas- thing more to them than merely large,
sificationfounded on real affinities and, in strange creatures.
a measure, at least, demonstrates the Of these four species the black howling
truth of the dictum that the proper study monkey {Alouatta palliata inconsonans)
of mankind is man. isthe most conspicuous in the forest of
The monkeys return the comphment. Barro Colorado in the Canal Zone. In-
Quite obviously we arouse in them an deed, a howling monkey in the tree-tops
intense curiosity. Whether this is be- defying by voice and gesture a passing
cause we are new and unusual, or whether. airplane, would make a fitting emblem for
370 NATURAL HISTORY
GATUN LAKE AND THE CANAL FROM THE FOREST

This is the point of view from which the American Museum's habitat group of Barro Colorado was
made. Here Claudia was found
the island and, at the same time, symbol- one of these baby howlers in captivity,
domination of man.
ize the inevitable that I wish here to relate.
I estimate that during the winter of The habits of our pets, like the doings
1928-29 about eight clans of howling of our children, are very apt to arouse in
monkeys inhabited Barro Colorado. They us an enthusiastic approbation not always
frequented only first growth or mature shared by others. But it is universally
forest, and were, therefore, confined to admitted that Claudia, as she was called,
an area of approximately 2000 acres. was possessed of a fascinating personality.
The average range of each clan is thus If it is difiicult to analyze the bases of
about 250 acres. To this territory they personality in man how can one hope to do
are apparently more or less closely re- baby monkey I can only say that
so in a !
stricted, for in my four winters on the Claudia had large, luminous, intelligent, in
island I have never known the clans to fact human black eyes, and that their
associate. distance apart gave breadth if not height
Allowing nine or ten individuals to the to her forehead. From them she regarded
clan and, on the basis of the estimate here you with a spirit of calm, discriminating
given, our present howler population is independence which was the essence of her
between seventy and eighty individuals. nature and perhaps the foundation of its
These clans, or bands, are usually com- charm. Claudia, might with reservations
posed of two adult males, and a young be your friend, but she certainly was no
male or two, while the remainder are one's pet.She permitted no petting and
females of whom one or two may have she betrayed no affection; and still I
young in arms. It is the brief history of always had a feeling that Claudia had
THE CONQUEST OF CLAUDIA 371
potential affections and I knew that it outspread, in the bottom of her cage, to all
well worth an win them. appearances dead. But she slowly opened her
was effort to
eyes, looked at me dully and, with apparent
It was in October, 1927, that Claudia
effort, raised one arm. I was quite sure that she
literally fell into our hands. At this time was dying, and went to my house for a poncho
she was probably about two months old. to protect her from the burning sun. When I
She was a member of the laboratory clan returned she was up, grunted a httle and soon
of howlers and, doubtless by some mis-

began eating. Evidently I had aroused her from
a nap.
hap, was left alone in a tree near my
In the afternoon we removed her from the cage,
house whence she was taken by Donato. which she had shared with two simpering marmo-
It was the 23d of the following December sets (to whom she paid not the slightest atten-
when first I met Claudia, and two pages of tion), and placed her in one of her own where she
my journal of the 24th are devoted to her. would have the seclusion her reserve demanded.
It is a large cage nine feet square and seven high,
From it I quote and in its center we set a small, well-branched
The baby howler is captivating. No hand- tree with the leaves still attached. It was fifteen
organ monkey but a wild, forest creature
this, minutes before she ventured into this new field.
who after two months' captivity, out of the not Meanwhile, she sat on a box similar to one in her
more than four of her life, is still unapproachable. former quarters. The moment she entered the
She resented the slightest touch and turned on tree she began to eat its leaves, puUing them in
me fiercely. For a moment I thought that she toward her as the adults do. This important food
actually would attack but she vented her feelings had been omitted from her diet of bananas, rice,
by howling loudly. When I came from the forest papaya, bread and meat. Of the latter she
at midday she was lying on her back, arms seemed very fond and at one o'clock today was
A BABY HOWLER
Whenever disturbed, Claudia gave vent to her feelings by howhng loudly. Even after she had become
thoroughly familiar with her surroundings, the sight or sound of some of her own kind caused an outcry
372 NATURAL HISTORY
A SPINY CEDAR ON THE ALLISON ARMOUR TRAIL

The face of the buttressed trunk of this cedar {Bomhaco-psis fendleri) measures 31 feet, and its greatest
circumference is 90 feet. The tree is about 150 feet in height
tugging at a piece held in herleft hand. Changed She would try any food once but
to the right hand there was an evident lack of promptly dropped what did not appeal
coordination. Mouth and meat did not connect
to her. Raisins she would always take.
until the left hand came to the rescue and guided
the right toward the expectant point. Appar-
The seeds cracked sharply as she munched
ently she is left-handed. After a survey of her them. The thrown away. If
skins were
surroundings she made a journey of exploration the raisin fell before she had extracted its
of her new home, climbing from limb to limb, contents, she looked down from the limb
moving easily and making some mis-
freely,
on which she was sitting until she saw it
steps but saving herself from falling by the use
of her tail; an automatic mainstay. She howled on the dirt floor, then went down and re-
loudly and repeatedly at an airplane the approach trieved it, a perfectly coordinated bit of
of which attracted her attention before it was action.
visible —a valiant little baby, born old. A vessel large enough to bathe in which
Claudia's actions on being placed in was placed in her cage was finally tested,
new surroundings proved to be wholly like She made

the stone, with her teeth.
characteristic. She was always intensely no attempt to enter it and evidently con-
curious, but it was curiosity controlled by sidered water as designed only to drink.
caution. Nothing was too insignificant In that way she used it freely but an at-
to arouse her interest and warrant investi- tempt to give her a shower brought such
gation. Even a small stone that chanced pitiful protests that we at once desisted.
to be dropped on the dirt floor of her cage Howlers evidently do not bathe. A rope,
was approached by degrees and from all hung from the roof to the floor of her
sides and was eventually tested with her cage about two feet from the tree, met with
teeth. immediate approval. Here was something
in the nature of a vine to which she spring, the tail always held. She stopped,
needed no introduction. Her first motion it is true, with abut she stopped.
jar;
was to reach for it and pull it in hand over The great event in Claudia's life during
hand as deftly as a sailor. Then she the three months I knew her was the
sprang for it, or, at times, went to ground, placing in her cage of a fresh tree. To
took the loose end in her hand and, walk- her it was a new world. Like everything
ing erect, carried it to the base of the tree else new, she viewed it with suspicion and
which she ascended taking the rope with approached it by degrees, making tenta-
her. Thence she swung to a perch placed tive advances from the ground and from
on the opposite side of her cage. It was her rope, both familiar territory. Gradu-
some days before she ventured to swing ally she increased her grasp on the ends
free to and fro on the rope. of the new limbs, testing them with her
When in her tree, whether in motion or teeth, and after about ten minutes she
at rest, the tip of her tail was almost severed all caudal connection with the
invariably wrapped about some con- world behind and entered the tree. Sud-
veninent branch. It functioned as auto- denly, panic-stricken by the strangeness
matically as her feet. When she leaped of her surroundings, she made a rush for
for the rope, she did not abandon her tail- safety on the sides of her cage. This was
hold until the rope was grasped. To test repeated time after time, minute inspec-
the effectiveness of this safety device, I tion accompanying each visit until she had
pulled the rope aside just as she sprang thoroughly explored her new kingdom and
for it, but in spite of the fact that to her began to feel at home in it.
weight was added the momentum of her If Claudia seemed over cautious it
AN APPRECIATED TITBIT
When placed in a new cage which contained a well branched tree, Claudia'eagerly'^began eating the
leaves. These had not formerly been included in her diet
374 NATURAL HISTORY
A MIDDAY SIESTA
To all appearances Claudia was either dead or dying when taking a nap. At noontime she often
chose some spot fully exposed to the sun in which to sleep
must be remembered that she was almost not seem to impress her. Nor was she
wholly without experience and had no especially concerned with a coati that
one to instruct her. In her clan she sniffed around the outer base of her cage.
would still have been in her mother's But a live, native mouse (Oryzomys) at
arms and never called upon to take the once claimed her entire and eager atten-
initiative or reach a decision unaided. tion. From a branch of her tree she fol-
Alone she had nothing to guide her but her lowed its every movement as it ran
own good sense, courage, and instinctive quickly from side to side trying to find an
prompting to be cautious, and the manner exit from the floor of her cage. Fre-
in which she accepted the numerous quently she uttered a sound like the
changes, small and great, in her new en- gritting of teeth and to it added a high,
vironment is a tribute to her adaptability. excited squeak. It did not seem possible
Unfortunately, there was no one at the that so arboreal a creature as Claudia
laboratory during this period prepared to could have an inherent interest in an
make a proper study of Claudia's mental- animal so terrestrial as a mouse. Never-
ity and development. To me she was only theless,it unquestionably fascinated her.
a very appealing, winning little person with So great, indeed, was her desire for a closer
whom it was always a pleasure to spend a view of this strange, active little object,
minute or two of the time left from other that it prompted her to descend to the
occupations. ground. Barely had she reached it, when
One day I placed a paroquet {Broto- the mouse chanced to run at her and, with
geris) in her cage. She looked it over a convulsive leap, she sprang upon a near-
carefully, as she did everything, but it did by block of wood, back arched, tail tightly
curled, jaws set, eyes intent with a look pleased to be largely to her own
left
which seemed to express fear, surprise, devices. Whennot distracted by the
and indignation. It required only a little presence in the near-by forest of her
imagination to believe that we had here a own kin, she never seemed to lack for
primitive exhibition of a response which is occupation. Her tree and swinging rope
commonly thought to be instinctive in made a playground where for hours at a
Claudia's remote relatives of the same time she entertained herself, performing
sex! The little excited squeaking aroused rare acrobatic feats. When tired, she
by the presence of the mouse was also often rested by straddUng a horizontal
always uttered by Claudia when I shook hmb, lying on her belly with her hind
the gunny-sack which was her bed, as an legs danghng and her chin leaning on her
invitation to play. At such times she folded arms. From this evidently comfort-
jumped toward the sack to grasp it with able position she surveyed the world
teeth and hands. Possibly the mouse composedly and with what seemed to be a
aroused a similar desire. slightly amused expression.
The grating sound indicated contempla- When taking her midday siesta she
tion. It was sometimes continued for sought a place, either on a box or the
more than a minute. While eating, she bottom of her cage, fully exposed to the
often uttered a low, contented chuckling, sun, lay flat on her back and stretched her
and her only other conversational note arms and legs out to the limit of their
was a slight grunc at times leading up to a reach. I have never seen any other quad-
roar. Doubtless Claudia was just as well ruped, and but rarely a biped, assume so
CLAUDIA SEES A MOUSE

Her glimpse of a mouse aroused Claudia's attention to such an extent that she descended to the
first
ground for closer observation, but when the mouse suddenly ran toward her, she sprang upon a near-
by block, back arched, tail tightly curled, and jaws set
376 NATURAL HISTORY
INVESTIGATION
Claudia was of a cautious nature and always carefully investigated any piece of food before taking it
into her mouth. Almost invariably the tip of her tail was wrapped around some convenient branch
relaxed a pose. At night she slept in a remembered that I first met Claudia on
box, with a piece of gunny-sack for a bed, December 24.
usually lying on her side. December 25. Photographed Claudia this
Aside from Claudia's attractive per- morning. She wanted to sleep and resented being
sonality, I think that it was largely her disturbed. She did not howl at me as she did
evident disregard of me that led to a yesterday, but beyond this is no more friendh'.
She refused to take food from my hand but picked
determination to win her friendship. Also
it up from the box where I placed it. She appears
Iwas influenced by the fact that howling to be definitely left-handed.
monkeys are notoriously untamable. December 26. Claudia took food from my
I dehberately devoted myself, therefore, hand and even ate while I held it. We are
to the conquest of Claudia. It was slow getting on. A piece of banana, a Brazil nut,
a cabbage leaf, and a bit of cooked meat were all
work. She had no more time for me than
accepted, although the nut and cabbage were
I had for her. It was doubtless just as certainl}^ new to her. Both the latter were soon
well, therefore, that I could make only dropped, but the meat she clung to with her left
brief and casual visits when I chanced to hand, eating eagerly and chewing thoroughly
pass her home. My campaign was before swallowing. She has not yet cut all her
teeth and none seems fully grown.
planned on Claudia's love of food and
play, two traits on iwhich we might meet During the following month I made
with some hope of understanding each some progress with Claudia but without
other. The story of how I gradually gaining her confidence in my good will.
gained her confidence may best be told by She soon came to recognize me as a source
extracts from my journal. It will be of unusual and palatable food, but I
myself was altogether too remarkable an acts in much the same way. Now and
object to be accepted without reservations. again she seemed to realize that she was
Often as I entered her cage she jumped becoming too intimate and retreated, but
toward me from her tree to the rope and each time the lure of the wagging rope
held out her hand (usually the left) for won her to a new test of strength; and for
the expected gift. I tried to induce her to a baby she was amazingly strong Event- !
eat her food while I held it as a means of ually she entered into this game with so
creating closer relations, and she fre- much even when her only hold
zest that
quently did sometimes very gently,
so, on the tree was with the tip of her tail,
tentatively testing my fingers; but her shake and swing as I would, she did
teeth, if small, were sharp, and I did not not relax her grip. Her tail, indeed,
encourage experiments in this direction. seemed to be quite as firmly attached to
As a playmate I got nearer to her. the tree as to her body. But in spite of
Her love of play seemed quite as strong these associations she would not permit
as her desire to eat. When, about half an me to touch her.
hour before sunrise, she awoke, she went An incident that occurred on February
direct from her box to her swinging ropes. 7 did much to advance our relations. At-
A second rope had been placed in her cage tracted to her cage by unusual calls, we
and she seemed never to tire of devising found her so entangled in her ropes that
new methods of using them. It was with she was completely helpless. She was
a rope, therefore, that I made my ad- terrified, and as we cut her bands she
vances, and she quickly offered to bite one screamed like a child. When freed, she
end while I pulled at the other. A puppy was a very much subdued monkey and
CLAUDIA EATti A KAISIN

Raisins were always acceptable to Claudia and eaten with apparent enjoyment. The skins she
discarded but not until every bit of their contents had been extracted
378 NATURAL HISTORY
either for this reason, or because she and relaxation, went to sleep under my
recognized in me a rescuer, was very continued ministrations. I rejoiced in the
gentle, eating from my hand and almost conquest of Claudia.

permitting me to touch her. After this epochal event our friendship
Five days later, or after a siege of just developed rapidly, but on Claudia's lines;
fifty days, Claudia capitulated. My and Claudia's lines were play, more play,
credentials, however, were still supported and harder play. She would desert her
by an appeal to her palate, and it was food at any time when I entered her cage
while she was eating a raisin that I was and spring toward me. Indeed, Claudia
granted the heretofore unthinkable famili- now became the aggressor. I was, in
arity of stroking her head. The act, effect, another rope and to be used as such.
indeed, seemed to give her some pleasure Meanwhile Claudia's teeth had become
and it had all the elements of a personal formidable. She never attempted to
victory for me. Finally she stretched out bite, but her methods of play called for
on her gunny-sack bed, put her head on their more vigorous use than my skin was
one side, closed her eyes and, with every prepared to withstand. I had, therefore,
appearance of contentment, confidence. to cover one hand with a woolen sock,
leaving much toe for
chewing purposes. This
seemed to please her and
it protected me, while
with the other hand I
could maul her freely.
Was Claudia now
tamed? Not for a
moment. I was simply
one of the many strange
things which she had en-
countered in her new en-
vironment, learned to
accept and make the best
of. Fundamentally she
was as wild as the day of
her capture. It needed
only the sight or sound
of her own kind to change
her from an apparently
happy little creature
playing with her ropes, to
a wild animal dashing
about her cage or clinging
to the wires nearest the
forest and howling piti-
fully.
Her powers of hearing
and seeing were remark-
THE FOREST ON BARRO COLORADO
able. Often her calls first
It is estimated that during the winter of 1928-29 about eight clans
of howHng monkeys inhabited these forests told us that howlers were
roaring in the distance or passing through return of the cause she would have another
the trees bordering our clearing. As time violent, uncontrollable attack. One could
passed and she became more accustomed not imagine cries more expressive of hope-
to confinement and famifiar with us, we less despair; or a more pathetic figure
assumed that she would cease to respond than this baby monkey looking from her
to the 'call of the wild/ but there appeared cage to her relatives in the tree-tops and
to be no decrease in the force of her re- moaning wistfully.
action to the voice or presence of other At this time we should have yielded to
howlers. Claudia's plea and restored her to her
My record for December 24 reads clan. Perhaps they might have refused to
This afternoon Claudia howled continuously accept her. But even if forced to live
for at least half-an-hour. Evidently she was alone, she would have had the freedom
startled by hearing some of her kind, but they of the forest and one must believe event-
were so far away that one had to listen intently
ually have found a mate.
to hear them. She jumped from Umb to limb of
her tree angrily shaking branches with her
its
At any rate she could have suffered no
hands and even biting them. worse fate than that which befell her in
Under date January 21 our care. Gradually her health failed until
of I quote
she could barely drag herself into the tree
Claudia is wild and restless. She calls almost
constantly and rushes about her cage floor, through which she had leaped and swung
always on the forest side, as though looking for a so agilely; and in October, a year from
way out. . She was not still for thirty consec-
. . the date of her capture, she died. Her
utive seconds during the day. body is in a jar of alcohol in the laboratory
As before, this activity was caused by awaiting dissection to determine the cause
hearing howlers call. Then would follow of her death. I have never had the
a period when there were no other howlers courage to examine it, but whatever the
in our vicinity and Claudia seemed wholly autopsy may show, I believe that Claudia
reconciled to cage life. But with the died of a broken heart.
A NIGHT WITH
AN AFRICAN HERDER
How an Artist, Lost from the American Museum Exploring Party to Which He Be-
longed, Found His Way to a Native Hut not Far from the Shores of Lake Hanington,
Where He Spent a Night in the Company of a Herder and His Family
By W. R. LEIGH
THE sound of two distant rifle shots

reached me.I promptly answered
and the entire absence of trees between it
and the snags argued rapidity of action.
the signal with two shots and No such trees as these exist now any-
waited; there were no replies. where in the vicinity.
The sounds had seemingly come from a Beyond the blighted trees pink flamin-
point a couple of miles back and I decided goes formed, in places, compact armies
that the rest of the party were following, comprising millions of individuals; their
and that I might as well sit down and formation doubtless was due to the lake
wait for them. floor upon which they stood, the straight
Since seven o'clock that morning I military lines indicating the depth-limit
had been traveling along the shores of at which the birds could feed on the
that strangest of all Africa's bodies of bottom. Novel beyond words was the
water —Lake Hanington—and was tired. spectacle of these creatures, up to their
It was four-thirty, and having had no thighs in green water, and with heads
food since breakfast, I was not averse to submerged, casting conch-shell reflec-
sitting still. tions across the shimmering surface, while

Lake Hanington is a wild, inhospitable, those lifting their heads for air, kept up a
place, rarely visited by white men. It is continuous hum of conversation.
brackish at its southern end and briny There was something weird and fan-
at the north. It contains, in addition to tastic about this noisesome lake, set like
salt, what I judged to be alkali, soda turquoise in coral amid its red ridges —
and perhaps other minerals. The surface gem of unique beauty —a poisonous
of the water is covered with a green scum talisman.
of floating algae, and the turbid water Our party had all started out together
beneath this scum exhales an effluvium in the morning, to explore these shores
that is not pleasant. ofLake Hanington, but, being impatient
At from fifty to a hundred yards from when the thrill of discovery lured, I had
the present shore line —out in the water hastened ahead to see what was around
there stand many stark and lifeless trees, the next bend, beyond the next hill
bleached like skeletons, that mark what and I walk rapidly.

looks like a former shore line. The My gun-bearer with my canteen had
impression was forced upon me that I was lagged behind as usual —and waiting for
treading the margin of a basin which had the oaf was tedious. Besides, there was
been seismically lowered suddenly, for the something exhilarating in being alone.
large size of the trees indicated that a The party was a mile behind me, when
century at least of quiescence must have I last sighted them about ten o'clock. I
preceded, to permit of their development, had paused beside a monster boiling
while the bald and treeless coast of today spring to take snapshots and saw the
A NIGHT WITH AN AFRICAN HERDER 381
men coming around a bend of the shore. during the past night, but it proved to be
I had continued along the water's a vivid imitation of lye, alkah and Epsom
edge, supposing my companions would do salts combined.
hkewise, though the travehng became I had found numerous pools at the
increasingly rough. There was very points where dry water courses entered
little soil on the red rock ridges and every the lake; the beating of waves had
form of vegetation was armed with vicious built up dams of sand across each trough,
thorns, which I found impossible always and behind these dams were stagnant
to escape. ponds, some green, some yellow, and
As a consequence I soon resembled a —
others blood-red all swarming with
half-picked chicken. My helmet and wrigglers, skimmers, and flies; they were
had become scarified and full of holes,
shirt fetid and forbidding places.
while numerous scratches on my arms and At about two o'clock I had stretched
one on the face were eloquent of bad myself in the shade of a large tree in the
going. bottom of a deep and narrow canyon and
The sun was furnace-like, and my can- rested for an hour.
teen was a regretful memory. I had A crow discovered me and spread the
expected to find drinkable water, as on report that there was something very
the preceding day, but no such luck was strange to be seen; other crows assembled,
in store. What looked like good water and the growing excitement attracted
rested in rock-pockets from showers other kinds of birds, until there was a
4^
J'/Â
J" h^j'Ay*'jJ.
B#»^^'
'i^ K I
ft-? ^ *
^
^ 1% ^-pTV^
^1 ^,
I
I
li
'flMiJ'ULi -^'^ -
'J
A PANORAM OF SUPERLATIVE BEAUTY

'All about, in a scintillating blaze, the old-rose glory flooded. Below, it played with the lake;
opalescent, quivering, and shimmering with kaleidoscopic reflections"
382 NATURAL HISTORY
garrulous mob around me of a great from pools in hippopotamus tracks in a

variety of shapes, sizes, and colors some ; stretch of marsh. I was nearing the stage
of the smaller ones exhibited surprising where I would be ready to tackle any-
inquisitiveness, coming almost within thing wet, so I approached the stately
reach of my hand. black tender of the herds.
Even the hzards gathered to inspect "Jambo!" (Good day!) said I. I
—
me, and several hyrax those curious doubted whether he spoke any SwahiH,
little creatures, no bigger than a cat, and was deUghted when he repHed,
whose nearest relative is the hippo- "Jambo, Bwana" (Good day, sir).
potamus, sat on rock ledges and scolded " Maji hii mzuri? " (Is this good water?)
mercilessly. I demanded.
Up the gorge that wound crookedly, "Hapana Bwana, mbaya sana!" (No,
thick jungle and vine-matted gloom was sir, it is very bad!)
noisy with the squawks of hornbills and He conducted me across the isthmus
monkeys. I debated whether it would be to an expanse of denuded red soil deeply
worth while to look for water there, but furrowed by dry streams, which, where it
decided it would not. merged into the water, became a reed-
Down the ravine toward the lake, the grown marsh teeming with ibis andherons
cliffs grew less precipitous and high and beyond this stretch, a second flock of
the walls separated more widly. Here, goats was drinking.
I decided, lay my best chance of quench- " Maji mzuri," said my herder, pointing
ing that thirst which was becoming a across with an arm heavy with brass-
serious problem, and sure enough, there wire bracelets.
was a pool in the midst of a deep, sandy I put a shilhng into his hand and
depression, at the foot of a dry waterfall. hastened on.
HaK the water had evaporated out of it Among a great number of seep-springs
and a band of green scum a foot wide all I found one issuing from beneath a large
a ound it was strewn with dead bugs; a rock which was comparatively free from
defunct mouse floated in the middle of it. salt, alkah, and soda, and sufficiently cool
I didn't drink.
to be drinkable. All the water entering
Making my way up out of the canyon the lake, I afterward learned, is hot or
I had pushed forward. A huge wart hog
tepid.
sprang up just ahead of me and glared,
The herds came to dispute my
of goats
blinking Uttle red eyes. With his
water rights. They knew good water
tremendous tusks, hideous gargoyle-like
head and scrawny mane, he presented a
—
from bad as well as I did and I had to
sit on the rock and fend them off with my
grotesque and revolting spectacle. Along
feet. The animals showed a thirst-born
the barrel of the rifle I watched quietly.
disregard for me and strove to muzzle my
—
He wheeled, tail rigidly erect his danger
signal —
and bolted with thorn-defying feet to one side. There was plenty of
recklessness.
water, but mine was the best. I sat
Klipspringers and dik-dik darted out amid a sea of goats, while scantily clad
of my path and a fox ghded away. aborigines looked on, and grinned.
Near the southern end of Lake Haning- A quantity of bees refused doggedly to
ton a peninsula extends at right angles be driven away, so they and I patched
to the shore, more than halfway across. up a gentleman's agreement. Also, a
As approached the isthmus of this land
I rowdy rout of baboons came down from
body, I observed a herd of goats drinking among the rocks. They, too, were water
experts —and said most uncomplimentary across the lake in a magical glow of
things to and about me. inimitable color — and pale
gray-green
But I was adamant. I was sublimely amber, cerulean, chocolate and ochre
egotistical—a glutton— deserving their all cliffs, ragged, broken and crumbhng.
strictures, and not ashamed. sat on my I It painted salmon-pink, vermilion, and
rock waiting— waiting. peach-blow white the eroded soil that
Why didn't the rest of the party catch swept down in lordly lines to the very
up? water s edge. It splashed robin's-egg
The declining sun cast orange shafts blue, lilac, mauve, gamboge, and russet
that splintered and cascaded over the patterns of dead and dying vegetation; it
clump of trees behind me and sifted daubed in red-purple lava flows, start-
through chinks and crannies, seeking ling green swipes in clefts and gashes
with gold-dust fingers to clutch me, where water occurred; black scars where
but I escaped. I had born their mahce all grass-fires had raged; incredible royal-
day; had paid the price; and now the purple velvet shadows in canyons; and
trees were bearing the brunt of their it walloped in above the tremendous
fury. All about in a scintillating blaze supernal, ultramarine dome.
the old-rose glory flooded; it rioted and Below, it played with the lake;
romped; it steeped the escarpment opalescent, quivering, and shimmering
!7 //
/
I 11 ll
lljl
ll'l
f^ -I
"a huge wart hog sprang up"
'With his tremendous tusks, hideous gargoyle-hke head and scrawny mane, he presented a
grotesque and revolting spectacle"
384 NATURAL HISTORY
Something may have gone wrong with my
companions perhaps exhaustion had inter-
"a howdy rout of ;
baboons
down from among
came —
vened perhaps someone had gotten hurt
the kocks" I recrossed the isthmus
•
—a long line of shore be-
came visible To obtain a
_ _ better view of it I walked
^ across the marshy space
'i:'-^
to the water's edge, where a fringe
of reeds grew. I hoped to see the
winding "safari" of porters coming
Kf^H^j^ iflfull-^^!^'-
along the ridge, or the slender
column of blue smoke and twinkle
with kaleidoscopic reflections —a bewil- of a camp fire, but nothing of the sort
dering turmoil —a chaos of witching tints. appeared only far away, a wisp of steam
;
It was a canvas upon which the wizard from a boiling spring, and the bark of a
lavished and squandered enchantment. lone jackal.
Flapping horizontally, great white Suddenly there was a loud splash!
pelicans skimmed above their reflections, Startled, I wheeled.
or joined them in a rainbow splash. An immense bull hippopotamus stood
With snowy bodies and black heads and within thirty feet of me. He had been
wings, flocks of ibis rose, and simultane- sleeping in the shallows among the reeds.
ously their images fell like showers of Automatically the rifle flew into posi-
guava blossoms; wild geese sailed majesti- tion; then with the realization that the
cally like questing galleons of old, their beast was as much startled as I was, down
forms silhouetted against the gleaming came the gun and up went the kodak
ivory band of alkali deposit that followed but, alas! — all the films were used up.
the wate 's edge along rock-bound shores. The bull, after a careful survey, decided
Bowing and tilting, each to the other, as I was a dubious and unneighborly inter-
if in playful mimicry, wading birds of loper, and with snorts of suspicion and
divers kinds fished in the shallows above disgust, moved out into deep water.
inverted counterparts, and dragon flies I continued my retreat; impalla
flashed hither and thither chasing each scurried up the hill —a hyena skulked off
other and dancing and sporting, like with ungainly motions and mean and
splatterings from the wizard's careless treacherous backward scowl. In a dusty
brush. It was a panorama of inimitable place I came upon the* tracks of a leopard.
and superlative beauty. The sun, a blood-red hub amid far-
Absorbed in contemplation of the pic- fiung spokes of molten gold, sprinkled
ture before me, I sat, essaying excursions ruby-dust athwart the purple ridges as it
into the beckoning canyons and masses of sank. was as glorious as a sunset could
It
jungle in imagination, that weary limbs —
be as only African sunsets can be an —
shuddered at the thought of attempting orgy of barbaric crimson a drunken —
dreaming of explorations in this fairy- spree of red.
land—fancying in a flying machine
flights I reached the brink of the deep canyon
to those rugged summits — those far blue where I had rested; the light was fading
peaks beyond—when crash! —two rever- fast below me a tangle of jungle obscured
;
berating boom from a distant gun re- the rocky floor of the gorge obscured the —
called me to the present! chaos of tumbled rocks, and what —
else? As if in answer to the thought came have heard it disputed by very experi-
the raucous expostulations of startled enced hunters, but in any case a fire is
baboons; an old male leaped from a crag cheerful and gives warmth.
where he sat,
to the top of a tall tree, One never realizes in dayhght how
cursing me vehemently. He started an utterly the human is dependent on his
owl out of the tree, and some roosting sense of sight, but at night the truth is
birds chattered and scattered from a vine- driven home. As the moonless night
draped mass near by. There might be a closed in, I found myself sensitive to
variety of marauders lurking in that
obscurity, and this was the prowling hour
every whisper of sound —the faint snort
of a hippopotamus down in the lake, the
— the time and place peculiarly appro-
chirping of insects, the stirring of the
priate as foreground to the picture, with
that ocean of blood in the west.
wind amid the trees —and I became
conscious of the inadequacy of the ear for
The thought of spending the night on
protection under such circumstances.
this savage hilltop with hyenas and
leopards abroad wa; not appealing; to
As I stood on the brink of the abyss,
attempt crossing the canyon in darkness with the wind growing chilly, I heard the
was not inviting either. I went through long weird wail of a hyena from not far
all my pockets —
not a single match. distant. What was I going to do?
Most of us have been brought up on the Seeking an answer to this question, I
idea that fire frightens wild animals. I chanced to glance along the edge of the
,-i %'
"THE HERDS OF GOATS CAME TO DISPUTE MY WATER RIGHTS"

The animals showed a thirst-born disregard for me, and strove to muzzle my feet to one side
386 NATURAL HISTORY
cliff, and lo — there stood an object—a '

' Sikia bunduki wewe leo ? " (Have you
yes, a goat! heard a gun-shot today?)
What was a lone goatdoing here? Lost, Again he was mystified.
evidently. glanced about inquiringly,
I "Hii bunduki!" I said, shaking the gun
—
and discovered a man a tall, black man under his eyes.
— on the opposite side of the ravine, "Vema!" (Yes!)
moving away. Surely, there was some He pointed across the gulch once more;
connection between the man and the goat. this time toward the lake shore.
I shouted. The man turned and started So I was right. The party could not be
back. I told myseK, as he descended —
very far away camped down on the lake
into the depths, that this naked savage somewhere, probably.
was going to be my host for one night. Now I had an urgent question to ask.
As he climbed up the wall on my side, "Wapi maji mezuri?" (Where is good
I saw that he was a slender man of a deep water?)
coffee color; his costume consisted of a He pointed down into the black depths.
loin-cloth, and a piece of figured cahco But now had a question to ask.
he, too,
—
very dirty over one shoulder, and de- "Tazama mbuzi moja wewe?" (Have
pending on one side to the middle of his you seen a goat?)
thighs; as adornments he wore a cord of I led him to the spot where I had seen
sinew with a few shells around his neck, the goat, and lo the beast had vanished.
!
a bit of ostrich feather in his wool, and "Chakula kwa fisi!" (Food for the
several brass-wire bracelets on arms and hyenas!) remarked my friend, as he
ankles. He also wore sandals. glanced about him in the thorn thicket
I waited and said, "Jambo?" and fast-growing darkness.
He answered " Jambo!" with a different As the case of the goat was evidently
intonation. (Well, thank you!) hopeless, I renewed my suggestion that
It was up to me to marshal all we proceed to where the water was; he
the Swahih at my command. led the way to the top of the hill. The
"Wapi nyumba ninyi?" I asked. ground rose steeply to the highest part
(Where is your house?) of the ridge through which the water
He repeated the word "nyumba"; had carved the trough, and where the pit
evidently he did not know as much was deepest. I looked down into black-
Swahih as changed my question.
I did. I ness where tree-snags and rock-spHnters
''Wapi boma ninyi?" (Where is your were sticking up, and bats fljang about.
hut?) Something that sounded like a frog sent
"Boma—boma?" he puzzled. up a wavering squawk from the inky
"Wapi shamba ako?" (Where is your obscurity and the old baboon uttered
patch?) —
imprecations again it seemed like look-
He looked at me blankly, as well he ing into hell and disturbing the fiends
might, since gardens were unknown here. The trail down which that aborigine
I was becoming desperate. took me was both engrossing and hair-
"Wapi lala wewe?" I ventured. (Where raising. He was very careful to draw
do you sleep?) attention to shaky stones, and deep
—
Ah! his face brightened —he under- drops, and somehow we reached the
stood. He pointed across the gorge toward bottom ahve and even unhurt. It was a
the top of the ridge. wonderful spot. I wish I could have seen
Encouraged by this success I pro- it by daylight —with huge trees, great
pounded another pertinent question: bowlders, and a fine pool amid rocks and
roots. I went for that maji mezuri — it was He led the way up the ridge to a second
cool and pure —a priceless treasure in this which stood a lone tree. It
corral, beside
land of heat and bad water. Eerie and was high above the lake on the crest of the
creepy was the gloom, and mysterious the —
ridge a bleak and barren spot, all rock
amorphous forms that shut us in. A pend- and scattered lava-stones, with a sparse
ent creeper brushed my ear —a frog dived and miserable sprinkling of stunted
into the water with a thorn bushes.
startling splash —the /\ rt«-^ ,^
A hut occupied the
drops of water struck '.?'}
center of the circular
A
my arm. •; corral. It was so
How helpless we placed that when the
would have been ;, buck goats got to fight-
against the leap of a ing, the vanquished
—
leopard and what ones would have some-
more likely place to thing to run around
encounter one? and escape being killed.
The ascent out of This was no idle pre-
the canyon was more caution.
gradual. On the level The wife came out
once more,my guide led with a baby in her
with swinging strides arms, followed by a
for a mile and a half. mongrel dog. My
I kept a sharp look- hostess was solicitous
out for the camp fire — was a stranger in
I
I expected to see, distress —

she must be
down toward the lake, kind, look after my
but none appeared. needs. She was a
We reached a goat gentle and motherly
corral where two little soul, with a soft and
boys awaited their melodious voice.

father. Some conver- "Mwanamke," said
sation, of which I I .
" Sikia bunduki
1 wo
understand not a sylla- hiviwewe?" (Madam,

% K.&i^
ble, ensued. It evident-
^.
have you heard a gun

ly concerned the camp today?)
THE HERDER
I was looking for, and ''Ndio!" (Yes!) She
I told myself that this naked savage was
I divined it was ad- going to be my host for one night" spoke more Swahili
verse to my hopes. than her lord. She
asked the older of the boys in SwahiU
I waved in the same direction as the boy
the same question concerning the gun-shot had previously.
and he replied afl&rmatively, but waved his '
Zamani sana — —
bili mbali sana!"
hand in the opposite direction. I wondered — —
(Long ago two very far!)
whether he had understood me correctly. I was amazed. Evidently I had been
"Wapi usiku lala we we?" (Where will deceived by the conformation of the hills
you sleep tonight?) asked the man, turn- and had come five miles back in the wrong
ing to me. direction.
"Mimi lala hapa,"(I will sleep here.) I Madam's costume consisted of a sort of
answered. skirt of leather from the waist to the
388 NATURAL HISTORY
(The wind will be cold tonight!) objected
the good soul. She went into the hut
"the trail down which
that aborigine took me and brought out two hairless goatskins.
was both engrossing
AND HAIR-HAISING" I thought I could risk these.
"Chakula kadogo?" (A little food?)
Oh, no, I was not hungry a thumping —
lie! — I was all right.
But this wise woman knew it was a lie.
She brought from the

shamba a gourd full of
sour milk.
"Maziwa ya ngombe
—mezuri sana!" (Milk
of the cow —very good!)
More visions, this
time of typhoid, but
it was up to me to
drink some of that milk.
It wouldn't do to offend
my kind hostess. I
drank. Typhoid or no
typhoid, it was good.
Then the boys came
up with another gourd.
"Maziwa ya mbuzi mezuri sana!" —
(Milk of the goat — delicious!)
She pressed the gourd into my hands.
It was dehcious as she said. Also, I
needed it. I was rather weak from hunger.
The whole family gathered around
now, including the dog, to have a really
~X good look at the strange new being who
had come among them. I was a nine
knees, some brass rings around the day's wonder —a small circus.
ankles, a few wire bracelets, and wooden The lustrous full moon rose over the
disk-plugs in her ears. The children were escarpment, across the lake, its reflection
quite naked. sparkling and shimmering athwart the

'
'Lala naani kibanaa we we? " (Will you water, while flying flamingoes sped across
sleep in the hut?) asked my hostess, the golden path like wraiths, and the
poHtely. head of a swimming hippopotamus —

No, would sleep under the tree.
I black moving dot, leaving ripples behind
Would I have a blanket? — cut obliquely toward the shore.
I thanked her kindly —
no, I would not The first object of absorbing interest
trouble her. was my I showed them how it
gun.
Visions of vermin loomed large —and in worked. They took it in their hands,
this country devoid of adequate disin- and I directed them how to place it against
fectants —^ye gods! the shôulder and sight along the
"Opepo myngi biridi sana Usiki!" barrel.
But I was careful to keep the safety tween our very feet. No attention was
device locked. paid to them. Even the dog ignored
Next my eyeglasses had to be inspected their presence with odd indifference.
and tried on by each in turn. They I began to grow weary and adjusting
evidently thought it would give them the goatskins as best I could to protect
magical powers of sight. me against the sharp wind, which by this
My fountain pen was a wonder, and time was blowing, I made myself as
when I got out a notebook and drew comfortable as possible amid the stones;
animals on a leaf, they clustered about the family retired to the hut, but the
closely towatch the miracle. The moon- man brought his blanket out and slept
Hght enabled me to see what I was doing. under the tree to keep me company.
But my watch was the most absorbing I was not conscious of sleeping any
marvel of the evening. It was mysterious that night; the stones were the trickiest
and charming beyond words. Everybody and most malicious I ever encountered.
had to Hsten to it tick, and when I tried No matter how I shifted and squirmed,
to explain what its use was, I got all they got me. They were really diabohcal.
balled up in my Swahih, and what weird —
Somehow I never have figured out
notions they imbibed heaven knows. just how —
the moon got from one side
The buttons on my clothes were fas- of the sky over to the other side. I
cinating objects, also the buckle on my know, because I had to keep my back to it
belt, and the stuff of which my clothes to keep it from shining in my face, and
were made. My helmet had to be tried there came a time when I had to turn over.
on by every one except the baby and the My host slept with the calm serenity
dog. of an infant —stones, moonshine, and all.
My kodak was so awe-inspiring that no Several times I raised my head and

one would touch it —luckily—and my looked at him enviously. Even the goats
shoes with the hobnails in the soles
were bewitching.
The freckles on my arms and neck
were infinitely interesting to the boys,
and the baby wanted to take hold
of my moustache; even the
dog found me most interest-
ing to smell. I was on the
verge of becoming con-
ceited.
Small animals very
much resembling v
Arizona skunks came
searching in every crack
and crevice — evidently
for beetles — and abso-
lutely disregarding our
presence, foraged be-
'how helpless we would have

been against the leap of a
leopard"
390 NATURAL HISTORY
ceased their bleating and went to sleep of us hugged the little blaze. Then the
some time after I closed my eyes. At dog came out. He was not entirely out
last everything slept but me, and the near- of his puppyhood, and wanted to play
skunks, and a lone hyena far away. with somebody's fist or foot all the time.
I looked at —
my watch it was four The boys snuggled up to their father,
o'clock. I became shivering cold; my and he told them little snatches of story
teeth almost chattered. about the stars, of which I understood
The man evidently felt it too. He got nothing.
up and gathering a few sticks, lit a fire. The moon had gone down in the west,
I didn't seewhere he got the coals from, and now a wan luminosity began to grow
but they must have had a little fire back in the east. Some water bird down the
in the hut. The boys came out with him lake began to call. In the east a comet
when he brought the coals, and the four went down the sky.
"my watch was the absorbing mar-

vel OF THE EVENING, AND EVERYBODY j^""^
HAD TO LISTEN TO IT TICK '
„ ^
.<r
^M -^^
1.
vr^r'
\ ;
"Nakuja karibu marra kwa marra chui made of —he was undecided —there are
kwa mbuzi?" (Do leopards ever come no lions in that vicinity.
after your goats?) I asked my host. "Simba," (Lion) I told them.
"Pana-siku," (Sometimes,) he said. They were enormously impressed, as-
Hyenas also came, he stated, and told suming, of course, that I had killed the
me things doubtless deeply interesting lion, which I hadn't.
had I understood what he was saying. The baby cried, and Madam re-entered
Soon objects began to become more the shamba and immediately returned
distinct. A ghostly wisp of mist lay along with the baby taking his breakfast.
the shore of the lake. It was the steam I gave the boys some pennies, and the
from a boiling spring. man and I "hit the trail" just as the
A little fragment of cloud directly above first dazzling bit of the sun's rim climbed
the sun suddenly became a gleaming dab above the horizon.
of gold on a rose-purple background; an My guide was expert at avoiding
infinitely delicate and elusive panorama thorns. It interested me because I had
emerged gradually from the obscurity of not been so successful; the lack of cloth-
night. The stars paled. ing was one thing in his favor, and ex-
Below us on a dead tree a dozen vul- perience become instinct did the rest. The
tures sat like wooden dummies; without natives adhere fairly consistently to
warning one made a lunge at his neighbor, trails. The goats and game make a great
wings loosened, spread, and one bird many of these, but my trouble was that
flapped off heavily to another tree. I got tired out dodging under bushes
My hostess emerged from the hut. I which the animals could pass under
said "Jambo" and put a shilling in her easily.
hand. My native showed me the trail, which
"Kwa heri!" (Good-bye!) I said. had branched off at the big boihng
We shook hands cordially. spring from the lake shore, and climbing
"Kwa heri bwana!" the ridge halfway, had passed around the
I picked up my gun and camera. canyon and me; in the dust were the
"Kiongozi!" (Guide me!) I said to the impressions of the automobile-tire sandals
man. of my tent-boy, so all question was
He picked up his spear. eliminated.
But I was not to get off so easily. The Anhour and a half of trudging over
boys discovered my
hunting knife in its rocks brought us in sight of a small river
lionskin sheath; they must examine S3 entering the lake, above whose strip of
wonderful an object. They asked their forest rose the welcome blue smoke of the
father what kind of skin the sheath was cook's camp fire.
FALCONING
By GEORGE G. GOODWIN
From a painting by
Louis Agassiz Fuertes Assistant Curator, Mammals of the World,
American Museum
How Hawks Are Trained for One of the Oldest Sports. Tercels and Eyesses,
Haggard and Passage Falcons, Branchers and Others
HAWKING is one of the pastimes jargon has long since become inseparably
The falconer has a
days that everywhere has
of olden attached to falconry.
retreated before the advance of name for every part of the trappings and
modern hunting inventions. It is not gear he uses. He also has a name for each
astonishing, therefore, that the average of his hawks. A glance at some of the
English-speaking person of today has only records of old hawking clubs reveals some
a vague idea of the meaning of falconry, very striking and romantic names, such
its antiquity and medieval splendor. as "Comet," "Destiny," "Lady Jane
There are stiU a few followers of this Grey," "Empress"; for the male falcons
sport, however, both in England and in or tercels the names "Druid," "Butcher-
America, and occasionally a falconer may boy," "Vanquisher"; Goshawks were
be found with his falcons and tercels, his given names such as "Gaiety Gal,"
lures, and his hoods. "Enid," and "Shadow 0' Death."
The art of training and flying hawks as In medieval times hawks were allotted
a means of securing game flourished in according to rank. None but kings and
the age of chivalry flve or six hundred members of the royal family were aUowed
years ago, when one of the distinguishing to fly gyrfalcons. The peregrine falcon
marks of a man's rank and birth was the was legally assigned to prince, duke, and
hawk upon his wrist. It was the sport of earl; the sparrow hawk to the priest and ;
kings when the wild boar was hunted in the holy-water clerk had to put up with
Eskdale, and the wolf and polecat were the musket.
still to be found in the Sytchly country, Falcons at various ages are so surpris-
and when the heron and the bittern were ingly different in performance and char-
at home in the meadows and marshes acter that the falconer has a separate
around castle moat and abbey wall. name for each age. A young falcon taken
A picturesque language tinctured with from the nest is an "eyess." When the
FALCONING 393
young hawk has left the nest, even though the better hawks they make when trained.
it is still neighborhood of its infancy,
in the Young hawks, if properly handled, will
it is a "brancher." Those taken during learn to fly and stoop in a remarkably
the autumn migration are called "passage short time, making long flights into the
falcons," and adult wild hawks that have neighboring country, but returning at
had two or three years of liberty are called regular intervals to be fed. For three full
"haggard falcons." The name "falcon" weeks the young hawks have absolute
is usually applied to the female, while freedom, but as soon as they begin to kill
the smaller male is called the "tercel" or for themselves, which usuaUy occurs dur-
"tercel gentle." ing the third week in the case of the
The eyesses, or young hawks, taken tercels, they must be taken in. The
from the nest, though much easier to falcons, being larger birds, take longer to
handle and train than the haggard, lack mature, and may be left out for a greater
the dash and style of the old, wild caught period of time.
birds. To overcome this drawback, the The process of training has been dis-
falconer puts his young hawks out to cussed by numerous writers in many
—
hack that is they are put in an open books and in many languages. The pro-
basket on a roof or on the stump of a cedure varies. The Hollander catches his
large dead tree, fed with fresh meat, and hawks when in passage or migration, whfle
left entirely alone. The wilder they get. the Scotchman takes his from the nest.
CHARLES W. R. KNIGHT WITH HIS TRAINED GOLDEN EAGLE

The golden eagle is used mostly for game such as hares and foxes, but as it is large and clumsy and
goes directly at the quarry, its flight is not so spectacular as that of the falcon. In Asia the natives
still use the golden eagle for supplying their larder with game
394 NATURAL HISTORY
The object, however, in either case is the the hawk moves, the tinkle of a good
same, that is to teach the hawk to be bell can be heard distinctly for more
obedient. than a quarter of a mile. The best beUs
The real training of the hawk, or are now made in India, but European
manning, as it is technically termed, bells, though of a different shape, answer
starts when the eyess is taken in from the purpose very well.
hack or at the time of the migrant's cap- The hawk, equipped with all the neces-
ture. First a soft leather hood is put over sary trappings, is now ready for the
the hawk's eyes, and a pair of jesses (short delicate business of training. It is carried
strips of leather) are fastened around its on a gloved hand for several hours each
legs just above the foot. The jesses are
day, gently stroked, and spoken to. The
then joined together on a swivel which, in feeding is first done through the hood;
turn, is attached to a leash and tied to a
later, the hood removed by candlelight
is
block.
while the hawk is feeding, and is replaced
To keep the falconer in constant
before the end of the meal. In this way
touch with his bird, a bell is fastened on
the hawk does not associate the hood with
each foot just above the jesses. He knows
exactly what it is doing from the sound the end of its meal and thus resent it. When
of the bells, and in the case of a lost the hawk has become used to people by
hawk these are of infinite value. As artificial light, it is fed unhooded in day-
A PEREGRIN FALCON
(Passage Falcon)
This particular individual, captured by the sailors on a hner at sea, 200 miles up the coast of Nova
Scotia, later came into the possession of Mr. Goodwin, who trained and used the bird during the hawk-
ing season, and then gave it back its freedom. Falcons, under normal conditions, perch on rocks,
and therefore the falconer provides a rock or a wooden block for them to rest upon
FALCONING 395
When the hawk will come two hundred

yards, the lure is jerked out of sight just
as the hawk reaches it. If all goes well,
the hawk then mounts in the and w4ngsair
round for a second attempt at the meat
on the lure. This time it is rewarded.
After a few repetitions of this, the hawk
is kept on the wing, or "waiting," as it
is called, for several minutes. This

exercise is increased daily.
The hawk is now ready to be "entered."
An easy bird of the particular quarry

that the hawk is to pursue, is put out in a
small clump of bushes in an open field and
sprung when the hawk is overhead. If
a crow is used, the falconer places a
freshly killed pigeon under the black
wing before the hawk has a chance to
taste the unpalatable flesh of the crow.
The error is often made of entering the
hawk to a pigeon throwm out of the hand.
EUROPEAN GOSHAWK
This powerful short-winged goshawk catches its
prey in a short, quick flight. It is naturally a
forest-Uving bird, perching on the Umbs of trees,
so when in training, it must be provided with a
bow perch
light, but the hood is always replaced

toward the end of the meal.
If it is a falcon that is being trained,
the lure is next brought into use. This
is the most important factor in the
falconer's equipment. It consists of a
padded flat weight covered with leather,
with the wings of a pigeon attached to
either side. It is also provided with strings
for the attachment of food, and a long
string by which to swing it. The weight,
however, is discarded when the hawk
has been trained, for by then the hawk
has been taught not to follow its natural
LQstiact to carry its victim away. The
feeding is now transferred from the glove
to the lure, and after a few lessons the
AMERICAN GOSHAWK
falcon goes immediately to the lure for (Haggard)
food. The distance it has to fly is in- Mr. George Goodwin obtained this bird from the
creased day by day, first with a line New York State Game Farm where it had been
caught in a trap. It is probably the first of its
attached to the jesses, then without. species to be trained for falconry
396 NATURAL HISTORY
plete trusting submission.
There are four princi-
palhawks used in Great
Britain today. They are
the long-winged hawks:
the peregrine falcon, and
the merlin; and the short-
winged hawks: the gos-
hawk and the sparrow
hawk. The short-winged
hawks are flown straight
from the fist at the
quarry. The flight is
short, quick, and close
to the ground, whereas
the long-winged hawks
usually kill up in the air
and trust more to speed.
I have trained and
flown successfully, in
America, duck hawks,
American goshawks,
Cooper's hawks, and
sharp-shinned hawks. The
little pigeon hawk, an
equivalent to the Euro-
pean merlin, would train
to perfection, but so far
READY FOR A MORNING'S SPORT neither old nor young has
Mr. Goodwin inherited his interest in falconry from his father, Mr. been obtainable. The
W. J. Goodwin, who was a devoted follower of this sport, and is here
shown with his hawk and lure in the Shropshire Hills, England American sparrow hawk
is for all practical purposes
An eyess hawk will faithfully follow the too small to be useful. It is very different
game that it is entered to, and there is no from the European sparrow hawk, which
surer way of losing a hawk than by having is a short-winged hawk similar to a sharp-
it check some stray pigeon half a
off after
shinned hawk, but larger.
mile away. Throwing the pigeon out of
In Great Britain, hawking, like hunting
the hand also gives the "show" away, and
and fishing, has its proper seasons. In
the hawk will always expect a repetition.
the early spring the long-winged hawks
The manning of a haggard or " passage
are flown at rooks, crows, and magpies.
falcon" some respects similar to that
is in
of the eyess, which has been but briefly
By the twelfth of August, these same
described, but it would be impossible even

hawks are through the molt and ready for
to begin to explain here the skill, patience, the Scotch moors, where the falconer wit-
and understanding that are required by nesses the unforgetable sight of his hawk
the falconer before he can redeem a wild stooping downward from a great height at
caught falcon from a state of fierce hatred a fast-flying grouse and knocking it head-
and suspicion and subdue it into com- long into the heather. In September
FALCONING 397
these hawks will make equally short work matter to us with this hawk, and the moment
of the partridge. we are fairly down wind of him the 'hawk is un-
hooded and flung off; and the falcon is in hot
In the Badmington Library, Lascells
pursuit of her quarry, rising with each stroke'of
gives the following excellent description her powerful wings till she seems to shoot
of the famous flight of "Bois le Due," a upward like an arrow from the bow.
haggard falcon, at a rook. The rook has seen her, and is making his way
We take up our position behind a stack to upward at no mean rate; but the pace of the
wait for a rook passing on his way from the falcon is too much for him, and ere long she is
rookery in the valley to the sheep-fold on the above him. Poising herself a moment, she comes
hill. Presently we see one coming, toiling slowly with one terrible perpendicular stoop straight at
over the shoulder of the down. him.
Shall we fly one of the young falcons lately It would seem as though nothing could escape,
entered and coming on so well or shall it be the but our rook is equal to the occasion, and with a
old heroine of a hundred flights, victress over clever shift he has dodged her attack by a good
more than double that number of rooks, that yard or more.
flies now
her fourth season with all the vigor and Well done, rook! but there is clearly now no
dash she displayed in the blinding snowstorm and safety for him in the air, for the falcon
has shot
heavy galesof her first year? A hundred or two up again, with the impetus of her swoop, to a
yards enough for a slip with a young hawk,
is far height scarcely inferior to that from which she
but with a real good one a
quarter of a mile is not too
far, while many and many a
time, if the wind be right
for her the old hawk has
been slipped at rooks a fair
half mile away.
It looks as if this slip would
be too far for a young hawk,
so the handsome old falcon is
taken on hand to the delight

of the whole field, not one of
whom, however, large as it
may but will stay on just

be,
one haK hour more when it
is announced that it is the
turn of old "Bois le Due" to
fly at the next chance that
occurs.
All is hushed as the rook,
a single bird, presumably a
strong old cock, comes slowly
up. He passes us and is going
nicely on when something
about the party awakens his
suspicion and he gives a
sudden swerve that in one
second takes him about 150
yards off on a side wind.
We are not to be done this
way, though, and in a mo-
ment the head of our party,
with falcon on hand, dashes
out at a brisk gallop down
wind of the rook which AMERICAN PEREGRIN FALCON
hastens up on wind. But a (Eyess)
hundred yards or so is no Hooded and waiting to step on to the falconer's hand
398 NATURAL HISTORY
and smaller. Ring above ring
does the falcon make, yet
without getting above him,
till, apparently determined to
gain victory, she starts off

into the wind to make one
tremendous circle that shall
attain her object.
Steadily into the wind she
goes, therook striving to fol-
low her example, and appear-
ing from below to be flying
after the hawk. At length,
as she almost completes the
outer circumference of her
circle, the rook perhaps feel-
ing his powers exhausted,
turns down wind, and, at a
great height makes off as fast
as he can go.
Surely the flight is over, for
the falcon working
is still
away, head to the wind, as

—
hard as she can in fact, the
two birds are flying in oppo-
site directions, half a mile
apart. "Not a bit of it," say
the initiated, who are off
down wind as fast as they
can ride.
In another moment you
see the falcon come round,
and though at such a height
she looks no bigger than a
PEREGRIN FALCON swallow, you can see that she
(Tercel)
is far above the rook, while
Hooding the falcon requires great skill and gentleness to avoid her pace, slightly descending
alarming the bird and making it hood shy. Mr. W. J. Goodwin
has just removed the hood from his favorite tercel, before releas- as she is, is almost that of a
ing the bird bullet. So thinks her quarry,
apparently; for shutting his
descended; so turning his tail to the wind, he wings, he tries to drop like a stone into a clump
makes all possible haste to a small patch of of trees now nearly beneath him.
thorns that promises a temporary shelter, having, Swiftly as he drops, there is a swifter behind
however, on the way to evade two similar stoops him, and down from that terrific height comes
from the hawk, almost as fine as the first. the falcon like a thunderbolt. Lord, what a
Alas for friend rook! On reaching the covert stoop
he finds it already occupied by the enemy, in the By the powers she has missed! and surely he
shape of the excited field who soon drive him with must escape.
hallooand crack of whip from his shelter, and But no, shooting upward like a rocket, the old
compel him again to seek the open. The falcon falcon put in one more straight, swift stoop, and
has, however, strayed a little away; so he starts the rook is taken just as he enters the sanctuary
with might and main to ring, in spiral curves, which he has had his eyes on from the first.
into the very clouds. —
Whoo who-op! A grand ring! A magnificent
After him starts the hawk, but soon finds that stoop! A splendid flight Bravo! 'Bois le Due'."
!
a really good rook, such as this one is, can mount It is only in modern times that the
nearly as fast as she can. crafty rook has been pressed into the hst
Up, up they go, gradually becoming smaller of available quarry. Both rooks and
FALCONING 399
crows, though common, are possessed of flown at Fisher's Island the same year,
considerable powers of flight in time and American falcons at this
I also flew
of need, and can shift from the stoops of meet. In 1927, Mr
Tefft had four or five
some of the fastest hawks with consider- duck hawks and Cooper's hawks trained
able ease. at Brewster.
During recent times the writer has Falconry is a noble, picturesque pastime
noticed a marked interest shown in falcon- and has many attributes that
in itself,
ry by American sportsmen. Through the make it an interesting and pleasure-
invitation of Mr. E. T. Tefft, falcons and giving sport. Its possibilities are un-
goshawks were imported from England bounded here in America, where hawks can
and flown during the springer spaniel easily be procured, and where the ample,
field Brewster, New York, in
trails at open spaces of the plains afford an excel-
1926. These same hawks were again lent opportunity to carry on the sport.
NEST AND YOUNG OF THE RED-SHOULDER HAWK

A peculiar habit practiced by many hawks is the decorating of the nest with evergreen branches.
The significance of this habit has never been determined so far as Mr. Goodwin knows. Near the
egg may be seen the body of a Brewer's mole
THE BLACK ART
An ancient and elaborate fiction which man has invented to
give himself a sense of power of circumstances
By MARGERY L. LOEB
Department of Anthropology, American Museum
FEW
A years ago an alert social
worker in Little Italy found to her
amazement that the tenements of
Mulberry Street housed numerous sor-
and materialistic
tahsmen to divert the forces

still has a foothold.
day and age the deep-
rooted belief in the potency of certain
of destiny
ceresses who carried on a prosperous The belief in magic is probably as

business in charms and incantations, ancient and as widespread as is the con-
and that in hall bedrooms people were cept of a supra-mundane force or forces
piercing effigies with darning needles and which control the fortunes of human
scorching them over the gas flame, to beings and the every-day occurrences of
destroy their rivals in love or other per- the earth and account for the unreliable
sons against whom they bore a grudge. vicissitudes of luck and all the inexplicable
More recently a farmer of York, Penn- experiences which must have puzzled man
sylvania, was killed by two boys whose from the beginning. In the face of his utter
crops and cattle had been blighted and helplessness at the hands of these whimsical
whose families had sickened. It was and indoniitable powers, man, in order to
claimed that the victim was a witch keep up his courage, has always had to
doctor, or "hexer" as the Pennsylvania imagine that there were means by which
Dutch dialect has it, and that he had been he could exert some influence over them.
bringing misfortune on the whole neigh- At times he has chosen to sway them by
borhood by his sorcery. The trial re- the same methods he has successfully
vealed that an elaborate traffic in witch- used in ififluencing his fellows —by
craft was firmly established in the midst cajolery, flattery, bribery, or supplication.
of what is in many ways one of the most On the other hand, he has also believed
progressive communities of the
farm that he could under some circumstances
country, among people who tune their actually exert compulsion over destiny.
radios to station wjz or weaf, New York. To this end he has invented the technique
Such incidents seem fantastic anachro- of magic, by which he has conceived that
nisms, and yet we find the vestiges of the "powers that be" could be compelled
magical practices persisting even in the to bring about his desired ends, whether
commercial centers of our big cities. of revenge, love, fertihty, or health.
When hard-headed business men in the Man has imagined that, often guarded
silk industry feel that they must discard a by an intricate and deficately set approach
textile design based on peacock feathers of rituals and incantations, there must
because of the superstitions associated be triggers, so to speak, which, when once
with this bird, and when skyscrapers, the —
touched off whether willfully or by
symbol par excellence of the Twentieth accident —would automatically divert the
Century, commonly omit the number forces of destiny into particular channels.
thirteen from their floors and rooms, it A given result would follow from the
seems evident that even in this rational release of a specific trigger in a sequence
THE BLACK ART 401
of cause and effect, as an electric bulb will The secondrelationship was that of
glow if the button by which it is con- contiguity. There was the same kind of
trolled is pressed. a bond between things that had once
The magnetic force which man believed been associated with each other. Thus,
could so effectively divert the supra- since the number thirteen had once been
mundane powers, operated by virtue of a associated with the catastrophe of the
sympathy —a magnetic circuit as it Last Supper, anything to which it was
were —-which existed between events, and subsequently applied would also attract
certain actions, objects, sounds, or words, to itself a doom of misfortune. Often the
which bore one of two relationships to origins of charms and incantations are
each other. The first of the relationships obscure or lost. Probably always the
was that of similarity. There was a reasoning behind the procedure is as
potential force —a charged channel, unconscious as are the rules of grammar to
through which, when opened, the powers a person speaking a language. But when
of destiny would be drawn between — objectively viewed, the same principles
things which looked or sounded or felt are found at the core of magical practices
alike. Thus, when the image of a person the world over.
was mutilated under the particular cir- He who has knowledge of how to arrive
cumstances which released the trigger at and set off the triggers —who knows
and rendered the channel active, events the formulae of incantations and rituals
would inevitably so shape themselves is master of the power latent in the
that the person himself would receive a elaborate switchboard. Sometimes the
similar mutilation. means of energizing the channel are
Courtesy of the Museum of the American Indian

A MEDICINE LODGE CEREMONY
A witch doctor of the Black Coyote tribe performing a mystic rite for the benefit of his companions
in Southern Cheyenne, Oklahoma
402 NATURAL HISTORY
From "The Arunta," by Spencer-Gillan Courtesy of Macmillan
AUSTRALIAN ARUNTA PREPARING FOR THE WITCHETTY GRUB CEREMONY

The members of the clan are decorated to imitate the appearance of the grub. The participants sit
in a long narrow structure which represents the chrysaHs, and sing about the grub in its various
stages of development. Then they shuffle out, squatting on their haunches, and sing of the insect
emerging from the chrysalis. The natives beheve that this performance will multiply the actual
number of grubs
simple and direct, such as the mere the community, as well as the most
appHcation of the number thirteen to an highly respected authority on all matters.
object. At other times, although more There is probably no people among
complex, they are at least common whom some phase of the magical complex
knowledge. The mass of magical lore may not be found, yet the forms which it
which most commonly finds its way into takes differ widely in different places. It
literature is that which is generally is often associated with the most matter-
known to the people at large in any given of-fact economic pursuits, so that however
community. But often, and particularly skillful a hunter or builder may be, his
when matters of importance are at stake, main concern, among many peoples, is
the procedure is intricate. The triggers with the magic he employs to bring about
are deep-hidden in the folds of esoteric his results, and he attributes his success
lore and only the professional sorcerers rather to his knowledge of charms than
the witch doctors, medicine men, shamans, to his skill in hunting or building. Again
or whatever they may variously be called it may relate most esoteric religious
to the
in various places, know how to reach them. practices, as among the Todas of Ceylon,
As a result, especially among certain whose religion is centered on the tending
primitive people to whom the belief in of the sacred cow herds, and whose
witchcraft is a dominating factor of life, priests are constantly busied with the
the professional sorcererprobably the
is magical means of caring for the dairy
most important and powerful person in temples. It is often involved with related
THE BLACK ART 403
complexes, as for instance in Africa where self. This is the clearest illustration of the
divination and trial by ordeal are im- principle of similarity or imitation— that
portant functions of the witch-doctors. between like and like there is a potential
Its techniques vary from the hysterical power. No catalog of the places in which
states in which alone the Eskimo and
it is found could come near being com-
Siberian shamans can make themselves
plete. It was known in ancient Egypt,
effective, to the simple and direct charms
Babylon, India, Greece, and Rome, and
for curing specific ills, which are passed over
is practiced today in the Itahan
the garden fence in country villages. com-
And yet in spite of these multitudinous
munity in New York, among the Pennsyl-
vania Dutch, among many European
variations, the minute similarity in the
peasants, and by primitive peoples from
details of magical practices in widely
separated parts of the world is striking. sea to sea. It frequently explains the
A particularly good illustration lies in difficulty explorers have in photographing

certain formulae used to insure the growth natives, for many savages feel that with
of strong second teeth after the first so exact an image in his possession, the
teeth have fallen out.
Thus, among the Ger-
man peasants, a child will
throw a cast tooth into
a mouse's hole, saying at
the same time "Mouse,
mouse, give me your iron
tooth; I will give you my
bone one." Similar for-
mulae are followed for
the Jewish children in
Southern Russia, the
children at Raratonga in
the Pacific, on the Kei
Islands southwest of
New Guinea, and in
Mexico. Among the Sin-
ghalese, it is to the squirrel
that the tooth must go.
The Cherokee Indian
child addresses the
beaver, and the Macedon-
ian child throws his tooth
on the roof for the crow.
Perhaps the most com-
monly known and the
most widespread magical
practice is that of working
the desired end on an From 'The Arunta," by Spencer-Gillan Courtesy of Macmillan
image or effigy, in order DRESSED FOR THE CEREMONY

tojbring about a similar This Australian Arunta, decorated with down and paint, is ready
to take part in one of the imitative ceremonies for increasing the
result on the person him- food supply
404 NATURAL HISTORY
American Museum, photograph

A PUEBLO DANCE TO BRING RAIN
The kachina dances of the arid Southwest are almost all directed toward the bringing of the rain so
necessary for the corn crop. A feature of some of the dances is to throw sacred corn meal into the
air, letting it scatter and drop in imitation of the rain
white man's power over their persons image of his client's victim, and, muttering
would be unhmited. a spell, fastened it by driving a
to a tree
The Peruvian Indians, an enemy,
to kill sharp point through the navel until the
moulded an image of fat mixed with sap of the tree ran through the hole.
grain, and then burned the efl5gy on the The oozing sap was beheved to be the life-
road where the victim was to pass. They spirit of it was supposed,
the victim, who,
drew a fine distinction between the directlybegan to suffer from a deadly
puppets made to kill a white man and ulcer which could only be cured if a
those made to kill an Indian. For an friend secured a piece of wood from the
Indian they used maize and the fat of a tree to which the image was attached.
who did not eat
llama, but for Spaniards, When so extreme a revenge is not desired,
Uamas and who disliked maize, the image many formulae prescribe that the eye of
was made of wheat and the fat of a pig. the image may be pierced to render the
The aborigines of Victoria, Australia, victim blind, that the stomach may be
drew on the ground rude Hkenesses of their pierced to make him ill, or the head to
enemies, and condemned them to de- give him a headache.
destruction with cabalistic ceremonies. Sometimes the effective similarity is
This incantation was so dreaded that between two actions. This is often true
persons who learned that it had been of many war dances, performed before
directed against them were often known going to battle. The Iroquois Indians
to die of fright. A Malay desiring revenge pick out a rotten log to represent the
repaired to a medicine man, who made an enemy they are about to attack. This
THE BLACK ART 405
they put in a hole in the ground, and, to secure success in hunting. The un-
dancing about it and jeering,they hurl successful Cambodian hunter, in order to
their lances into it, crying ''Where is change his luck, strolls in the direction of
your power now? My lance is in you to his nets and, pretending that he does not
the hilt." Their actions and their jeers see them, lets himself fall in, saying,
insure a similar victory over the real "Hello, what's this? I'm afraid I'm
enemy. caught."
But imitative magic is not always em- A Malay, watching crocodile traps, must
ployed for such cruel and gruesome ends. gulp down the first three mouthfuls of
It is equally popular as an agent for his curry, just as he desires the crocodile
realizing happier and more gracious to swallow the bait. Accordingly, a
desires. friend must take out all the bones, lest
The ancient Hindoos made use of the the hunter find himself in the position of
waxen image to obtain favors of love. having to choose between swallowing a
With a bow of black ala wood strung with bone and losing a crocodile.
hemp and an arrow barbed with a thorn, The imitative potence of a charm may
the heart of the effigy was transfixed, lie in the meaning of the words. Thus
while incantations were recited. a Malay hunter may use the following
Young Ojibway men and women carried incantation to create in himself the power
about with them little images of the to face the dreaded tiger, and to strike
person whose love they wished to win. fear into the heart of the beast:
These were regularly pierced through the "Oh Earth-Shaker, rumble and quake!
heart and magical powders were rubbed Let iron needles be my body-hairs,
into the hole. A common practice of Let copper needles be my body-hairs!
Let poisonous snakes be my beard,
ancient witches was to melt a heart of
A crocodile my tongue,
wax in order that the heart of the loved
And a roaring tiger in the dimple of my chin.
one might also melt. Be my voice the trumpet of an elephant,
Ceremonies clearly based on the prin- Yea, like unto the roar of the thunderbolt."
ciple of imitative magic are often also Sometimes magical lore prescribes
resorted to, to increase the supply of food. certain precautions to avoid the inadvert-
Thus, among the Arunta of Central ant touching off of triggers which might
Australia, one of the clans is charged bring about misfortune. Thus, in Siam,
with the propagation of the witchetty- where the resinous gum exuded by certain
grub, an important food staple. This insects is used for food, all workers must
is accomplished by elaborate ceremonies refrain from washing themselves or comb-

in which such propagation is enacted in ing their hair during the harvest, for
pantomine by members of the clan deco- the gum-producing insects might become
rated in imitation of the appearance of detached from the branches just as the
the insect, in the belief that the number parasites are removed from their b3dies.
of gl:-ubs are thus multiphed and a plenti- Even the actions of persons far away
ful harvest is assured. from the scene may by some fortuitous
Almost halfway around the world on similarity influence the success of an
the coast of British Columbia where the exploit. While the Eskimo crews are at
people are largely dependent on salmon sea hunting whales or walrus, no work
for food, small fish forms are whittled out which necessitates pounding or hewing
of wood in order that the salmon may or any general commotion must be
propagate. undertaken at home, because the game
Numberless are the imitative devices might be frightened away. Nor must the
406 NATURAL HISTORY
Photographed hy Morton Kahn

A PHANTOM BARRIER AT THE ENTRANCE TO A BUSH NEGRO VILLAGE
As thepalm fronds brush the backs of the visitors, any evil motives they may have are wiped off.
The approaches to all the Bush Negro villages of Dutch Guiana are protected in this manner
bedding be raised and shaken, for if it Borneo could be dupHcated from many
were, the ice would crack and drift off parts of the world. The medicine man
under the hunters' feet. The wife of an called in to a case of serious illness
elephant hunter in Laos must not cut will pretend himself to-be dead. He will
her hair nor oil her body while her husband be treated exactly like a corpse, wrapped
is on the chase. Cutting her hair would in a shroud and laid outside on the ground.
cause the elephant to break his bonds, and After about an hour, other medicine
oiling her body would render her husband men will undo his bonds and bring him
"butter fingered," and the game would back to life. As he revives, the patient is
slip through his hands. The Gilyak of supposed to recover too. A somewhat
Siberia beheve that if the children make different application of the imitative
drawings while the father is away from principle is evident in the prescription of
home, the paths of the forest will become Marcellus of Bordeaux, court physican to
as perplexed as the hues of the drawings, Theodosius the First. In order to cure a
and he most certainly be lost. When
will tumor, take a root of vervain, cut it
writing was introduced, the people were across, and fasten one end of it around the
aghast at the thought of the dangers to patient's neck, letting the other end hang
which so complicated a form of drawing in the smoke of a fire. As the root dries
would expose the hunters in the woods. up in the smoke, so will the tumor also
The medicine man makes use of imita- dry up and disappear. However, if the
tive magic as a cure for many ills. The patient should afterward prove ungrate-
following illustration from the Dyak of ful to the physician and not pay the
THE BLACK ART 407
required fees, it is only necessary to drop the lock, the "hexer" resisted, and it was
the root into water, and as it absorbs in the ensuing struggle that he was killed.
moisture and swells, so will the tumor Often it is not necessary that the object
return. through which a charm may be made
The second principle of magic, that of effective has so close a personal contact
contiguity —that
between things which with the individual it is to effect. Imple-
have once been associated with each other ments once used by the victim may serve
there is a bond of potential power is — as well, or any object which he has
equally widespread and is often found touched. Footprints or impressions of
combined with the principle of imitation. his body on the ground may also be used.
Thus nail parings, pieces of hair, drops of Even the length of the footprint is a
sweat, shreds of clothing, or remains of factor in one Malay recipe.
food belonging to the persons toward An Ainu woman will attempt to get rid
whom a spell is directed, are often im- of her husband by wrapping up his
portant ingredients in
the formula. It has been
remarked by travelers
that this belief is an
effective agent for clean-
liness, since people, fear-
ing that an enemy may

gain possession of some-
thing which has once been
in contact with their
persons, take scrupulous
care to dispose of any
offalwhich might open an
opportunity to do them
harm.
The details of the York
murder reveal this prin-
ciple behind the magical
practices of the Penn-
sylvania Dutch. The de-
fendants claimed that
they had consulted
another witch doctor as
to how to rid the vicinity
of the malignant sorcerer
who had been bringing
misfortune on his neigh-
bors. The witch doctor
had instructed them to
obtain a lock of the man's Photograph by Herbert Lang
hair so that a spell

AN AZANDI WITCH DOCTOR DIVINING W^TH AN EGG
A common method of divination in the Congo is to press an egg
might be directed against between the knees. Whether or not the egg remains whole, is the
him. When the defend- point on which the outcome of the event in question is foretold.
If an egg is held squarely from end to end, it is very difficult to
ants attempted to take break it
408 NATURAL HISTORY
headdress in the shape of a corpse and cut may heal quickly. A Suffolk farmer
burying it in the ground up-side-down, who had scratched himself with a thorn,
while she breathes a prayer that he may on being told by the doctor that his hand
rot and die with the headdress. On the was infected, exclaimed ''That didn't
other hand, in the interests of domestic ought to for I greased the bush well arter
harmony, the natives of New Caledonia I pulled it out."
tie firmly together two spindle-shaped The question perpetually arises "Why
bundles made up of specified ingredients do people continue to believe in the
including threads from the woman's girdle efficacy of these practices which must
and from the man's apron. The talisman time and again and over countless ages
is said to render the union of the spouses have proved themselves utterly futile?"
indissoluble. If, nevertheless, a domestic There are in the first place several
jar should occur, the husband fumigates simple alibis which may account for the
the bundle, and sprinkles it with water failure of a charm and keep faith in it
from a prescribed source. He then per- alive. Perhaps some unfortunate shp
forms certain rites and stirs the needle in was made in carrying out the ritual.
the b jndle, saying "I change the heart of Something may have been touched with
this woman that she may love me." If the right hand instead of the left, a word
this treatment is ineffective, he ties a in the incantation may have been mis-
sugar cane to the bundle and sends it to pronounced, or the steps of the procedure
his wife through a third party. If she may have been taken in the wrong order.
tasts of the sugar cane, she will feel her Often charms are
specific antidotes for
love for her husband revive. known, such as that of obtaining the
The widespread notion that the treat- wood of the tree to which the effigy is
ment of a weapon affects the wound it attached, in one of the Malay charms
has inflicted, is another expression of described; and the possibility that some-
contiguous magic. In Melanesia, when a one has pronounced an even more potent
man has been wounded, his friends make spell to counteract the first, is an ever
every attempt to secure the arrow with appropriate alibi.
which the injury was done. If they Moreover, there are the convincing
succeed, they wrap the weapon in damp cases when the end to which the magic is
leaves and deposit it in a cool place, that directed is in one way or another actually
the wounded man may not become fever- attained. Sometimes the ritual is accom-
ish. Meanwhile the enemies wiU be panied by practical means of bringing
chewing irritating leaves or drinking hot about the same result. Again there are
and burning juices in order to inflame the the cases in which the power of suggestion
wound. Or, if the enemies retain posses- or fear may operate, as in Australia,
sion of the arrow, it is thrown in the fire where people may actually die of terror
so that the wound may burn as well. when they realize that certain spells have
And occasionally they amuse themselves been directed agaiast them. And often
by twanging the bow-string in order to the time in which a given charm must
give the injured man a similar twinge of take effect is not set, and a coincidence
pain. This idea
is not limited to primi- may validate the efficacy of the magic.
but is firmly believed in rural
tive people, Every observer of human nature will
communities in parts of England. A recognize how effectively such occasional
conscientious groom will carefully grease successes serve to imbed belief. A black
each day the nail which has penetrated cat may cross the path of hundreds of
one of his horse's feet, in order that the people without any serious consequences.
THE BLACK ART 409
But let the black cat once cross the path paratus and the mathematical calculations
of a person who is subsequently run down which are the only means of ascertaining
and injured by an automobile, and the that the stars are anything but needle-
whole neighborhood will walk miles out pricks of Hght in a dusky dome? Every care-
of its way to avoid the haunts of the ful and intelligent housewife is scrupulous
innocent grimalkin. about the use of disinfectants in her home,
These factors, however, only serve to but has one in ten thousand of them ever
bolster up the belief, and to prevent it observed at first hand the effect of such
from slipping in the face of repeated preparations on Hving bacteria, or even
failures of the sequence. But the belief the effect of malignant bacteria on the
itself is established in the first place be- human organism? They continue to act,
cause it is part and parcel of the educa- as indeed they must, on the basis of what
tion which is handed on from generation is sanctioned by the highest authority
to generation. And this education each one recognizes, whether that be a
recognizes as the highest authorities in street-car advertisement or a publication
the community
the sorcerers, whose of the Department of Agriculture.
depends on their sanction
prestige in turn So countless people from sea to sea,
of the fundamen- who have not fol-
tals of magic. lowed the modern
The dependence Twentieth Cen-
on the best author- tury mode of shift-
ities at one's coming their authority
mand is no special from the folk
characteristic of a knowledge of the
primitive or igno- past and the medi-
rant mind, for it cine man, to fourth
would obviously or fifth-hand re-
be impossible for ports on the con-
each man to test trolled observa-
out for himself tions of science,
each fact which he still act on the
is wiUing to accept. belief that a mys-
We all firmly be- terious and com-
lieve that the stars pelling power is
are universes an latent in the bond
incredible distance between like
away. We believe things, or things
it because the au-
which have once
thorities on the
been in contact
subject, the astron-
with each other,
omers, tell us so
and that this force
or more likely be-
can be manipu-
cause someone has Courtesy of the Museum of the Ameriran Indian
lated at will if one
told us that the In South America, where the perils of the teeming
astronomers say jungle are ever present, the resources of the witch is possessed of the
doctor are in constant demand. Even sceptical
so. How many of formula by means
white visitors have reported that these crafty
us are familiar with and able practitioners can in some inexplicable of which it is ren-
manner accomplish what seem to be impossible
the telescopic ap- things dered active.
One of the expedition "nuggers," a common type of Nile sailing craft
GLIMPSES ALONG THE WHITE NILE

An Account of One Phase of the Taylor-Sudan Expedition —Natives,
Animals, Fish, and Birds South of Khartoum
By H. E. ANTHONY
Curator, Mammals of the World, American Museum
PHOTOGRAPHS BY IRVING K. TAYLOR AND H. B. ANTHONY
THE Taylor-Sudan Expedition

1927 spent the months of January,
of native sailing boats,
were fitted
known as "nuggers,"
out to serve as floating collect-
February, and March, in collecting ing stations, and we set out to work along
museum material along the White Nile the White Nile from the immediate
and from Khartoum south
its tributaries vicinage of Khartoum southward as far
almost to the border of Uganda. During as our time and slow-sailing schedule
this time many mammals,
species of permitted. By thus working the stretches
birds, and fishes were taken, and the of river near Khartoum we could pass
material and studies for two groups, them without any stops, once we had
white-eared kob and Nile lechwe, were taken over the shooting steamer.
secured. The resulting travel afforded Fortunately for the Nile sailing craft,
a fairly representative cross section of the prevaihng wind during a large part
the White Nile region and brought the of the year is from the north. This wind
expedition into contact with many inter- will sail boats south against the descend-
esting animals and primitive natives.^ ing waters of the Nile, and when one
Mr. Irving K. Taylor, the sponsor of the wants to turn about and come north,
expedition, held a charter for one of the the saihng boat can either drift down with
Nile shooting steamers, to take effect the current or wait for a tow from the
about the middle of February, and we post-boat or other passing steamboat.
had arrived in Khartoum early in Janu- The nugger cannot sail into the wind or
even approximately into that quarter.
ary. While waiting for the steamer, two
Where the Nile makes a bend and the
iSee "With the 'Fuzzies' after Ibex," Natural Hist-
ory, Vol. 27, pp. 601-614. wind ceases to come from astern, the
GLIMPSES ALONG THE WHITE NILE 411
nugger proceeds at a snail's pace and all call of the crane carries for miles, and a
hands take to poling, the Arabs keeping flock might be heard whfle yet so distant
up the continuous chant which seems to as to be all but invisible. Many varieties
be necessary to all Arabic labor. of ducks were encountered, some of them
We tied up along either bank of the species that are resident and nest along
Nile, according to the collecting condi- the Nile, others that are migrants from
tions, and spent most of our time at this Europe and Asia and merely spend the
stage of the expedition building up a winter in the Sudan. One of the com-
representative series of bird skins. Small monest of the ducks is the whistling teal,
mammals were trapped wherever it was a small duck with an even smaller
possible to set out a line of traps, but whistle, a weak ''little-bird" sound that
continuous shifting of position interfered floats down from a passing flock as one of
with this phase of activity. the most characteristic bird sounds of the
The sand-bars and banks (wherever White Nile. Geese of several species,
they were open and not covered with storks in variety, kites in abundance,
dense stands of rushes and grass) teemed and a host of other birds such as ibis,
with water fowl. Great flocks of cranes herons, terns, sandpipers, hawks, et
were almost constantly in sight, either cetera, made up an assemblage that
looming up above the mud flats like de- was always a numerous and, at times, a
tachments of infantry or strung out across vast congregation of feathered life. Back
the sky in long flying columns, with from the river bank, in the areas of
trumpets sounding to keep the order and sparse, thorny scrub, or in the occasional
marshal laggards into line. The clarion regions of low forest, the land birds
A GALA OCCASION
A newly appointed governor was expected to make his first call at Jebelein and the natives of the
region had gathered to welcome him. An abundance of red and white bunting draped tall poles
and the booth that commanded the landing from the steamer
412 NATURAL HISTORY
Taylor was dubious but could not satis-
factorily explain the noise otherwise.

The next day we heard the lion again, in
the forenoon, and the animal was appar-
ently closer. Investigation disclosed
that our Arab captain, or ''reis," was
asleep between decks and snoring. This
rather weakened my confidence in the
journal entry of the day before. How-
ever, we did hear bona-fide lions at that
place several nights in succession, and I
shall always believe that the first night

we were serenaded by Leo and not by the
reis smuggled off for a cat-nap under the
deck.
Although we hunted for lion at this
place, found fresh tracks, and lions were
seen twice by natives while we were tied
up to the bank of Akona, we were not
fortunate enough to see one. Later,
along the Bahr-el-Ghazal, at a place
MOHAMMED SULEIMAN, MR. ANTHONY'S
SHIKARI where we had hunted on two occasions, a
In the Sudan the shikaris are registered by the
British officials, and at the conclusion of the trip
must secure a satisfactory recommendation from
each party they guide
always presented interesting features.

Guinea fowl flew up with terrific clamorous
din when the hunter walked into a flock;
long-tailed, glossy starlings shone in the
bright sunlight with a metallic luster;
and the bright-colored bee-eaters gleamed
against the blue sky as spots of green or
rosy red. From the trees along the river,
or over the numerous khors or back-
waters, we often started flocks of black
ibis that announced their alarm and dis-
pleasure in raucous outbursts of what
sounded like grating laughter.
While on the nuggers, we did not sail
far enough to the south actually to enter
the big game country, although we
reached the northern limit of it. At
Akona, one evening, we almost heard a
lion. A distant, rumbling roar seemed to THE SHOEBILL STORK
be possible of only one interpretation, This large bird, (Balseniceps rex), known also as
and I set down in my notes of that day the whale-headed stork, feeds on small fish which
it catches by standing quietly in shallow water
that I had heard my first wild lion. Mr. until a fish swims bv
THE ''BEATRICE/' A SHALLOW-DRAFT RIVER STEAMER

Because of the high superstructure, these boats always have one or more barges lashed alongside,
both to prevent the wind from capsizing the steamer, and to afford additional deck space for the wood
which is used for fuel
few days prior to the incident, and again itself. The Shilluk drives his spear at
but two or three days afterward, the un- random into the water, patiently throwing
fortunate Count Hunyadi encountered a again and again and apparently not dis-
lion and was fatally mauled. He wounded couraged by the many times that his
the lion, followed it into the tall grass, spear strikes nothing. By fishing along
evidently in the belief that the animal was the edges of the reeds and in the likely
helpless,and unexpectedly walked on to places, the natives secure many fish,
it. The lion was upon him before he could however, by this haphazard method.
shoot, and bit both the Count and his Throughout most of the river system
shikari severely. The native recovered fish abound. We were collecting speci-
but the Count died of blood poisoning mens for the American Museum and de-
before the steamer could reach Khar- tailed a native to cast a net at each place
toum on its hurried return. we Another native set out hand
tied up.
At Akona we had our first glimpses of and between these two methods we
lines,
Shilluks, a tribe of tall negroes who live had the pick of hundreds of fish. Some
along the Nile and hunt and fish for a remarkable for their
of the Nile fish are
living. The Shilluks are fine physical size or structure. The
Nile perch attains
specimens, many of them well over six a weight of more than two hundred
feet tall. They are frequently to be seen pounds and is much sought for by fisher-
spearing fish from canoes or rafts of am- men. A species of catfish is equipped to
bash, a very light, porous wood. The deUver a severe electrical shock to anj^
water of the White Nile is so loaded with animal that grasps it, and one caught on a
sediment that one can seldom see fish in fineprovided us with a unique sensation
it. It is possible to see the swirl made by when we tried to lift it out of the pail. If
the fish, but not the outline of the fish grasped so that the fingers touched the
414 NATURAL HISTORY
fish on the right and left sides simultane- states that "the conies are but a feeble
ously, the shock was quite enough to folk, yetmake they their houses in the
make one drop the catfish immediately. rocks." There were leopards about the
A lung-fish, found in the backwaters from rocks, but we had no success in our search
the Nile, buries itself in the mud when the for them. The only leopard bagged by the
sloughs dry up, and, by means of func- expedition was one shot on the train at
tional lungs, is able to five out of water for Atbara when it broke loose from a shipment
weeks at a stretch. of live animals being sent out to the United
Most of the terrain along the Nile is States from the Zoo at Khartoum. While
monotonously flat, but at long intervals the situation contained great possibilities
there are detached rocky hills or "jebels." in the way of excitement —there were
We spent several days at one such rocky many people about and this leopard was
outcrop located at Jebelein. Here we noted for a bad disposition— the animal
found animal life different from that we was killed before it had any chance to
had been seeing on the plains. The rocks make trouble.
are the home of the rock hyraxes or conies, At Jebelein, and later at Mongalla, I
thickset, tailless animals with bodies tried hunting at night with a headlight.
about as large as a plump house cat. The light ''shines" the eyes of mammals
The hyrax belongs to an order by himself, and the method is remarkably successful
not very closely related to the other as a means of securing museum specimens.
orders of Hving mammals, and related in In the United States it is known as
some characters to the proboscidians. ''jack-hghting" and is forbidden by law,
This animal is mentioned several times in not only because it is dangerous to hunt
the Bible, and one passage, Proverbs 30 :26, this way about dwellings and where there
THE TOMB OF MAHDI

This shrine, second only to Mecca for the faithful Mohammedan, was built by the Khahfa Abdollahi
upon the death of the Mahdi or "Deliverer." It was almost demolished by the artillery of Kitchener's
forces when they took Khartoum in 1898 and overthrew the Dervish empire
THE HOME OF CONEYS, GENETS, AND LEOPARDS

Because the prevailing topography is flat, the hills at Jebelein are landmarks for a considerable
distance, and loom up out of all proportion to their meager elevation
is domestic stock, but because it is a and he rushed in to retrieve the fierce little
deadly method when employed against carnivore. In the excitement of the
deer. By means of the Hght, a museum moment he seized the genet with his bare
collector can often secure specimens hand about one-thousandth of a second
which he would not otherwise obtain, before the genet seized him and began
and in remote regions there is no risk going over his hand to find a spot that
involved except to the hunter himself, as really suited. We got the specimen.
for example, should he encounter a hon On the seventeenth of February we
or a leopard. "Jacking" occasioned no took over the "Beatrice," the shooting
amusement to my native assistants
little steamer, and made as direct a run as
and gun-bearers. Unable to see anything possible for the big game fields, stopping
at a distance themselves because the light only to take on firewood and to pick up
reflected by the animal's eye is visible our shikaris and gun-bearers en route.
only in the direct line of the light, they After entering Lake No, we began to
could not understand how
was able to
I devote most of our time to the larger
fire apparently at random and bag a mammals, the bird work being incidental.
hare, a nightjar, or a genet, when all to Along the Bahr-el-Ghazal we encountered
them was utter darkness. Such a per- large bands of white-eared kob and nu-
formance seemed so uncanny that it merous waterbuck. Our program was to
gave the natives great confidence in what steam up the narrow river, with several
the white man could do. This confidence of our keen-eyed natives on top of the
was rather rudely shattered, in the case of engine house on the lookout for game.
Ali, the bird-skinner, one night at Jebe- We watched also, except when at meals,
lein, when I wounded a genet in the rocks but throughout the daylight hours one
416 NATURAL HISTORY
Bahr-el-Ghazal for at least three miles, a
great herd that dominated the landscape
because the necks of the animals were
taller than the scrub forest and their
heads came up above the tree tops. The
giraffe is an animated observation tower
and it is well-nigh impossible to stalk one,
under ordinary circumstances, because
of the commanding position its eyes have
above everything about it. As well try
to hide from a bird!
When the steamer was tied up to the
bank, care had to be taken that no gang
planks made contact with the shore over-
night. On the one occasion when a
plank thus spanned the water from the
deck to the earth, myriads of fierce ants
swarmed aboard. We had six donkeys
stabled on the barge that was lashed
alongside the "Beatrice," and the barge
had an iron deck. Toward morning we
DWELLERS ON THE WHITE NILE
heard a constant stamping from the
Shilluks, one of the most picturesque of the
Nilotic tribes, are tall negroes who lead a care- donkey quarters and wondered if the
free existence hunting and fishing
or more of our six shikaris and gun-

bearers were always looking out over the
plains. Whenever something desirable
was sighted, the "Beatrice" was pulled
over to the bank, and a hunting party
went ashore. At certain localities known
to be good hunting ground, the steamer
was laid up for several days at a stretch.
We passed almost a constant proces-
sion of animal life. In the river itself we
saw hippopotami daily; often, for long
stretches, we would not be out of sight of
one or more of these huge "river-horses."
Crocodiles are plentiful in the Nile, but
we saw comparatively few, because the
river was high and there were not many
sand-bars or bare banks on to which they
could pull out. Back from either bank of
the river the game herds varied from
bands of elephants, giraffes, buffaloes, or
antelopes, down to solitary gazelles or A NUER WARRIOR
raedbucks. One assemblage of giraffes The Nuers are war-like people, and in times not
so far distant raided their neighbors, the Shilluks
was scattered along the north bank 'of the and Dinkas, for slaves
mosquitoes were disturbing them. With

daylight we found the barge acrawl with
ants which were concentrated in force
about the carcass of an antelope that had
come aboard too late to be skinned the
day before. Along one side of the ante-
lope most of the hair had been cut off as
with a razor. As the ants had increased
in number, scouting columns left the
antelope in the center of the barge and
explored for other plunder, attacking the
donkeys and routing out the natives
sleeping on the barge deck. For some
time the crew was busy sweeping ants off
into the river and driving the raiders out
of the corners with hot water.
In most years the waters of the Nile
recede with the passage of the rainy
season, and as the dry season advances,
the falling rivers drain off all of the
bayous and back-waters. The grass
ACTORS IN A MIMIC LION HUNT
along the river banks and for great dis-
At Wad Akona a small band of Shilluks
tances inland becomes dry and yellow. a mimic lion hunt. The negroes acted out this
dance with intense enthusiasm
The natives set fire to the dead grass in

order to clear the ground for the new
grass. After the grass has been fired,
the plains are so devoid of cover, in many

regions, that it is possible to see game for
great distances. During the early part of
1927, the Nile failed to recede as usual.
The height of the river remained almost
at the level of the rainy season and the
papyrus and grass stayed green, too damp
to be burned off. The burned-over areas
were small and scattered, and game might
be very abundant and yet be hidden in
the rank growth of grass and rushes.
The Sudd was scarcely touched by fire,
and here the papyrus grew to a height
of ten or twelve feet, or even more in
some places. Bands of elephants were
completely by these giant
concealed
rushes and we were made aware of their
A DINKA HUNTER presence only by the movements of the
The Dinkas scarify themselves on the head and white cow-herons that continually fly up
body with conspicuous welts arranged in patterns and by an occa-
which undoubtedly have tribal significance about herds of elephants,
418 NATURAL HISTORY
A FIRE IN THE
SUDD
Although the situa-
tion seems fraught
with great possibiU-
ties for destruction,
apparently all the
papyrus of a given
area does not dry at
the same time, and
the fires burn them-
selves out without
doing any great
damage. The herds
of game move ahead
of the blaze and are
seldom trapped by
fire
sional trunk that writhed up out of the Sima, a short distance down the river,
green ocean, Hke a great snake rearing its we had our most exciting moments of the
head. On rare occasions we saw ele- expedition, with buffalo. The African
phants in more open locahties and had buffalo an uncertain beast and although
is
good opportunities to observe them. he never is wantonly aggressive, when
One such herd contained from fifty to man has crowded him too far, he is ready
seventy-five individuals. and eager to make trouble.
Just south of Mongalla, near the Lado, At Sim Sima Mr. Taylor and I had
we made our southernmost stop, and stalked a small band of seven or eight
after some interesting experiences at this buffalo. We were in close and each shot
place, Khor Suleiman, the "Beatrice" at an animal. One buffalo fell after
was headed north for the return to Khar- running but a short distance, the other
toum. At Khor Suleiman and at Sim left the spot with the herd. Mr. Taylor
A NUER VILLAGE
DWELLING
The Nuers are
rather more war-
the Dinkas
like than
and Shilluks and
frequently make
trouble for the
British who organ-
ize punitive expedi-
tions to chastise the
particular group of
natives that cause
the trouble. The
expedition visited
a Nuer village at the
mouth of the Bahr-
el-Arab
SEEN FROM THE

DECK OF THE
"BEATRICE"
Occasionally it was
possible secure
to
photographs of
elephants seen in
the more open spots
in the Sudd. It
•iS)M^wiuir«« HM^JCM^&JjUilihiA
would have been
useless to attempt
photographs of
them from the 'im»f**^-^^ w-> |P»^
ground since they

had but to take a
few steps to be lost
in the green ocean
of papyrus
started to follow the wounded animal, between me and the charge, and I was as
while I, with my
and gun-bearers,
shikari likely to hitone of them as the buffalo.
turned aside to see what had happened to Taylor's gun was with his gun-bearer and
my buffalo, off to the left in brush and itwas every man for himself. The native
high grass. I glanced back at the other and the buffalo disappeared beyond a
party once more, before giving my com- screen of thorn and scrub and I waited
plete attention to my own errand, and for them to emerge. I never saw that
was appalled to see one of Taylor's buffalo again.
shikaris running for his life just ahead of a The buffalo had caught the
native, but
charging buffalo, and bringing the animal missed the man with
horns and merely
its
right back through Taylor's party. I pitched him head foremost into the bushes.
could not shoot at that moment for the Apparently satisfied with this, the animal
men were scattering like a covey of quail swerved aside into near-by cover and
HUTS OF THE
DINKAS
These huts are
crude structures
made of poles and
thatched with long
grass. Dinka vil-
lages are scattered
along the Nile, but
none encountered by
the expedition were
very large. The
Dinkas own large
herds of cattle, and
during the day the
men of the village
are out attending
them
420 NATURAL HISTORY
A NILE PERCH
This 45-pound Nile perch (Lates niloticus), taken on a rod and line at Lake No, was but a small
individual compared with full grown ones which sometimes reach a weight of 200 pounds
went off to seek seclusion. The shikari, take specimens of the elephant, giraffe,
aside from a great bruise where he was and hippopotamus, but with these excep-
struck and sundry cuts and scratches tions the Museum had secured, thanks to
where he landed, was not seriously in- the generosity of Mr. Taylor, a very good
jured. He was singularly fortunate, for representation of the Sudan mammals as
the odds were greatly against his coming well as the birds and fishes of the White
out of the episode alive. He told us, Nile. Two groups, the white-eared kob
afterward, that the buffalo and the Nile lechwe, are now
was standing back of a bush being mounted at the Museum
waiting for the hunter to from the material secured
follow the track in on this trip. The
and had taken this study specimens will
early opportunity to be preserved in the

retaliate. various departments
By we re-
the time . aspermanent records
turned to Khartoum, of the Sudan fauna,
March thirtieth, we and will afford inval-
had enriched the uable data on the
Museum collections many problems of ge-
by a series of prac- ographi c distribu tion
tically all of the big game specific andindividual vari-
White Nile region. We
of the ation, and the variousbiologi-
had seen no lions or leopards, cal aspects which deal with the
ISA, MR. TAY lor's shikari, is . ,- ^^r: r A r •
and had made no attempt to

,
A TALL ARAB OF FINE PRESENCE mtcrestmg lite oi Africa.

TA
Photographed by F. E. Lutz
In the Brownsville region of Texas, the great western desert meets the
moisture-laden winds of the Gulf
HONEY WASPS
The "Mexican Bees," Which Enter the United States at Brownville, Texas, Are not
Bees at all_, Although They Have a Bee-hke Abihty to Gather and Store Honey
By HERBERT F. SCHWARZ
Research Associate in Hymenoptera, American Museum
WHY not
Brownsville,
make a field
Texas,
trip to
this
one of those rare periods when the local
thermometer was near its low limit. But
winter?" The prospect of en- the warm hospitality of those at Browns-
tering the land of sunshine where ville did much to take the chill off the
December seems May was altogether too unusual weather. (At Brownsville, natives
alluring to resist. Accordingly I set out tell you, there are only two kinds of
from New York on a rather unseasonably weather; fine weather and unusual
mild afternoon shortly after Christmas to weather.) With especial wegratitude
join Dr. Frank E. Lutz, who had sug- remember the government taxonomist,
gested the trip, in New Orleans and to Mr. Foster H. Benjamin, who placed his
proceed with him thence to our destina- time at our disposal, taking us in his
tion on the Rio Grande. I had been automobile to localities we could not
assured at the Pennsylvania Station that otherwise readilyhave reached and
the train I was boarding was headed with Mrs. Benjamin entertaining us in
south but, as the day went by, I had their home.
difficulty convincing myself that I was At first collecting was rather thin.
not making for the boreal regions. Each Wind and cold and clouds kept the insects
hour it became colder and colder. The from emerging. We hunted about in
"sunny" South was wrapped in clouds thickets adjoining the old Mexican re-
and the farther south the train sped, the saccas, breaking up decayed logs to un-
less promising conditions seemed to be. cover possible denizens, examining leaves
By the time I reached New Orleans my and bark and crevices for insects that
teeth were chattering. Some twenty might have taken refuge there. For
hours later Doctor Lutz and I rode into several days low temperatures and sullen
Brownsville on the crest of a ''norther." skies prevailed, but in the end we almost
We had chosen to come to the region at blessed the persistence of the cold, for
422 NATURAL HISTORY
WASPS ON THE
ROOF OF THEIR
DWELLING
Viewed from the
outside, the paper
nest of the honey-
makers looks some-
what like that of
one of our north-
ern yellow j ackets.
Within, the archi-
tecture is very dif-
ferent. Instead of
a series of horizon-
tal combs that
hang chandeher-
like one below the
other with pillar-
like supports be-
tween, the nest of
Neciarina consists
of more or less
spherical combs
that are attached
directly or indi-
rectly to the
envelope.
Photographed by L. Diguet
when the thermometer finally did rise and a knightly cuirass, and the shimmering
the sky cleared, was as though the old
it segments of their brassy abdomen re-
fairy tale of the Sleeping Beauty had come sembling jointed armor, they suggested
true, with such abundant virility did Amazons of the insect world engaged in a
dormant nature awaken after being under foray on the floral granaries.
the spell of the cold. An interesting circumstance connected
The first feeble rays that struggled with the catch of bees was the dispropor-
through the clouds had scarcely attracted tion in the number of individuals collected.
our attention before the venturesome ad- Thus out of a total of 370 specimens all
vance guard of the flower- visitors made its but 13 were members of one family, the
appearance. The flowers were so few Halictidse. Halictid bees share with
that rather than risk breaking them by bumble bees the distinction of being
swinging the net and so destroy the lure, among the earliest fliers in the spring,
itseemed advisable to pick off the insects and one tempted to conclude that their
is
one by one with the narrow-throated large representation in the January fauna
killing bottle. of Brownsville indicates that January in
In succeeding days numerous flowers that region corresponds to say early May
began to bloom, and the only limit then of the latitude of New York.
to the catch of bees and other flower- In the course of our sojourn we had
frequenting insects was our diffidence to heard frequent mention made of an in-
take beyond a reasonable number the sect that lives in colonies and produces
duplicate specimens that offered them- honey. was generally referred to by our
It
selves. Unusually abundant were females informers as the "Mexican bee" because
of Augochlora aztecula, an Halictid bee of the partiality of the Mexicans for the
originally described from Mexico. With honey it produces. Some people told us
their metallic green thorax appearing like that the insect did not sting, and this
HONEY WASPS 423
aroused our curiosity more than ever. We show. Even the dogs insisted on join-
asked ourselves: could it be that on ing the party. And so we set off as
American soil and in a region that is though to tree a racoon instead of to
generally classed as desert, there jflourished gather a hornets' nest, for a hornets' nest
colonies of the stingless honey bees of the that object in a low ebony tree surely
tropics, the MeHponidse, generally asso- seemed to be. It was well surrounded
ciated with the hot moist regions? The by branches and foliage that had to b3
words bee, honey, stingless, taken in cut away, but even these did not conceal
association, all seemed to point to such a the nest, and a black mantle of wasps was
possibility. On the other hand, there plainly visible over one entire side of it.
were elements of doubt. Most people Every time a branch was snipped with
implied that the nests were of paper and the shears and the nest thus shaken lightly,
this suggested the work of wasps rather an angry hum arose from these congre-
than of bees. Also there were those who gated hosts. sounded very menacing,
It
maintained that the insects were mild in but instead of turning upon the intruders,
their behavior rather
than stingless, and that
now and then at rare
intervals individuals
had been stung. These
reports, so contradic-
tory needed verification,
,
and so, when we were

told that a nest of this
type was located on a
not distant plantation
and that we might have
it for the gathering, we
gladly availed ourselves
of the offer.
After an hour or two
of travel by motor we
reached our destination.
There were four in our
party, but there were
many more people
awaiting us in the home
of the planter. I suspect
he had "tipped off" his
neighbors that there
were some "fool fellows'
from New York who
had come to give them
an afternoon's enter- Photographed by L. Diguet
tainment free of charge. A MEXICAN AND HIS HONEY SUPPLY
At any rate, everyone The honey bee is a denizen of the Old World and was unknown in
the Americas until the European colonists introduced it. On the
came along with great
other hand, honey of the wasp Nectarina was probably relished bj'
alacritv to see the the pre-Columbian Indians as it is by the Mexicans of today
424 NATURAL HISTORY
those of the wasps —for wasps they were be picturing to yourself the consternation
that roused themselves to flight, mostly of those at the receiving end as, in ignor-
flew away from rather than toward us. ance of the contents of the box, they
They well justified their reputation for started boldly to pry it open and heard
unaggressiveness, andsome of us even the angry hum within, making them pause
began to think that perhaps they were to hold a council ofwar before proceeding
really stingless. with their storming operations. But your
Doctor Lutz— conscientious scientist mental picture has no basis in fact, for
that he is—refused to have this point re- the instructions handle with care, like all
main in doubt and to silence local sceptics similar notices, were given for the protec-
forever after, he seized two of them — tion of the cargo, not to safeguard the
mean the wasps, not the sceptics — and recipients. They had already been safe-
started to anger them. Hardly had he —
guarded if safeguard was needed by a —
given them a rude jolt with his thumb message sent in advance of the shipmen ;
when they retaliated with a rapier thrust and on reaching the Museum the sack was
that was thoroughly convincing —to exposed to the deadly cyanide before the
Doctor Lutz at His audience did
least. nest was withdrawn.
not feel the pain and so withheld judg- A few days after taking the first nest we
ment. At any rate, he seemed to think it learned that there was yet another nest
necessary, in order to produce conviction, to be had for the gathering and, as we
to extend his hand among the group of wished to have an opportunity to study
spectators and to tilt it so that every eye the contents and structure, this nest
could see where the wasps had imbedded proved a welcome supplement to the one
their sting. Then, feeling that he had taken for exhibition purposes. It was ob-
made his point clearenough to win over tained without adventure that is, no —
the most confirmed doubter, he flicked the —
one was stung and after the wasps in-
insects off and away they flew. But not habiting it had been killed, it was opened
all that there was of them took wing. up for study. It is of some interest to
The stings, like discharged weapons, note that neither larvae nor honey were
were left on the field of battle. This is of found, yet there was a strong smell of
rather curious interest, for it recalls the honey and chemical analysis
in the nest
similar phenomenon in the case of our of the empty would undoubtedly
cells
honey bee, which likewise loses its sting have revealed traces of it. We came to the
and, it is said, its life, in sheathing its conclusion that possibly this nest repre-
weapon in its victim. The after-effects sented the winter stage of the colony
of the sting in Doctor Lutz's case were just before the resumption of spring activi-
rather severe. Although he was stung in ties, and that as a cupboard was
result the
the hand, the pain extended up the entire bare. Some days caught other
later I
length of his arm and was, in fact, most wasps of this species visiting flowers, and
severe in his arm-pit. it is hkely that these were engaged in
After the nest was completely severed provisioning their nest. The number of
from the tree, it was dropped into a large insects in the nest we examined reached,
sack, and over this sack was fitted another by count, the impressive total of 15,000,
from above so that the imprisoned wasps and in this figure could not, of course, be
could not make their escape. Then a included the insects that made their
suitablebox was secured and the nest was escape before the nest was detached from
expedited to the American Museum the tree. In this large total there was no
labeled "Handle with care!" You may insect structurally differentiated as a
HONEY WASPS 425
queen, for the very good reason that these times of drought when Daturas are the
wasps, in distinction to certain other social only plants that furnish alimentation to
Hymenoptera, have the egg-laying func- the visiting wasps. The honey is gath-
tions of the colony distributed among ered usually in December. If the base of
many individuals that are not distinct the nest on the branch to which it
is left
from the workers in external structure is attached, said the wasps will begin
it is
although of slightly greater size and more their construction on the same spot and
telescoped that, as the
abdomen. ^ population of
Males were the hive is
present, possi- large, recon-
bly in the pro- struction is
portion of 1 to rapid. Nests
15 of the pop- are of variable
ulation. It size, ranging
has been from 18 by 20
stated that centimeters to
'
'males always 41 by 52 centi-
make their ap- meters.
pearance in Nectarina
thesecondhalf lecheguana, it
of the more isstated,with-

propitious sea- stands in
son, that is to Pholographed by L. Diguet Mexico frosts
say at a time A THRIVING COLONY of severity,
when flowers Unlike the colonies of our yellow jackets, which dissolve with and certainly
the approach of cold weather, colonies of these honey wasps
are most abun- occupy their nests perennially
the Browns-
dant and the ville represen-
population is very numerous. " Certainly tatives of the species survived in impres-
there were no evidences of race suicide in sive numbers the icy weather that was a
the nest of which we took a census, but test of their powers of resistance. Never-
recent memories of the inclement weather theless, prolonged cold would probably be
and the scant flora made the second half fatal. It is rather significant that the
of the quoted passage seem inapplicable. northern limit of these wasps seems to be
These wasps bear the rather savory the Brownsville region. A colony trans-
generic name Nedarina. The name of planted to Hamilton, Illinois, was unable
the species, lecheguana, has a less pleasing to survive the winter. In northern
cadence, but it is significant of the wide Argentina, when frosts occur during the
range of this insect, being the name given cold months of June and July, the Nec-
it by the Indians of Brazil. In Mexico, tarina wasps, according to E.-R. Wagner,
where Nectarina lecheguana is well repre- secrete themselves head foremost in the
sented, the honey, according to du Buys- cells with only the tip of the abdomen
son, is sold in the markets. It issome- projecting.
times poisonous, depending on the plants Although the insect was well known in
from which it is gathered a statement — the Browsnville region, it is of interest
which holds true also in the case of the that its presence there was reported in
honey of some of the Meliponid bees of scientific hterature only as recently as
the tropics. Especially is this true in 1922. This may serve to indicate how
426 NATURAL HISTORY
many chapters remain to be written
still even a matter of months might witness
before a well-roundedpicture of our transformations not much less marked
American wasps and bees can be obtained. than those which are eternally going on in
Of other Hymenoptera that we took in our own city of unrest. Instead of a quiet
the region, two at least Augochlora nigro- little desert town, such as I had pictured
cyanea and Colletes punctipennis —had to myself, we found Brownsville a thriv-

hitherto been known, so far as I have been ing community, with every modern con-
able to ascertain, only from south of the venience, streets abustle with passing
Rio Grande. The specific name of the automobiles, electric bells regulating the
latter indicates a condition of the wing counter movements of traffic,and real
exceedingly rare among Most
bees. of estate signs along the faultlessly paved
these insects have wings that are more or automobile roads offering this unreceemed
less uniformly clear or dusky, but in field and that for cultivation. It is not
punctipennis the wing has a distinct hard to visualize what is bound to happen
pattern due to distributed spots of deeper under such circumstances.
color. The region will still continue verdant
Our week to ten days at Brownsville and attractive, but it will be with the
came all too swiftly to a close and again blossom of citrus growth and of other
we were compelled to turn northward. market products, and less and less with
We were glad to have visited the region the wild bloom of the cactus, the huisache,
when we did. In the first place, it gave us and the Mexican mahogany. Let us hope
the chance to witness the swift recupera- that amid all the changes Nectarina and
tion of nature after an unusual spell of other representative groups of wild life
cold, and in the second place we felt that, may succeed in surviving, even if in di-
with the rapid settlement of the region. minished numbers!
Photographed by F. E. Lutz
A PALM GROVE NEAR BROWNSVILLE

The Rio Grande, muddy as the "tawny Tiber" itself, once bore the name of Rio de las Palmas
thanks to the presence of these trees as it approaches the Gulf
Photograph by Huberti, Rio de Janiero
A view from the summit of Itatiaya
ITATIAYA
BRAZIL'S MOST FAMOUS MOUNTAIN
A Landmark of Southeastern Brazil Which Was One of the First Notable Peaks in
that Country to Attract the Attention of Geographers. A Spot That

Has Long Been Recognized as an Ideal Locality for Research
in Geology, Botany, and Zoology
By ERNEST G. HOLT
Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh
Illustrated with Photographs by the Author
AWAY back, in time so remote that and splintered. Relentless rains through
/-\ geologists are loath to venture its other ages cut deep flutings into its sides,
calculation —aeons before the birth and trickled into every crevice. Re-
of the Andes —there emerged from the current seasons brought alternate heat and
waters of the South Atlantic a mighty cold. And after the passing of still more
chain of mountains. ages, —
men brown men appeared, — and,
Age succeeded age, and torrential rains, gazing in awe upon the majestic, shattered
sweeping back to the ocean vast quanti- crags, called them in poetic fancj^, Ita-
ties of material from the precipitous slopes, tiaya — which means in their Tupi tongue,
left stark and naked great masses of Multiplying Rock.
ancient rocks. Time, moving more swiftly now,
Then another cataclysm shook the land. brought white men to this peaceful land,
Right through the middle of the range a and they, after the manner of white men,
fiery finger of rock thrust itself upward were searching for gold. But Itatiaya
until it towered well above the very high- held none and they passed it by. Hence,
est of the old peaks. because it had no riches to offer, Itatiaya
This new peak, born of fire, then cooled remained in obscurity until 1856. Today,
428 NATURAL HISTORY
THE ''highest house" IN BRAZIL

The government meteorological observer lives here the year around, high on the side of Itatiaya.
The name of the mountain, translated from the Tupi Indian language, means "Multiplying Rock"
though France boast of Mont Blanc, the no one had ever succeeded in scaling the
United States point complacently to last towering crags. And notwithstanding
Mount McKinley, or Argentina wax that the railway at its foot offered a base
self-conscious over Aconcagua, for the line of known elevation, was not until
it
true sons of BrazQ the first mountain in supremacy

1922, ten years after Itatiaya's
all the world is their own Itatiaya. had been challenged by the Pico da Ban-
The mountain rises at about 22° 24' S., deira, of the Serra do Caparao and much —
44° 50' W., in southeastern Brazil near the newsprint had been expended in a bitter
point where the states of Minas Geraes, —
controversy that any real effort was
Rio de Janeiro, and Sao Paulo meet, and made toward a scientifically exact meas-
is the principal peak of the Serra da Manti- urement of the height of the mountain.
queira. Because of its situation midway In that year. Dr. Adolpho Odebrecht, a
between the two largest cities of the government engineer, ran lines of levels up
country, it was one of the first notable the two rival peaks and definitely rele-
mountains of Brazil to attract the atten- gated Itatiaya, with its 2790 meters of
tion of the geographer, and for many years altitude, to second place by more than 200
its altitude has been the subject of specu- feet. Nevertheless, Itatiaya remains
lation. In the reign of the benevolent supreme in the hearts of the people —
Dom Pedro II, a railway was constructed position to which it is justly entitled by
to link the capital with Sao Paulo, Brazil's reason of its superior grandeur and
second and this line, skirting the foot
city, scenic beauty.
of Itatiaya and rendering the mountain Such a mountain, above all
rising well
really accessible, naturally lent impetus where the three
of its fellows at a point
to this speculation. Pages upon pages greatest orographic systems of eastern
were printed, giving various estimates and —
South America the Serras do Mar, da
calculations of its height, but until 1911 Mantiqueira. and do Espinhago closely —
ITATIAYA: BRAZIL'S MOST FAMOUS MOUNTAIN 429
approach one another, has long been rec- sion of a letter of introduction to a local
ognized by scientists as an ideal locus ranchman. He had been apprised of my
for research, and the region has been coming, and no sooner had my feet
visited by many illustrious workers in touched the concrete than I was greeted
geology, botany, and zoology. In these by a gentleman in khaki who smiled a
investigations the avifauna was not alto- welcome through a rich coat of tan. A
gether neglected, yet so meager was the servant took charge of my bed-roll, and
knowledge of the bird-life, and so great its my host led the way to his home, almost
potentiaUties, that the American Mu- lost amid a profusion of roses and vines
seum charged me in 1921 with an orni- and palms, behind a stately row of
thological survey of the mountain.^ eucalyptus.
It was early on a December morning of The garden, delightfully unkempt, was
that year that I found myself a passenger a riot of flowers and birds! The perfume
on the Estrada de Ferro Central do Brazil, of dominated all other
countless roses
slowly rolling out of the Rio de Janeiro odors; numerous mango, orange, and
station. My destination was a small town, other fruit trees struggled under burdens
shown on the maps as Campo Bello, of color —the most wonderful orchids I
about halfway up the line to Sao Paulo. had ever seen; finches, ovenbirds,
At noon I descended from the train at tanagers, and wrens sang everywhere and
Barao Homem de Mello (the railway name without pause. The whole world seemed
of Campo Bello), fortunate in the posses- flooded with sunshine and, although the
'The scientific results of this survey were published in elevation was but little more than 1300
the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History,
Vol. LVII, Article V, 1928. feet, the air had a tang about it that was
PRATELEIRAS
One of the lesser peaks of Itatiaya, as seen from a spot near the weather station
430 NATURAL HISTORY
Serrat. Here, as a guest
of the government, I
made my base. .
Monte Serrat is nine

kilometers from Campo
Bello, and nearly 1400
feet above it, and is
reached from the valley
town by a cart road that
leads northward into the
mountains by way of the
wide canon of the Rio
Campo Bello. Leaving
the whitewashed houses
on the banks of the
Parahyba, this cart road
first crosses an open ex-
panse of pasture land

and then passes through
a narrow gap in the
denuded foothills into a
sort of basin where well-
to-do men from the cities
of Sao Paulo and Rio de
Janeiro have purchased
the abandoned colonists'
lots and erected on them
summer cottages. Here
A TEMPERATE ZONE BEAUTY
the Rio Campo Bello
The striking plant (Psepalanthus polyanthus) flourishes on the upper
slopes of Itatiaya where the elevation creates a "temperate zone" is called the Bemfica.
(This remarkable stream
positively tonic. Even the mantle of changes itsname as often as it shifts its
clouds that had enveloped the summit of course !) From this basin the road climbs
Itatiaya lifted to expose the final broken laboriously over a forested shoulder into
crags, naked except for a thin veil of mist another larger basin, and comes to an
swirling high above the last outposts of end at the reserve buildings.
forest. In former times the large fazenda of the
A number of years ago the federal Visconde de Maua, which encompassed
government purchased the Serra do Ita- the whole mountain, made its head-
tiaya and attempted to establish on it a quarters at Monte Serrat, and much of
colony of immigrants. Upon the failure the surrounding forest was cut over for
of the scheme, the mountain was turned timber, but later a still greater amount of
over to the Botanical Garden of Rio de clearing was done by the government in its
Janeiro and became the Reserva Florestal ill-advised colonization scheme. This
do Itatiaya. The headquarters of the deforestation has allowed the tropical
Reserva, a group of buildings perched zone to advance above its normal limit of
upon a deforested shoulder at about 2700 about 2000 feet altitude and form a
feet altitude, is designated as Monte pocket well within the subtropical zone.
Large tracts of the formerly forested area dirt and howled as if its heart would
are now covered with a well-nigh im- break. Naturally I inquired why the pup
penetrable growth of giant bracken, should be so disconsolate. " Bernes,"
beautiful to look upon, but a heart-break- was the laconic answer. Well, hemes
ing collecting ground. A little wren-like —
meant nothing to me then. A few days
spine-tail (Synallaxis spixi) was very later I became aware of an irritating spot
abundant in these fern tangles. on my side, Hke the beginning of a small
Monte Serrat proved to be the most boil,but I thought it merely a "chigger," or
luxurious field station that I ever occu- harvest mite, apphed the iodine, and tried
pied. Iwas assigned an end room in a to forget it. But it wouldn't be forgot.
and had ventila-
long, one-story structure, Then reahzed with horror that I had a
I
tion through four windows and two doors. heme all my very own. When finally I got
Besides, the room was furnished with a it out I found that
it had burrowed in near-
good iron bed, and was supplied with run- ly a half -inchdeep Immediately a sense
!
ning water from a spring farther up the of fellowship with the cur across the way
slope. The building even boasted a possessed me, and with a helper and a can
shower bath; and there were no mos- of ether Iwent to his rescue. We took
quitoes! Certainly I had come to a seven huge larvae from his back, but had
summer resort to collect birds to leave as many more because the for-
But Iwas soon to discover the fly in the ceps would not grip them. They were
ointment. There was another house hideous, repulsive things, as large as the
opposite, and out of it each morning distal third of one's little finger, and belted
came a nondescript cur that rolled in the about with rings of retrorse spines.
A MOUNTAIN DAISY FIELD

Wild flowers were abundant, and the trail up Itatiaya passed through a meadow at 7500 feet
altitude which was carpeted with daisies (Eupatorium and Erigeron)
432 NATURAL HISTORY '
THIS IS NOT A GLACIAL POND

Although this miniature lake has every earmark of having been created by glacial action, no
glacier ever scoured the slopes of Itatiaya
The heme is the larva of a green jEly was impressed with the importance of an
{Dermatobia hominis) which exhibits to a early start, coffee was ordered for six
remarkable degree that something we call o'clock, and all put in readiness for a quick
"instinct" whenever we find ourselves get-away. About nine on the appointed
unable to explain a psychological morning Miranda appeared, but merely to
phenomenon any other way. The ani-
in inform me that the mules, ''ungrateful
mals which for generations have served as beasts without shame," had wandered
unwilling hosts to this parasite have during the night and therefore we could
learned to recognize the adult insect and not start until the morrow! Swearing is
will not permit it to come near them. But utterly futile in such cases. The ex-
does the little fly in its modest coat of perienced traveler bows to the inevitable,
green suffer its kind to perish from the expresses the hope that the mules will be-
earth in consequence? Not at all. Lack- come conscience-stricken and return
ing strength, it resorts to strategy, and through the same gate so thoughtfully left
seizing upon house flies, mosquitoes, open, and busies himself with tasks
and other flies smaller than itself, it especially planned for the occasion.
fastens its eggs upon their bodies. These At seven-thirty the next morning we
carriers, not being verboten, then visit some actually started. As our mules swung out
warm-blooded animal, the eggs hatch, the on the trail, a flock of parrakeets, startled
larvae attach themselves to the new host, at their breakfast in the flat tops of the
and the vicious circle remains unbroken. Parana pines, flew screeching away to the
Shortly after my arrival at Monte forest,which already rang with the howls
Serrat a day was set for a reconnaissance of monkeys. Immediately we had passed
to the summit. My camarada, Miranda, beyond the deforested slopes, the trail
began to wind in and out of side ravines about 5000 feet,plunged us into the
resplendent in a wealth of edible palms, clouds. We continued through a ghost
tree ferns, orchids, and bromeliads, and world of dimly outlined giant trees, hung
luxuriantly draped with vines and creep- with sinuous lianas and burdened with
ers in wildest abandon. All thought of great rosettes of bromeliads, where every
the mire underfoot or the hardness of my leaf was dripping. All about was only
mount was forgotten.even forgot that
I mist, underfoot only mud. As we rode
I wanted to wring Miranda's neck, and along, we were swept by the long, grace-
gave myself over completely to enjoy- fully drooping tips of a beautiful species of
ment. bamboo, and soaked to the skin.
With many a meander, but ever up- At 6000 feet we rode into a little
ward, climbed the trail. At 3600 feet it clearing and, to our astonishment, found
crossed the roaring Campo Bello (here ourselves in a laden apple orchard. It
called Rio Maromba) on a rickety old had been planted years ago by the old
wooden bridge that sooner or later will Viscount who then owned the mountain,
hurl somone to certain destruction on the and was still bearing nobly, though its
rocks below. Bending sharply back upon days were numbered. The altitude was
itself, the trail surmounted, by several just for the production of fine
right
switchbacks, another bracken slope, mark- but in this land of mists the trees
fruit,
ing the site of an old burn, and then, at must surely succumb to their burdens of
Photograph by Robert Donati

THE TARTARUGA
The dwellers on the mountain call this huge rock "the turtle" because of its fancied resemblance to
that reptile
434 NATURAL HISTORY
Photograph by Robert Donati

A LAKELET AT 7800 FEET ELEVATION
This view is toward the south from near the base of the final peaks
moss. A mud-and-wattle cabin, erected of but a single story —

the home of the
to shelter trail workers, stood in the clear- government meteorological observer. The
ing, so we dismounted there to eat our white posts, poles, and chicken coops of
—
lunch with fresh apple-sauce for dessert! an orthodox weather station stood just
The orchard marked the upper limit of to one side, at an elevation of about 7200
the subtropical zone and the heavy forest feet above the sea. Small though the
which is coincident with it. Above, the house was, we were given shelter for the
trail emerged upon the open campos night, and later I lived here during the
(literally, fields) of the temperate zone. rainy weeks spent in studying the bird-
Before us rolled away ridge after ridge, life of the heights.
some blotched with dark patches of And rainy indeed is the climate of Alto
stunted forest, others covered only with Itatiaya, as the upper levels are called.
grass and flowers, while, towering above The mean precipitation, registered by the
them all, great broken peaks of naked official gauge, is more than ninety inches
rock reared skyward. To pass from the a year. As for temperature, Alto Ita-
gloom of dense, dank forest into the hght tiaya holds the record for the lowest mean,
and freedom of these elevated flower maximum, and minimum of the whole
gardens was like a sudden transition to country. These are 52.7, 73.6, and 21.2
another planet. degrees Fahrenheit, respectively.
T rode on in a trance until, rounding the The morning following our arrival at
shoulder of a grassy knoll, we came face to Alto Itatiaya dawned crystal clear, and
face with the highest human habitation in as soon as we could swallow some bread
Brazil. Paradoxically, it was a structure and coffee we were off afoot to scale the
peak. A league lay between the house majestic things near at hand, the oppres-
and the base of the last crags, but we gave sing sense of desolation vanished. For
no thought to distance as we swung across there, among those same forbidding stones,
a wide grassy slope toward the valley of flourished countless flowers of every hue.
the upper Rio Campo Bello. A red Amaryllis stood up bravely between
Upon the threshold we stopped, ap- the bowlders, in striking contrast to a rich
palled, for we seemed about to enter a purple Utricularia that hid among the tall
region whence all life had fled. Moun- grasses; an Alophia of palest blue pre-
tain valleys above timber line were not and yellow
ferred the wetter spots; scarlet
strange to me, but never before had I "toucan's beak" (Syphocampylos) thrived
looked upon such a scene of absolute in stony soil beside the trail; and at a
desolation. On every hand only barren lower level behind us one entire slope was
rock greeted the and the naked
eye, ablaze with the purple blossoms of a low
bowlders strewn in piles and
chaotic shrubby Chxtostoma. But most striking
ridges everywhere over the broken surface of all were the compound umbels of a
of the basin suggested the ruins of a vast peculiar white-flowered plant, the Psepal-
amphitheater whose stone columns and anthus polyanthus. There were whole
benches had been shattered by some cata- fields of it. A little mass
farther along, a
clysmic force. Forest there was not, un- of the largest begonias I had ever seen
less one would consider the wretched grew in a cranny in the rock ifcseK. Then
little dwarf trees struggling upward along the trail passed through a meadow that
the stream. was a single mass of daisies. And I have
At length, when we had eyes for less heard it said that Brazil has no wild flow-
ON THE CLIMB TO THE SUMMIT

The plants growing in the crevices of this slope are Chusquea, a species of bamboo dwarfed to a
height of about 18 inches
436 NATURAL HISTORY
ers! Even the high mountain meadows of were vertical. But Miranda knew the
California could scarce rival these rocky only route, and at length we scrambled
campos in the splendor of their efflores- up from the dusk of a deep fissure into the
cence. light at the top of the highest pinnacle.
And there were animate flowers too. A sea of mountains rolled away in every
The sweet liquid notes of the white- direction, but heavy clouds prevented any
capped tanager floated out from a stunted view of the more distant landscape except
copse with a clearness that was startHng. where tiny patches of sunlight had
Even the humming-birds were trying to managed to break through. The lovely
sing,and in the stillness of the heights the spots of campo or forest thus exposed
volume of noise produced by a tiny plover- were sufficient guaranty that under clear
crest was out of all proportion to the skies the view is superb. This day, how-
diminutive bird. And here had wandered ever, the summit was not a place to
the common dooryard sparrow, the tico- tarry. Rain drops were beginning to
tico so dear to the hearts of Brazihans. splash upon the rocks, and we were both
But in such a setting its cherry song cold and hungry. A humming-bird
seemed strangely out of place. whizzing by like a bullet seemed possessed
From the Vargem das Flores the trail of true wisdom, and we followed it to lower
crossed the "Little River of the Flowers" levels.
(the translated name for the highest reach A "In truth,

Brazilian writer has said,
of the Rio Campo Bello) cHmbed over a
, shins of steel, lungs of bronze, and a heart
bowlder-strewn slope where hopped thou- of iron are needed to chmb Itatiaya, whose
sands of tiny toads with belHes as red as ascension is agonizing, terrific, and full of
the Amaryllis we had just passed, and lost the most painful difficulties." The ascent
itself in a wild jumble of talus at the of the peak by an American botanist of
western base of the culminating peak. As seventy and his wife of sixty-five rather
I stared up at the formidable wall towering discounts such a statement, though the
1200 feet above us, I was struck by the fact that no one had succeeded in reach-
appropriateness of its old Tupi name, ing the highest point until September 8,
Itatiayassu (Grand Itatiaya), and by the 1911, suggests the old truism that it's all
utter misnomer of Agulhas Negras (Black in knowing how. Nevertheless, the vis-
Needles), applied by the Brazihans. The itors' book kept by the weather observer
massif of gray nephelene-syenite is not shows that surprisingly few have climbed
black, nor does it bear any semblance to the peak since the way has been known.
needles. A narrow dentate ridge, it may The mountain is easily accessible from
be likened more truly to a cutlass with its Rio de Janeiro, and the traveler who fails
upturned edge badly nicked by the neck to include Itatiaya in his itinerary will
vertebrae of sundry pirates. miss a scenic wonder that ranks with the
To attain the summit seemed impos- Falls of Iguassu as one of the greatest in all
sible, for the last 600 feet of naked rock Brazil.
<=&o=^^=)®®£ ;^^^=«^
INSPIRATION
The Story Back of Lincoln Ellsworth's Polar Achievements
By HAROLD T. CLARK
Secretary, the Cleveland Museum of Natural History
On May 29, 192S, the Congress of the United States voted to award a special
Gold Medal, now in the course of preparation, to Lincoln Ellsworth, a Trustee of the
American Museum of Natural History, for his participation with Roald Amundsen
in the airplane flight of 1925 and the flight of the dirigible " Norge" in 1926. How
Mr. Ellsworth's ambition took shape and crystallized into history, to make as part of
his own life experiences an attempt to solve the mysteries of the northern wastes —
mysteries that had also lured Peary and Amundsen and other gallant men to pit
human endurance, courage, and enthusiasm against the odds of Nature — but
is told briefly
in the following tribute to the man whom his country has seen fit to honor. —The Editors.
HOW many of us really appreciate the tre-

mendous changes that travel by air has
Few there are who reaUze how important a
part in revolutionizing the methods of Polar
wrought in Polar exploration? This by those very sledges of
exploration was played
question is uppermost as one watches the throngs Peary and Amundsen on display in the Ameri-
who pause in the Polar Corridor of the American can Museum. The story is worth telling both for
Museum of Natural History before the case con- its own sake and as an indication of how far-
taining memorabilia of the Amundsen-Ellsworth reaching the inspiration of a great Museum may
flight by airplane in 1925 and the first crossing of be.
the Polar Sea in the dirigible "Norge" in 1926, fascinated by
As a boy, Lincoln Ellsworth was
and sees them glance hastily first at the near-by Of a thoughtful nature but
stories of the Arctic.
sledge which took Peary to the North Pole in with an active imagination, he was thrilled by
—
1909 the crowing achievement of twenty-eight accounts of men willing to endure physical hard-
—
years of endeavor and then at the one used by ships that they might push further back the
Amundsen in his remarkable journey to the South barriers to human knowledge. Although Ells-
Pole in 191 L. worth was a rather frail child, the desire to
The amazing recent flights of Commander achieve physically became the ruling ambition
Richard E. Byrd and of Sir Hubert Wilkins in of his life, so much so, that it amounted a' most
both the Arctic and Antarctic, make it easy to to an obsession. There fell into his hands a copy
forget that less than five years ago such a method of Theodore Roosevelt's Ranch Life and the
of exploration was regarded as foolhardy. It Hunting Trail. This account of outdoor life
was the airplane flight by Amundsen and Ells- made a great appeal, and when he learned that
worth in 1925, when they reached a point only one Roosevelt had been able to fashion a body
hundred and twenty nautical miles distant from naturally weak into a fit instrument "to seek,
the North Pole, that prepared the way for later to strive and not to yield," he determined to do
flights, and in his book Skyward, Commander the same.
Byrd, with characteristic generosity, has em- By the time he reached school and college he
phasized the enduring importance of the flight had made good progress along this line and had
of the Norge, as follows: become a long-distance runner and oarsman of
The epochal flight of the Norge across the north polar recognizedabiUty. While a student at the
regions did much to wipe out some of the skepticism created
by disasters among dirigibles. ... It is already apparent Columbia School of Mines, Ellsworth haunted
that the flight has had a profound and beneficial eff'ect upon
aviation in the lighter-than-air field, but when we think that
the American Museum, studying the exhibits
plus that demonstration of the great value of aircraft, those relating to the Arctic.
hardy pioneers have performed a tremendous service in
exploration, we must conclude that those men have accom- "I feel quite certain," said Ellsworth in an
plished one of the great feats of our age which mil shine
through future ages as the feats of Columbus, the Cabots, address before the Museum in 1927, "that the
Magellan, and other great navigators of the past, shine how deeply
through our age. American Museum is unaware of just
Fitting it is, therefore, that our Congress I feel its debtor, for here, in this very Museum,
should recognize in a very special way the epoch- came my first urge to want to go into the Arctic.
making character of the flights of 1925 and 1926. The vividly colored allegorical pamtings in the
438 NATURAL HISTORY
Museum halls —scenes from the far-away shores phantom horses across my memory.
ride their
of the Polar Sea — stirredmy imagination. A Today only a few are left. The rest have gone
gaunt land. A waste of cold and storm. What west —to the eternal west beyond the setting sun.
was the attraction, wherein the fascination? I have known many of them. I have done mst
Just why or how would be difficult to explain. of the things that the boy of a generation ago
While one cannot dreamed of doing; I
always dissect a taste have hunted buffalo,
or a passion, these lived among the
filled me with dreams Indians, prospected
that would not let for gold, and dragged
me be. There, too, the surveyor's chain
were the sledges that unmarked
across the
had reached the western prairies
North and South things I always
poles. How it thrilled wanted to do."
me to trace their All this frontier
journeys on the relief training developed
maps on the walls not only a fine phy-
above them, stage by sique but the ability
stage until the goal to respond quickly to
—
was reached a goal any emergency.
that had acted as the Ellsworth's courage-
motive-force to pro- ous act on the 1925
duce some of the expedition, in saving
most wonderful jour- Dietrichsen and
neys in the face of Omdal from drown-
terrible conditions, in ing, when, heavily
the history of our they
laden, broke
race."
through newly formed
Since, at the close
ice- —an act which
of his college course
Amundsen publicly
in 1903, there did not
declared saved the
appear any oppor- entire expedition
tunity to go at once
was made possible
to chosen field,
his
only by these long
Ellsworth decided to ROALD AMUNDSEN AND LINCOLN ELLSWORTH years of quiet prepar-
join as an axeman the Photograph taken at Nome, Alaska, May 15, 1926 ation.
second survey party
In 1912 through
to be sent out by the Grand Trunk Pacific,
to ex- the American Museum of Natural History,
plore a new route through Canada. During
the Ellsworth met George Borup, who with Donald
succeeding five years he remained in the employ B. MacMillan was planning an expedition in
of this company, rising to the positions
of chain- search of Crocker Land in the Arctic. From
man, rodman, leveler, transitman, and finally at among a long list of appHcants Ellsworth was
Prince Rupert, the Pacific terminal, he held the selected by Borup as one of his companions.
position of resident engineer in charge of a party. Borup's tragic death while trying to rescue a
During the next four years Ellsworth alter- friend from drowning ended this project.
nated between working as an engineer in Penn- Determined to take up Arctic exploration as his
sylvania and Alaska and exploring many out-of- life-work, Ellsworth went to London and there
the-way places. To use his own words— "Be- spent a winter in the study of practical astronomy
cause my great-grandparents were among the and surveying at the school of the Royal Geo-
first white settlers on the
Western Reserve of graphic Society.
Ohio, from them I must have inherited my love of
Upon his return to America in 1913, seeing no
the open frontier—the outskirts of civihzation.
immediate opportunity to go to the Arctic, he
Among the hunters, trappers, scouts, and 'two- obtained a position as field assistant with the
gun men' of the early American West are to be United States Biological Survey because of his
found my
boyhood heroes. They were all brave love of nature and wild-life. Liking to climb
and fearless men, and as long as I live they will mountains, he specialized in the distribution and
INSPIRATION 439
habits of the wild sheep of America, tramping as an observer, and, although over the age
and hunting in theRocky Mountains from the limit, learned to pilot.
Gulf of California to the Yukon Boundary. A serious attack of influenza then laid him low
In 1917 appeared Peary's Secrets of Polar and virtually incapacitated him for several
Travel, in which he suggested that airplanes years after the war. During this time, however,
might be used for Arctic exploration. Ellsworth he clung to the determination to explore the
immediately sought out Peary and endeavored Arctic by air, following closely the unsuccessful
to interest him in trying out such a plan. Peary effort by Amundsen to fly from Alaska to Spitz-
had succeeded in his great quest for the North bergen in 1923.
Pole and felt that such an attempt should be left Amundsen's bankruptcy, made necessary by
to some one else. Ellsworth tried to interest others his having been too trusting in his deaUngs with
but without success. The attention of the others, kepthim busy in Norway during most of
world was then centered on the war in Evirope 1924. Since no opportunity to go to the Arctic
and the times were unpropitious for the organiza- appeared, Ellsworth become a co-leader with Dr.
tion of any expedition. Joseph T. Singewald, Jr., of an expedition to
Shortly thereafter and before the entrance of Peru for Johns Hopkins University, to make a
the United States into the World War, Ellsworth measured geologic cross section of the Andes.
joined the Ambulance Service and sailed for This was so successful that he planned to go
France. He Esqua-
tried to join the Lafayette again and he had even purchased his tickets,
drille but was declined because of being several when he saw in a newspaper that Amundsen was
years beyond the age limit for pilots. in New York at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.
While in Paris, he received an lu-gent letter Without the loss of a minute Ellsworth drove
from Dr. Henry Fairfield Osborn, who was there.
familiar with Ellsworth's hopes, saying that he In My Life as an Explorer, page 119, Amund-
had lunched with Amundsen and that
just sen has described his discouraged state of mind
Amundsen was going to "steal his thunder," as at this very moment. His lecture tour had
he was planning to fly across the Arctic. Amund- proven almost a failure, and his future seemed a
sen had been working quietly upon this idea for blank. "I was nearer to black despair than ever
about eight years. In My Life as an Explorer, before in my fifty-four years of Ufe." ring of A
pages 103 and 131, he outlines his different efforts the telephone, a brief exchange of words, an in-
dating as far back as 1909. vitation by Amundsen to Ellsworth to come to
Shortly after this, Amundsen went to Paris. his room, and within a few minutes they had
Ellsworth met him and asked to join the decided to join forces. That decision changed
"Maud," but the personnel was already the course of all future Arctic exploration, and
complete. made possible a contribution to man's knowledge
Soon thereafter the United States entered the of the unknown polar seas that has proved
war. Ellsworth enlisted in the Aviation Service epochal in the history of the world.
'AIR PIONEERING IN THE ARCTIC"
The Two Polar Flights of Amundsen and Ellsworth
1925 and 1926
MANY Arctic
a drama has been played out on the
and many an heroic story
ice,
No more
ploration
gripping account of adventurous ex-
was ever set down, and no record ever
has been written of the adventures and made of man's struggle to overcome the Arctic
trials upon that frozen desert. Yet rarely has was ever more meticulously complete.
there been a more dramatic story than that of Divided into two major portions descriptive,
the Amundsen-Ellsworth Flight of 1925, and firstly, of the 1925 flight, and secondly of the
never has there been a more successful expedition flight of the Norge the following summer, the
than the epoch-making crossing of the Polar Sea volume is beautifully and completely illustrated
in the dirigible "Norge," in 1926. with scores of remarkable photographs, with
The stories of these have been told
two flights photostats and maps and reproductionsof news-
in many forms. Even the most casual of newspaper accounts. Finally, and properly, the book
paper readers knows the major facts, yet so extra- contains a sincere tribute to Roald Amundsen
ordinary were the happenings that took place on written by Lincoln Ellsworth, whose friendship
those two expeditions that even the smallest and assistance made possible the final accom-
details bear with them an interest comparable to plishments of one of the greatest explorers who
the major facts. ever entered the ice-bound regions of the north.
Because of this, this handsome volume of the Great were the flights of which this volume
National Americana Society has a double value. tells. Great is the record that has been made of
To the reader interested only in the drama of them. No individual interested in mankind's
these two amazing flights, the book is fascinating. struggle with the frozen north should fail to read
To the student interested in the details of Arctic this volume through. No hbrary that desires to
exploration by air, the volume
invaluable.
is
possess complete records of the Arctic can afford
'Published by the National Americana Society, New-
York, 1929. to be without this magnificent account.
CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS ISSUE

The Cover of Natueal History Herbert F. Schwarz, author of "Honey Wasps," has
been a frequent contributor to Natural History on the
Arthur A. Jansson has depicted the critical mo- subject of bees, to which particular division of insect life
ment of a tiger hunt in his painting "Ringing the Tiger,"
on the cover of this issue of Natural History. The he has devoted much study. Upon Mr. Schwarz's retire-
tiger, surrounded by his pursuers, finds himself trapped,
ment from the editorship of Natural History in 1925,
he undertook the editorship of the pubhcations of the New
and is nerving himself for one last dash for liberty. The
tiger is of the short-haired species found in southern Asia. York Academy of Sciences, in addition to continuing his
scientific studies as research associate in Hymenoptera at
William J. Morden, author "Tiger Hunting in
of the American Museum.
Nepal" has appeared before in Natural History. As
leader of the Morden-Clark Central Asiatic Expedition, Each summer, for some years past, W. R. Leigh has
Mr. Morden collected Ovis poli in the Russian Pamirs, visited America's southwest to paint studies of that colorful
hunted ibex in the Thian Shan, and, with Mr. James L. section of the United States. This work proved excellent
Clark, was captured and tortured by the Mongols in the preparation for painting African landscapes when he was
Gobi Desert. The complete account of this extraordinary selected as one of the two artists to accompany the East-
expedition appears in Mr. Morden's book. Across Asia's man-Pomeroy-Akeley 1926 African Expedition as the —
Snows and Deserts, and an account of the Ovis poli hunt coloring of Africa is very similar to our southwestern coun-
entitled "Marco Polo's Sheep" appeared in Natural try. was while on the Eastman-Pomeroy-Akeley African
It
History for September-October, 1928. Mr. Morden has Expedition that the adventure described in "A Night with
also spent much time in Africa and India. He sailed July an African Herder" took place.
16 to lead the Morden-Graves North Asiatic Expedition
which, among other things, hopes to collect the long-haired "The Black Art," by Mrs. Margery Loeb, of the Ameri-
tiger of the Amur River Valley in Eastern Siberia. can Museum's department of anthropology, gives but a
slight idea of thebreadth and earnestness of her studies of
Frank M. Chapman, curator-in-chief of the American
mythology, particularly that of the North American Indian,
Museum's division of zoology and zoogeography, went to which is to be the theme of her doctoral thesis. In her
Barro Colorado Island, in the Canal Zone, to make studies
for the habitat group of tropical birds now on exhibition
work at the American Museum she plans and assembles
the educational exhibits on anthropology that are lent to
in the American Museum; but he found there such an un-
schools in New York City. At the present time Mrs. Loeb
usual opportunity to observe both birds and mammals that
is making a detailed study of artifacts found in association
he returned to the island four successive seasons. The
with the Aleutian mummies that were brought to the
principal results of this additional field work appears in his
monograph of the Oropendolas, or giant orioles, published Museum by the Stoll-McCracken Expedition of 1928.
by the Museum in its Bulletin (Vol. LVIII, 1928, pp. 123-
166). Incidentally he has gathered enough material to The author of "Falconing," George G. Goodwin, is
form a book, which will appear in the fall, on the life of primarily a mammalogist, and holds the position of assistant
the island. The "Conquest of Claudia" is from this forth- curator of mammals of the world, in the American Museum,
coming work. but he has devoted much of his spare time to the art of
falconry, both in Europe and in America. He is never so
In 1921 Ernest G. Holt of the Carnegie Institute was happy as when on the moors with one of his high-flying
assigned by the American Museum of Natural History to falcons wheeling three steeples high overhead.
make an ornithological survey of the Serra do Itatiaya, in "Falconry," says Mr. Goodwin, "is the finest and most
Brazil, and it was while engaged in this undertaking that humane sport of its kind, for it not only gives the game a
he had the opportunity to photograph and record the sporting chance to get away from a natural enemy, but
scenic wonders that are the subject of his article in this issue, there is no such thing as a maimed bird lost and left to die.
entitled "Itatiaya, Brazil's Most Famous Mountain." The quarry is either killed instantly or escapes unhurt."
1. Central Asiatic; 2. Whitney South Sea, Solomon Islands, for birds; 3. Vernay-Faunthorpe for Asiatic mammals; 4.
Morden-Graves, Turkestan, for mammals; 5. Madagascar, for birds, mammals, and fossils; 6. Sanford-Legendre, Abyssinia,
for mammals and birds; 7. Columbia University-American Museum, to Africa for anatomical study; Straus, Nyasaland
for birds; 8. Tanganyika for birds and mammals; 9. Thorne-Correia, Gulf of Guinea, for birds; 10. DeSola, Cuba, for
reptiles; 11. Whitney-Olson, Texas, archaeological survey; 12. Whitney-Snodgrass, Folsom, New Mexico, archaeological
survey; 13. Frick-Rak, Sante F6, for fossils; Bernheimer, Canon del Muerto, pictograph study; Ogden mills. Canon del
Muerto, archaeological survey; 14. Benson, East Panama, for birds; Blick, Honduras, for fossils; 15. Shapiro, Polynesia
physical anthropology; 16. Naumburg-Kampfer, Southeastern Brazil, for birds; 17. Byrd, Antarctic
THE FIELD OF
IN
NATURAL HISTORY
Conservation
Edited by A. I^THERINE BERGER

EXPEDITIONS tionand who expects to use this information in
"T^HE Columbia University-American Mu- his studies on the evolution of the human foot
•*
seum Expedition to Africa, which is being and on its postural disorders.
sent from the department of anatomy of the The expedition plans to spend about six months
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia in its journey across Africa from east to west.
University and from the department of com- It is under the leadership of Mr. Henry C. Raven,
parative anatomy of the American Museum of associate curator of comparative anatomy in
Natural History, will be the only expedition ever the American Museum of Natural History, who
sent out for the purpose of securing entire, well is well known for his previous explorations for
preserved adult gorillas of all known varieties the National and American Museums, in Borneo,
exclusively for anatomical study; together with Celebes, Africa, AustraUa, and Greenland. The
similar specimens of chimpanzees and other other members of the expedition will be Dr. Wil-
African primates. It will also make special liam K. Gregory, professor of vertebrate palse-
studies and photographs of the feet of unshod ontology, Columbia University, and curator of
natives, unspoiled by civilized shoes. This the department of comparative anatomy of
material is desired by Dr. Dudley J. Morton of the the American Museum of Natural History,
College of Physicians and Surgeons, who has Dr. J. H. McGregor, professor of zoology,
taken a prominent part in organizing the expedi- Columbia University, and Dr. E. T. Engle,
442 NATURAL HISTORY
associate professor of anatomy, College of antelope are said to range. They expect to spend
Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University. the months of September and October in Central
The expedition expects also to visit the grave Asia. After the completion of the work in that
of Carl Akeley, who lies buried on the slopes of district,they will trek across to the Trans-
the beautiful Mt. Mikeno in the Pare National Siberian Railroad and travelby it eastward to
Albert, east of the Belgian Congo. Largely as a Vladivostok. Mr. Graves will cross the Pacific
result of Akeley's efforts to secure protection for and join Mr. Morden and Mr. Goodwin in Vladi-
the fast-vanishing gorilla, King Albert and the vostok about the first of November, after which
Belgian Government set apart this district to be the three will proceed northward to Khabarovsk
a perpetual sanctuary for wild life. The expedi- and endeavor to obtain the necessary specimens
tion hopes to be able to study and photograph of the tiger in the little-known region northwest
the living gorillas in this sanctuary and to secure of that city.
its anatomical specimens in other regions outside Last fall Mr. Morden made a special trip to
of the Pare. In the Gaboon region of French Moscow and Leningrad to make the very neces-
West Africa it will study and collect the West sary contacts and obtain assurances that when
African gorillamade famous by Du Chaillu. he brought an expedition to Soviet territory,
As Natural History goes to press, word of every facility would be accorded him. On his
the expedition comes in a letter from Doctor return he reported that he had been extremely
Gregory to Professor Osborn. He says in part: well received and had been assured that all pos-
"At last we can report success in obtaining the sible assistance would be given him. Mr. Morden
necessary permits from the Belgian government was previously known to the Soviet Government,
after a period of doubt and anxiety. Baron de for in 1926 he was the leader of the Morden-
Cartier de Marchienne received us most kindly Clark Asiatic Expedition, which made an ex-
in London, but we found that Akeley had made cellent collection of Ovis poli in the Russian
him so rock-ribbed a conservationist that he was Pamirs, and ibex and roe-deer in the Thian Shan
extremely loath to cede any gorillas to us. even Mountains, and crossed Central Asia to the
outside the Pare National Albert. Dr. J. M. Trans-Siberian Railroad.
Derscheid of Brussels, however, to whom the Owing to the fact that the tigers must be
Baron referred us, felt that in view of the im- hunted in the winter time when they are in their
portance of oiu" plan to secure a record of the best pelage and when there is sufficient snow to
anatomy mountain gorilla, it would be
of the enable the hunters to track them, the expedi-
well for the government to assist us in every way. tion has been equipped for very cold weather.
Consequently he secured all necessary documents Much of the work will be done on snowshoes and
and permits, orders to game warden, etc., together skiis, and for a considerable portion of the time
with invaluable advice gained from his own ex- the party will probably be out of touch with the
perience in studying the gorilla on the Akeley- outside world. The expedition expects to return
Derscheid expedition. in March or April of next year.
""PHE anthropology department will have ex-

"PHE Morden-Graves North Asiatic Expedition •*•
peditions this summer to Mexico, Santo
•*
is now somewhere in the Soviet territory.
Domingo, Arizona, the Folsom district in New
The personnel of the expedition comprises Wil-
Mexico, Texas, the Montezuma Creek region in
liam J. Morden, leader, field associate in mam-
Utah, the Andean region, and Polynesia.
mology on the scientific staff of the American
Museum; Mr. George C. Graves, II, and Mr. "THE return to New York of the Tyler Duida
George G. Goodwin, assistant curator, depart- * Expedition, with large collections of the
ment of mammals, on the staff of the Museum. fauna, flora, and rocks, from the sides and sum-
The expedition is being financed by Mr. Graves. mit of Mt. Duida, coupled with the collections
The primary objects are the collection of an gathered by the Lee Garnett Day Expedition
exhibition group of the long-haired Siberian tiger sent last year by the American Museum to Mt.
of the Amur River region, and of the saiga ante- Roraima, furnishes material, it is believed,
lope in Russian Central Asia. In addition to sufficient for very definite conclusions to be
these a general collection of fauna of the regions reached concerning biological distribution in the
visited will bemade. very interesting and little explored mountainous
Mr. Morden and Mr. Goodwin left New York region lying between and parallel with the
in July and will go first to Leningrad and Mos- courses of the Rivers Amazon and Orinoco.
cow, and from there into the district of Russian The personnel of the expedition included Mr.
Central Asia, where the few remaining saiga S. F. Tyler, Jr., who is at present traveling in
NOTES 443
search of more adventure up the River Orinoco, isonly a few hundred feet higher, but a number
and through whose generosity the trip was prose- away) From this vantage point magnifi-
of miles .
cuted; Mr. G. H. H. Tate, leader; Mr. Charles cent views were afforded by relatively near-by
B.Hitchcock; geologist and cartographer; and mountains to the north and northeast, and farther
Mr. R. S. Deck, ornithologist. away to the east and south by the Parima Range,
Mt. Duida is a principal feature in a vast, and its offshoots. Westward appears only pene-
isolated, and hitherto unexplored region; it is a plained country some 300 feet above sea level,
tableland varying in elevation from 4000 to 7000 broken by a few low, relatively unimportant
feet above sea level, with an area of about 300 hills. The bearings of all visible features were
square miles, and stands in the extreme south of carefully taken by means of planetable and ali-
Venezuela, a few miles from the parting of the dade with a view to subsequent revision of ex-
Casiquiare Canal from the Orinoco. tant maps, and planetable maps were drawn of
Mt. Duida's existence has long been known. Mt. Duida itself and of the territory in the im-
Humboldt, the explorer and geographer, spoke mediate vicinity. At the center of the plateau a
of it as "the granite group of Duida"; but it change in the geology with consequent reflec-
remained for Sir Robert Schomburgk to divine tions in the vegetation and zoology, was re-
that its formation is —
sedimentary sandstone. marked, the significance of which has yet to be
The tableland is roughly foursquare, bounded surely determined.
not by sheer walls of rock like Mt. Roraima, but The expedition left New York for Mt. Duida
by bold, steep slopes, in part steplike, banded by way of Para last July. Regrettably, two of
with narrow, horizontal stripes of precipice, and its members, Mr. Tyler and Mr. R. S. Deck,
elsewhere jutting out as promontories or reced- were forced by ill health to return home before
ing into walled-in valleys thatseem most effec- completion of the time planned upon; neverthe-
any ascent to the plateau.
tively to bar the information and collections obtained by
less,
A way was discovered, however, up the steep the remaining members and their helpers are far
slopes of one of the headlands, and with the in excess of what they themselves had foreseen.
assistance of local Indians —Maquiritares The dried plant collection includes about 500
suitable trails were cut, not only for the slopes, species, a very large proportion of which, coming
but over the top of the mountain. On the
all from the summit of an unexplored mountain,
actual ascent more than 150 ladders of various should prove to be undescribed.
sizes were required. These were built with Dr. H. A. Gleason, of the New York Botanical
saplings and lashed with "sipos" brought from Gardens, who identified the plants collected by
the forest below. As the work of trail construc- the Lee Garnett Day Expedition to Mt. Roraima
tion progressed, camps were formed in all places (1926-7), has undertaken to work upon the
of distinctive environmental conditions, in order material from Mount Duida.
that, later, collections completely representative This collection of plants, wUl be donated to the
of the Duida region might be secured. New York Botanical Gardens, as has been done
Three months were passed on the top of Duida, on previous occasions; however a named second
which was found composed of great, undulating, set of specimens will be kept at the American
parallel ridges and valleys, and clothed with a Museum for some time to come for purposes of
covering of woods and brush so dense and matted reference.
as to be practically impenetrable except for a On June 3, President Osborn on behalf of the
native armed with a machete. Collecting was Trustees of the American Museum gave a lunch-
prosecuted from eight stations, efforts being made eon to the returned members of the Tyler
to gather exhaustive material, not only of the Duida Expedition and to representatives of the
birds and mammals, but of all zoological and Museum departments concerned with this expedi-
botanical groups, sinceit was felt that an oppor- Among the guests were Dr. Isaiah Bowman
tion.
tunity such as this for sustained and intensive of the American Geographical Society, Mr.
collecting in such an inaccessible region as the Lee Garnett Day, patron of the Museum's
Mt. Duida plateau was unlikely to occur again expedition to Mt. Roraima in 1928, and Mr.
for many years. Besides, the knowledge that H. A. Gleason of the New York Botanical
a very high percentage of even the commonest Gardens. The geographical, botanical, and
plants or animals would prove to be new to zoological significance of the expedition was
science, gave an added stimulus to the collectors. discussed by Doctor Bowman, Mr. Gleason, and
The highest station was approximately 7000 feet Dr. Frank M. Chapman respectively. Mr.
above sea level, and placed close to the top of the Tyler, having already returned to the Orinoco
next to highest point of Mt. Duida (the highest for further exploration, could not be present.
444 NATURAL HISTORY
'
I
'HE American Museum has just received from During this time he began writing on astronomy,
* the Sanford-Legendre Expedition, now col- which work continued until within a few weeks of
lecting in Abyssinia, a beautiful series of speci- his death. In fact, several of his newspaper
mens of the mountain bushbuck, or nyala. The articles are being published posthumously.
best specimens from this lot will be incorporated The articles by ''The Sun's Astron-
early
in a group for the Akeley Memorial Hall. omer," published anonymously, attracted much
The largest head in the set has a symmetrical attention and became a regular feature of his
pair of horns measuring forty inches along the paper.In fact, they impressed the editor of
outer curve, twenty-five inches from base to tip The Sun, Mr. Charles A. Dana, so much that he
in a straight line, and twenty inches from tip to advised Mr. Serviss to make astronomy his life
tip. This is the fourth largest head ever recorded. work, a bit of advice which, no doubt, had great
Among other specimens received in this first weight. At any rate, the interest in the astro-
shipment are several klipspringers and jackals. nomical articles grew until they were syndicated
Word from Mr. T. D. Carter, who is a member in a great series of American newspapers. By this
of the expedition, states that the second shipment means alone, doubtless, he reached a wider read-
of specimens is already well on the way to the ing public than any astronomer who has ever
Museum. Mr. Carter's plan at the time of lived.
writing was to continue from Soddu to Jiren in In 1888 he published his first book on his
Jemina Province, thence to Sherada in KafTa favorite subject,entitled, Astronomy With an
Province, and from there home via the White Opera Glass. This was popular from the start and
Nile, arriving in New York the early part of is still widely used. It was followed by several
August. others, including Astronomy With the Naked
Eye, Curiosities of the Sky, The Moon, Other
AMATEUR ASTRONOMERS ASSOCIATION Worlds, and Around the World With the Stars.
CUMMER classes in elementary and genera He also wrote a number of semi-scientific novels.
*^ astronomy will be held under the direction of Mr. Serviss was the first Honorary Member of
Mr. Paul Shogren on the second and fourth the Amateur Astronomers Association and was a
Wednesdays of each month at 8:00 p.m. at the frequent attendant at its meetings. On April
American Museum of Natural History, out- third last, he was scheduled to give his lecture on
doors, when weather permits. Other classes will "The Poetry of Astronomy" before this society,
be resumed in the faU. and there was great disappointment when, on
The first regular fall meeting of the Amateur account of illness, this lecture could not be given.
Astronomers Association will be held on Wed- Mr. Serviss spent his life in the joyous service
nesday evening, September 18, 1929. of turning the thoughts of his hearers and readers
from the sordid and petty things of this earth to
GARRETT P. SERVISS the vast, celestial universe. His passing is a grât
"PHE widely known writer and lecturer on loss to millions, who looked upon him as a great
* scientific subjects, Garrett Putnam Serviss friend and an inspiring teacher. Clyde Fisher.
has gone, and in his passing the world has
lost a great teacher who has during more than EDUCATION
forty active years, instructed and inspired many '
'HE third season at the Trailside Museum at
I
thousands of persons. In this time he has prob- *Bear Mountain is well under way. This edu-
ably done more than any one else in America to cational project, developed and maintained by
popularize the study of astronomy. the department of public education of the
Mr. Serviss died in the Englewood Hospital American Museum, is being operated in coopera-
on May 25, 1929. He had made his home in tion with the commissioners of the Palisade Inter-
Tenafiy, N. J., although for a number of years state Park. Mr. William H. Carr, naturalist in
he had spent the warmer part of each year in charge of the trail work, is assisted this year by
France. Mrs. Carr, Mr. Joseph Rintelen of Cornell Uni-
Born on March 24, 1851, at Sharon Springs, versity, and Mr. Samuel Yeaton.
New York, he was educated at Cornell Uni- The attendance this season has shown a marked
versity, where he was graduated with the degree increase. More than 20,000 persons have visited
and at Columbia Law School,
of B.Sc. in 1872, the Nature Trails since the 20th of April. Many
where he received the degree of LLB., but he special groups from schools have come from New
never practiced law. York City and elsewhere to study biology and
In 1882, he became night editor of The New general nature subjects. Several organizations
York Sun, a position which he filled for ten years. have sent their leaders to study the nature trail
NOTES U5
project. These men remain for one week and are These birds for twenty years prior to their dis-
then replaced by others who aid in the building of covery in 1918 by Dr. T. Gilbert Pearson, had
the trails as they learn how the work is done. been regarded as practically extinct as breeding
New methods of labeling out-of-door speci- birds within the boundaries of the United States.
mens have been developed. The increased It was while studying bird life on the Texas
number of visitors have made it necessary to coast that Doctor Pearson found several thou-
construct more permanent exhibits along the sand reddish egrets breeding on Green Island in
trails. The trailside museum will cooperate with Laguna Madre.
Miss Ruby JoUiffe this summer in teaching nature This island, which lies about 35 miles north of
to the thousands of campers who, annually, live Point Isabel, affords an ideal nesting place for
in the Park camps. There were more than these birds. It covers about 40 acres and is
100,000 campers, last year, and the field for clothed with a dense and almost impenetrable
nature education is indeed a great one. growth of mesquite and ebony, together with a
goodly sprinkUng of cactus and yucca. On the
I N memory of his father, William Lyman Under- tops of this dense growth the birds build their
•'
wood, Mr. William J. Underwood has present-
nests. Extensive shoals and mud-flats constitute
ed to the education department of the American
ideal feeding grounds for the birds, and serve to
Museum 1200 lantern slides made from original make the island inaccessible save only to the
photographs taken by his father during the many
lightest draught boats.
years he was devoted to natural history. Mr.
Shortly after Doctor Pearson's discovery of this
Underwood's delightful book Wild Brother is to
marvelous rookery, the General Assembly of
form the basis of an illustrated lecture for school
Texas, without sohcitation, officially leased it to
children, to be prepared by the education de-
the Audubon Association for a term of 50 years
partment with slides taken from pictures in the
to be administered by it as a bird sanctuary.
book.
CONSERVATION THE BASHFORD DEAN MEMORIAL EXHIBIT

OF FOSSIL FISHES
'
'HAT whales are now
danger of extinction
in
I
•*
and can only be saved by a concerted inter-
TTHE exhibit of fossil fishes in the southeast
• pavilion of the fourth floor of the American
national effort for their preservation, is the
opinion of Prof. H. F. Osborn, who announces Museum, a memorial to the late Bashford Dean,
curator of fishes in the American Museum,
first
the organization of the Council for the Conser-
vation of Whales by a prominent group of scien-
was opened on the afternoon of June 10, with
tists and conservationists.
President Henry Fairfield Osborn presiding. The
immediate family and many personal friends of
The Council, which will work toward the
Doctor Dean were present, including a number
preservation of the romantic industry of whaling,
of his colleagues from the two universities
numbers among its
as well as that of the whales,
(Columbia and New York) in which he was a
members Dr. Ray Lyman Wilbur, Secretary of
professor, and from the two museums, (American
Interior; Gifford Pinchot, former governor of
Pennsylvania; David Starr Jordan, president
Museum of Natural History and MetropoUtan
emeritus of Leland Stanford Jr. University;
Museum of Art) in both of which he was a curator.
President Osborn read a cablegram of greetings
and Prince Nagamichi Kuroda, scientist and
from Dr. W. K. Gregory, curator of fishes, who is
member of the royal family of Japan.
at present on an expedition to Africa. He then
An effort will be made to work out a program
paid a brief tribute to Doctor Dean as his student,
for treaties between nations and regulations by
colleague, and friend, and asked Miss Francesca
which the kilUng of whales may be reduced below
the danger point. The movement had been or-
La Monte, assistant curator, to unveil the bronze
bas-relief tablet by John W. Hope, which is the gift
ganized under the auspices of the American
of Doctor Dean's friends from all over the world.
Society of Mammalogists, of which Dr. Glover
Mr. J. T. Nichols, curator of recent fishes, said a
M. Allen, of the Museum of Comparative Zoology
few words in explanation of the exhibit, and Dr. E.
at Harvard, is president.
W. Gudger, bibliographer and associate in the
ACCORDING to a statement recently coming department, gave a brief history of Dean's great
•** from the office of the National Association work, the Bibliography of Fishes, and of its con-
of Audubon Societies, 1974 Broadway, New York tinuation, and of the plan for the publication of a
City, it generally may not be knov/n that today memorial atlas of the valuable unpubUshed plates,
there are breeding on the lower Texas coast large drawn by Doctor Dean himself, portraying the
numbers of the rare and beautiful reddish egret. outer development of certain primitive sharks.
446 NATURAL HISTORY
Among the noteworthy collections represented chmbing appendages out
poles develop a pair of
in this exhibit are one of Devonian placoderms of and muscles of the throat. Such
the skin
made by Prof. J. S. Newberry (Doctor Dean's temporary locomotary organs are unique among
teacher in palaeichthyology), the E. D. Cope col- the Amphibia. It was interesting to note that in
lection, and the Alfred Ely Day collection from spite of the restrictions of their nursery, the tad-
Mt. Lebanon, Syria. These form the basis of the mouth,
poles retained the distinctive characters of
exhibit, which from time to time has been aug- hmbs, and found in other tadpoles of the
spiracle
mented by other specimens.] same family, Brevicipitidse. The study gave
further support to the view that larval characters
FISHES may be as important as adult characters in defin-
""PHE American Museum's collection of primi- ing relationships.
tive fishing apphances has been increased by

•* In the same number of the Bulletin, Doctor
a gift from Gerrit P. Wilder, now in the Cook Is- Noble has described the anatomy of the suction
lands in the South Pacific. Mr. WUder not only disk on the ventral surface of various Chinese
sends a sample wooden hook but also the native tadpoles. This permits them to chng to rocks in
names for each part and wrapping of the imple- the swift water of mountain torrents. The
ment. Like all primitive workmen, the makers of mechanism was apparently evolved from an un-
fishhooks in theCook Islands take pride in their speciaUzed integument and ventral musculature
work and follow precise patterns. This requires such as is found in our common pond poUiwogs.
that names be given all the important parts and
EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
steps in the process. The native islanders fish
with large wooden hooks of a special shape, for a
A LARGE series of eel-like amphibian Siren
*^ was recently brought from Florida by Mr.
curious large fish in the Pacific, known as the
William G. Hassler. No less than 67 adults and
ruvettus, or more commonly as the oilfish. The
250 very young ones were brought back aUve for
lines are of cocoanut fiber. Ages ago primitive
investigating the problem of metamorphosis in
man found that certain fishskins especially the
this form. Incidentally, 11 large Amphiumas, or
skius of sharks,would polish wood and shell.
snakehke amphibians, and several snakes new to
Mr. WUders ends an interesting contrivance used
the collections of the American Museiun were
by the Cook Islanders to polish their wooden and
obtained, and a large series of other species. The
shell fishhooks. This is a small wooden bow
more striking wiU be moimted by the new infiltra-
strung with a strip of sharkskin. By grasp-
tion method recently perfected in the department.
ing the bow in the hand, the native workman
can rapidly and effectively stroke the surface to MEETINGS OF SOCIETIES
be polished. This method is superior to the
nPHE twenty-fom-th annual meeting of the
usual one of poUshing by holding a piece of * American Association of Museums convened
sharkskin loosely in the hand.
in Philadelphia, May 22-24, with headquarters
at the Bellevue-Stratford. The time and place
EEPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS
of thismeeting was arranged to coincide with the
""PHE Brooklyn Musemn has deposited its twentieth annual meeting of the American Federa-
1 reptile and amphibian study collections in tion of Arts, so that joint sessions could be held.
the American Museum. These collections con- The American Museum was represented by
tain much local material of interest and some Director Sherwood and members of the depart-
rare exotic species, among them a fine series of ment of education.
Surinam toads, the remarkable amphibians of
the genus, Pipa. The females of this genus carry SCIENCE OF MAN
their developing eggs and tadpoles in shallow T JPPER PUocene Man in East Angha.—
pockets iu their backs. The collection also in- ^^ Through the discoveries of J.Reid Moir of
cludes rare turtle skeletons new to the Museum. Ipswich, England, and the writings of Sir Ray
Lankester and Professor Osborn, the Upper
Tn a recent number of the Bulletin Dr. G. Phocene man of the Red Crag of England is now
K. Noble has described, some remarkable
•*•
well known and well established. The Red Crag
tadpoles from East Africa. They hatch from marks one of the final stages of Phocene time in
eggs laid in the hollow stems of bamboos, or which, for the last time, appear two types of
between leaves of banana trees. They are mastodonts and an early type of the elephant
devoid of both external and internal giUs and family known as Archidiskodon planifrons. Now
hence breathe air from the time of hatching. In Reid Moir comes forward with a new discovery of
adaptation to their peculiar habitat, the tad- traces of man more ancient than those of the
NOTES 447
—
Red Crag namely, two flint implements of and has finally secured very distinctive fossil
human manufacture, a "sling-stone" and a "flint teeth associated with Pithecanthropus and Eoan-
scraper" found below the Red Crag near Ipswich, thro-pus respectively. At the present moment
England. These implements, remarkable for the they appear to give a new and very surprising
relative perfection with which they are fashioned, iaterpretation of the geologic age of these speci-
are described in the British magazine Man, —
mens namely, that Pithecanthropus is geo-
« ill I ia i|
DOWN HOUSE, KENT, ENGLAND

Here Charles Darwin lived for forty years, and here The Origin of Species was written
April, 1929, pages 62 to 65. The author concludes logicaUy much more recent than formerly sup-
his description as follows: posed, whereas Eoanthropus is geologically more
If in this I am then it becomes clear that the
right, ancient. In a future note in Natural History
presence of this object at such an horizon, as a study of the
excellence of much of the flaking on the sub-Crag flint Professor Osborn hopes to present these results
implements had led me to believe, points to the fact that in a more definite form.
man of the Pliocene period had already progressed some
distance upon the evolutionary path, as it seems impossible
to imagine any ape-like creature producing artifacts such as DOWN HOUSE
have now been found in the detritua-bed. The discovery
of this "sling-stone" is yet one more reminder that, to /^N June seventh the home iu which Charles
judge of the advancement of any prehistoric people merely
by the stone implements they made, may be a risky and
^^ Darwin lived and worked from 1842 until
unsatisfactory procedure. his death in 1882, Down House in Kent, was
formally opened to the pubhc. For many years
This appears to be indirect corroboration of
there has been an agitation to recover this famous
Professor Osborn's prophecy that the discovery
house from the hands of tenants and to establish
of the skeleton and brain of PUocene man will
it as a permanent memorial to Darwin, freely
furnish one of the greatest surprises in the whole
open to visitors. In 1927 it was purchased and
history of anthropology. In the same connection
presented to the British Association in trust as a
Professor Osborn is making a very careful re-
public memorial by Mr. G. Buckston Browne, a
study of the remains of fossil mammals found
London surgeon,and since then leading scientists
same beds with the Trinil man of
associated in the
in Great Britain and this country have been
Java {Pithecanthropus) and the Piltdown beds of
diligently working to restore Down House to its
Sussex {Eoanthropu^) . If it proves possible to
original appearance during the forty years of
absolutely associate the skull fragments of Pithe-
Darwin's residence and to collect the priceless
canthropus and of Eoanthropus with the fossihzed
Darwkiiana that has been scattered in some
remains of teeth found in the same beds with
instances to the far comers of the earth.
them, the geologic age of these two classic fore-
The unceasing efforts of Mr. Browne and
runners of the human race may be precisely de-
others have yielded most gratifjong results. To
termined. For two years past Professor Osborn
quote from the London Observer of May 19:
has been in correspondence with his colleagues
The drawing-room has been furnished with a great deal
and friends in the British Museum and in BerUn of the original furniture which has been gathered from
448 NATURAL HISTORY
various branches of the family. Of all the rooms the most but at the last moment found that it was impos-
important is what is known as 'the old study.' Here The
Origin of Species was written; the chair and writing board sible to go, and Prof. Edward B. Poulton of
which Darwin used are standing in the accustomed corner. Oxford University was chosen to represent him
.... Here is his working table brought in great triumph
from Cambridge. and the American Museum of Natural History.
Of the many unique and interesting gifts to the
collection at Down, one of the most valuable NEW BOOKS
is the presentation by Prof. Henry Fairfield Holiday Pond. By Edith M. Patch.
Osborn of the entire series of letters written by TT always a pleasure to be able to recommend
is
Darwin to the great German naturalist, Fritz * a nature book to the general reader, and we
Miiller. These fifty-eight letters were found in thank Edith M. Patch for again giving us this
the possession of the Miiller heirs in Brazil, and pleasure by writing Holiday Pond, recently pub-
after several months of negotiation, Professor lished by Macmillan. Doubtless the publishers
Osborn succeeded in purchasing them in time to —
possibly even the author intended this book
cable an announcement of the gift to England for primarily for children. admirably adapted
It is
the opening. for such readers but adults would do well to
Another extremely generous gift is the pur- borrow it from the nursery in order that Miss
chase of Sir Charles Hartwell's bust of Darwin Patch may tell them, too, about the interesting
for Down House by Dr. Joseph Leidy of Phila- things that may be in the pond near their home.
delphia. Doctor Leidy attended the opening as Best of all, one is safe in accepting her statements
the officialrepresentative of the American as facts for, unlike certain "popular" writers,
Association for the Advancement of Science. she knows her subject. Our only regret is that
Professor Osborn had hoped to be present also. the book is so short. —F. E. L.
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Felix M. Warburg

Charles W. Berry, Comptroller of the City op New York

For tne enrichment of its collections, for the support of its explorations and scientific research,
and for the maintenance of its publications, the American Museum of Natural History is dependent
Associate Member (nonresident)* annually $3

Sustaining Member annually $25
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on the third
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EDUCATION & ^Wr& B EXPLORATION
'
Natural History a position of recognized importance in the educational and scientific Ufe of
year the infiuenoe of the Museum widens, as is witnessed by the increasing number of visitors
THE NEW
SCHOOL SERVICE BUILDING, with the increased facilities it offers, makes it
possible to augment greatly the Museum's work not only in New York City schools but also through-
out the country. Fourteen miUion contacts were made during 1928 with boys and girls in the public
is supphed to, and thousands of lantern sHdes are prepared at cost for distant educational institutions,
not a local, but a national — —
even an international institution. Through its loan collections, or
"travehng museums," which are circulated locally, 557 schools were reached last year, and 2,282,192
direct contacts were made with the pupils. More than a miUion lantern slides were lent to the New
York City schools, and 4,851 reels of the Museum's motion pictures were shown in 223 public
others for schools, colleges, and the general public, are delivered both at the Museum and at outside
THE LIBRARY is available for those interested in scientific research or study on natural his-
tory subjects. It contains 115,000 volumes, and for the accommodation of those who wish to use
which is housed within the Museum itself. In addition to Natural History, the journal of the
Museum, the popular pubhcations include many handbooks, which deal with subjects illustrated by
of especial interest or importance. These are all available at purely nominal cost to anyone who
cares for them.
its collections,
trations and exhaustive treatment; the Bulletin, issued in octavo form since 1881, dealing with the
record the work of the Department of Anthropology; and Novitates, which are devoted to the pub-
lication of preUminary scientific announcements, descriptions of new forms, and similar matters.
mation in many odd During 1928 thirty-four expeditions visited scores of
corners of the world.
different spots in North, South, and Central America, Asia, Africa, and Polynesia, and nearly as many
observers and scientists connected with other institutions. Natural History Magazine obtains the
articles that it publishes. Thus it is able to present to the constantly enlarging membership of the

NEW YORK, N. Y.
NATU RAL
HISTORY
Sept. -Oct. Price Fifty
1929 Cents
A HAITIAN RHINOCEROS IGUANA

NEW YORK, N. Y.
Henrt Fairfield Osboen, LL.D., President
I . DIVISION OF MINERALOGY, Fishes Science of Man {continued)

GEOLOGY, GEOGRAPHY, William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Curator Edward M. Weyer, Special Assistant
John T. Nichols, A.B., Curator of William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Associate
AND ASTRONOMY Recent Fishes in Physical Anthropology
Henry Fairfield Osborn, LL.D., E. W. Gudger, Ph.D., Bibhographer Clarence L. Hay, A.M., Research
D.Sc, Curator-in-Chief and Associate Associate in Mexican and Central
Francesca R. LaMonte, A.B., Assist- American Archaeology
ant Curator MiLO Hellman D.D.S., Research Asso-
Astronomy Louis Hussakof, Ph.D., Research ciate in Physical Anthropology.
Associate in Devonian Fishes George E. Brewer, M.D., Research
G.Clyde Fisher, Ph.D., LL.D,, Curator Charles H. Townsend, Sc.D., Re- Associate in Somatic Anthropology
search Associate
Minerals- and Gems C. M. Breder, Jr., Research Associate
Van Campen Heilner, M.Sc, Field IV. DIVISION OF ASIATIC EX-
Herbert P. Whitlock, C.E., Curator Representative PLORATION AND RESEARCH
George F. Kunz, Ph.D., Research Roy Chapman
Associate in Gems and Andrews, Sc.D.,
Amphibians and Reptiles, Curator-in-Chief
Lea McIlvaine Ldquer, Ph.D., Re- Experimental Biology Walter Granger, Curator in Palae-
search Associate in Optical Mineralogy
G. Kingsley Noble, Ph.D., Curator ontology
Clifford H. Pope, B.A., Assistant Charles P. Berkey, Ph.D., [Columbia
University], Research Associate in
History of the Earth Curator
Charles E. Burt, M.S., Assistant Geology
Henry Fairfield Osborn, LL.D., Curator Amadeus W. Grabau, S.D. [Geological
D.Sc, Honorary Curator-in-Chief Bertram G. Smith, Ph.D., Research Survey of China], Research Associate
Associate
A. B. Dawson, Ph.D., Research Asso- V. DIVISION OF EDUCATION
Fossil Vertebrates ciate
Walter iGranger, Curator of Fossil William Douglas Burden, A.M., Re- AND PUBLICATION
Mammals search Associate George H. Sherwood, A.AL, Ed.D.,
Barnum Brown, A.B., Curator of Curator-in-Chief
Fossil Reptiles Birds
George G. Simpson, Ph.D., Associate
Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D., Curator-in-
Vertebrate Paleontology
Curator of Library and Publications
Chief • "
Charles C. Mook, Ph.D.,

Associate
Robert Cushman Murphy, D.Sc, Ida Richardson Hood, A.B., Acting
Curator of Geology and Palaeontology Curator ofOceanic Birds Curator
William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Research James P. Chapin, Ph.D., Associate Hazel Gay, Assistant Librarian
Associate in Palaeontology Curator of Birds of the Eastern J.A.NNETTE May Lucas, B.S., Assistant
Childs Frick, B.S., Research Associate
in Palaeontology
Hemisphere Librarian — Osborn Library
Elsie M. B. Naumburg, Research
Walter W. Holmes, Field Associate in Associate
Palaeontology Education and Public Health
Mammals George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed.D.,
of the World Curator-in-Chief
Geology and Fossil Invertebrates H. E. Anthony, M.A., Curator G. Clyde Fisher, Ph.D., LL.D.,
Chester A. Reeds, Ph.D., Curator Robert T. Hatt, A.M., Assistant Curator of Visual Instruction
Curator Gr.\ce Fisher Ramsey, Associate
George G.Goodwln, Assistant Curator Curator
II. DIVISION OF ZOOLOGY, William J. Morden, Ph.B., Field William H. Carr, Assistant Curator
AND ZOOGEOGRAPHY Associate Nancy True, A.B., Staff Assistant
Elizabeth A. Eckels, Ph.B., Staff
Frank Michler Chapman, Sc.D., Comparative and Human Assistant
N.A.S., Curator-in-Chief P.4UL B..Mann, A.m., Associate in
Anatomy Education
Marine Life H. C. Raven, Associate Curator ciate in Outdoor Education
Curator Marcblle Roigneau, Staff Assistant
WiLLARD G. Van Name, Ph.D., J. Howard McGregor, Ph.D., Re- Charles-Edward Amohy Winslow,
Frank J. Myers, B.A., Research Asso- Dudley J. Morton, M.D., Research Health
ciate in Rotifera \ Associate Mary Greig, A.B., Assistant Curator
Horace W. Stunkard, Ph.D., Re-'' of Pubhc Health
search Associate in Parasitology
A. L. Treadwell, Ph.D., Research III. DIVISION OF ANTHRO-
Associate in Annulata POLOGY Printing and Publishing
Clark Wissler, Ph.D., Curator-in-
Hawthorne Daniel, Curator, Editor
of Natural History
Insect Life Chief
.
A. Katherine Berger, Associate

Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D., Ciirator Editor of Natural History
A. J. Mutchler, Associate Curator of Science of Man Ethel J. Timonier, Associate Editor
Coleoptera Clark Wissler, Ph.D., Curator-in- of Scientific PubUcations.
C. H. Curran, M. a.. Assistant Curator Chief
Frank E. Watson, B.S., Staff Assistant N. C. Nelson, M.L., -Curator oi^ Pre-
Public Information
in Ijepidoptera historic Archaeology
search Associate in Social Insects Curator of Physical Anthropology George H. Sh'^rwood, A.M., Ed.D.
Charles W. Leng, B.S., Research Asso- Margaret Mead, Ph.D., Assistant W1LL1.4.M K. Gregory, Ph.D.
ciate in Coleoptera Curator of Ethnology Wayne M. Faunce, Sc.B.
Herbert F. Schwarz, A.M., Research George C. Vaillant, Ph.D., Assistant Clark Wissler, Ph.D.

Hawthorne Daniel, Chairman
George N. Pindar George H. Sherwood, A.M. Ed.D., ex-officio
A. Katherine Berger
VOLUME XXrX JN/a 1 U rvA.L SEPT.-OCT.
Numbers TJ T C "T^ /^ D ^W^ ^9^9
The Journal of The American Museum of Natural History
Hawthorne Daniel ^- K^^therine Berger

Editor
p- ffi
^sUK^B^M
iriii mMl Associate Editor
CONTENTS
A Haitian Rhinoceros Iguana Cover
The Rhinoceros Iguana Frontispiece
Lizard Hunting in the Black Republic Gilbert C. Klingel 450

Making Motion Pictures of Rhinoceros Iguanas on the Island of La Petite Gonaives
The Theoretical Continent Vilhjalmur Stepansson 465

How Explorers Have Changed Our Ideas of the Antarctic
Andros—An Island of the Summer Seas Roy Waldo Miner 481

a Tropical Paradise Fringed with the Largest Barrier Reef of the Western Hemisphere
Nose s Robert T. Hatt 497

How Nature Adapts and Develops Noses to the Needs of Her Creatures
Hunting Extinct Animals in Florida George Gaylord Simpson 506

The DiflBcult Science of Finding the Remains of Animals of Ages Long Past
Animals in Orchestration Myron Ackland 519

How Musicians Have Used the Sounds of Nature in Their Music
The Birds of Little Diomede Francis L. Jaques 521

The American Museum's New Arctic Bird Group
On THE Threshold of Native American Civilization . . George C. Vaillant 530

The Results of Recent Archaeological Studies in Mexico
How Animals Run S. Harmsted Chubb 543

Some Interesting Laws Governing Animal Locomotion
American Museum Expeditions 552
Published bimonthly by The American Museum of Natural History, New York, N. Y. Sub-
History, 77th St. and Central Park West, New York City.
Natural History is sent to all members of the American Museum as one of the privileges of member-
ship.
Entered as se'cOnd-class matter April 3, 1919, at the Post Office at New York, New York, under
the Act of August ^4, 1912.
St:* -
THE RHINOCEROS IGUANA

This largest of the West Indian Hzards claws its burrows in the coral ledges on the islands off the coast
of Haiti. With head encased in grotesquely weird plates, little glinting eyes, great crest of dorsal
spines, and long black claws, this creature is strongly reminiscent of a dinosaur
See "Lizard Hunting in the Black Republic," Page 4-51
VOLUME
XXIX
NATURAL NUMBER
HISTORY FIVE
SEPTEMBER-OCTOBER, 1929
LIZARD HUNTING IN THE

BLACK REPUBLIC
Making Motion Pictures of Rhinoceros Iguanas on the Island of La Petite Gonaives
off the Coast of Haiti. Hunting Buried Lizard Eggs and Making Other
Reptile Studies
By GILBERT C. KLINGEL
TViTH Photographs by the Author
the American Museum of Natural a few other localities, but its doom is in-
INHistory there is a habitat group of the evitable. Only on small islands off the
rhinoceros iguana, a striking West coast does it stiU flourish. But even here
Indian lizard between four and five feet in a shooting party could destroy the last
length, which has been so named because remnant of these curious lizards in a few
of the three spikes on its snout. I was so days.
much impressed with the group that I I decided to investigate first La Petite
decided some years ago to become better Gonaives, a small inhabitated island in
acquainted with this beast if opportunity the blue Gulf of Gonaives, just south of
afforded. Last winter I started to try the larger island of La Gonaives. As a
my luck, not in Santo Domingo where the result of the good services of my friend,
group material was collected, but in Haiti, the Collector of Customs, we engaged a
the western end of the Island of His- native sailboat and a captain, and made
paniola. preparations for a ten-day trip.
The day of the rhinoceros iguana is Late in the afternoon we ghded into the
almost over. On the Haitian-Dominican mangrove-bordered harbor of Anse a
mainland it is rapidly becoming extinct. Galets and dropped anchor. The village
In the desert land of Haiti, near St. Marc consisted of a few thatch huts and the
and Gonaives, it once occurred in great Gendarmerie Headquarters. Lieutenant
numbers. There today it is seen only on Wirkus, in charge of the native pohce, is
rare occasions. In the Dominican Re- an American marine officer, and the only
public its haunts are being converted into permanent white resident of the place.
canefields and plantation land. True, it He has under his control some hundred
may still be found in goodly numbers in thousand blacks who are said to have
Haiti, especially around Anse a Pitre and crowned him "King" of the island. His
452 NATURAL HISTORY
APPROACHING THE CAMERA BLIND

The rhinoceros iguana is primarily herbivorous, and banana peels and mangoes placed before the
camera blind proved to be a great attraction to the iguanas of La Petite Gonaives
home and the Gendarmerie are the only island of La Petite Gonaives. It is formed
substantial buildings on the whole island. of coral and is so small that it could
We passed a pleasant evening, enjoying be "crossed in a hop, skip and jump"
the hospitality of Lieutenant Wirkus, and as thegendarme lieutenant had told us.
left the next morning for the little island However, it is far more interesting than
to the south. Jagged coral heads pro- its big brother island to the north.
truded above the blue waters of the bay, Our little boat nosed its way into a
and we soon found it advisable to ke^p a diminutive harbor, frightening six sleepy
sharp watch for those just beneath the pelicans which were eying us disdain-
surface. Our native captain claimed, be- fully. We ran our bow well up on a little
fore leaving, that he was famihar with strip of shell-strewn sand that served as
these waters, but I soon discovered that the beach for the two or three native
he knew neither the channel nor the way fishermen who had their huts near by.
to manage his boat. As we approached the The entire a mere handful of

village,
fringing reef of the island, the situation ragged men, came down to see their
became strained and without waiting for unexpected visitors, In answer to our
further remarks from the captain, I took inquiry for "layzah," the patois name
the tiller and headed for the south end of for the rhinoceros iguana, one of the fel-
La Gonaives. Several hours later we lows volunteered to guide us across the

rounded Point Fantasque, the extreme tip httle island. A few feet from the village
of the island, and there pictured in vivid we came abruptly upon eight of the beasts
greens and browns, against a background we were seeking, which dashed away upon
of blue sky and still bluer sea, lay the little our approach. It was thus obvious that
LIZARD HUNTING IN THE BLACK REPUBLIC 453
SUSPICIOUS
Sometimes the great brutes would come within a few feet of the lens. One fellow sneaked around
to the back of the blind and looked in
we could not obtain pictures of them walked around the blind to the opening
without a bhnd. Returning to the boat, in the rearand looked in upon us. I made
we stripped it of its sails and, when these a wild grab for him with my hands but
were draped over the slabs of glaring he was off like a flash. The remainder of
coral, our improvised concealment the lizard company dashed away but
looked far less conspicuous than I had soon came back and eyed our blind sus-
imagined it would. We had brought piciously. They looked like so many
some bananas and mangoes for bait, but dinosaurs, — certainly Stegosaurus or Ty-
after our hours of hard work in the midst rannosaurus could have seemed no more
of the blistering coral, the sight of —
weird, the great horns on their snouts,
this luscious fruitwas too much for our the spines along their backs, the sharp
powers of resistance and we decided to eat black claws, and those little glinting eyes
the bananas and use the peelings for bait. always staring at us gave us a thrill that
Hardly had we settled ourselves within we shall not forget for many days.
our blind before a half score of the un- We had arrived in La Petite Gonaives
gainly iguanas sweptdown upon the too late for the egg-laying season, and
banana peels. The temperature was hence, after a week of searching for the
gradually rising under the sail and soon it eggs and additional life-history facts, we
became stifling. The great brutes came gave up and returned to the Haitian
nearer and nearer until they were within a mainland.
few feet of the lens of my motion picture Haiti is one of the most densely popu-
camera. One grotesque fellow even lated areas in the world. Though it is
454 NATURAL HISTORY
GONAIVES
The trade winds blow from the Atlantic and deposit their moisture on the eastern slopes of these hills,
consequently the country about Gonaives, on the western side of the hills, is comparatively arid, a
fortunate circumstance for the lizards which swarm in the lowlands back of the town
but one third the size of the Dominican from being the mystical and vicious people
Republic, it has more than three times the that so many writers like to picture them.
population. While the natives are quite In fact, Haiti today, for all its voodoo and
picturesque and very interesting, to one mystery, is one of the most peaceful spots
engaged in nature study they are some- on earth.
times extremely annoying. Wherever we Further work in Haiti was begun in
went there was a gang trailing along to see earnest near St. Marc, some 200 kilo-
what was going to happen. To get rid of meters north of Port au Prince. As we
them was almost impossible, for as soon walked across the arid hills, thousands
as one crowd dispersed another collected. of dragon flies seemed to dart at us from
We once constructed a blind for observa- all sides. The reason soon became pain-
tion but had to give it up in disgust. The fully apparent. They were attracted by
natives hung around like leeches. Yet, the mosquitoes with which the district
they were so willing to help and so good- was infested. During a short jaunt into
natured that we could not help but like the hills our arms and legs became black
them. They have a sense of humor and with the pests. Finally, we could stand
as a general rule are very courteous. Al- it no longer; we broke into a run and,
though extremely poverty stricken and dashing out upon the beach, we stripped
decrepit in appearance, they are far and plunged into the water. For two
'"7s
ON THE ALERT
The rhinoceros iguana receives its name from the three horns on its snout. Both sexes bear these
structures, which function merely as ornaments, as they are not used in fighting or in burrowing.
In fact, they would seem to be distinct hindrances in climbing among the coral cliffs. The iguanas of
Petite Gonaives had their horns well worn from rubbing between the rocks
456 NATURAL HISTORY
THE FISHING VILLAGE OF LA PETITE GONAIVES

The only inhabitants of La Petite Gonaives other than the rhinoceros iguanas are a few fishermen,
together with their families and pigs
days we were thus tormented and then Fortunately we were never bitten. The
suddenly the mosquitoes disappeared eggs, however, eluded our most careful
and we were left to work in peace. We search. The tunnels into which we dug
were never again bothered by noxious invariably ended in blank walls. By the
insects. end of the fifth day we were but little
Our attention at St. Marc was soon better off than when we had started, save
by the "mabouya," large sharp-
attracted that we had accumulated a number of
snouted lizards which are common in- notes on burrowing habits. On the follow-
habitants of the Haitian roadside. These ing morning, however, we located a
lizards, known as Ameiva chrysolaema, colony in a bank at the mouth of a short
are among the most conspicuous lizards ravine. The holes in the bank were,
of Haiti. They have bright yellow stripes to all appearances, the same as other
and polka-dots, and they live frequently in burrows we had worked, but excavation
colonies near the rivers. As they are showed them to be quite different. They
very nervous creatures, they are hard to were all placed in the same stratum of
approach and, when startled, they dash earth and their mouths formed a hori-
through the brush with apparent dis- zontal line along the face of the cHff.
regard for the thorns and brambles. Several of these holes were larger than
We were particularly interested in their neighbors. We chose one and dug.
finding the eggs of Ameiva, so, for the It ran straight into the bank for three feet
better part of a week we searched over and then widened into a large hollow or
the valley back of St. Marc and pried into cavity. There it apparently came to an
all kinds of burrows. As often as not we end. We looked rather hopelessly at each
uncovered great ugly tarantulas. It is a other, but acting upon a hunch, I had
queer sensation to thrust your arm into a my native boy dig farther. He was thus
hole and connect with a big hairy spider. engaged when I noticed that the end of his
^.iT?.- ,w.-S .'>'«»«&
THE HOME OF THE IGUANA

La Petite Gonaives is seamed with crevices. At the hunters' shghtest movement the great iguanas
would dash off and disappear among the coral crags. The tough hides of the rhinoceros iguana seemed
to the sharp coral edges, which quickly tore to shreds the hunters
shoes
to be impervious
458 NATURAL HISTORY
A CURLY-TAILED LIZARD INVESTIGATES

The male Leiocephalus schreibersii is radiant in its livery of pink and green, but the female shown here
wears a somber dress of grays and browns. The significance of the adornment of the male is not clear,
for during courtship the females pay scant attention to the opposite sex
pick had suddenly become stained. Fran-

tically yelling to him to stop, I seized a
trowel and carefully cleared away the
earth. In a few moments there came to
light five eggs, four a beautiful white and
one hopelessly crushed. The crushed egg
contained a well developed, if somewhat
mashed, embryo. The eggs had been
laid in a little cavity just large enough
to hold them and then had been walled
in with a hard packed plug of earth. We
carefully placed them in a container and
continued digging. Now that the secret
was out it was easy. From that burrow
we took two more clutches and from the
colony we collected a total of five. They
were packed in moist wood pulp and
rushed to the Marine Post Office in
Port au Prince, whence they finally
rs ^ ^, J L ox AT reachcd the American Museum.
Ox cart on the road to bt. Marc. Most. ofr XI
A,r
the
native cane is used in the making of rum, very These excavations and later study re-
little being turned into sugar. In many cases the sealed an interesting group of facts. We
cane is ground m the same millf tha the French . .
colonists used more than 100 years ago found that there were two distmct types
of Ameiva colonies; one for shelter and

retreat and another for purposes of
propagation. The shelter burrows were
occupied by males or females,
either
though only a single specimen occupied a
tunnel. The propagation burrows were
communal and were made use of by a large
number of pregnant females, which left as
soon as the eggs were laid. The young
lizards when hatched, struggle through
the layer of dirt that separates them from
the outside world, without any assistance
from their parents whatsoever. How they
ever claw their way out without dying of
suffocation en route, is something of a
mystery.
One afternoon I was stretched out
upon the ground, taking it easy, when I
saw an interesting incident in the life of
CACTI ON THE ROAD TO ST. MARC
Ameiva. All around were strewn thous-
Haiti includes both desert and jungle. The ex-
ands of little yellow flowers whose bright pedition confined its efforts to the more arid re-
petals raised themselves but an inch or gions, where lizard life was at its maximum.
The an American marine stationed at
officer is
so above the soil. They were constantly St. Marc
ON THE BEACH AT ST. MAKC

Coconut chips proved to be the favorite hiding place of the Leiocephalus schreibersii, one of the "curly
frequentlj curl their
ej' frequently
tailed " lizards of Haiti. These lizards receive their name from the fact that thej'
tails up on their backs when preparing to run
460 NATURAL HISTORY
visited by many bees, wasps, and other of food, and now, instead of hunting his
insects. As I watched, a hzard came into food, he was merely dashing from one
view, a full grown Ameiva. It was not yellow flower to another. Such powers of
rambling aimlessly around as is their association in a mammal would not be
usual wont, but was darting in a most surprising, but in so lowly a creature as a
businesslike fashion from yellow blossom lizard, it was remarkable to find these
to blossom, seizing the unfortunate mental powers so well advanced.

insects that feasted thereon. In a moment Another time, while I was trying to
it dawned upon me that this lizard had photograph an Ameiva, I managed to
associated yellow flowers with the presence approach quite close to the beast without
SWIFT RUNNERS
OF THE HAITIAN
ROADSIDE
Working out for
the first time the
life story of this
hzard, Ameiva chry-
solsema, was one of
the accomplish-
ments of Mr.
Khngel's expedition
ROADSIDE NEAR ST. MARC
The Ameiva were abundant along this road, and at the shghtest noise would dash into the
lizards
thick shrubbery on either side. It was near this point that the Ameiva colony was found
ON THE TRAIL TO GOAVIER

The northern Haiti were scoured for lizards. It was found that Ameiva chrysolsema had a
hills of
particular preference for the bottom lands, ascending only a short distance into the_hins. Goavier
is a small plateau about 4000 feet above sea level
THE LIZARD NEST
The eggs of Ameiva chrysolxma were found concealed in the wall at the end of the Ameiva burrow. The
little lizards, in escaping, would have to dig their way through several inches of packed soil
A LIZARD BURROW
It was found that Ameiva chrysolsema digs two kinds of burrows, one for sleeping and another for incu-
bation of the eggs. The latter type shown here was often very extensive, running as much
as nine
feet into the bank
464 NATURAL HISTORY
PREPARING THE EQUIPMENT

The first motion pictures ever made of the rhinoceros iguana in its natural habitat were taken by
Mr. KUngel
life history of several other lizards and field will be studied.

secured many eggs and adult specimens we have secured the
Incidentally first
for investigation in the experimental motion picture ever made of the rhi-
laboratories of the American Museum. noceros iguana, in its natural habitat,
Here the eggs will be reared under con- and have presented the film to the Mu-
trolled conditions, and many observa- seum, where it will be used in the educa-
tions that were not obtainable in the tional work of the Institution.
THE UBIQDITOUS CHA-

MELEONS, Anolis, ARE
THEFIRST AND LAST
LIZARDS ONE SEES IN HAITI
îi^,.
THE THEORETICAL CONTINENT

How Explorers, Since before the Time of Columbus, Have Been Busy Proving that
the Antarctic Continent Is Actually Smaller than It Has Been Thought To Be
By VILHJALMUR STEFANSSON
THE last region on earth to change

from theory to fact lies in the farth-
practically identical, differing only in
that Europeans could approach or slightly
est South. Once upon a time we penetrate the borders of the frozen North
''knew" it was the greatest of continents. while they never expected any human
A hundred years ago we were beginning to testimony with regard to the frozen South.
think that there was no continent at all; For, said the Greeks, between us and
twenty years ago we felt sure of the main the frozen South the tropics lie under the
outlines of the continent; and now the sun, forever impassable, with red-hot
solid land is beginning to break up into rocks and boiling oceans. The stories
archipelagos, although it still seems as if about Egyptians and Phoenicians who
there might be enough left to form a had crossed the tropics, if known at all,
decent continent after all. were considered to be folklore. This view

The Greeks were pioneers in southern held from around 400 B.C. to 1400 a.d.
most doctrines which have
theories, as in and was more orthodox in its time than
swayed the intellect of Europe for two the general doctrines of biological evolu-
thousand years. But within the last tion are today.
two hundred, pioneer travelers from many The earth was spherical to the Greeks
nations have taken a hand in breaking and remained so to the learned throughout
down the Greek theories and the accre- the Middle Ages. The geographers of
tions to them that developed slowly every century believed the time would
through ancient and mediaeval times. come when someone would sail around the
The Greek beliefs about the South earth from east to west, or would sail to
started in philosophical doctrines con- Asia and walk thence overland to Europe.
cerning simplicity, balance, and symmetry. But no one would ever go around the
Applying their principles, the Greeks world from north to south, for about the
viewed the Far North and Far South as earth's middle was the uncrossable burn-
;.?.v. ."^r*?-..,.
\.,
© Universal Service
AN ANTARCTIC LANDSCAPE
No other land mass in the world is so devoid of life as is the Antarctic Continent. Around its edges
birds, seals,and fish are to be found, but in the interior the hardy explorer is rarely heartened even
by the sight of a bird on the wing
Universal Service
SCRIPPS ISLAND
This photograph, taken by Wilkins, is of an island formerly thought
to be a part of the Antarctic
Continent. Under continued exploration the supposed area of the South Polar land mass has
shrunk to only a fraction of the size it was once thought to be
© Universal Service
A WASTE OF ANTARCTIC SNOWS
Time was when much of Europe, Asia, and North America may have appeared in some such guise
as this. Now, however, aside fropQ the Antarctic, onlyGreenland carries an ice cap comparable to
that of the Antarctic. This picture was taken from Sir Hubert Wilkins' plane
Universal Srrrirr
WILKINS' PLANE AT ITS BASE

This base was chosen because of its location near a whaling station. In a couple of hours' flying,
however, the explorers can be 200 miles or more nearer the pole, over a land where a base could
have been established only with great difficulty
THE "ENDURANCE'
DURING THE ANTARC-
TIC NIGHT
In this ship, Sir Ernest
Shackleton spent the Ant-
arctic winter of 1915 in
the ice of Weddell Sea
THE "endurance"
GOING DOWN
Crushed by ice in October,
1915, the "Endurance"
sank, leaving the twenty-
eight men of the expedi-
tion marooned on the ice
Underwood and Underwood

THE THEORETICAL CONTINENT 469
Underwood and Underwood

SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON SAILS AWAY FOR HELP
After drifting on an ice floe from October, 1915, to April, 1916, the "Endurance" party reached
land. From there. Sir Ernest Shackleton and three others, in a whale boat set sail for South Georgia
for help. Despite fearful hardships, no lives were lost
ing girdle and at either end were the snow the North Pole, and even its northern
caps, permanently frozen and everlast- tip is 400 miles from the Pole.
ingly dead. The northern snow cap was The burning tropics were conquered
supposed to begin not far beyond the by a group of Portuguese sailors and by a
north tip of Scotland. Those fringes a man of genius who directed them. Prince
traveler might approach, no doubt, and Henry the Navigator. He, or somebody
send back descriptions. There would be associated with him, developed one of the
in the South a similar ice cap, but this least precedented ideas that had ever come
could be known only by theory and by to Europe, and one of the most liberating
analogy from the North. that has come to the human mind. The
The public still believes in a northern Middle Ages conceived themselves as
ice cap, or at least the newspapers still prisoners between a wall of ice to the north
use the term, although it is really a and a wall of flame to the south. Prince
hundred years and even more since geog- Henry was iconoclastic enough to wonder
raphers knew that there was no northern whether there really was an impassable
ice cap and could not be. True enough, tropic belt. He sent out ship after ship
snow does cap Greenland. But this does and they went farther and farther, some
not correspond to Greek theory, for the returning with gruesome tales of the burn-
philosophers believed that the center of ing death which they had narrowly avert-
the ice cap was at the North Pole. In ed. But they did come back, and so there
reality, the center of the Greenland ice were others who could be induced to ven-
cap is more than a thousand miles from ture, and at times some companies ven-
Broun Broo Yale U. Press
JAMES COOK FERNANDO MAGELLAN
Brown Bros. Brown Bros.

JAMES ROSS ROBERT F. SCOTT
FOUR MEN WHO HAVE TAUGHT US ABOUT THE ANTARCTIC
Magellan was thefirst man to circumnavigate the world, and proved that South America was not
attached to the Antarctic land mass. Cook learned that Australia and New Zealand were separate-
Ross discovered the Great Barrier, and Scott reached the South Pole only to find that Amundsen
had been ahead of him
Underwood and Underwood Underwood and Underwood
ROALD AMUNDSEN SIR ERNEST SHACKLETON
Brown Bros. Undericood and Underwood
RICHARD E.BYRD SIR HUBERT WTLKINS

FOUR PRESENT-DAY ANTARCTIC EXPLORERS
Amundsen, the first to reach the South Pole; Shackleton, leader of the heroic "Endurance" expe-
dition; Commander Byrd, who is now in the Antarctic; and Sir Hubert Wilkins, whose remarkable
flights in 1928-9 lopped still more off the Antarctic Continent. By the time this magazine is pub-
Hshed it is Ukely that Byrd will have actively begun his work of aerial exploration
472 NATURAL HISTORY
Australasian Antarctic Expedition
DOGS AND SLEDS

By this means polar exploration has laboriously been making headway for generations. The
limitations of such methods, however, are obvious, and today dog teams are only incidental aids
to explorers
tured again, until finally the sun was ca was discovered, it seemed to Europe
straight overhead without burning the obviously a peninsula running north from
ships or cooking the sailors. In fact, they Terra Austrahs. Then came Magellan,
returned with accounts of heat no greater Portuguese in blood but Spanish because
at sea in the tropics than you find on who sailed in 1520 through the
of his flag,
land in Portugal during the midsummer. strait that bears his name and cut off
This was the final conquest of the burn- from the imaginary land a second con-
ing tropics but only the beginning of tinent.
European attack upon the great southern Even so. Terra Australis remained the
continent. Terra Australis. biggest of continents. When New Guinea
The Austral Continent, although it was discovered, it was thought to be a
looks to us now like pure theory, was very northward peninsula, and next the land
real in the Middle Ages. Africa was a we now call Australia took up a similar
part of it. The first of many powerful role. In fact, so sure was Europe that
blows against it was dealt by the Portu- now at last had their eyes rested upon the
guese, under Dias, when in 1486 or 1487 continent of theory, and so long did they
he rounded the south tip of Africa, remain assured, that, when the Hollander
amputating a whole continent bigger than Tasman in 1642 finally sailed past on the
North America from the theoretical Land south side, he cut off not only a land mass
of the South. of continental proportions but also de-
The second piece of major surgery was prived the mythical continent of its
performed by Spain. When South Ameri- ancient name, which hereafter clung to
THE THEORETICAL CONTINENT 473
Universal Striire
MOTOR AND PLANE
Where dogs and sledges could travel ten or a dozen or, with luck, twenty miles in a day, such a plane
as this can travel 100 miles an hour, performing in one afternoon the work that dogs would take
many weeks to accomplish
the great island which he had lopped off Terra Australis and then to the building
from the theoretical mass, Austraha. up of the more recent Antarctica, but fore-
Nameless at last, and no bigger than most of them is Britain. For after Cook's
real continents, the former Terra Australis two great achievements, the first crossing
was baptized Antarctica and continued of the Antarctic circle and the first circum-
to shrink until finally James Cook, the navigation of Antarctica, came in 1831
great navigator of England, sailed around the first sighting of what is still believed
it in an almost circular curve, crossed the to be Antarctic mainland, and this was by
mathematical south polar circle for the Biscoe, an EngHshman.
first time and returned to warn the geog- The great achievement to follow Biscoe
raphers that, if there was any continent was by an Englishman, too, James Ross,
at all, it could not be larger than perhaps nephew of the equally famous John Ross.
twice the size of Europe. He was the first to navigate pack ice in
Thus far all discovery had been ampu- Antarctica and first to see the Great
tative, or negative. A positive contribu- Barrier, probably the most startling, or at
tion came when the Russians under Bel- any rate the least expected sight that ever
linghausen discovered the first land ever has greeted human eyes. For nothing in
seen within the Antarctic circle, Peter and the world differs so strikingly from things
Alexander Islands, lying in a southerly we may see in Europe or in other common-
direction from South America. place lands as the sparkhng ice chffs that
As we have said, many nations con- rise perpendicular from deep water in the
tributed to the breakdown of the original sea that has been named after Ross.
474 NATURAL HISTORY
Brown Bros.
BARRIERS OF THE ANTARCTIC
Where the Arctic is, for the most part, merely an ice-covered sea, the Antarctic is an elevated con-
tinent with rugged mountains and high, wind-swept plateaus. The elevation in the Antarctic,
therefore, adds still another difficulty for the explorer to overcome, while the mountains themselves
form barriers that complicate the problem
We are trying here to show that many human foot upon the Antarctic mainland.
nations have furnished explorers, each of Five years later, then British because his
whom has been first to do some great flaghad been changed, he was the first to
thing in the Antarctic. For patriotic spend a winter on land in the Antarctic.
reasons and to get one more nation But a year before that, in 1898, Gerlache,
counted, we might hke to put Wilkes, the a Belgian, was the first to winter in the
American, ahead of Ross, for his contribu- Antarctic pack ice, drifting about held
tions were notable and were earlier. But securely between fioes, as many ships
his Wilkes Land was not the first conti- had been in the Arctic but none before and
nental discovery. For a similar reason few since his time in the Antarctic.
we have to omit from this particular list In 1902, Scott, British, was first to carry
the conspicuous French explorer, out land exploration on what we now call
D'Urville, who found Adelie Land. Later with a degree of certainty the Antarctic
in our own time we shall have to omit Continent. His farthest was only 380
similarly one of the great figures of south- miles from the base station but was,
ern exploration, the Australian, Mawson. nevertheless, a remarkable feat, since it
It is especially trying to have to omit him, opened the way to his own later great
for, all things considered, he is probably work as well as to the expeditions of
the greatest of all Antarctic explorers. Shackelton and Amundsen.
In 1894, Borchgrevinck, Norwegian by Until the discovery in 1928 that
flag and blood, was the first to place a Graham Land is an archipelago of islands
Australian Antarctic Expedllioii
ON THE ANTARCTIC ICE

Across such a surface as this no explorer can travel with ease, and because of the difficulties thus
presented, Antarctic exploration has been retarded. Today, however, when dogs and sledges have
so largely given way to airplanes, the explorer can accomplish rapidly the tasks that formerly
were all but impossible
© Wide World Photos
COMMANDER BYRD'S SHIPS
Tied up to the Ice Barrier near the Byrd Base Camp at "Little America." This Ice Barrier does
not mark the shore hne of the Antarctic Continent. Instead, the ice is well beyond the shore line,
and as it creeps slowly out to sea, it breaks off in gigantic bergs. Hundreds of these bergs are to be
found drifting in the Antarctic Ocean, and ships sailing in those waters must be wary of such
tremendous floating islands of ice
THE THEORETICAL CONTINENT 47'
Australasian Antarctic Expedition

PICTURESQUE ICE FORMATIONS OF THE FAR SOUTH
In a whole continent of ice, many strange formations are naturally to be encountered. Ice caverns.
precipices, crevasses and hummocks of every size and shape are to be found, with intervening level
plains of ice and snow. Furthermore, during the short summers, innumerable icicles form, and
drifting away fromthis world of ice is a constant procession of ice bergs
and not part of the Antarctic mainland, foi the realcommander of the part}" was
we had beheved that Charcot, the French- Sir Edgeworth David, the distinguished
man, in 1904, was first to see flowering professor of geology from Sydney Uni-
plants on the Antarctic Continent, with versity.
his discovery of two such plants on the In 1911 Amundsen, Norwegian, went
western coast of Graham Land. But since 97 miles farther than Shackleton had gone
these are not on the mainland, so far as and was first to reach the South Pole,
we know to the present there are no December 14.
flowers on the southern continent, al- On November 21, 1928, in the southern
though there are more than 700 species hemisphere spring, Wilkins, an Australian
of them in the northern polar region. commanding a British-American expedi-
Shackleton had been with Scott's first tion and piloted by an American, Eielson,
expedition. In 1908 the British expedi- was first to fly in the Antarctic.
tion which he himself commanded was On December 21, 1928, the Antarctic
first to use motor transport in the Ant- midsummer, he and Eielson made the
arctic, first to discover fresh water hfe in first discovery flight in the Antarctic, a
the previously thought to be lifeless Ant- great air voyage of 1200 miles in which
arctic lakes, and was first to visit the they broke up the previousl}^ sohd con-
actual locality of the south magnetic pole. tinental map of Graham Land into an
In a way, however, the achievement
last archipelago of islands. Crossing what
belongs to Australia rather than England, appeared to be the final strait, thej' flew
478 NATURAL HISTORY
Australasian Antarction Expedition

THE FRIGID ANTARCTIC OCEAN
Probably there are few places in the world less given to high winds than the South Pole itself, but
about the edges of the Aiitarctic Continent ferocious and frigid gales are perennial. Down from the
icy heights of the continent the cold winds sweep, with the result that ships near the frozen shore
sometimes find themselves "iced up" as is the one shown in this photograph
for half a hundred miles or so over gradu- from the districts which Scott, Shackleton,
massive land that is, so far as
ally rising and Amundsen had shown to be high and
we know, really continuous with the land mountainous.
on which the South Pole lies and therefore The first real season of Byrd's oppor-
with the land at the far side where Scott, tunity for air discovery begins around
Shackleton, Amundsen, and Mawson have September or October, 1929. With his
had and where Byrd
their base stations well equipped and competently directed
now has his winter camp. expedition, he will doubtless add many
The Byrd expedition, although a few things to our knowledge and probably
weeks only behind Wilkins, did not give the final answer to the old question
arrive in the Antarctic early enough for of whether there is in the Antarctic a
much beyond reconnoitering flights. The single land mass big enough to be named
geographers had expected both Wilkins a continent.
and Byrd to find continuous land, parts of The chance is that this final determina-
one continent. The Wilkins flight dis- tion will go to Byrd's credit, for this year
proved these views in the American Quad- he is likely to begin his flying as much
rant the Byrd flights, so far as they have
; ahead of Wilkins as Wilkins was ahead
gone, have confirmed them in the Aus- of him last year, for that is the advantage
trahan Quadrant, finding high land and of Byrd's plan. He is spending the
mountain ranges spreading farther away winter South, idle so far as flying dis-
Courtesy of the N. Y. Public Library
THE SOUTH POLAR REGIONS AS MAPPED IN 1538

This map, which was drawn in 1538 by Gerhard Mercator, shows what the Antarctic Continent
was thought to be forty-six years after Columbus discovered America. Magellan had sailed through
the Strait of Magellan, and had shown that South America was detached from the land farther to
the south, but Cape Horn had not been discovered and Tierra del Fuego was thought to continue
from the Strait of Magellan to and beyond the Pole. Australia and New Zealand were unkno\\Ti,
and the South Polar continent was supposed to be much larger than we now know it to be
480 NATURAL HISTORY
covery concerned but active in the

is part of Australia, under the leadership of
routine scientific work of the staff. Wil- the greatest of southern explorers. Maw-
kins has adopted the other method of son, who plans a campaign of many years
spending his win- with winters spent
ters north, going at home in Adelaide
South each south- and the summers on

ern spring. Before the Antarctic shore.
Novembei, 1929, if There is a logical
both programs hold, progression in the
Byrd wiU have a talking points of the
month or six weeks three expeditions.
of flying to himself, The Byrd program

and great things can discusses chiefly
be done with air- geographic discov-
planes nowadays in ery and work in
much less time than pure science. Wil-

that. But if there kins is most con-
remain large areas cerned with the
still unknown by establishment of
the coming Novem- meteorological sta-
ber, they are likely tions that shall in
to be cleared up general give cer-
through the rest of tainty to the weath-

that month and er predictions of the
through December AMUNDSEN DISCOVERS THE SOUTH POLE whole world and in
and January by the This picture is Oscar Wisting when Amund-

of particular a greater
sen and his party had reached the South Pole precision to the fore-
cooperation of these
in 1911. But where Amundsen and his men
two competently made their painful way to and from the Pole on casts of the south-
foot and with dog teams, Commander Byrd is ern hemisphere.
manned and well di-
shortly to make an effort to fly south by air-
rected expeditions. plane from his base at "Little America" and, if Mawson talks of
conditions favor him, will be able to make in a weather and of pure
This possible
few hours the distance that Amundsen covered
finahty appHes only in 55 days science, too, but he
to large-scale or adds a plan for sum-

rough prehminary exploration. It would mer resorts on the Antarctic lands, and for
be the real beginning of, let us say, the December Midnight Sun cruises that shaU
end of the first chapter of scientific ex- be as accessible to Africa, South America,
ploration. The second chapter wiU open and Austraha for their summer as the June
in the southern spring of 1929 with a Midnight Sun cruises to Spitsbergen and
comprehensive national effort on the Alaska are to us in the northern hemisphere
ANDROS
AN ISLAND OF THE SUMMER SEAS
A Tropical Paradise Fringed with the Largest Barrier Reef of the Western
Hemisphere — Its Corals, Sponges, and Fish, Natives, Birds, and Vegetation
By ROY WALDO MINER
Curator, Marine Life, American Museum
ACROSS the Gulf Stream to the The islands of the Bahamas are merely
eastward of the southern tip of the projecting portions of a number of
Florida, a score of green tropical submerged banks of "coral" limestone.
islands lie scattered over the summer In general, they are the raised northern
sea, like stepping stones to the Greater and eastern edges of the banks, the sin-
Antilles. These comprise the Bahaman gle noteworthy exception being Grand
archipelago, together with about seven Bahama Island on the southern edge of
hundred lesser islets, or cays, and a Little Bahama Bank. Hence, while the
couple of thousand rocks, just to make eastern and northern shores of the nar-
navigation perilously interesting. row strip-shaped islands rise somewhat
Though small on the map individually, abruptly from oceanic depths, they slope
the Bahamas nevertheless are the out- gently toward the south and east, al-
posts and milestones of American history. most insensibly passing below sea level
To one of the least of these, Guanahani, to become continuous with the wide
first came European civilization in the stretches of submerged shoals, which are
person of Columbus. His vessels fol- often so shallow as to be navigable only
lowed the islands until they led him to for small boats. About sixteen of these
Cuba, Porto Rico, and Hispaniola, where islands are largeenough to be inhabited,
he established the first stronghold of and all are low and flat, the highest ele-
Spain in the New World and opened the vation being not more than four hundred
way to the golden treasures that made the feet.
Spanish Main famous. The pirates that The most important banks are the
preyed upon these rich and on the
fleets Little Bahama Bank, the Great Bahama
commerce later established by the Brit- Bank, the Acklin Island, the Great In-
ish with her colonies, found their hiding agua, and the Caicos Banks, extending in
places in the multitudinous harbors and this order from northwest to southeast.
waterways of the Bahamas, and tradition The Great Bahama Bank is the largest,
fills their caverns with secreted treasure. lying opposite the Florida Straits and
After the American Revolution, the reaching almost to the coast of Cuba. It
islands became the refuge of fleeing is shaped like a horseshoe with broad
Tories and their slaves. During our arms, open to the north. The cavity of
Civil War the Bahamans were made tem- the horseshoe is formed by the Tongue
porarily wealthy through the operations of the Ocean, an arm of the sea penetrat-
of blockade runners, and in our present ing the Bank, ranging in depth from
day another era of prosperity was as- 700 to 1000 fathoms. The island of New
sured them by the Eighteenth Amend- Providence rises above the sea to guard
ment to our Constitution. the eastern side of the entrance to this
482 NATURAL HISTORY
LOOKING ACROSS THE LAGOON TOWARD ANDROS FROM GOAT CAY

The lagoon inside the Barrier Reef is two miles wide at this point. The Cay is just inside the
outer reef. The long hne of snowy beach marking the distant Andros shore is clearly visible, as is also
the flat character of the island's surface
deep cul de sac, while Andros forms its lying nearly opposite New Providence.
western border. Its eastern shore is bordered by a mag-
New Providence, by no means the nificent coral barrier reef, 130 miles in
largest of the islands, nevertheless is the length, almost overhanging the deep
most important, for here quaint Nassau waters of the Tongue of the Ocean, and
is located, the capital and chief port of enclosing between its serrated submerged
the Bahamas. The Governor, appointed coral forests and the shore a lagoon of
by the King of England, has his residence relatively quiet waters varying from a
here, and along its wharves are the mar- half-mile to a mile in width. This lagoon
kets to which the chief products of the may be entered by channels at intervals
Out Islands are brought for export, in- and is generally navigable for vessels of
cluding sponges, sisal, tortoise shell, tropi- light draft.
cal fruits,and cameo shells. Nassau is The island varies in widthfrom twenty
also famous as a winter resort, the balmy to forty miles and slopes gently from its
climate, fine hotels, and picturesque en- eastern ridge to the western shore where,
vironment attracting many pleasure lov- as in the case of the other islands, it be-
ers and those anxious to avoid the severe comes continuous with submerged
a
winters of more northern chmes. western bank, the Great Bahama Bank,
The island of Andros is the largest land extending about sixty miles toward the
mass in the Bahamas. It extends for Florida Straits. This bank is floored
more than one hundred miles in a north- with a very fine and soft calcareous ooze
westerly direction, with its northern tip and is known by the Bahaman natives
ANDROS 483
'Â
.:;/
<2s
•^
<iL
MAP OF ANDROS ISLAND

The Great Bahama Banks to the westward of Andros form one of the chief sponging grounds of the
Bahamas. The hne of black dots along the eastern shore represents the location of the Andros
Barrier Reef
as "The Mud." It is the chief sponging are from Andros. [These vessels carry
bank in the Bahamas, and together on their decks. Upon arrival
dories nested
with the banks of the other islands, is at the sponging grounds, they are an-
the source of the chief product of the chored, the crews being divided among the
archipelago. dories from which the actual fishing is done.
The principal varieties of commercial The spongers use buckets with glass
sponge secured here are the velvet bottoms, through which they can easily
sponge, the sheepswool sponge, the yel- see the sea-floor, and thus locate the
low sponge, the grass sponge, and the sponges. They then lower sponge hooks,
hardhead. long poles with two iron hooks at the end,
The sponging fleets are organized in by means of which the sponges are secured
Nassau and consist of sloops and schoon- and brought to the surface and are loaded
ers, manned by natives, many of whom on the boats.
484 NATURAL HISTORY
THE STAGHORN CORAL

{Acropora cervicornis)
In this species, the coral
structure grows forward much
more rapidly than the polyps
reproduce by fission, or self-
division, resulting in a loosely
branching, tree-like coral
skeleton
The commercial sponge is an animal of transparent tissue from which pro-

colony of very low organization. The jects a lashlike whip, or cilium.
living portion is a black flesh perforated The cilia of the thousands of cells lin-
by thousands opening into canals

of pores ing the cavity beat in unison, and by
which penetrate every part of the sponge their rhythmic action keep a current of
tissue and lead to numerous chambers water passing through the digestive
where the food of the sponge is digested. chambers, drawing it through the pores
Sponges feed upon microscopic animals and canals from the outside in the pro-
and plants, such as protozoa, diatoms, cess, thus producing the suction.
and the minute larvae of larger forms. After leaving the ciliated chambers,
These are sucked in through the pores the water passes through other canals
and drawn through the canals to the to be emptied into the main excurrent
digestive chambers, where a lining of cavities and expelled from the sponge
"collared cells" absorbs and assimilates through openings much larger than the
them into the sponge tissues. These col- incurrent pores, known as oscula.
lared cells are so called because each is The living tissues of the commercial
equipped with a tumbler-shaped collar sponge are supported by a close network
THE BRAIN CORAL

{Mseandra viridis)
This coral receives its name
from the convoluted appear-
ance of its surface sculpture,
resembling somewhat the
convolutions of the human
brain. The polyps reproduce
by division so rapidly that
they divide again before the
previous divisions are com-
pleted, thus producing long,
winding rows of individuals
with connected stomach-
cavities
ANDROS 485
TYPICAL CORAL POLYPS HIGHLY MAGNIFIED

These tiny creatures manufacture the great Hmestone growths composing the Uving coral reefs. Each
is a sac-Hke animal with an oval mouth-opening at the top, surrounded by a circlet of tentacles, armed
with sting-cells. They have the power of transforming the dissolved carbonate of Ume in the sea-
water into the solid limestone on which the Hving polyps are seated in a continuous layer, and which
they are perpetually building higher beneath their bodies. The polyps reproduce asexually by self-
division, thus rapidly spreading over a considerable area. New colonies are started by sexually
reproduced, free-swimming larvae
of soft, elastic fibers, closely allied to silk with clubs. They are then brought to a
in their chemical composition. Their convenient locality on the shore and
substance is known as spongin, because heaped in partly submerged enclosures,
it is found only in sponges. known as "crawls," where they are
In non-commercial sponges, the spongin washed by wave-action. Later the beat-
fibers contain siliceous or calcareous ing process is continued until the soft
needles of various shapes and sizes, some- skeleton is completely freed of animal
times being so numerous and closely substance. This is a very disagreeable
welded that the spongin is reduced to a process, as the decaying tissues naturallj-
cementing substance, or, in the "glass" are malodorous, to say the least.
sponges, is lacking entirely. Naturally After the sponges are thoroughly cured,
such sponges are useless for commercial they are brought to sponge houses, where
purposes. they are trimmed for market. The ves-
When the living sponges have been sels then transport them to Nassau, to be
collected, they are exposed to the sun spread out under the sheds in the sponge
and air to killthe living tissues, which exchange, where they are auctioned to
begin to decay and slough off. In order the highest bidder. Later they are further
to hasten this result, the natives repeat- sorted, trimmed, and shipped abroad.
edly wash the sponges and beat them Andros Island is really an archipelago.
486 NATURAL HISTORY
A REMARKABLE VISTA THROUGH LUXURIANT CORAL GROWTHS

Photographed from the floor of the sea. Tangles and clusters of sea bushes and sea fans rise among the
closely crowded heads of various coral species in the clearings between the coral groves
Three straits, known as bights, intersect it that it was one of the rendezvous of the
it from east to west, dividing it into four buccaneers of former days, and that its
main portions, of which the northern and forest tangles still hold the secret of
southern divisions are the largest. These buried treasure. Some well-known works
straits are called North Bight, Middle of fiction have been founded upon these
Bight, and South Bight, respectively, legends.
and lead in turn into numerous subsidiary Many land-snails of the genus Cerion
channels winding in labyrinthine fashion are found on the islets with which the
among picturesque, low-lying islets, cov- waterways are sown. Their shells are
ered with dense growths of tropical vege- extremely variable in color, sculpture,
tation, where it is easy to become com- and proportions, and the animals inter-
pletely lost unless one is accompanied by breed in various complicated ways. Since
a native pilot. In northern Andros, they cannot cross the channels, every cay
there is a great inland fresh-water lake has its own peculiar varieties and some-
approached by a number of these chan- times separate species. For this reason
nels, and especially by a channel from the they are quite interesting to naturalists.
western shore, known as the Wide Open- Southern Andros is one of the best
ing. Here wild duck, herons, and other forested parts of the island. Many hard-
birds abound in great profusion, so that wood trees grow here to a considerable
the region is a favorite resort for sports- height, includingmahogany, logwood,
men. Much of the interior surrounding cedar, madeira, horseflesh, lignum-vitse,
this lake and its complicated waterways and mastic. Here also there are exten-
has been little explored, and tradition has sive swamps in the interior. Through
ANDROS 487
SUNLIT CORALS ON THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA

Among scattered, dome-shaped heads of green brain coral (Maeandra viridis) and purple Sideras-
traeas, bright yellow nodules of Pontes completely cover the ocean bottom, gleaming like nuggets of
gold in the sunKght
Grassy Creek, so called because of the ment of scarlet clad soldiers, bursts into
great stretches of green grass growing view, for here is the breeding place of
over its bottom, there is an approach to the flamingo, and hundreds of birds may
an extensive mangrove swamp in the in- be seen stalking about in a most stately
terior, where one of the best-known fashion until they become aware of the
flamingo swamps is located, made famous arrival of visitors, when, at the signal
by Dr. Frank M. Chapman's investiga- of one screaming honk, the whole flock
tions and by the flamingo group in the rises into the air in a flaming cloud."
bird gallery of the American Museum, Though there are various forested
which was one of the results. A quota- tracts like those above mentioned, a large
tion from a visitor to this colony gives a part of the island is covered with dense
vivid picture of the region and its re- tangles of scrub vegetation, largely of a
markable bird population. "As the boat xerophytic character, such as prickly
glides over a wonderful and fantastic pear and other species of cactus and
growth of sea anemones, coral, and a thorny plants of many kinds. The soil
multitude of fishes, each turn of the is either limy or black and rich where it
creek reveals a new picture of interest. occurs, and is rather thin, often giving
The visitor is greeted all along the shore place to the underlying bare rock.
by cranes, pelicans, cormorants, cuckoos, The foundation rock of Andros, like
black parrots, and mocking birds, until that of the rest of the Bahamas, and, in
at last far across the swamp a wonderful fact of the whole southern portion of the
sight, which might be taken for a regi- peninsula of Florida, is a hardened lime-
488 NATURAL HISTORY
the decaying vegetable soil dis-
solve the alkaline rocks so that

they become at first pitted and
then porous with cavities that
unite beneath the surface to form
a rock looking like magnified
and hardened sponge. Near the
shore, the superficial portion of
the rock becomes eroded away
by wave action so that the un-
derlying cavities are unroofed,
leaving sharp irregular pinnacles
thatmake walking difficult. In
many places, these smaller cavi-
tieshave become enlarged to
form subterranean passages and
caverns.
Here and there, circular pits
resembling potholes have form-
ed, several feet in diameter,
which penetrate the depths and
have subterranean connections
with the sea, either at its present
or its former levels. These pits
are often called ''banana holes"
A NATIVE CORAL DIVER RESTING AFTER A PLUNGE by the natives, because they are
A submarine tube and diving helmets were used by the
men composing the Museum's expeditions, but partially occasionally filled with black and
nude native divers were also utilized to secure corals in fertile earth, washed into them
shallower waters. This diver has just brought up, by re-
peated plunges, a boatload of finger corals, Porites clavaria by rains, in which clumps of
bananas are readily cultivated.
stone compacted of wind-blown
partly In wild places, tangles of tropical vege-
sand formed from the shells of marine tation grow in them most luxuriantly.
protozoa, and the reduced fragments of Many of the connecting caverns are said
the limy skeletons of coral, deposits of tohave been utilized by pirates.
calcareous algse, the shells of mollusks Andros was doubtless much more
and other marine creatures, and partly elevated than at present, and there are
of oolitic limestone originating in the indications that partial submergence has
soft hmy mud or marl such as is found taken place at a comparatively recent
over the sea bottom on the western side date. Out in the lagoon inside the coral
of the island. This is considered by reef there are submerged pits, similar to
many to result from the chemical precipi- the terrestrial pits, and called by the
tation of calcium carbonate directly from natives ''blue holes," because the deep
sea water due to the action of bacteria. water in them appears bluer than the
Larger fragments of coral, limy shells, surrounding shallow water of the lagoon.
and the spicules of gorgonia also take These are more or less circular wells
part in forming the substance of the rock. often many yards in diameter extending
Frequent rains falling on the rock sur- down to considerable depths and lined
faces and washing through the acids of with coral growths. Usually there is a
ANDROS 489
submarine connection with other "holes" by wave and current action, and perhaps
and often with the open sea outside the by the grinding of loose coral heads since
reef. Gibson Cay, which is an islet a they were submerged. At this time, of
short distance inside the outer reef, has course, they received their lining of liv-
two land-locked blue holes, like circular ing coral growths.
ponds in the midst of the low, porous The coral reef of Andros, which bor-
rock of which the cay is composed. Each ders its eastern shore, has been described
marine fishes,
of these is alive with large in a previous issue of Natural History. '
which could enter only by a submarine Exposed as it is to the trade winds blow-
passage. Each of these blue holes has a ing steadily againstit from the east, and
corresponding submerged blue hole in the up welling currents from the depths
the shallow water outside the cay and of the Tongue of the Ocean, plenty of
close to the summit of one of the reefs. microscopic animals and plants are
When the tide is flowing, it is sucked washed within the reach of the millions
into the outer holes, and rises in the land- of tiny tentacles surrounding the hungry
locked pools on the cay. When it is ebb- mouths of the polyps which crowd the coral
ing, the water-level sinks in the inner growths. The dashing waves are loaded
pools, and rises boiling out of the sub- with oxygen and all the conditions are
merged holes outside. These blue holes favorable for the growth and propaga-
were doubtless formed by rain erosion tion of the forms associated in the life
and solution when they were elevated

^''Hunting Corals in the Bahamas," By Roy W. Miner,
above sea level, and have been enlarged Natural History, Sept.-Oct. 1924.
THE ANDROS BARRIER REEF FROM THE SEA FLOOR

The elkhorn coral (Acropora palmata) rises like huge marble trees with interlacing branches, tinted
with saffron and terminating in broad, palm-shaped fronds. Extensive groves of these corals dominate
the Barrier Reef, which parallels the eastern shore of Andros for 130 miles
490 NATURAL HISTORY
*yh».
THE ERODED ROCKY SHORE ON THE OUTSIDE OF LITTLE GOLDING CAY

This islet is on the hne of the outer reef, and its windward shore is exposed to the surf driven upon it
by the trade winds. The attacks of the waves break down the roofs of the miniature caverns with
which the rock is completely permeated, and leave behind sharp eroded pinnacles standing so close
together that the rock is difficult to walk upon
of the reef. Hence its development is If the upward growth is more rapid
unusually prolific. than the division, a tree-like coral skeleton

The coral polyp is not much more is formed. If the division of the polyps
than a sac-like stomach with a mouth keeps pace with the upward growth, a
surrounded by tentacles. The tentacles massive or dome-shaped coral head re-
are furnished with sting-cells which kill sults. The staghorn coral (Acropora
or stupefy the minute prey, which is then cervicornis) is an example of the former
drawn into the stomach and digested. method of growth, and the star coral
The polyp has the power of precipitat- {Siderastrsea radians) of the latter. The
ing the calcium carbonate dissolved in brain coral (Mseandra viridis) is a species
sea water so abundantly in the tropics, in which the division is so rapid that be-
and of laying it down beneath and around fore a polyp is completely divided the
its body to form a cuplike skeleton or two halves divide again. New colonies
caljrx. This is continually built higher, are started by means of free-swimming
the polyp always being perched on the larvae, hatched from fertilized eggs.
top. As the polyp feeds, it grows, and, Milhons upon millions of polyps, each
after reaching a certain size, starts to building a limestone castle, and con-
divide into two polyps, the growing tinually increasing in geometrical ratio
skeleton dividing with it. This process by self-division, in the course of time
is repeated again and again with the re- erect enormous and extensive reefs, the
sult that huge limestone structures are number of individual coral growths being
formed with myriads of polyps over their spread and multiphed by the sexually
surface. formed free-swimming larvae. These
ANDROS 491
reefs, in turn, are shattered by storms, finally perhaps man. Thus our coral
the fragments being heaped up and con- polyps qualify as world builders.
solidated until their substance is added The dominant corals of the Andros
to previousaccumulations upon the barrier reef are the great
palmate, or
shallow bank forming their substratum. elkhorn corals {Acropora palmata), which
When these heaps are raised above the grow up from the submerged platform as
fragments are further
level of the sea, the groves of gnarled and twisted limestone
broken up and amalgamated with drift- trees, towering to a height of ten or
ing or windblown sand, while chemically twenty feet, with closely interlaced
precipitated calcareous mud from the branches, tan in color, with snowy white
warm and shallow waters of the pro- tips, the longest of which always grow
tected lagoon infiltrates the crevices and away from the prevailing winds and cur-
becomes a part of the whole. The shells of rents and thus point toward the land.
mollusks and other marine creatures The ends of these branches tend to reach
contribute their quota as do the cal- the surface at low water, while those that
careous plants. An islet is thus formed grow toward the open sea are more
subjected to weathering and wave ero- stunted, so that as one views the barrier
sion. Soil and seeds, including coconuts, reef from the surface, the tips of the corals
are washed upon its shores, tropical vege- all seem to point in the same direction.
tation springs up and various forms of The elkhorn coral groves are often
animal life come to dwell upon it, and triangular in shape, with the apex
A WEIRD LANDSCAPE ON GIBSON CAY

Illustrating the eroded and cavernous character of the Umestone rock composing many of these
islands. The view is taken not far from the border of one of the land-locked "blue holes" described
in the text. Underneath the surface of the rock, compUcated miniature caverns and passageways
give it the appearance of a huge stony sponge
492 NATURAL HISTORY
^m^.
A SAIL CONSTRUCTED FROM FLOUR SACKS

The native boats are usually homemade, and are often crude affairs, but they form the only effective
means by which the negroes can get about from island to island or secure the large proportion of
their food that comes from the sea. The dusky crew of this craft manipulates it with amazing skill
pointed toward the open sea, and with groups of short columnar growths, with
reentrant angles between them. At one rounded tops or mushroom-like caps
place twelve of these huge groves were were visible. These were the orb corals
counted adjoining each other within the {Orhicella annularis), their green and
space of three-quarters of a mile, making pink tops adding touches of soft color to
a zigzag outline, like the teeth of an the scene. Here the sea floor was heaped
enormous saw. with nodules of golden yellow Pontes
In front of these groves, as we viewed astrxoides, resembling nuggets of gold as
them from the sea-bottom through the the flickering light of the sunbeams
windows of the Williamson submarine penetrating the ocean played
surface
tube, we could see close-set thickets of over them. Hosts of purple and yellow
staghorn coral, their tapering branches sea fans waved back and forth in unison.
bristling in all directions, interspersed Magenta sea plumes, brown sea bushes,
with frequent clumps of the closely re- and purple sea whips diversified the
lated Acropora prolifera, the delicate scene with their soft plantlike colonies.
tracery of its finer branches forming Scarlet sea anemones, gray, red and
symmetrical fan-shaped clusters that green sponges, the spirally unfolding gill-
seemed too fragile to withstand the cur- circlets of the Spirographis worms, with
rents of their exposed position, while here their purple and gray filaments, like pulsat-
and there loomed the domes of brain ing passion flowers of the sea, enlivened
corals and purple Siderastrseas. In the with their bright colors the softer hues
reentrant angles between adjacent groves, of the corals. Above, around and
ANDROS 493
through the coral branches darted schools once more above the surface of the waters,
of brilliantly colored fishes, their strik- and turn our faces toward the land.
ing, iridescent patterns flashing like It is very interesting to a person from
jewels in the sunlight which streamed northern lands to approach such an
down upon them. island as Andros from the open sea. The
The onlooker, gazing at this scene from shore hes so low that the first glimpse of
the ocean seems to be transported
floor, land reveals only a long line of tiny spikes,
into a new world of strange and weird irregularly spaced like the broken teeth
beauty, a world of tinted marble forests, comb, appearing and disappear-
of a fine
where interlacing fronds intercept the ing momentarily among the dancing
dancing sunbeams penetrating the watery waves on the horizon. Soon these re-
atmosphere, clear as crystal in the fore- solve themselves into distant palm trees,
ground, but melting into a soft powdery which rapidly become larger and more
blue haze here and there shot with flick- plainly visible as the boat nears the shore.
ering gold where the sunlight illumines Now it is possible to see the waves
it; a world in which deep but colorful breaking against the exposed tips of the
shadows alternate with motile areas of coral barrier in long lines of white foam
contrasting brilliancy, punctuated by the which contrast vividly with the ultra-
kaleidoscopic swarms of gleaming and marine blue of the open sea and the bril-
darting fish forms. Humanity, with its liant green slicks of quieter water cover-
troubles and complexes, seems far away ing the sand bars within the lagoon.
and of no importance. However, after As one enters the channel, above the
a time, we remount the tube, come out settlement of Mangrove Cay, the shore
THREE TYPICAL NATIVES OF ANDROS

These brawny men were used as divers during one of the Museum's expeditions. The original in-
habitants of the Bahamas were Carib Indians. They were early exterminated by the Spanish settlers,
and the islands were later repeopled by negro slaves brought from Africa. There are now about 7000
negroes on the island of Andros
494 NATURAL HISTORY
floating over it, proclaims the
location of the Government Of-
fices. Soon we are anchored off
a little wooden pier extending
far out into the water, but as
it is now low tide, it is too shal-
low for our boat, and we are
obliged to land in a dinghy.
A shout from the shore attracts
our attention, and presently a
tall, thin, white man comes run-
ning out on the pier, followed

by a straggling line of negroes
of assorted ages. We are soon
shaking hands with Commis-
sioner Forsythe who greets us
most cordially and offers us the
hospitality of his home.
Andros was originally inhabit-
ed by Carib Indians like the
rest of the Bahamas, or the
Lucayos, as they were called by
Columbus. The Spanish con-
querors enslaved the entire pop-
ulation of the archipelago,
CLIMBING FOR A DRINK numbering about 40,000, and
Groves of coconut palms grow luxuriantly along the shore transported it to Hispaniola,
of Andros. The meat or "jelly" lining the interior of the where it was soon exterminated.
nut is most nutritious, and, when picked at the right time,
the central cavity is filled with a cool and most refreshing
Now the only traces of the ab-
fluid, the coconut "milk" origines consist of skulls and
other bones found in some of the
still seems far away across the two miles caves of southern Andros, where also re-
of lagoon, but when closer, the band of mains of a canoe with paddles were dis-
snowy beach becomes visible with the covered. The present population con-
plumes of the coconuts tossing above it, sists of about 7000 negroes, the descend-
overhanging thickets of sea grapes and ants of slaves brought from Africa. The
clumps of bay lavender, while, here and only whites are the Commissioners of
there, the dense glossy foliage of almond Northern and Southern Andros, and their
trees reheves the monotony of the coco- families, and a few missionaries. Com-
nuts. missioner Forsythe, of Southern Andros,
Beyond rises a low ridge partly bare acts as the representative of the Gover-
and partly clothed in verdure, dotted nor at Nassau and rules over his negro
with the huts of native settlements, wards with a firm but kind hand. He is
while on the crest of the hill the red roof also Justice of the Peace, and, as such,
of themore pretentious Residency of the holds court and sentences offenders. The
Commissioner is visible. Toward the jail is in the walled compound with the
south, a cluster of stone houses sur- executive offices. When I visited the
rounded by a wall, with the Union Jack building, there was one prisoner there.
ANDROS 495
He was sitting on his cot in a most com- ernmental protection over the practical!}'
fortable cell with the outer door wide defenseless birds. Otherwise natives
open and the sunlight streaming in. He would exterminate them.
seemed quite happy. I asked him what Most of the able-bodied men of Andros
he was put in there for, and he said he engage in sponging, and are away with
didn't know. He said he went out when- the fleets a large part of the time. Agri-
ever he pleased during the day, but was culture suffers in consequence, though the
always on hand for meals. In the evening island is capable of growing tropical fruits.
iie came back promptly in time for dinner, Plantations of these linger here and there
and was locked up for the night. He said and are carried on in a desultory sort of
he thought he was well treated. way. The negroes are happy-go-lucky
Of course, the Commissioner performs and support themselves on what they
the marriages for his black subjects. earn sponging, or living on coconuts, fruit,
When asked how he could arrange it for and by fishing. There are plenty of fine
so many, he said he married all he could food fishes in the lagoons and around the
and the rest "just got along." reef. Bone-fishes, barracudas, red snap-
Among other duties the Conunissioner pers, trunk fishes, jacks, green turtles,
is Warden of the Flamingoes, and makes spiny lobsters, and conchs abound and
periodical visits to the colony at Grassy may be secured with little effort. Iguanas
Creek, endeavoring to enforce the gov- live in the interior and are so much prized
PICTURESQUE CLUMPS OF BAY LAVENDER ADORN THE UPPER REACHES

OF THE OCEAN BEACH
This decorative plant (Suriana maritima) has a gray-green foUage and gives the impression of having
been sprinkled with a white, powdery dust. Great mound-shaped clusters grow on every sandy beach
and add much to the beauty and diversity of the shore vegetation. The burrow-opemngs ot land
crabs are often overshadowed by their leafage
496 NATURAL HISTORY
for food that they are now becoming tired out, and can no longer dive. He
scarce. is then hit over the head with a hatchet,
"Diving conchs" is a favorite occupa- killed, and hauled aboard the skiff.
tion. Natives often may be seen with The native boat is usually homemade
their boats anchored in the lagoon, en- and is a very crude affair, with sails con-
gaged in diving down into the clear structed of odds and ends. I have occa-
waters for these huge sea-snails of which sionally seen the latter made of four old
they are very fond. The flesh though flour sacks sewn together. The negroes are
edible, is quite tough. It is often cut up expert sailors and can keep tinj^ boats
and eaten raw. It also forms an excellent upright in a stiff wind with a large spread
bait for fishing. of sail, while the same boat will immedi-
One of the methods of catching the sea ately capsize in the hands of a white man.
turtles is interesting. ^^Tien one of these They are a simple but verj^ kindly
huge creatures is seen rising toward the people, living in a region of perpetual
surface, a native will suddenly dive from summer, and lead happy lives as a rule.
his boat and seize it firmly by the front At times, however, devastating hurri-
edge of the shell just above the turtle's canes descend upon them, swamping
head. The creature will immediately sponge fleets, drowning crews, destroy-
dive, and the negro, holding his breath, ing houses and crops, and blowing down
will cling for dear life and manage to get the precious coconut palms. The poor
his feet on the hinder part of the shell, natives then suffer every hardship. But
so that he can throw his weight back- the Colonial Government steps in with
ward, and thus turn the turtle's head food, clothing, and medicines, and through
toward the surface. This causes the the agency of the Commissioner, alleviates
turtle to swim upward. When the head their sufferings. Huts are rebuilt, more
of the negro breaks through the waves, crops are planted, crude boats are pieced
he takes a quick breath. The turtle together, and soon the troubles are for-
turns and dives downward again, and gotten. Andros once more resumes the
the process is repeated until the turtle is aspect of a tropical island Paradise.
NOSES
How Nature Adapts and Develops Noses to the Needs of
Her Creatures — Queer Uses for Queer Noses

By ROBERT T. HATT
SMELL and taste are but slightly

differentiated branches of one sense.
the sampling by smell of things that have
been taken into the mouth.
and vinegar produce sensa-
Violets Our delicate odor receptive cells He
tions of smell and taste that are quite within a moist chamber, and, as in the
similar, and thus we are given an oppor- fishes, allstimuU must be borne to them
tunity to take more delicate samples of first through a liquid medium. In most
many objects by smelling than by tast- fishes the olfactory nerves ramify over a
ing. Taste is the chemical informer to the rosetted membrane lining a small pit
mouth, which acts as
brain, located in the on the under side of the rostrum. As fish
messenger concerning whether or not are not lung breathers, they have no
things introduced there may suitably occasion to pass the air or water on to the
be swallowed In both the water-living ver-
. pharynx, as we have. Their noses are but
tebrates and land pockets to guard
mammals the sense these most impor-
of smell samples the tant sense percep-
air or liquid en- tors.
vironments, and It is likely that
gives the brain in- this chemical-re-
formation of what ceptor sense is the
liesabout that the earliest of all devel-
eye may not see nor oped, or at least
the ears perceive. concurrent with the
In this same way sense of touch.
the housewife usu- Give a baby a new
ally selects melons object. What does
by odor, and a care- he do with it? Usu-
ful cook will not use ally he carries it
an egg until the directly to his
nose has verified the mouth. Thus he gets
Mrs. Murphy" is submersible and has her nose
diagnosis of the where it alone can be out of water his first informa-
eyes. Unfortunately about things.
tion
some things, such as salt, produce no What's in a nose? In truth the interior of
volatile odor, and must be dissolved to the nose is equipped to perform two vastly
give their information. important functions other than smell.
In many lower animals, amphibians, Firstly, it must remove all impurities from
reptiles,and marsupial mammals, there the air and kill the harmful bacteria
is a passage between the nasal chamber before they reach the lower respiratory
and the roof of the mouth, the function passages. Secondly, it must warm the
of which, in the lower animals, may be usually cooler air to body temperature.
498 NATURAL HISTORY
GORILLAS HAVE LOW NOSES

Note the great contrast between the nose of the gorilla above and that of the proboscis monkey on
page 499. The first foreshadows the nose of man, while the other is probably only for display
For this there is an elaborate and beauti- two pairs of them, the ethmo-turbinals,
fully delicate sot of turbinate bones that which grow out from a median bony
are covered with a richly vascular mem- septum in the nose, and the maxillo-
brane. Through the small channels in turbinals, which grow inward from the
these bones the air must pass and in the upper jaw. The olfactory nerves are
process it is quickly warmed. The all but said to be distributed largely over the
extinct sea otter which lives in the cold first set, while the lower set are chiefly
waters of the North Pacific is the best concerned with air warming. Thus cats,
equipped of all the mammals in this whose sense of smell is poor, have small
regard. When one looks into the nasal ethmo-turbinals, while dogs such as
chamber of a sea otter's skull, he sees a bloodhounds have them well developed.
set of these turbinates that have the It will be noted that the breeds of dogs
complexity of a sponge. whose sense of smell is best developed

One might expect to find in whales the have deep muzzles, accommodating large
best set of turbinates, but strangely ethmo-turbinals, while dogs that hunt by
enough they have none at all! This is sight, such as the borzoi, are very shallow
somewhat compensated for in the sperm here.
whale by a set of air chambers which The better to detect a subtle odor we
doubtless aid in warming up the air. breathe deeply, or, in doglike fashion,
These scroll-like turbinates vary con- sniff the air, thus sending a better draught
siderably in their complexity in different into the olfactory chamber.
kinds of animals. There are in the main. The keenness of scent among other
NOSES 499
animals is a thing that human beings can

scarcely appreciate. Hounds, dogs which
have been developed for ability to detect
and follow the faintest odors, are probably
among the best equipped of all. A good
dog may be put on a rabbit track and, by
examining its odors over but a few feet
of the trail, will know which way the
animal traveled. He can also, of course,
distinguish between many kinds Qf animal
trails. A good coon dog will not follow a
possum or a rabbit trail. The mysteries
which a dog can unravel by nosing his
signal stations, we can but speculate
on.
The keen scent of both dogs and pigs Photograph by Herbert Lang
has been utilized in France in the hunting FACIAL ADORNMENT IN AFRICA

of truffles. The dogs used for this are The sense of smell is highly developed in savage
peoples because of the thousand and one ways
usually poodles, white by preference, as in which they are daily dependent on this sense
they are used at night. These dogs are for survival in their primitive environment.
trained to dig up the trufflesand carry Under similar conditions the white man's sense
of smell would probably again become as keen
them to their masters. In Anjou and in as theirs
America the squirrels dig up foul-smelling

false-truffles of several species and use nuts which were covered by but a very
them as food. thin film of sand in a tray from which they
Squirrels have often been supposed to were fed every day. These squirrels
find their myriad buried nuts by scent, would, on the other hand, find at least
yet squirrels consistently failed to find some of the nuts which they themselves
had buried. Memory doubtless plays an
important role in the location of their
stores.
There are numerous instances in which
scent has apparently led animals to swim
great distances in search of food. Red
squirrels often are seen swimming Lake
George, it is said toward the chestnut
crop on the other side, but scent may or
may not be the agency that induces the
adventure. I have been told of wild pigs
which swam several miles through salt

water to an island on which coconuts
were ripening, and in this instance the
wind was from the island to the mainland.
I have traced a skunk two miles upwind,
Photograph by Le Gros Clark and I have detected a whaling station at a
A PROBOSCIS MONKEY much greater distance, but our noses are
This gaudy, leaf-eating monkey of Asia is notori- of little service to us in connection with
ous for his pendulous nose and tremendous
stomach less spectacular phenomena.
500 NATURAL HISTORY
NATURE'S BEST NOSE

A gatherer, bath spray, weapon, and bugle all in one, the elephant's trunk is
his priceless possession
Noses take many shapes. Among and narrow nose of theNordic and the
men they are to a high degree diagnostic low broad nose of the Negro are contrast-
of races, and through this, to some extent ing features of races whose psychic
are guides to character. The straight traits are in bold contrast. Among
other primates the gorilla and the pro-
boscis monkey offer the greatest contrast
in development, though not in underly-
ing structure. The nose of the gorilla
foreshadows the nose of man, while the
nose of the proboscis monkey (developed
strikingly in the old males only) is prob-
ably but a feature for display.
Many peoples, feeling that nature could
be improved upon, have decorated their
noses with tatooing and painting. Among
the European races, it is not uncommon
among the fairer half of the population
to restore the lost lanugo, or "bloom of
youth" with powdered rice. Cer-
finely
tain South-Sea Islanders and some Afri-
can tribes pierce the septum of the nose
THE SEA OTTER'S NOSE
and here introduce such glorious jewelry
The sea otter has an elaborate air-warming
sponge-like structure in his nose as shafts of ivory, bone, or wood. Re-
NOSES 501
cently our pugulists and actresses who,

through accident or inheritance, had noses
unpleasing to them, have had their pro-
files altered the better to suit their
tastes.
Externally our noses have little func-
tion other than protecting their two open-
ings, the nares, and guarding the eyes.
Size alone means little. Early in the
Eighteenth Century there lived in York-
shire a man named Thomas Wedders whose
nose had the unequalled length of seven
and one half inches, yet the only benefit
which he derived from this remarkable
feature was a meager livelihood by ex-
hibiting it. But, as we shall see, to many
other species of mammals the form is
Photograph by Donald B. MacMillan
most important.
THE NOSE EQUIPMENT OF THE WALRUS
The nasal region of the head (every- Whiskers like a steel brush on the walrus' broad
thing in front of the eyes) has been hyper- muzzle are supposed to aid him in finding
moUusks buried in the mud
trophied in numerous creatures for differ-
ent purposes. The elephant's trunk tion of great stature and short neck. Thus
compensates for his unparalleled combina- he can feed from the ground and drink
Photograph by Jemiess Richardson

A CAT'S NOSE-GUARD
Members of the cat family and their old acquaintances, the mice, carry long whiskers on their noses
to help them feel their way in the darkness
502 NATURAL HISTORY
Photograph by C. H. Townsend
MUSIC HATH CHARMS
A male sea elephant inflates his cavernous proboscis to trumpet his message to the beach colony
without bending his knees. With this elongated almost to the tip, and the head
mighty nose he can pull down trees, acts more as a scabbard for the long
shower himself with water or dust, feel exploratory tongue, than as a face of any
the air in all directions without moving other legitimate excuse. In all this long
his great bulk, and mouth there are no teeth,
trumpet to his heart's for his mymecophagous
content. In short, it is diet does not require them.
his priceless treasure and One famous French anat-
he guards it as such. omist found that even in
But we know that it took the case of dogs, those
the elephant a long time whose teeth were pulled
to get this and the at an early age developed
"crocodile of the great- larger skulls than did
green-greasy Limpopo their litter mates.
river" had nothing to do The sperm whale has
with it. a great square nose that
The tapirs have de- houses a reservoir of
veloped along the lines spermaceti oil, which in
of the elephants, but as all likelihood is there as a
their noses are shorter, buoyant mass to aid in
^""" " '^"''''^ ^^ G. R. Miller, Jr.
these lack the versatihty control of the over-
of the trunks which thej^ slightly resemble.
The giant anteater has developed a THE LEAF-NOSE
long tube in front of his eyes, too, but this The exhuberant nasal exfoliation of this insect-
eating bat carries a special set of sense organs
is more than a trunk. The skull itself is essential to its insect-catching habits
NOSES 503
heavy head. From this nose emerges but

a single nostril, and from this nostril
rushes out the warm air from his lungs,
heavily laden with a water vapor that
condenses as it strikes the cold air
and forms a great shower of spray. It is
this sight that moves the man in the crow's
nest of a whaler to cry out "Thar she
blows," with which cry the chase begins.
The male sea elephants have a large
sinusoidal proboscis which they inflate
and with which they trumpet. So far as
we know, it has no other use.
Pigs, coati-mundis, aard-varks, and
others, whose calHng is to root up the
earth, have strong, long snouts and the photograph by R. C. Andrews
(Above)
(Right) "THAR SHE BLOWS"
USELESS NOSES A finback whale em-
The borzois with heads ties his lungs within
high above the ground sight of a whaler. The
have shallow nasal fountain is formed of
chambers and a poor the condensed vapor as
sense of smell, for they it strikes the cold air
hunt by sight
(Below)
AN EARTHLY
DOUBLE STAR
Twenty-two fleshy feel-
ers halo the nose of
the star-nosed mole
Pamela and Parma O' Valley Farm
will to use them. A pair of wild pigs in

the New York Zoo ripped up the entire,
asphalt floor of their outdoor enclosure,

and under this probably found nothing to
j ustify their labors
Some noses are seemingly made as
living probes. Australia's spiny ant-
eater, themoles and many other insecti-
vores, have noses with which they probe
loose earth and insect burrows in quest
of their elusive delicacies.
The ne plus ultra of all probes is borne
by the star-nosed mole of the United
States. This animal's most forward point
is encircled with twenty-two fleshy probes
Photograph by M. C. Dickerson
which give him great advantage over
504 NATURAL HISTORY
in these forms open out from long fleshy
tubes whose function may be the furnish-
ing of an outlet for air when their muzzles
are buried in a large fruit.
There are in several desert-living ani-
—
mals animals whose noses are frequently
subjected to the unpleasant blasts of
—
sand and dust sphincter muscles about
the nostrils which close these when the
need arises. Similar constriction occurs
in such aquatic animals as the beaver and
the hippopotamus.
Position of the nostril means every-
thing to aquatic air breathers. Hippopot-
ami, crocodiles, frogs, whales, — have all
their nostrils so located that these parts

ÔJ^
emerge first from the water—and too,
that the animals may hidden except
lie
for their nostrils and their eyes, which

project up above the general level of their
:i :»j •
^^' r^ heads.
Courtesy N. Y. Zool. Soc. At the other end of the scale from all
ASPHALT PLOWS these glorious noses we find some that are
These hogs have done with their noses that for sadly deficient, but man, not Nature,
which we would use pneumatic drills. To help
them there is a plate of bone within the nose pad
kindred burrowers that search the soil
for worms.
When in search of sensitive noses,
though, we optimum not in the
find their
earth-heaving insectivora, but among our
finest fliers, the bats. Large numbers of
species of the leaf-nosed bats have
elaborate yet delicate foldings of naked
skin about their noses, and these struc-
tures are equipped with delicate nerve
endings which are believed to pick up
vibrations in the air caused by insect
wings or by the echo of air waves initiated
by the bats themselves. Their night-
marelike physiognomies are scarcely ex-
celled in grotesque features by the cere-
monial masques of primitive men. Only
one group of the fruit-eating bats even After Gould and Pyle
approaches the elaborate facial make-up
THOMAS WEDDERS
of its carnivorous allies, and this is the
The Yorkshire man whose seven and one-half
tube-nosed bats of Malay. The nostrils inch nose was his means of livelihood
NOSES 505
im»**^^
THE ANT BEAR

Myrmecophaga
A nose that roofs a record tongue. Note the smallness of the creature's mouth
has been responsible for this deficit. habits are largely nocturnal, find use for
Those achondroplastic dwarfs, the bull their whiskers in warning them of things
dogs and Japanese spaniels, are equipped they do not see. The meadow mice find
with noses so poor that they are subject their vibrissse of use to them in following
to respiratory diseases more than is the tunnels when they are in haste. Squirrels
common lot of dogs. Without the sohcit- are guarded by these hairs in theh
ous care of men they could not survive precipitous flight among the branches.
as a race. The walrus may find his stiff imposing
Noses of most mammals are equipped brush of service to him when raking
to a variable degree with long stiff hairs among the mollusks of the muddy ocean
that telegraph touch impulses to the floor.
body coming in contact with another What's in a nose? More than at first
object. Rabbits, mice, and cats, whose sight appears!

i'TT'li-tvsasK.-iLfl
Florida During the Pleistocene or Ice Age. From a Drawing by M. Flinsch
HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS

IN FLORIDA
The Difficult Science of Finding the Remains of Animals of Ages Long Past,
and the Reconstruction of Pictures of Those Ages
By GEORGE GAYLORD SIMPSON

Associate Curator of Vertebrate Palseontology, American Museum
THE Beastes best knowen in this

are Stagges, Hindes, Goates, Deere, Leop-
Country Florida, and that favored peninsula, while
doubtless less clement than now, offered
ards, Ounces, Luserns, divers sortes of
Wolves, wilde Dogs, Hares, Cunnies, and a to life a haven from the devastating cold.
certaine kinde of Beast that differeth little from In the West, a pathway lay open to the
the Lyon of Africa."^ tropics, but in the East, Florida, jutting
Lovers of warmth, escaping from snow into the sea,was the last refuge for south-
and ice by migrating to Florida, follow ward migrants. Here were impounded
an example hundreds of thousands of myriads of animals, some familiar, man}-
years old. In the Ice Age, when great strange in this setting. Recent field and
glaciers gathered and slowly pushed their laboratory work has been devoted to
way southward, the animal life of our bringing to hght the remarkably rich and
continent was compelled to surge south- varied extinct faunas of the State.
ward before them. Even in that cold This conception of an ancient pre-
time, the ice sheet at its farthest advance history in this part of North America will
was some five hundred miles north of be novel to many. It is a common idea
^Hakluyt "The Beastes of Florida," Principal Naviga- that Florida is an appendage, a sort of
tions, Voyages, Traffiques and Discoveries of the English
Nation, Hakluyt Society Edition, Vol. VIII. happy afterthought, recently constructed
SABER-TOOTH TIGER AND CAPYBARA
One of themost ferocious of Pleistocene mammals was the terrible saber-tooth tiger. In a cave m
Citrus County, Florida, remains of this animal have been found, and this drawmg
suggests such a
situation as might have caused the saber-tooth to entrap himself m a cave from
which, alter his
meal, he was unable to escape. From a drawing by M. Fhnsch
508 NATURAL HISTORY
MIOCENE THREE-TOED HORSES AND A SEA COW

The three-toed horse flourished during the Miocene period that preceded the Phocene and
Pleistocene. It was not until the Pleistocene, many miUions of years later than the Miocene, that
the horse finally became one-toed, practically as we see him today. Drawing by M. Flinsch
of mud and sand, shell and coral. In the marine rocks of the Upper Eocene,
reality, it is built on rock and even its but the definitive emergence of the penin-
surface formations record a geologic sula probably did not begin until after
history of millions of years. the Eocene. Since that time, land and
The oldest of these surface formations is sea have fluctuated greatly, but the land
ofUpper Eocene Age, perhaps fifty mil- has generally tended to increase to its
hon years old. This formation, a lime- present area.
stone slowly soluble in percolating ground Four successive vistas of land life in
water, is responsible for some of the most Florida are afforded' by the fossils so far
characteristic features of Florida, includ- found. Most recent and most complete is
ing many of the lakes and most of the that of the Pleistocene, or Ice Age, which
and it also furnishes most
large springs, ended only some twenty-five thousand
of underground water supply rfor
the years ago. Far older than this are the
communities and farms. To the student mammals from the earlier part of the
of extinct however, it is of little direct
life, preceding epoch, the Pliocene, and finally,
interest. Deposited in the sea, far from still earlier, are two little known faunas
land, it contains only one known mammal from the next older epoch, the Miocene,
—a primitive relative of the whales one from the early and one from the
{Basilosaurus or Zeuglodon) middle part of this division of geologic
Deeply buried where only the deepest time.
wells reveal its presence, there is a land About fifteen years ago the first
surface beneath Florida much older than glimpse of the oldest of these land faunas
HUNTING EXTINCT ANIMALS IN FLORIDA 509
'^'"'^Cfe
AN AMPHIBIOUS RHINOCEROS OF THE PLIOCENE AGE

The Pliocene, preceding the Pleistocene or Ice Age and following the Miocene, also preceded
the appearance of man upon the earth, but mammals of many species and of great size were
common. From a drawing by M. Flinsch
was accidentally gained in digging a jaw which had been found some time
well north of Tallahassee. Here three- before and now was in private hands.
toed horses, primitive deer, and an ancient After some persuasion it was transferred
type of dog were found in rocks of lower to the ownership of the American Museum.
Miocene Age. Logically beginning a But this belongs some weeks later in our
prehistoric hunt here, we recently re- journey and some millions of years later
located the spot after much search and in geologic history.
inquiry—only to find the well filled in For our next vista of ancient land life,
and neatly covered with grass! Ruefully that of the middle Miocene, we went to
the state geologist, Mr. Herman Gunter, the fuller's earth mines northwest of
and the writer gazed at the spot, where Tallahassee, which are also (but quite
fifty feet below an important fossil unintentionally) fossil mines. In certain
stratum lies buried. strata just above the fuller's earth or
Incidentally, fossil hunting in Florida between two beds, bones and teeth
fossil
often calls for all the talents of a sleuth, are fairly common. Here we found bones
but fortunately isnot always so futile as and teeth of a Miocene type of three-toed
in this case. For instance, we almost horse, Merychippus, as well as remains of
revived the reputedly riotous past of primitive deer, camels, and rhinoceroses,
Mulberry when we searched through the and of a large doghke animal of a type
town with the police force guiding us from previously unknown in Florida. These
the running board. With this help, we beds were laid down in the sea, or in
located a fine serrate-toothed mastodon estuaries, and the remains of land animals
kV?*^-
^''"^'"^ ^^ •'°''" ^^''""""

SOME PREHISTORIC ANIMALS OF FLORIDA
Here are given restorations of some of the many fossil animals of Florida. Those on the land stand near points on the
map where their remains have been found. From the oldest deposits of the state, those of the Eocene, comes the aquatic,
whalelike Basilosaurus, here shown as swimming in the Gulf of Mexico. Merychippus, a small three-toed horse, is the
commonest mammal of the Miocene Epoch. From the next epoch, the Pliocene, came the amphibious rhinoceros,
Teleoceras, and the serrate-tooth mastodon, Serridentinus . Of the very numerous Pleistocene, or Ice Age, animals, a
giant ground sloth {Megatherium), a saber-tooth tiger (Smilodnn) a long-footed camel (Tanupolama), a glyptodont or
tortoise-armadillo (Boreostracon) a short-faced bear (Arctodus), a mammoth (Archidiskodon) and a manatee, or Florida
,
sea cow, are shown

Photograph by George Gaylord Simpson

EXCAVATING A MAMMOTH
Carl Sorensen, of the American Museum staff, is shown beginning work along a canal bank near
Bradenton. From this spot were recovered parts of two or more Columbian mammoths, as well as
remains of a fossil horse, a bison, and a capybara
must have been by streams and

drifted in onward. The lagoons and estuaries of
currents, a which explains their
fact the State have long been inhabited by
scattered and usually broken condition. various species of these ungainly but in-
More complete, because it lived in offensive aquatic beasts, as some of them
marine or estuarine waters, was a skele- still are today.
ton of a Miocene sea cow. This had been Knowledge of land life in Florida
exposed, just before our visit, by the rude toward the beginning of the succeeding
touch of dynamite and a steam shovel. epoch, the Pliocene, is chiefly a by-
When we work here was sus-
arrived, product of mining for phosphate rock.
pended, a trainload of dirt was dumped In the north central part of the state
into the water below it to give us footing, (where the rhinoceros is shown on the
and then a spur of the mine railroad was accompanying figure) these are of land
moved out of the way in order that we formation, but the more southern phos-
might salvage this important specimen, phates (where the serrate-toothed masto-
unusual cooperation for which we have to don is shown) although probably found in
thank the mine superintendent, Mr. R. a shallow sea near the shore, are equally
H. Hopkins, and others. productive of land mammal remains in
Fragments of sea-cow ribs, easily places. A relatively small part of the
recognized by their plump shape and hfe of that time is known, but it reveals
extremely dense bone, are common in an even stranger fauna than the pre\dous
many Floridian deposits from the Miocene epoch and well illustrates some principles
Florida State Geological Survey
WHERE FRAGMENTS OF THE THREE-TOED HORSE WERE FOUND

Florida, was
In this abandoned and mined-out pit of the Cummer Lumber Company near Newberry,
found part of the upper jaw mth four teeth of MerycMppus, the three-toed horse. The specimen
was presented to the Museum of the Florida Geological Survey by Mr. Weston m
March, 1929

ENTRANCE TO SABER-TOOTH CAVE
This cave near Lecanto in Citrus Countv was explored for fossil animals in 1928 by Walter W. Holmes,
who stands at the head of the ladder. There are two openings on the surface that lead mto a
large subterranean chamber
:~',i: ,
— .l^J ''
!.
.:.Mi7i-'
':MKi:Wr'W--:^^
AN OPEN PALMETTO GLADE IN FLORIDA

A typical scene in Florida. While many fossil remains may lie beneath sm-faces such as the above,
it is only by finding actual signs of the bones in eroded sections or in mines or other diggings, that
the palaeontologist can complete his investigations
Florida State Geological Survey
A HAMMOCK NEAR PORT ORANGE, FLORIDA

this often proves a serious handicap to the fossil hunter, for it may
easily
Such heavy growth as
hfe that existed
conceal important remains that otherwise would help to piece out the record of
during past ages
514 NATURAL HISTORY

MINING FULLER'S EARTH AND MERYCHIPPUS TEETH
This line at Midway is operated for fuller's earth, but to the fossil hunters its most important products
were the teeth and bones of Merychippus, a three-toed horse of the Miocene Epoch, which were found
just above the fuller's earth on the level of the bench seen above the steam shovel
of life succession.Three-toed horses rein the lower jaw, as well as the large tusks
main, but they have evolved into a new in the skull. The serrate-toothed masto-
type, Hipparion, last of the fully three- dons also had four tusks, of more nearly
toed horses. Similarly the rhinoceroses equal size, long lower jaws, and complex
and camels are larger and more highly cheek teeth especially adapted, in the
developed. These are old American Florida species, to crushing and grinding
families which antedate Florida itself. fibrous vegetation. A large bear-dog
At this stage first appears a new group, (Hyxnardos) nearly completes what is
wandering far from its original home in known of this fauna.

Africa by way Europe and Asia, that
of Relatively scanty as our knowledge is
of the mastodonts. These animals have of these earlier land faunas of Florida, its
not been found in any earlier deposit in importance is great. By comparison
Florida, probably because they did not with fossils from other parts of the world,
reach this part of the world until well into they fix the age of the deposits in which
Miocene times, but here they are fairly they occur, deposits of economic as well as
common. Two types occur: a primitive scientific importance because of the
true mastodon (Pliomastodon) and several fuller's earth and phosphate rock. From
closely related species of serrate-toothed a broader point of view, this is almost
mastodons (Serridentinus) The former
. all that we know of mammalian life in the
was a forerunner, perhaps a direct eastern half of the United States before
ancestor, of the well known American the Pleistocene. It is reassuring to find
mastodon {Mastodon americanus) of the that they agree in a general way with the
Ice Age. It differed from this later type much better known contemporaneous
most noticeably in retaining small tusks faunas of the western half of the conti-
nent. This indicates that Florida was verdure were peculiarly adapted to sup-
then already a connected part of North porting great numbers of animals.
America, and also that what we know of Furthermore, the first essential of f ossiliza-
western fossil mammals probably gives us tion is rapid natural burial, and this is
a fairly adequate idea of at least the much less likely to occur in an upland,
plains life of this climatic zone throughout which is being eroded, than in a lowland,
the breadth of the continent. like where deposition of mud
Florida,
One question is so often asked that it and sand is more rapid and permanent
demands a digression. Since fossil ani- and where marshes and sluggish streams
mals are usually sought in deserts and abound. The conditions which still
among dissected hills, how does it happen prevail in Florida today are probably
that so many are found in humid and low very like those which obtained in many
Florida? of the richest fossil areas when the fossil-
In order to find fossils two things are bearing beds were being deposited, even
necessary. In the first place, obviously, though the region be elevated or arid
the animals must once have been present, now.
and their remains must have been buried The second essential for finding fossil
and fossilized. Florida was exceptionally animals is must be
that their remains
favorable in these respects. Its mild or partly exposed and visible. Paleon-
semi-tropical climate and its abundant tologists possess no mystic sixth sense
Photograph by George Gaylord Sin)psoii

PEACE RIVER
along the bank of this
Peace River, between Gardner and Zolfo, is well named. The rock ledge
beautiful stream is of limestone, formed in the sea during the Miocene
Epoch. Lymg on it may be
teeth ot extinct mammoths,
seen a bed of gravel which contains numerous fossil sea-cow bones and
horses, bison, and other animals of the Ice Age
516 NATURAL HISTORY

WAKULLA SPRING
Where soft, easily soluble limestone lies close to the surface, the underground formations of Florida
are almost like a sponge, and from them flow some of the largest springs in the world. In the clear
water of Wakulla Spring the bones of a mastodon were found some years ago. Even today the
spring has a weird almost prehistoric aspect with its fringe of gaunt, moss-hung cypresses crowded
with perching buzzards
which enables them to find hidden bones. So we come once more to the oldest
They never dig unless they know very well winter residents, the animals of the
that bone is there, and they usually Pleistocene Epoch, which was an Ice Age
have no way of knowing except by finding for much of the rest of the world. Re-
some exposed. In humid regions fossils mains of Pleistocene mammals are very
may be abundant, as they are in Florida, widely scattered through the relatively
but very difficult to find because of the shallow deposits of sand, clay, and muck
absence of eroded " bad land " areas which of the State, and they reveal an amazingly
are often so common in a drier climate. rich fauna. For instance, about five
Most would
of Florida's ancient fauna years ago, Mr. Walter W. Holmes found
still were it not that
sleep undisturbed near St. Petersburg a few fragments of
man has dug into the ground so extensive- fossil bone in a canal spoil bank. Follow-
ly for other purposes. Although usually ing thisup for several successive seasons
little suspected, Florida supports a con- and digging into the bank where the
siderable mining and quarrying industry. dredge had thrown out most bones, he
The essential part that mining has uncovered a fauna at one locality which
played in the discovery of some of the includes nearly fifty species of land mam-
older fossils has already been suggested. mals. In recent times the entire peninsula
The hundreds of drainage canals that cut of Florida has been inhabited by less
through the superficial strata are equally than thirty species.
important, especially for Pleistocene re- Perhaps no better idea of the amazing
mains, which here are often (but not life in Florida during the Pleistocene can
necessarily) less deeply buried than those be given than by a synoptic list of the
of the Miocene or Pliocene. species of land mammals so far discovered.
Such a list looks formidable and dull, animals now characteristic of other parts
but a moment's thought should find much of North America crowded
in here dur-
that is Space is lacking
interesting in it. ing the Ice Age, such as the western
here to do more than suggest a few of these pocket gopher, beaver, red fox, elk, and
points. For one thing, the length itself bison, to mention only a few. Other
is of interest, since it shows that in the animals were immigrants from South
Pleistocene there were more than twice America, including the porcupine, capy-
as many different kinds of land mammals baras (largest of living rodents), and all
in Florida as now. The very presence of of the edentates, while some, although
lions, saber-tooth tigers, camels, masto- anciently natives of North America, have
dons, and mammoths, among others, is their nearest relatives of today in Central
striking. Then there is the picture of or South America, such as the short-
PLEISTOCENE LAND MAMMALS DISCOVERED IN FLORIDA

TO DATE
*Species extinct or no longer living in Florida
Marsupials— *Canis ayersi, dire wolf.

Didelphis virginiana, the common opos- *Canis riviveronis, extinct coyote.
sum. *Felis veronis, extinct Florida lion.
Lijnx rufus, bobcat.
INSECTIVORES
*Smilodon floridanus, saber-tooth tiger.
Scalopus aquations, common mole.
Cryptotis floridana, Florida short-tailed EDENTATES
shrew. *Megatherium, a species of giant ground
Blarina brevicauda, Everglade short- sloth.
tailed shrew. *Megalonyx, probably two species of
Rodents — large-clawed ground sloths.

*Mylodon harlani, Harlan's ground sloths.
Sylvilagus floridanus, Florida cottontail.
*Tatu bellus, armadillo, like that still liv-
Sylvilagus palustris, marsh rabbit.
ing in Texas but larger.
Sciurus carolinensis, gray squirrel.
*Chlamytherium septentrionale, giant arma-
Geomys floridanus, Florida pocket gopher.
dillo.
*Thomomys orientalis, an extinct relative
* Boreostracon glyptodont or
floridanus,
of the western pocket gophers.
tortoise-armadillo.
Reithrodontomys, a species of harvest
mouse. Ungulates —
Oryzomys palustris, rice rat. *Equus, probably three species of one-
Sigmodon hispidus, cotton rat. hoofed horses.
Neotoma floridana, Florida wood rat. *Tapirus, two or three species of exiinct
Neofl.ber alleni, round-tailed muskrat. tapirs. .
*Synaptomys au^tralis, southern mouse- Odocoileus osceola, white-tailed deer.

lemming. *Odocoileus sellardsiae, extinct deer.
*Castor, a species of beaver. *Cervus, a species of elk.
*Castoroides ohioensis, the giant beaver. *Platygonus, a species of extinct crest-
*Erethizon, a species of porcupine. toothed peccary.
*Hydrochoerus holmesi, Holmes' capybara. *Mylohyus, four or five other extinct
*Hydrochoerus pinckneyi, giant capybara. species of peccaries, mostly of this
Carnivores — genus.
*Tanupolama mirifica, extinct, small,
Euarctos floridanus, black bear. long-footed camel.
*Arctodus floridanus, extinct short-faced *Camelops, a species of larger, heavy-
bear.
footed camel.
Procyon lotor, common raccoon. * Bison, a species of extinct bison.
*Procyon nanus, extinct dwarf raccoon.
Mustela peninsulae, Florida weasel. Proboscideans—
Lutra canadensis, otter. *Mastodon americanus, American masto-
Spilogale ambarvalis, spotted skunk. don.
Mephitis elongata, striped skunk. * Archidiskodon columbi, Columbian mam-
Urocyon cinereoargenteus, gray fox. moth.
*Urocyon serninolensis, extinct gray fox. * Archidiskodon irnperator, imperial mam-
*Vulpes palmaria, extinct red fox. moth.
518 NATURAL HISTORY
faced bear (related to the South American rodents are especially numerous, the
spectacled bear), the peccaries, and the most exotic being the large water-loving
camels (related to the llama). Any one capybaras and still larger giant beavers.
of these, or of a dozen other points that Herds of horses, bison, camels, and mam-
might be mentioned, is full of interest, but moths thrive in the grassy prairies and
each would require an article longer than open woods. Browsers and more strictly
the present one for its discussion. forest-loving animals, such as the pec-
The hunter of fossils brings animals caries, deer, tapirs, and mastodons, are
back to hfe, rather than killing them. Ungainly ground
scarcely less abundant.
In Florida he finds an unrivaled field for sloths walk about on their knuckles.
big game and small, and from his trophies Glyptodonts and their smaller cousins
he slowly reconstructs a picture of Florida the armadillos are common in the more
during the Ice Age. The setting is prob- open country. All is not paradisaical,
ably not very different from that of however, for flesh-eaters of all sizes and
today: pine and
palmetto flat- tastes also abound, from the small gray
woods, jungle-likehammocks, cypress- foxes and tiny weasels to the packs of
bordered lakes and ponds, sluggish great dire wolves, the lions, and the
streams and lagoons, rolling dunes and saber-tooth tigers.
low hills. Florida is now civilized, but beneath
Through these scenes move myriads of her paved roads and her subdivisions lie
animals large and small. Along water- the relics of a more savage — and a more
courses and in the marshes and prairies interesting —p ast

EXPLORING AN ANCIENT SEA
Some millions of years ago this spot near Quincy was a shallow sea where sea cows, forerunners of
the living manatees, went their calm ways. In this fuller's earth mine was discovered an unusually
complete specimen. Mr. Gunter is pointing to the few protruding rib fragments which betrayed
its presence
ANIMALS IN ORCHESTRATION
How Musicians Have Used, in Their Music, Interpretations of the Sounds
and Movements of Animate Nature
By MYRON ACKLAND
WERE all the popular
on natural history to be com-
writings them, perhaps not in a scientific way,
but in a supremely poetical way. In his
pressed within some enormous "The Carnival of the Animals" there
work, it would not be a complete edition are represented not less than a dozen mem-
unless one short chapter were devoted to a bers of the animal kingdom. He introduces
recital of the part animals have taken in the King of Beasts, which, to the rhjrthm
the compositions of the world's better of a "Royal March," seems to be strid-
known musicians. ing majestically up and down his cage,
It is possibly a novel idea to some that roaring as only he can. There is a
animals have taken any appreciable swiftly moving passage intended to
part in the mental imagery of the suggest the rapid pace of the wild ass.
musician; but that this has been fre- One hears also the musical cackling and
quently done is not news to the observant crowing of hens and roosters. A much
and confirmed music lover. It is true that retarded passage is reminiscent of no one
not composers of merit have utilized

all else than His Slowness, the Turtle; and,
animals, or the sounds and movements of in a different passage, gracefully bounding
animals, in the development of .heir chords call to mind the kangaroo. A
themes. The notable exceptions are the lumbering, clumsy movement is, for the
three big B's of music, — Bach, Brahms, nonce, an elephant. A bray from the
and Beethoven. In this trio of great- brasses can mean none other than he of the
est musical genius, Beethoven alone used "Long Ears." Sinuous and full of grace
an animal motif and he did so only are the bars that suggest the fishes. A
twice. These appear in his ''Song of the "cuckoo, cuckoo," as plainly as one could
Skylark" and in his well known " Pas- desire, together with an entire chorus of
toral Symphony" in which is heard, from other musical chirps and warblings, trans-
wind and string, imitations of the nightin- ports the hearer for a moment to a
gale, the cuckoo, and the quail (genus veritable fairy forest of feathered
Coturnix) songsters. Finally, in this s\anphony,
It is awell-known fact that Beethoven a soft, low, but majestic movement con-
was a lover of nature; yet who can at- jures up in one's mind a \asion of that
tempt to explain why this great love was epitome of elegance —
a swimming white
allowed to voice itself in but two of the swan.
products of his genius? Bach and Brahms
Birds are found frequentl}^ in the realm
may have been as profound in their love
Quite often, as might be ex-
of music.
of nature as Beethoven, but it was never
pected, they go hand in hand with the
revealed in any of their works.
author's reaction to the advent of spring:
In contrast with Bach and Brahms,
witness, "On Hearing the First Cuckoo
there was a perfect marvel of versatility
in the musical treatment of animals by in Spring," by DeBussy; "Spring," by
Saint Saens. This composer not only Vivaldi; and "Woodland Sketches,"
admired nature and animals, but knew by MacDowell.
520 NATURAL HISTORY
Among other notable pieces containing ble Bee." The latter, especially, remains
the bird motif are "Sounds from the virtually unmatched for its scintillating
Forest" in Wagner's Siegfried: "The airiness and sheer charm of expression. A
Pines of Rome/' by Respihgi; Franz darting, zigzag piece indeed is the
Liszt's "The Nightingale"; and Beet- "Dragon Fly" by Josef Strauss. And
hoven's "The Song of the Skylark." Liadow, by means of a highly pitched
Caesar Franck in his "St. Francis of violin score, has rendered both sugges-
Assisi" has written perhaps the most tively and humorously " The Dance of the
dehghtful composition of all in which Mosquito." In this category, though it
birds play a predominating part. may not be strictly an orchestral selec-
In the order of frequency with which tion, belongs also Chopin's "Papilhon"
animals are met in the realm of music, the nearest that we shall ever come, per-
horses rank next to birds. Peculiarly, haps, to a musical butterfly.
though, with the possible exception of It is strange, in view of the fact that
Wagner in his "Troll King" (Erlkonig), the sheep is known and almost
such a well
no one seems to have used the horse in ubiquitous animal, that its bleating is
the singular; rather always in pairs, encountered only once in music and that
teams, or galloping troops. is in Richard Strauss' "Don Quixote."
In "Phaeton," by Saint Saens, by the Some animals have been suggested by
use of pure tempo, employing all the inference. For instance, in both "The
instruments of the orchestra, the com- Hunt in the Black Forest," and in Mac-
poser has powerfully wrought the picture Dowell's "Woodland Sketches" there is
of Apollo's runaway steeds, as with sounded the huntsman's horn. From
galloping gait, heaving hoofs, and foam- can be envisioned at the lis-
this there
flecked sides, they draw the great sun- tener's discretion the fleeing quarry, — fox,
chariot in a mad, dangerous race across stag, or boar.
the sky. Not less vivid than in "Phae- Erik Satie, a satyric from the modern
ton" are the horses of Richard Wagner French school, has given us something
which are the central motif of his "Ride rare from the annals of nature, "The
of the Valkyries" as they plunge, under Laugh of a Lobster." And Stravinsky,
the wild and eager urging of the flying- borrowing from a page in a book of folk-
haired Amazons, down the vale of dead lore, has painted in most lurid tones, a
and dying heroes to the famed Valhalla most marvelous "Firebird."
of Scandinavian mythology. Similar in Another musical curiosity is Kodaly's
treatment to these two compositions is "Harry Janos Suite" in which is heard a
"The Ride to Hell" by Beriioz. In —
very disdainful sneeze one instance of
Mendelssohn's "Midsummer Night's the direct imitation in music of the human
Dream" there is a remarkably lifelike animal.
"hee-haw, hee-haw" suggesting unmis- This by no means purports to be a
takably a near relative of the horse, and complete list of instances in which musi-
coming from poor Bottom. cians have honored animals by weaving

Among the daintiest, lightest, and, in a them into the fabric of their dreams,
way, the most "fetching" sketches are and aesthetic works of man
for the artistic
thosfe in which musicians have given us have borrowed, and will continue to bor-
their understanding of insects. There are row, for dramatization in music, as well
two of these on the bee, "Bombola" by as in other arts, the freedom, majesty,
Hadley, originally a conductor; and Rim- beauty, power, and grace of the animal
sky-Korsakoff's "The Flight of the Bum- world.
A photograph of the model of the new Arctic bird group in the American Museum -
BIRDS OF LITTLE DIOMEDE

How the Newest Group in the American Museum Was Erected. Gathering the
Data. Work in the Field. The Problems Faced by the Artist in Trans-
ferring His Impressions of a Remote Arctic Island to the Museum
Visitor Through the Medium of Paint, and Plaster, and
Mounted Birds
By Francis L. Jaques
Assistant in Preparation, American Museum
Bering Strait, a few miles south of the northward at the edge of the ice in the
INArctic Circle, lie two granite islands. spring, and southward in the autumn,
The larger, the Big Diomede, seven are intercepted by the Eskimos, who
miles long, is Russian; the Little Dio- have a village on each of the islands. Here
mede, much smaller, is American. Here we saw great rolling windrows of shear-
where the East and the West are but waters, in the flight pecuhar to them,
little over two miles apart, the East is passing through the Strait into the Arctic
to the West, and the West is to the East! Ocean in July. These were visitors from
The International Date Line, here a line the far southern oceans spending with us
of convenience, swings east of the 180th the southern winter. Here also, at the
meridian and passes between the two Little Diomede, was collected the mater-
islands. The days are born on the Big ial for the Bering Strait Bird Group with
Diomede, follow the sun around the which this article is concerned. This
earth and end forty-eight hours later will complete the series of habitat groups
\ on the Little Diomede! of North American Birds at the Ameri-

Here probably, was the site of the land can Museum of Natural History, under
bridge where man crossed from Asia io direction of Dr. Frank M. Chapman.
America. Here the walrus, which pass The collection of this group, among
522 NATURAL HISTORY
the time which could be

given to the collection of
materials for a bird group
promised to be short.
Furthermore, an anchor-
age near an exposed
island might have to
be abandoned quickly if
the wind changed. The

wind was high and the
water rough when we
arrived. No landing
could be made. Passing
between the islands, we
lay overnight in the shel-
Big Diomede.
ter of the
Once we nearly lost the
island in the fog, as the
tide, — which ran contin-
uously from the south-
west during our entire
stay, — and the wind,
proved almost too much
for us. The cold gray
heights of East Cape
could be seen occasion-
ally through the mist
THE ROCKS OF LITTLE DIOMEDE and rain, twenty miles

One of the numerous photographs taken by Mr. Jaques as studies on to the northwest.
which to base the group The day was
following
reasonably how-
calm,
others, was made possible through the ever, and in the late afternoon we
generosity of Mr. Charles H. Stoll and anchored near the Eskimo village on
Mr. Harold McCracken, in the summer the Little Diomede, there to remain un-
of 1928. Mr. Harold E. Anthony, cura- til early the second morning.
tor of mammals, Edward Weyer, arche- At a distance the island seemed dis-
ologist, and Andrew Johnstone and my- appointing group material to an artist
self from the department of preparation who hoped for beauty as well as realism.
represented the Museum on the Stoll- The slopes looked gray and colorless:
McCracken Expedition to the Arctic on their size we could not judge, since there
the schooner "Morrissey," under com- was nothing with which to compare them.
mand of Captain Bob Bartlett. Only when we approached the base
We first approached the Diomedes of these rocks in a small boat did the
Julj^ 27. Due to a broken propeller majesty and beauty of these gigantic
shaft which delayed us at Teller, Alaska, granite cliffs impress us.
for more than two weeks, we were be- What had seemed from a distance dull
hind our schedule. The short Arctic and drab, now proved to be many-
summer waits for no one, consequently colored and beautiful. Rich green vege-
BIRDS OF LITTLE DIOMEDE 523
tation followed the rock slides down from The which there were two
puffins, of
the upper slopes toward the water's edge. species, nested in
crevices or burrows
At the base the slow rise and fall of the which could not be seen from the water.
dark water was transformed to green and We saw them singly or in small groups
white where it met the opposing granite. as far up the sides of the slopes as the
Myriads of birds flew overhead and binoculars made them visible. Pigeon
around the great walls, or perched in guillemots were more often near the
long lines on the ledges. water on projecting rocks. They, too,
Kittiwakes, slim, graceful birds, which nest in inconspicuous places. Their num-
made the larger gulls look awkward, had bers were not great. The birds previ-
the preferred nesting sites. They selected ously mentioned, together with a few
the most inaccessible projections on the glaucous gulls and cormorants, made up
verticle rock faces at the base of the the conspicuous large birds of the lower
slopes. The murres, which build no nests, slopes and verticle cliffs.
had selected ledges sufficiently flat so the Above, over the entire surface, in
single egg would not roll off and be crevices and beneath rocks, were the in-
smashed on the rocks below. Often, on visible nests of the auklets. There are
a single ledge but a few inches wide, three species of these, the crested, the
scores of murres were seen, standing least,and the paroquet. Their numbers
shoulder to shoulder. These and the were legion. "Milhons" seems an inade-
kittiwakes were intermingled on the cliffs, quate word. At dusk, which comes late
the presence of either due to the nature here in July, and during the morning
of the projection on which it rested. hours, the noise of their wings was like
PREPARING BIRD SKINS ON BOARD THE "MORRISEY"

The birds collected for the group were taken near that portion of the island that is depicted in the
group
524 NATURAL HISTORY
MR. JAQUES PREPARING A PART OF THE FOREGROUND

Habitat groups are generally made up of a foreground and a painted background. Here the artist is
(constructing a "granite" rock from a wood frame, wire mesh, plaster, and paint
the sound of a gigantic surf. The air as towering cliffs with their teeming bird
high as they were visible was filled with life, and the savage loneliness of the
their fluttering forms. Never before scene.
had I seen so many living creatures, The group space is 20 feet in width,
never before had numbers been so im- 7 feet from front to back, and 12 feet
pressive. high. If all this space could be used for
A landing here was quite impossible. rock work, upon which was placed the
There above me, almost in reach of my mounted birds, the maximum area would
hand, was the elusive material which I be no more than 12X20 feet, pitifully
hoped to reproduce in a museum group. small in comparison with the great rock
How was I to secure it? masses before my eyes. Furthermore,
The impressions of what should be such a group would have no background,
shown come through all the senses. They and no indication of the sea, since a nest
must be given to the observer through within that distance of the water would
one sense only, that of sight. The image be washed away by the frequent storms.
which greets him must necessarily be If we chose the opposite extreme and
static also, quite different from the liv- looked outward to the sea, our group
ing, moving panorama which greets the would be all painted background. Obvi-
observer in the field. ously we must combine the two, looking
My problem was to suggest to the along the face of the rocks from a point
museum visitor, through sight alone, several feet above the water.
some sense of the flying gray clouds, the A landing was possible only at the
wind-whipped sea, the cool salt air, the Eskimo village. From there an attempt
to reach, overland, a suitable locality behavior was that of a normal colony.

might result in the loss of precious time, These few hours spent in a tossing launch
possibly in failure. I chose a method off the shores of an Arctic bird rookery
which seemed to promise more immediate I shall always remember as one of the
results. In a launch, with two men from most interesting experiences of my Hfe.
the vessel, we approached the most In the meanwhile Mr. and Mrs. Stoll
promising localities as closely as possible. and Mr. Anthony had collected sufficient
The water was deep, and as in deep water birds for the group, and all members of
alongshore a heavy swell may rise and the party used every available minute
fallwithout breakers, we viewed some in the preparation of the skins. So our
magnificent spectacles as the great mission was accomplished.
masses of green water rolled in and out Three times we returned to the islands,
of grottoes and crevasses, and over the once to find them surrounded by ice
masses of broken rock at the cliff base. which had been driven down from the
From the launch many photographic northern coast of Siberia by the storms,
exposures were made, the character of once to anchor overnight off the village,
the rocks closely studied, and sketches and once, on our parting visit, to seek
and color notes secured. The birds could their shelter in a storm.
be studied best from the launch, and Back in New York again at last, we
their habits noted. We created much faced the problem of how best to use the
less disturbance than would have been material we had obtained. The first
the case had we been ashore, and their step in making a museum group is the
MOUNTING THE BIRDS IN THE MUSEUM

Raymond B. Potter, who was responsible for the proper mounting of the birds of the group, is shown
here at work in the Museum's department of preparation
526 NATURAL HISTORY
low down, cover the re-
mainder of the floor
space.
The rock which com-
posed the cliff to the left
was built in three sec-
tions, arranged to fit
together when placed in

position. The frame
work is of wood, over
which a coarse wire net-
ting is placed. Shaping
this was one of the most
difficult parts of the
work, for the netting
tends to take geometrical
forms. It is modelling
with a very refractory
material whose surface
contour is not easily
seen. Measurements
from the scale model
were of great value here.
This netting was cov-
ered with burlap and
plaster, and the surface
modelled in plaster.
Later it was surfaced
AT WORK ON THE GROUP
This gives a good idea how the plaster "rocks" look during the
and colored, and the
process of building the group rockwork was complete.
The problems of de-
construction of a scale model. The sign in this rock were complex. It was
niodel made for group was about
this necessary that it afford numerous hori-
30 inches long, one and one-half
or zontal ledges for the birds, which had
inches to the foot. Modelling wax was to be placed in an advantageous position
used for the rocks, the birds carved of as seen from the front of the group. It
balsa wood and colored, and the back- must also give the effect of height and
ground painted in miniature. Most of verticle cleavage. The birds are arranged
the major problems can be solved in the in closely massed groups, leaving much
model, as it is tractable, and changes are of the rock surface free, to increase the
readily made. With this as a basis, con- apparent height and size.
struction of the large group was much The painted background must carry
less difficult. a large share of the burden in this group.
We have placed the rockwork which The area shown is many times greater
represents the cliff to the left-hand side than that of the foreground. Where sixty
of the space. This is carried back, in the birds are shown in the foreground, hun-
painting or background, to the middle dreds will be painted into the background.
distance. In the foreground, more rocks. We chose to represent a day when
spots of blue show through a gray sky, through years of experience. My col-
with the threat of misty rain. The site league, Mr. Raymond B. Potter, who
of thegroup is the south end of the Little mounted the birds for this group, has
Diomede, looking southeast. A fresh done splendid work from the rather in-
wind is blowing from the south, and a different looking material with which we
pale sunlight falls on the rocks of the returned. If the group falls short of
foreground. In the distance Cape Prince perfection it will not be due to the ap-
of Wales, northwestern extremity
the pearance of the birds.
of the North American mainland, is visi- The group will be opened for exhibi-
ble, ''hull down" across the Strait. tion at about the time this article is
About sixty-five mounted birds will be published.
used in the group. Each bird is mounted Problems to be met and solved in the
to fill a certain place according to the making of museum groups are many and
scale model. It is fitted to the rock in varied. Not only does the preparator
its proper position and allowed to dry, have the same problems of composition
after which it is numbered according to and arrangement that the artist has, but
a chart. Then it is removed, to be re- the composition, as viewed through the
placed in position later,
when the final assembly
of the group material is
made.
Few people realize the
amount of skill and
patience required to pro-
duce a well mounted bird.
Every feather must be
scraped free at the base,
inside the skin, to permit
it to be adjusted proper-
ly, and remain so, when
the specimen is finished.
The feathers must be
thoroughly washed and
cleaned, and afterward
dried with the aid of
sawdust and much beat-
ing, until every feather
once more spreads itself
as it did on the living
bird. The preparator
must not only know ex-
actly the effect he wants,
and the somewhat in-
direct methods he must
use to secure it, but he
must have great skill
A DETAIL OF THE GROUP
with his fingers, a deft-
A bit of the group that has practically reached completion. The birds
ness which can come only are Pallas murres {Uria lomvia arm)
A PHOTOGRAPH OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM'S NEW ARCTIC BIRD GROUP
Complete though this scene may appear, the finished group shows many additions that have been
made since this photograph was taken. By comparing this photograph with that of the model of
the group which appears above the title on the first page of this article, the additional work that
must be done can readily be visuaUzed
MR. JAQUES AT WORK ON THE BACKGROUND

In the lower right foreground can be seen the scale model from which the larger group is being erected.
In this photograph, too, it is easier to differentiate the painted background from the imitation rocks
of the foreground
opening, changes with the

position of the observer,
and with the distance at
which he is viewing the
group. The physical
difficulties of construc-
tion are infinitely greater.
In place of the single
medium of paint or clay,
he must work with a
great variety of mediums
and materials. While it
is theoretically possible
to reproduce any out-
door locality, this is not
always practical, and the
preparator should select
such arrangements as
can be most successfully
shown.
Lighting is important,
and correct lighting is
much more difficult to

secure in a group than in
most of its other uses.
Shadows of accessories
upon the painted back-
ground immediately de-
AN INCOMPLETE DETAIL OF THE GROUP
stroy the illusion. The The birds themselves —a horned puffin, three kittiwakes. and two
be separated
lights should tufted puffins —are as they will appear when the group is finally
from the group space completed. The nests, however, still require some finishing touches
by dust-proof, but not

light-proof they must
divisions, and mit, if the composition and arrangement
be accessible at all to permit times are pleasing, if the habitat is that which
changing the lamps. The group itself is most characteristic of the specimens
must be dust-proof, though provision shown, and if, in addition, we get an
should be made to permit entrance if impression of light and air, of wind anc|
necessary. weather, the group will have approact;ie4
Thereno place for style or individ-
is '
' the fulfillment of its mission. ,,„ rj.
ual technique in background painting, The American Museum has a large

as it must join on to actual accessories staff of preparators and artists under the
in the foreground. The area represented direction of Mr. James L. Clark, and a
in the background is much greater, and number of habitat groups are now being
it bears, accordingly, the greater part prepared, each with problems of its
of the burden of giving the observer the own as difficult, or more so, than those
correct impression of the locahty repre- of thegroup described in this article.
sented. If then, a group is scientifically We may
hope to see in the near future
correct, if the specimens shown are prime, many groups whose standards are higher
and as well done as modern methods per- than anything heretofore attempted.
A MASTERPIECE OF
THE sculptor's ABT
EABI/Y PERIOD
POTTERY HEAD, TYPE D,
ZACATENCO. ACTUAL SIZE
ON THE THRESHOLD OF NATIVE

AMERICAN CIVILIZATION
By GEORGE C. VAILLANT
Assistant Curator of Mexican Archapology, American Museum
neous with the events described humanize

rL^T
known
aspect of historical research
as archaeologymay be said the past through the depiction of individ-
to begin when man ceases to uals and social groups. Going backward
speak for himseK and must be spoken into the ages, through the exigencies of
for. In the actual garnering of materials faulty preservation of archives and a
for the history of peoples, archaeology natural blurring of detail due to chrono-
comprises the acquisition of data not con- logical distance, the individual and the
tained in hbraries or governmental ar- political party become obscure and merge
chives. Modern history, as the term is in with the civilization, material and
conunonly used, describes the economic spiritual. The shift from the archivist
and pohtical development of peoples. to the archaeologist occurs at this point
Art, science, and literature are placed in as an almost imperceptible transition.
different categories as parallel to but The interpretation of the history of
not necessarily unified with, the social Ancient Greece is a good example of the
unfolding of a nation. This distinction case in point. There is an elaborate
ismore a convenience in understanding political and social history preserved by
than a grammatical or a philosophical Roman and Greek commentators, that
definition. gives a full and precise story of the for-
The mass of documents contempora- tunes of states, parties, and individuals,
EARLY PERIOD POTTERY

L. to R. 1, trade piece, Red and Orange on White, Ve; 2-5. bowl sections White on Red, !^; 6, small bowl. Black,
ON THE THRESHOLD OF NATIVE AMERICAN CIVILIZATION 531
but these accounts do not persist very face is the reconcilement of the surviv-
far back. The material remains of the ing examples of the handiwork of man,
Greeks are gathered by excavation. with his vicissitudes and triumphs as a
Really from Roman times there has gone living being.
on a continuous effort to identify the At the outset, the student of the past
written social histories with the monu- handicap of having to derive
suffers the
ments. It becomes gradually evident hisknowledge of a given people from less
that the political history does not coin- than a twentieth of their total material
cide entirely with the development of possessions. Except in a very excep-
culture. As the formal tional case, only rela-
history of Greece tively imperishable sub-
dwindles off into the stances like stone, pot-
Iliad and the Odyssey, tery, bone, and, rarely,
in the absence of a pre- shell, survive. Natural-
cise time count the cul- ly the immaterial
tural background of the remains hke social or-
peoples described in the ganization, mythology,
epics rests on the iden- language, philosophy,
tification ofremains as have disappeared. The
their handiwork. tribes of theNorthwest
When we begin to Coast whose art as seen
consider peoples whose in totem poles, chests,
written records have and baskets, together
disappeared or who, with a complicated
hke the majority of the social structure and a
nations and tribes who rich mythology, forms
have populated this an interesting human
globe, had no writing development, would be
at all, it is the material completely unknown to
culture which we study us had they disappeared
to try to find the man five hundred years ago.
behind. In contem- Their art is expressed
human PEELING THE DEBRIS
plating history on perishable sub-
Trench D. The workman is standing
as a whole, it is what on the seventh of the ten cuts made stances, like wood,
man has achieved that before reaching bottom which would not have
tells his story long after endured for long on the
he has disappeared. Primarily, however, damp coasts of Alaska and British
it isthe hving being and not his handi- Columbia. The stone work of these
work that interests us, and the most dif- people, which alone would have survived,
ficult task that the archaeologist has to is in no sense commensurate with their
EARLY PERIOD POTTERY

Sections of bowl rims. L. to R. 1, Black; 2, 3, Bay Ware; 4, 5, White; 6, 7, Bay oUas. 4, 5 about U; rest about ^
532 NATURAL HISTORY
MIDDLE PERIOD
ORNAMENTS
Top row, L. to R:
stalactite ring, jade
ear-plug, shell, pot-
tery whistle
Bottom row: pot-
tery ear-plugs, jade
pendant, and hemi-
spherical ornament
of pottery
Scale shown in
photographs, 10
centimeters or 4
inches
wood carving or their social organization. interpret the remains encountered by him
The Basket Makers, the first race to oc- to throw some on the social and
light
cupy Arizona, dwelt, however, in dry political life of their makers; and thirdly,
caves. This choice of habitation, coupled from these remains he must attempt to
with the aridity of the region, preserved appraise the extent of their perishable
their remains. They made some stone possessions. Archaeology, briefly, be-
tools, had not invented pottery, and had comes in practice a sort of algebra,
just crossed the threshold of agriculture. where formulae are sought for the equa-
They had, however, a great skill at weav- tion of man's total development with
ing from yucca and Apocynum fiber, his remains. Bearing this conception in
baskets, nets, waterproof woven bottles, mind, the apparent puttering of the
sandals, and many other things. Had archaeologist with stocks and stones be-
they lived in the open, all these posses- comes digiiified into an arduous means
sions would have disappeared, and an in- to a very worthy end.
terpretation of what survived would show The perfect formula has not been
them to be much less developed than was devised. The most serviceable medium
really the case. One wonders in this developed to date is pottery. Among
connection whether the people of the most primitive people it is a household
European Upper Palaeolithic were not art like cooking or weaving. It is, there-
much more advanced than their stone fore, strongly subject to the control of
work indicates them to be. communal custom. At the same time
The archaeologist in his reconstruction it can perform its functions without
of history must then, primarily, discover being subject to rigid controls of form
a sequence of events and some sort of a like a stone tool. Hence, fashions in shape
chronology; secondly, he must try to and decoration can be readily expressed
MIDDLE PERIOD POTTERY

1, 2, incised Red on White; 3, innised Black,- 4, Red on White. About '
LATE AND
MIDDLE PERIODS
Stone Implements
|6#ii«t^###«#
Top row: knives,
arrowheads, small
sling stones
Middle row: sling
stones of lava,
quartz, marble
Bottom row: pestles
of lava; nos. 4 and
5, jade axes
on pottery, so that one may see rigidly ogy American Museum in the Val-
of the
local styles changing with the years. ley ofMexico the last two winters serves as
Furthermore, a well made pottery vessel an illustration of the values and the hmi-
is a desirable article of trade. When a tations of archaeological method. Broadly
pot is broken, the fragments are virtually speaking, three civilizations, or cultures,
indestructible, and by studying the se- are known in the Valley of Mexico : that
quence of their types in rubbish heaps of the Aztecs who were living there at the
one may in this way erect a chronology. time of the Conquest by the Spaniards;
This conservatism in adhering to local that of the Toltecs who built the famous
styles defines a tribe and its movements, Pyramids of San Juan Teotihuacan; and
while stray pieces from other localities finally, a very much cruder civihzation,
indicate trade relationships. At the same of whose makers there is no record. Ob-
time these trade pieces by their position jects of this last culture have been found
in a site of known stylistic succession give in river gravels overlaid successively
a basis for a future sequence in their first by Toltec and then by Aztec re-
site of origin. As deeply stratified archae- mains. Somewhat similar material oc-
ological sites are rare, the value of dating curs under a thick flow of lava to the
single occupation sites by the position south of Mexico City, in one case, at
of their traded sherds in a locaHty where Copilco in the debris of a camp site,
such a chronology exists, is readily ap- wherein also are found burials, and in
preciable. Furthermore, temples and another, at Cuicuilco, associated with a
pyramids may be arranged in chrono- huge pyramid of adobe, around which the
logical series, by the potsherds found in lava flowed, sealing in the contemporary
the adjacent debris. detritus, as well as covering the lower
The work of the division of anthropol- slopes of the pyramid. Thus, the history
^^,

1. Red on Yellow. 2. incised Black. About W
534 NATURAL HISTORY
CHIPPED
IMPLEMENTS
OF OBSIDIAN
Top row mainly
Late Period;
second and third
rows, Middle and
Early Periods
of the material culture of the Valley finds preserved for him, as it were, a static
from the coming of the Spaniards to the civilization. Similarly the cultures called
remote past is expressed by three groups "Archaic" are dismissed thus, in a name,
of remains: Aztec, Toltee, and the cruder with some figurines classified as transi-
material of earliest date. tional between them and Toltee.
From Spanish accounts, from codices, On examining the remains of pottery
and from the writings of native historians and figurines from the earlier cultures,
a generation after the Conquest, a social it was evident that there were several
history has been composed for the Aztecs, different types of figurines, so distinct
in which the varied tribal histories of that they could not have been contem-
what we know to have been many groups, poraneous, or, if made at the same time,
have been welded into the synthetic must have been the product of several
evolution of a single group. This ac- local cultures. The figures found in the ex-
count carries us to about the twelfth cavation at Cuicuilco, the pyramid under
century after Christ. There is a scat- the lava, were quite unlike those found at
tering legendary mention of the Toltecs Copilco, the camp site covered over by
as having an empire of which, after it the same volcanic flow. The pottery like-
fell about the tenth century, more or less wise fell into at least two styles.
isolated elements survived until the infil- Doctor Clark Wissler, chief of the
tration of Aztec tribes. Yet these Toltecs division of and Mr. C.
anthropology,
have no very definite history; and the L. Hay, a Trustee of the Museum and
pyramids, sculptures, and pottery as- Research Associate in Middle American
signed to them with every probability of Archaeology, decided to undertake a
correctness, are not classified to reflect an series of excavations to expand the
historical development. The student chronological sequence of the cultures

1, 2, Black Ware like Copilco, about Vi; 3-6, Bay olla neck sections About ^
ANTLER TOOLS
Top row, chisels for
graining hides and
flaking obsidian;
awls.
Bottom row, pest-
les and picks
of the Valley of Mexico, and to supple- just north ofGuadalupe Hidalgo, a suburb
ment the splendid work of the depart- of Mexico City. Trenches were sunk im-
ment of archaeology of the Mexican mediately to find bed rock or the undis-
Government in its preservation and un- turbed soil. Once bottom was discovered,
covering of the major ruins. The Mu- the trenches were extended to cross
seum proposed to make stratigraphic section the mound. Objects were care-
studies in rubbish heaps, and by segregat- fully recorded as to their source of
ing the pottery types found at different provenience, and maps which followed
levels, make a chronological and ethno- the daily progress of the work in plan
logical skeleton to aid the broader eluci- and in section, controlled still further
dation of Mexico's past, which the Mexi- the cataloguing. A small gang of six
can Government was ably carrying on. men was trained to dig carefully, and a
Doctor Wissler and Mr. Hay chose judicious system of bonuses whetted the
the earliest remains as a point of depart- sharpness of their eyes. The handling
ture to find the sources of the subse- of the excavated earth was a problem;
quent Toltec and Aztec civilizations. but by means of scaffolds the men were
Mr. Hay, a student of Valley of Mexico able to remove it far enough not to
problems and an authority on the early interferewith their work. Since the
cultures, graciously supported the work deepest cut was about twenty-five feet
and collaborated in its execution. To deep and the most of the digging was
the writer fell the details of excavation. between twelve and fifteen, successive
After a season's inspection of sites layers were removed. The trenches
containing early culture material, a drifted in against a vertical face, and the
deep bed of debris was chosen, which lay strata were thereby visible on three sides
on the outskirts of Zacatenco, a hamlet of the trenches. The results were not
LATE PERIOD POTTERY

bowl incised Red on Yellow; 9, leg, Brown. 1-5 about M. 6-9
1-5 Bay olla necks; 6, leg of Red on White bowl; 7, 8,
about ii
536 NATURAL HISTORY
FIGURINES
Early Period.
Type C. Note
development of
features by fillets
of clay.
Top rows Zaca-
tenco.
Bottom row, other
sites in VaUey of
Mexico; 3rd
figure, Azca-
potzalco gravels
immediately visible; three months of houses. Finally, owing to the softness

study and interpretation of material of the dirt underfoot and perhaps be-
after excavation had ended brought cause of a rise in level of the lake, the
the following facts to light. people moved from the gently sloping
The site of Zacatenco lay on the south- glacis of rock at the foot of the hill on to
east slope of a rocky peninsula that ex- a low cliff. We find a repetition of con-
tended into a lake. The southerly ex- ditions, for debris accumulated against the
posure ensured warmth; the almost ledge of rock. The occupants moved
complete surrounding of the knoll by down hill as the rubbish leveled off the
water was a protection against enemies; contours of the slope. There was a
the lake itself yielded a valuable part constant use of retaining walls to pre-
of the food supply in the fish and ducks vent the formation of gullies, during
that frequented it. The presence of the rains, which would undermine living
grinders and grinding stones indicated surfaces and wash away houses.
the growing of grain, undoubtedly corn, Finally, so much dirt and rubbish
and the quantity of fragments of storage accumulated at the foot of the hill that
vessels shews that it must have been the slopes became gradual. The occu-
the staple food, for there would be no need pants thenmoved out on these surfaces
to store water on the borders of a lake. which had covered completely the orig-
The presence of deer bones shows that inal contours of the hill. By studying
the chase also added variety to the these occupations in the manner de-
larder. Thus, in every way the locale scribed we find three quite clear phases
was favorable for occupation. of occupation. Early, Middle, and Late.
As time went on, an enormous accumu- The Zacatenquenos had no knowledge
lation of debris was formed from piles of metals. But lava, obsidian, and
of corn husks, adobe washed from the quartz were excellent substances for the
houses, and the soil that the heavy From lava they made
fashioning of tools.
showers of the rainy seasons was con- quadrangular metates bordered on their
stantly eroding from the hill. We find long axes by ridged sides and supported
low revetments of stone laid up to hold on three stubby legs. Manos or grinders
these loose accumulations in place and to for use in connection with them were
provide level spaces on which to build like a triangle in cross section and the
long sides of the triangle formed the Other stones occurring in the excavations
grinding surface. This perfect service- are granite, marble, diobase, and sand-
abilitybrought no need for change with stone. The first two were used in making
the lapse of time. In the second period the missiles just described.
of occupation lava was further employed The Zacatenquenos of the Middle
in the making of small spheres possibly Period traded to some extent, for we
for use in games but more probably for have in jade, two axes, a pendant, and
missiles for a sling. a part of a Hp- or ear-plug. This is the
Obsidian, or volcanic glass, wasmade earliest recorded occurrence of jade in
into implements by two main processes, an archaeologicalsite in Mexico.
flaking and chipping. The flakes were obvious that the Zacatenquenos
It is
struck off from a conical core and received had at the outset a fair mastery of stone
littlefurther treatment. They must have manufacture,, but that the simplicity of
been used as razors, or knives for fine cut- the forms which are at the same time
ting. The chipped tools seem to have been perfectly serviceable, is not capable of
made from breaking up the core after it reflecting very much the passage of time.
was too small to yield flakes. The pieces Bodkins, needles, and awls of bone
were chipped into projectile points. In show the same changeless quality. Ant-
the early level the shapes were sim- lers were fashioned into chisels, into tools
ple but later on in the upper cuts tangs for flaking stone by pressure, or utilized
were added and the chipping became as handy instruments wherever a point
more even. or a blunt end was required. The inflexi-
Quartz was used little in the Early bility of the material, together with
Period, only cores and spalls occurring, the unchanging nature of their function,
but in the Middle Period it was fashioned makes them poor guides of development.
into well polished balls, by what must For arrival at a certain degree of culture
have been an exceedingly laborious pro- all people must sew leather, weave baskets,
cess. These spheres were perhaps for or make tools.

use in slings though it is difficult to con- Shell is perishable and rarely preserved.
ceive of such well finished specimens be- We did find one or two fragments that
ing put to so plebeian a use. In the Late might have been ornaments. The figu-
Period use of quartz was less frequent. rines are adorned with amulets, necklaces,
FIGURINES
Early Period. Type
D. Note finesse in
execution.
Toprow, Zacatenco.
Bottom row, other
sites Valley of Mex-
ico. 4th figure, Az-
capotzalco gravels
538 NATURAL HISTORY
and ear-plugs. But our excavations is problematical. The depiction of cloth-
yielded almost no examples of these save ing is so great an obstacle to the sculptor
for a ring and a bead of stalactite, that even now our aesthetic tends to
and the few other trinkets described. demand as an ideal, nude rather than
Presumably the ornaments were of shell draped figures. Hence we cannot ex-
and disintegrated in the humid earth pect to tell much about the clothing
during the lapse of centuries. For the from the sculpture, but it might be
same reason apart from flakes of char- remembered that the climate of Mexico
coal no trace remains of the use of woods is temperate.
for tools or sculpture. House types are Pottery is found in the greatest pro-
likewise unknown to us. The great mass fusion, literally by the cart load,^ Over
of adobe in the soil suggests simple ninety per cent of the vessels are for
dwellings of wattle and daub. storage, cooking, and similar humble
The textile art also has left almost no uses. They are made of a coarsely
remains. A tiny worn fragment, by a kneaded clay that burns, when fired, to
freak of nature, was preserved in the rot a reddish-brown, approximating a bay
of a child's brain, whose skeleton had color. The shapes are oUas, deep pots
disintegrated into the consistency of for the storage of grains and liquids, and
cheese. Two perforated discs of clay large wide-mouthed bowls presumably
and one of sandstone are probably early also for storage. The vessels are per-
forms of spindle whorls. A cast of the fectly adapted to their purpose. There
base of a coil-weave basket gives a tan- is no decoration. Changes, therefore,
gible basis for the usually incontrovert- are not violent. In the Early Period the
ible assumption .of the existence of neck of the olla is not treated as a par-
basketry. A whitish coating on the sides ticularly distinct unit. There is a flat
of one or two graves indicates perhaps inward curve from the mouth out into
the use of mats or perhaps blankets of the fullness of the body of the pot. In
bast. The figurines from the earliest the Middle Period one observes a tend-
period wear elaborate turbans which ency to make the body more globular,
could only have been made of textiles, until in the Late Period we find the ves-
and some few specimens wear little

Ônly two whole pots were recovered The vessels illus-
What other clothing they wore
.
skirts. trated in this article are reconstructed from sherds.
FIGURINES
Middle Period
Type B. Note styli-
zation.
Top rows, Zaca-
tenco.
Bottom row, 1,
Copilco; rest mainly

Zacatenco
FIGURINES
Middle Period
Type F. Observe
crudeness.
Top row, Zacatenco.
Note Madonna, last
on right.
Bottom row, other
sites in Valley
sels predominantly globular in shape decorating the white vessels with red
with the necks well defined by flaring paint disappears about half way through
outward from the body, by being rein- the deposit. The incised black ware
forced into a thick curved lip, or by still progresses technically, and as decora-
having straight necks surmounted by a tion, besides incisions of the walls, the
flat lip. The bowls or cajetes suffer al- bottoms are occasionally stippled by tiny
most no change, but in the Late Period gouges. New forms appear hke gourd-
for some reason the manufacture stops. shaped vessels and shallow dishes with
A number of wares might be classified handles supported on high ring bases.
as for the service of food, such as small Bowls of cream-colored ware with no
vessels convenient for holding the noon- decoration, and oUas of a thin granular
day meal. In the Early Period we find white ware decorated crudely in maroon,
a thick black clay formed into bowls, supplant the white wares of the Early
a chalky white ware into shallow dishes, Period. A yellow flaky ware is formed
and a red ware, simply ornamented with into bowls on a low ring base decorated
geometric patterns in white paint and with stripes of red paint. Trade is seen
fashioned in more or less straight-sided in the presence of hard, well fired, orange
bowls with rounded bottoms. Through-^ ware, and of another the slip of which
out the period we see that the black ware is so much harder than the body paste
becomes increasingly fine and decora- that it is well described under the name
tion enters by the incising of vague Orange Lacquer. With the exception
meanders on the walls of the vessels. of the trade wares, the pottery is homolo-
Red paint and incision embellish the gous with the pottery of Copilco, under
white ware which gradually supplants the lava, but Copilco, lacking develop-
the red ware painted in white. Sophisti- ment of white pottery adorned by red
cation of ornament is absent. The deco- paint, is probably coeval with the latter
rative sense is latent to the point of half of this Middle Period.
non-existence. As a surprise we find At the same time the people began to
traded in from some more advanced make balls of pottery, which might be
neighbor, a white vessel with designs in for sHngs in spite of their friabihty. We
red and orange. find one or two ear- plugs and fragments
In the Middle Period the practice of of gorgets representing pathetic attempts
540 NATURAL HISTORY
riGUEINES
Middle Period
Type A. Like Type
B. Common under
lava at Copilco.
Top rows mainly
Zacatenco.
Bottom row, other
sites in Valley.
Note bird headdress
on number 2 of
bottom row
at adornment. Whistles, sometimes hollow tripod supports, of polychrome

adorned with animal heads, also occur. decoration, of reduction of the walls of
Ladles and pottery rattles fill out our list bowls to rims, together with the develop-
still further. Potsherds are rubbed into ment of the necks of oUas, constitute in
circular shape for a presumable employ- tendency an approximation to the finds
ment in games of chance. pyramid of Cuicuilco.
at the lava-buried
In the Late Period these service wares But morphologically the two ceramics
all disappear. The principal ware is a are not identical.
yellow-brown pottery with heavy, solid, We see in the pottery of Zacatenco,
triangular and stepped patterns in thick wares that are distinctly associated with
red paint. Sometimes the designs are different periods. We gather the impres-
outlined by incision. More developed sion of a conservative people whose ideals
but still unsophisticated patterns are seldom in practical life passed beyond
outhned by white paint in the case of the utilitarian. Not until the last period,
somewhat better made bowls. This is in spite of trade relationships, did they
the first appearance of polychrome deco- seem to accumulate ideas from other
ration. The shapes are shallow dishes sources, when they altered completely
resting on a hollow tripod support with a the shapes of this service pottery, and
flat, slightly thickened rim. Another even began to make a few halting steps
distinctive type comprises deep bowls with toward a decorative art.
the traditional Early Period format of Against this drab and comfortless
bottom and wall elements. The bottom background of daily necessities treated
is expanded now, however, and the side with unreHeved practicahty, we find an
contracted into an ornate rim which is amazing diversity of treatment and .
covered with a highly polished red paint. vitality of expression in the little clay
This same shape is seen in a ware vary- figurines. Presumably they are associ-
ing from chocolate to brown. Some- ated with the practice of some cult. This
times in this case the rim is simphfied variability seems to preclude the repre-
into a sharp incurve. The tripod sup- sentation of a divinity clearly defined
port common. Eccentric and ornate
is into attributes. Yet, considering the
shapes obtain more frequently than in cultural level of the people, they are too
the preceding periods. The elements of well made to be toys. They are ubiqui-
tous, being found in fields and in rubbish three types different in style from the
heaps rather than being confined to preceding. A flat-faced type, B, meant
some tomb or shrine. They are dis- to be seen only from the front, has some
tinctly anthropomorphic, showing as they diversity of pose and seems to develop
do a range of individual costume, and out of Type C. The execution is car-
positions varying from an erect posture ried out in a hasty slap-dash manner.
to a seated mother nursing a child. Two Contrasting strongly with this class is
types are found in the Early Period. The Type A, which probably gives us the
chief, Type C, comprises slim-waisted best idea of the look of the people in-
figures, usually erect, with pointed habiting the Valley at that time. The
faces the features of which are indi- fleshy contours of the face receive care-
cated by fillets of clay. Details of dress ful attention, and to soften the lines
and adornment are indicated in the same about the face and mouth, a space is
manner, like the folds of a turban, a gouged out and in it are laid a roll of
bird headdress, or a bead necklace. Con- clay for the nose, and two for the Ups.
temporaneous with these are very much The modelling and torso is
of the limbs
more sophisticated examples. Type D, coarse. Contemporaneous at Zacatenco
of which the elements expressing the with Types A and B, is the gross and
features are smoothed down into the crude type F. The figurines are hardly
unit-mass of the head. Their casts of distinguishable as human beings, but
countenance are brought out with a care the repeated occurrence of same
the
almost meticulous. The bodies of this style shows it to be a conscious man-
latter typedo not differ from the former. ner of expressing the human or humanl}-
Some sporadic examples not classifiable divine form. It is difficult to say whether
into the preceding categories comprise the appeal of Type D shows superior
dogs, and monkeys which are
snakes, artistic skill to Type A wherein there
modelled with some realism. Types C is a definite attempt to solve problems
and D are widely distributed in the Val- in the depiction of the human face. We
ley of Mexico. C is almost, and D com- notice, though, that the figurines of the
pletely, absent at Copilco, but they both Middle Period are much more stylized
occur in the Azcapotzalco River gravels. than the varied representations grouped
The Middle Period deposits contain as Types C and D. Types A and B pre-
FIGURINES
Late Period Type E.
Observe the de-
generation of the
ft^^t"^.
plastic.
Top rows, Zac-
atenco.
Bottom row,
chiefly other sites
in Valley of Mexico
? f f *>.' T
542 NATURAL HISTORY
dominate at Copilco so that their pres- malized religion that culminates for
ence, coupled with the pottery, shows a these early periods in the pyramid at
definite contemporaneity with Zacatenco. Cuicuilco, and later expands into the
But Type A must have been conceived elaborate theological arts of the Toltecs
and developed outside of the Valley, as and the Aztecs. We have seen how, as
there have been discovered no transitions in the case of these Zacatenquenos, a
between it and the other examples. well balanced material culture does not
The last occupation shows a pre- lead necessarily to an art, and it is
dominating type, E, that is inferior to probably true that the distinctly artistic
the plastic preceding it and also tech- manifestations in Mexico followed in
nically to the pottery associated with the train and under the stimulation of
it. An examination of the technique the growth of religion and priestcraft.
shows the hasty execution of a strongly Thus we observe in the interpretations
conventionalized type. Associated with of broken fragments the begin-
these
Type E are many other styles of sculp- ning of a history. The aim of this survey
ture in clay. In some of the specimens in its next season's work is to extend
there is an improvement in paste and the Zacatenco sequence up to the time
finish over the earlier styles, but in actual of the Toltecs and later to the Aztec
representation of the human form most period. Speculation is futile as to the
are inferior. The majority of these other absolute age of the lava flow and the
groups, which are broadly grouped under cultures beneath it, until we have a
the succession of letters from G to M, continuous building of cultural devel-
are too rare to be anything else than opment, divided off into the floors of
trade specimens. From their occur- consecutive typology. With this as a
rence in other sites like the Pyramid basis, we can extend our studies south
under the lava at Cuicuilco, we may as- until connection with the Maya and their
sume them to be traded pieces or per- calendar based on the absolute record-
haps examples of types from an ulti- ing of time, will render possible the
mate surface of occupation at Zacatenco, resolution of our history into dates.
that has eroded since the abandonment During this research we have to face
of the site. The Late Period at Zacatenco changes in archaeological thought, inter-
must be, therefore, anterior to Cuicuilco. pretation, and method. Archaeology, is
Perhaps, as Professor Kroeber thinks, still in its infancy, but when it reaches
in these little figurines, growing more an adult stage, we may expect a wider and
conventionalized through the ages, we a truer conception of man in the fuller
may discern a growth toward a for- perception of his past.
LATE PERIOD POTTERY

1 and 4 polished Red bowls; 2,3 polychrome bowl, Red and White on Yellow decorated inside and out. 1 about '4; 2,3,
4, about Va
MAN O'war"
HOW ANIMALS RUN

Some Interesting Laws Governing Animal Locomotion, and an American Museum
Exhibit That Illustrates How Certain Bones Function During Speedy Action.
By S. HARMSTED CHUBB
Associate Curator of Comparative Anatomy, American Museum
ILLUSTRATED WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR
SINCE the beginning of osteological might the more truthfully portray his
work, exhibits of mounted skeletons subject in sculpture or on canvas, to visit
in museums and elsewhere have been a museum of natural history in his quest
objects of questionable interest even to for the truths towhich bones might be ex-
specialists who might wish to examine pected to testify, for the skeletons to be
and compare individual bones. But for found there had little suggestion of the
who would like to be informed
the student form of the living creature in which they
as to the presence or absence of clavicles, once made animation possible.
vestigial fibulae and digits, sesamoids, Neither had it occurred to the prepara-
certain teeth which are slowly becoming tors that these "dry bones," as they
extinct, the presence and arrangement are often, but unjustly, called, could be
of hyoid bones and ear ossicles, or other placed in positions which they had con-
anatomical structures, such exhibits were stantly assumed in life, and thus express
useless or misleading. minute

All of those beautiful movements, animation, and
details, which are of paramount impor- even mental emotions, so that not only the
tance, were considered by preparators to student and artist but the casual museum
be quite unessential or were not consider- visitor would discover beauty in them.
ed at all, being entirely overlooked and It was small wonder that the department
lostduring preparation, while proportions of skeletons was considered a place to
were incorrectly represented and bones be shunned by those of refined tastes.
were made to assume positions that would Dr. E. W. Gudger of the American Mu-
be impossible in the living creatures. seum has pubhshed a very interesting
It would never have occurred to the paper in Annals of Medical History for
artist, desirous of studying the bony May, 1929, entitled "Some Early and
framework of man or horse so that he Late Illustrations of Comparative Os-
544 NATURAL HISTORY
RUSSIAN WOLFHOUND
In the "flexed" phase of the stride. This photograph shows clearly how, in this position, the hind
legs pass on the oustide of the front ones. The dog is " Cerebro of Romanoff," owned by Louis J. Murr.
Compare with running bulldog on page 545
teology" which describes in a most able The latest addition to this exhibit is
and graphic manner some of the advances the skeleton of a Russian wolfhound,
in osteological work from early days. represented as running as if his life, or
At the American Museum an earnest the safety of his master's flocks, depended
effort is being made to create what might upon the immediate capture of a maraud-
be called a hall of "living skeletons" ing wolf. In earlier days on the Russian
where the young student, the comparative
anatomist, and the artist may come to
study and find help. It is with great
satisfaction, therefore, that we see, almost
daily, students seated in our hall diligently
sketching these skeletons.
In this hall there is a collection of speci-
mens, most of which are members of the
Equidse or horse family. These subjects
have been prepared and mounted to show
the action characteristic of different
breeds or types of animals. "Sysonby,"
one of America's famous race horses, RUSSIAN WOLFHOUND "BORIS"
and "Lee Axworthy," the world's cham- Hounds, as a group, are the fastest of dogs, and
pion trotting stallion, form a part of this while it cannot be said that Russian wolfhounds
are the fastest of the lot, they are wonderful
distinguished assembly. running animals. Owned by Charam Kazanjian
HOW ANIMALS RUN 545
ENGLISH BULLDOG
"Suncrest" owned by Percy Maude, in a position corresponding to that of the running wolfhound on
page 544. Though the bulldog finds it difficult to follow the rules of the race and pass his hind legs
outside his front ones as he rims, this picture plainly shows that he insists upon doing so
pasture lands, the ancestors of these only slightly exceeds the speed of this
dogs were trained to protect the defence- fastrunning dog.
less flocks and herds from depredations The preparation of this specimen is
by hungry packs. There are few animals based upon anatomical study, careful
of its^size which can acquire greater speed observations of living animals on the race
than the wolfhound. Even the race horse track, and a great many photographs of
animals running at high speed. These
pictures were taken with an exposure of
1/1000 of a second in order to record the
exact position of every part of the subject
during this extremely rapid action.
The object of this exhibit is not only
to show the function and behavior of the
bones during an intensely speedy action,
but also to point out certain interesting
rules and regulations which are strictly
adhered to by nearly all terrestrial mam-
mals. Even animals so totally different
"SUNCREST" as the dog, horse, cow, or pig, all follow

This picture plainly shows how much farther similar rules in the progressive movement.
apart are the bulldog's front legs than are his The moment in the stride which has
hind ones. Despite this fact the hind ones are
spread, in running, to take the outside place been selected for mounting the wolf-
546 NATURAL HISTORY
THE RACING GREYHOUND "BLACKIE"

This photograph was taken at the moment of maximum flexure with all four feet off the ground. This
—
animal has run one quarter mile in 26 seconds a speed of 34.61 miles per hour. " Blackie " is owned
by L. I. DeWinter
hound skeleton is approximately the These respective methods of locomotion

same as that chosen for the race horse, vary so slightly in different animals that
"Sysonby," which is in an adjoining it will be interesting to point out some of
case. the minor differences. The dog, a much

Most mammals have three natural smaller animal yet almost equalling the
gaits, the walk, the trot, and the run. speed of the horse when running, must
necessarily acquire a much more extreme
action than does the latter, but the differ-
ences are mostly matters of degree. For
instance, at the moment when the limbs
are drawn together the spine of the
horse is slightly arched. Compare this
with the very strongly curved back of the
dog. And, while the hind toe of the horse
comes in with the pastern of the front
line
foot, the limbs of the dog cross almost at
the knee of the hind leg and the elbow of
the front. It is also found that when the
horse is under full speed he is entirely
free from contact with the ground approxi-
mately one-fourth of the time, that being
the moment when the limbs are drawn to-
gether, while the dog suspended in air
is
HOW DOGS AND HORSES RUN
The upper half of this diagram illustrates the about one-half of the time, being free
rotary action of a dog's feet as he runs. The from the ground twice during each com-
feet move in the order of the numbers, and al-
though the action may be in one direction or the plete stride, once when the limbs are
other, it is always as shown by one circle or the drawn together under the body and again
other. The lower half of the diagram shows the
diagonal action of the horse's leg movements during the extended position.
HOW ANIMALS RUN 547
There is but one technical difference be-

tween the running action of the horse and
that of the dog, that of the succession of
footfalls. Let us compare the action rep-
resented by these two skeletons. In each
case, the next foot to strike will be the left
hind foot and then the right hind, but the
horse will follow the right hind foot with the
left front, and then the right front foot.
Hence it may be called the diagonal run.

The dog, on the other hand, prefers the
rotatory run, striking the right front foot
A MOUNTED SKELETON OF A RUSSIAN
and so on around as
after the right hind, WOLFHOUND
shown in the diagram (page 546), so that The movement in the stride which has been
selected for mounting is approximately the same
at the moment when the limbs are drawn as that chosen for the skeleton of the race horse
together under the body the two which "Sysonby," pictured on page 551
come most nearly in contact with each
other are those of the same side, while While the respective members of the
with the horse they are of opposite sides. Equidse family, also the cow, buffalo,
As shown in the diagram, the succession goat, bear, and others employ the diagonal
of footfalls may be reversed. run, some of the ruminants, or cud-chew-
Again it must be borne in mind that, ing animals, such as the deer, elk, and
while our diagram arbitrarily begins the antelope, adhere to the rotatory system of
stride with the hind foot, the animal may the dog.
fall into this succession on any foot, as he To explain more clearly the miming
breaks from a slower gait or starts off with action of the horse two interesting photo-
a sudden spring. graphs of the great race horse, "Man o'
GREYHOUND "GIRLEY" IN THE EXTENDED POSITION

The position in which the dog is shown appears to be almost identical with the position of the race
horse " Man o'War " shown in the picture at the head of this article. Despite this apparent parallel,
however, the succession of footfalls of the two animals is different as is explained by the diagram on
the opposite page. 'Girley" is owned by Mrs. Alfred W. Seeler
548 NATURAL HISTORY
sand, and that is : Why is it so impera-
tive that a creature must pass his hind
foot in a course lateral to his front foot?
There is one very striking example
of the universal application of this law
which has come to my notice. The
English bulldog, poor creature, has been
so distorted by man's breeding and selec-
tion that he can hardly be called a normal
animal. His measurement through the
shouldersis two or three times that of the
hips,and as he stands, the distance be-

tween his front feet bears a simflar pro-
portion to that of the hind, so that we
might suppose it to be quite impossible
for him to reverse the measurement
between front and hind feet in any posi-
tion that he assumes. Yet, when he cao
be induced to run with sufficient speed to
bring his hind feet in any proximity to his
FRONT VIEW OF THE WOLFHOUND front feet, he follows the well established
SKELETON
and time honored traditions of his
In these highly speciaHzed running animals many
changes have naturally taken place. The arrows, ancestors, passing his hind feet outside of
for instance, point to the vestigial clavicles which,
because they are no longer useful, are slowly
his front —a most interesting example of
disappearing the way that exacting old "Dame
Nature" demands observance of certain
War," are shown, one in the extended rules which might seem to us quite
position with two feet on the ground and arbitrary.
the other in the flexed phase of the stride From an anatomical point of view the
with all four feet high in the air. wolfhound skeleton shows several inter-
One of the laws of progressive move- esting features. In many animals the
ment which aU running mammals seem clavicle or collar-bone is an important
obliged to obey is the manner in which and highly functional organ, particularly
front and hind feet pass each other during in man, where it is well developed, while in
the moment of maximum flexure. As the most of the large mammals it is entirely
hiad feet reach forward for another extinct, there being no bone connection
spring, they always pass, not toward the between the body and the fore legs. The
median line, but outside of the front feet. weight of the animal's fore quarters
This interesting fact is nicely demon- instead issuspended by muscles and
strated when we walk out after a fresh tendons between two pillars formed by the
fall of snow and examine carefully the leg bones and shoulder blades.
tracks of a rabbit, squirrel, or mouse, and In the dogs, as is the case with most of
on these occasions we may also read the the carnivorous animals, the clavicle
written answers to many of Nature's seems to be in a transitional stage, being
secrets. very small and quite without function. It
But for one question we do not seem to has no direct connection with the rest
find a satisfactory answer either in the of the skeleton but is simply lodged among
freshly fallen snow or the tide-washed the muscles of the shoulder and was, no
HOW ANIMALS RUN 549
doubt, functional in some remote ancestral

now ^
form but is as useless, though not so ^
mischievous, as the human appendix. We

have reason to expect that this small
vestige, handed down from the remote
past, will, in ages to come, be entirely
eliminated from the dog's anatomy.
While these clavicles are in the last
stages of a slow decline, there
is another
set ofbones shown in the wolfhound

skeleton which must be placed in a very
they are now in their
different category, as
early infancy, and may
be regarded as
—
modern improvements, of course, using
the word modern in a comparative sense.
These bones, owing to the nature of their
development, must be classed as sesa-
moids. Dogs and their wild relatives are
particularly well provided with these
small bones, having from sixty-two to
seventy-eight located on the feet and legs.
The largest and most highly developed
sesamoid in the animal system is the
patella or kneecap, which is present in
nearly all mammals. But the smaller
sesamoids vary considerably in number in
THE BONES OF THE WOLFHOUND'S FOOT

The four arrowspoint to thp sesamoids, which are
rudimentary bones within tendons. In dogs,
these bones have probably been developed in
comparatively recent geological time, and they
seem destined to continue their development.
The human kneecap is an example of a highly
developed sesamoid
550 NATURAL HISTORY
ism in the course of the evolution of these on the end of a very fine wire and held
fast running animals, as the wild ancestors in the position they occupied in life.
of our domestic dogs pursued their prey. Likewise the sixteen rudimentary sesa-
They are to be found at the ends of the moids were safely attached to their
metacarpal and metatarsal bones of the respective places on the feet near the first
feet on the dorsal surface. Being very joints of the toes.
Wide World Photograph

"man o'war" leading "sir barton" by eight lengths
"Man o'War" appears in the flexed position of his stride with all four feet high in the air. "Sir Bar-
ton's "position is intermediate, and he is shown coming into a position which is the opposite extreme
of that in which the camera caught " Man o'War." This photograph was taken during "Man o' War's"
last race, at Windsor, Ontario, October 12, 1920
small, ranging from 1 to 3 mm. in diameter, There is still another set of sesamoid
it isnot surprising that they have been bones which frequently occur at the
so generally overlooked in the dissection second joint of the toes, but these are ex-
and study of these animals. tremely small and quite irregular and
In the preparation of the present wolf- were found absent in this specimen.
hound specimen this set of sixteen bones In the first paragraph of this article
was very carefully worked out of the reference is made to hyoid bones. It
surrounding tendons, then pasted on a might be fitting to say a few words about
card together with the precious clavicles, these interesting and important organs
where they were labeled and numbered without which we would suffer much
for safe keeping, awaiting a convenient privation in not being able to enjoy the
time for placing them in proper position. sound of our own voices or those of our
After much time-consuming labor in the talkative friends and neighbors; our pet
general preparation of the bones, the would not greet us with his friendly bark
study of animal action to be applied to and our neighbor's cur could not mar
those bones, the devising and construc- our nocturnal rest, which would surely
tion of mechanical means to hold every be another great privation.
bone permanently in the desired position, The hyoid apparatus is an essential part
and the removal of many temporary of the larynx and tongue system, the hyoid
accessories, the mounting of the skeleton bones being embedded in the tissues at the
was nearly complete. Then the clavicles base of the tongue, partly surrounding the
were taken from the card and suspended larynx and taking part in its operation.
HOW ANIMALS RUN 551
These bones also control, to a

great extent, the movements of
the tongue. As we look at the
mounted skeleton of the wolf-
hound, we are to assume that the
tongue is hanging far out of the
open mouth, as is usually the
case with a running dog. How
different is the horse, who runs
with closed mouth, breathing
through widely dilated nostrils.
Unfortunately, perhaps, for the
osteologist, there are no bones in
the dog's lolling tongue to add
facial expression to the skeleton. THE MOUNTED SKELETON OF "SYSONBY"
To some however, the
extent, Twenty years ago "Sysonby" was known as one of the
finest of race horses. The skeleton shown here is on ex-
hyoids come to our rescue. On hibit in the American Museum and illustrates the flexed
close examination of the mounted position somewhat the same as that illustrated by "Man
o'War" on the opposite page. By comparing this skeleton
skeleton it will be seen that with that of the wolfhound shown on page 547, it is easy
these bones are thrust forward to see how much more extreme is the action of the dog
into the back of the mouth.

Whereas the tongue were withdrawn
if happy and demonstrative friend would be
into the closed mouth, the hyoid bones robbed of his chief power of expression
would move back more into the throat. by which he so eloquently conveys to us
Now passing to the other extreme let his feelings of joy, remorse, or fear. While
us consider the caudal vertebrae. With- the tail of a living wolfhound does not so
out this appendage, which is regarded by successfully express his emotions as does
many as an undesirable accessory, our that of most breeds, to the osteologist it is
really a boon, for, when the
"man o'war" animal is running fast, the tail is
The greatest of all race horses. This picture was taken apt to switch from side to side in
three months after his owner, Mr. Samuel Riddle had
taken the animal from the race track an interesting manner. This jus-
tifies the placing of a few artistic
curves in the caudal vertebrae of

the mounted skeleton which, I
think it will be conceded, adds
much to the esthetic value of
the exhibit.
It is hoped that exhibits of
this nature may overcome a pop-
ular prejudice against collections
of skeletons, and that the Ameri-
can Museum's osteological hall
may become increasingly inter-
esting and valuable, not only to
the casual visitor but also to the
student, the anatomist, and the
artist as well.
EXPEDITIONS
OF THE
AMERICAN MUSEUM
"/NATURAL HISTORY
NOW IN THE FIELD
KIUMBUEO IN ACCOSDANCE
WITH THE LIST PRINTED
BELOW
1. Central Asiatic 2. Whitney South Sea, Solomon Islands, for birds; 3. Vernay-Faunthorpe for Asiatic mammals; 4.
;
Morden-G raves, Turkestan, for mammals; 5. Madagascar, for birds, mammals, and fossils; 6. Straus, Nyasaland, for
birds; 7. Columbia University-American Museum, to Africa for anatomical study; Tanganyika, for birds and mam-
mals; 8. Thorne-Correia, Gulf of Guinea, for birds; 9. Heilprin-Hassler, Haiti, for reptiles; 10. Kisen, Alaska, for
fossils; 11. Frick-Rak, Sante Fe, for fossils; 12. Heilprin-Hatt, Yucatan, for mammals and fossils; 13. Shapiro,
Polynesia, physical anthropology; 14. Naumburg-Kaempfer, Southeastern Brazil, for birds; 15. Ottley-Anthony,
South America, biological reconnaissance; 16. Byrd, Antarctic
AMERICAN MUSEUM EXPEDITIONS

It is the purpose of this department to keep readers of Natural History informed
as to the latest news of MiLseum expeditions in the field at the time the magazine
goes to press. I?i many instances, hoioever, the sources of information are so
distant that it is not possible to include up-to-date data
""PHE seventh year of the Central Asiatic Ex- Chapman Andrews returned to the United States
pedition. —The many supporters and con- for his annual tour of lectures and campaign for
tributors to the Central Asiatic Expedition among funds for the 1929 expedition.
our members and friends will be interested to In January, 1929, Curator Granger, as assistant
know more of the details concerning the expedi- chief of the expedition, began negotiations with
tion than have appeared in the pubUc press. the Cultural Society at Peking for the usual
In August, 1928, as the party was returning permits for the 1929 expedition.These negotia-
from the Gobi Desert with the fossil collections of tions continued without successuntU the return
the season, it was stopped at Kalgan by represen- to Peking of Doctor Andrews early in April with
tatives of the Peking Committee on the Preserva- the expectation of starting the expedition into the
tion of Ancient Objects. The collection, after field on April 15 as in former years. The Cul-
was finally brought to Peking,
considerable delaj% tural Society formulated conditions for the 1929
examined by members of the Cultural Society and expedition which included the sending of a
sent to our headquarters for the long winter's Chinese co-director with the party as in the case
work of preparation. The whole staff was en- of the Sven Hedin expedition, also a division of
gaged on this difficult work including Messrs. the collection on its return from the field by
Granger, Thomson, and Young, and three trained representatives of the Cultural Society amount-
Chinese field assistants. Meanwhile Dr. Roy ing in general to a retention by Peking of half of
AMERICAN MUSEUM EXPEDITIONS 553
the collection. Negotiations in the conferences Museum in September and will immediately
between Doctor Andrews, Minister MacMurray, take up work on the restoration and description of
and the Cultural Society having failed to bring the collection of 1928 which will occupy the entire
about an agreement, Doctor Andrews cabled to winter.
President Osborn and the matter was taken up in The President and Trustees of the American
Washington with the Chinese Ambassador, Dr. Museum wUl take up through the State Depart-
Chao Chu Wu, a graduate of the University of ment at Washington arrangements for the field
London, and with the State Department through expedition of 1930. Minister Chao Chu Wu is
Secretary Stimson and Assistant Secretary Nel- confident that a biU wiU be introduced in the
son Johnson. For several weeks conferences Chinese Legislature distinguishing between geo-
were held in New York, in Washington, in Peking, logicspecimens including fossUs and petrifactions
and in Nanking, with an idea of securing a modifi- and flint objects representing the palseontology
cation of the terms formulated by the Cultural ofman, all of which belong to the world of science,
Society. With the authority of the Trustees, and objects of ancient art, sculpture, and pottery,
President Osborn renewed and extended the offer aU of which belong to the early history of the
he made during his Peking visit in 1923 to estab- great races of China and MongoUa. President
lish a natural history museum in Peking out of Osborn strongly supports the world-wide move-
the materials collected during fifteen years of ment for the retention of these objects of ancient
exploration in China and Mongolia, provided the art and archaeology in the country in which they
government would set aside a building for the originated. He also very strongly supports the
purpose; also to take two Chinese students into system of free scientific exploration which has
the be selected by the Geological Society
field to prevailed through all the civiUzed countries of the
of China;also to bring a qualified Chinese world since the year 1754, when the first French
student to this country for a year's education in exploring parties made collections of fossil masto-
Columbia University and the American Museum donts on the banks of the Ohio River, which
in the whole art of vertebrate palseontology with were sent back to France for description bj'
the expectation of estabUshing this historic Buffon and other great naturahsts who rendered
branch of science through highly trained students the close of the Eighteenth Century so illustrious
in China. The Trustees of the American Museum in the scientific history of France.
treated the matter as one of prime importance
between the government and educational system ""PHE latest word from the Columbia University-
of China and the government of the United States. American Museum African Expedition states
This point of view was strongly sustained by that the party has now arrived in the Kivu
Secretary Stimson. Finally a conference was held district, where it has estabUshed its base camp.
in Peking between Minister MacMurray, Doctor
Andrews, Foreign Minister Wang, and represen- A NOTHER expedition being sent into the
is
tatives of the Cultural Society in Peking, at which

^^ South American field by the American Mu-
the Chinese condition of a co-director was waived seum on October 24, when Messrs. Gilbert Ottley
by the Cultural Society, but the other conditions and H. E. Anthony sail for MoUendo, Peru.
remained substantially the same. On receiving This expedition is made possible through the
cabled information to this effect. President generous financial assistance of Mr. O^^llej-, who
Osborn instructed Doctor Andrews to abandon was a backer of the Museum's Porto Rico and
the expedition of 1929, to send all the American Virgin Islands expedition of 1926 and a volunteer
members of the party back to the United States, assistant in the field. Mr. Anthony, curator of
to remain himself in Peking, to retain the equip- the department of mammals, is in charge of the
ment, and to push forward as rapidly as possible expedition, and Mr. Ottley will assist in making
the writing of the initial volume of the published collections of mammals, taking photographs, and
series. recording observations.
Meanwhile ten boxes of the 1928 collection The primary purpose of the trip is to make a
arrived in this country on July 1, 1929, and the biological reconnaissance through southern Peru,
fossils are now being prepared in the laboratory of Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay,
vertebrate palaeontology. The remaining twenty- and southern Brazil. LocaUties of especial signif-
seven boxes which were held by command of the icance, the places where the types of new species
Cultural Society, were shipped from Shanghai on have been taken, will be visited, and collecting
June 26 and are now on their way to this country. will be carried on to secure topotypes (specimens
It is expected that Assistant Chief Granger and from the same locality as the type) for the Mu-
Messrs. Young and Thomson will return to the seum series. Because the Museum lacks mam-
554 NATURAL HISTORY
mals from these key localities, such a collection States where natural conditions httle altered by
of topotypes will be especially valuable as the man's agency still prevail. Its mammaUan faima
basis for comparisons on the mammals of the offers to the collector a range in size from the
whole southern half of South America. tiny shrew to the comparatively huge bulk of the
The field observations made by the party will bear. One of the objectives of the trip is the
be of great assistance to Mr. Anthony, not only round-tailed muskrat, Neofiber alleni. It is also
and reports upon mammals
for the identifications hoped that the fairly uncommon Rafinesque
aheady in the Museum, but also for the data bat, Nycticeius humeralis, will find its way into
which will be gathered for futm-e field work in the Museum's collections.
South America. Because of improved modern
methods of transportation, the expedition will be T~'HERE has recently been devised in the de-
' partment of herpetology and experimental
able to carry out an itinerary which not many
years ago would have required a much greater biology of the American Museum, a method of
infiltrating whole animals with paraffin in such a
expenditure of time than the five or six months
now planned. way that they retain their original color and form.
The expedition will use raUroads and automo- Mr. William G. Hassler left in September for
biles for moves of any distance, and mules or Santo Domingo, where he will employ the new
horses for the side trips into the more inaccessible method for the first time in the field. Mr. Hassler
regions. One of the items in the plan is the gather- hopes to obtain several large species of lizards
ing of accessory material for the Mt.Aconcagua and snakes, as well as a number of frogs. These
group, the studies for which were made by Dr. wiU be prepared in the field in such a way that
Frank M. Chapman and F. C. Walcott at the they may be infiltrated when the expedition re-
base of Mt. Aconcagua in Argentine. The group turns to New York. Mr. Hassler hopes to work
shows the condor and will be a feature of the Hall out the Ufe histories of several rare Uzards while
of Birds of the World. It can be completed in the securing the exhibition material. He will also
near future after the specimens of the shrubbery, send hve reptiles back to the Museum for study
grasses, mosses, etc., have been collected. in the new laboratories of experimental biology.
The expedition is supported by the Angelo Heil-
prin Expedition Fund.
nPHE Sanford-Legendre has re-
Expedition
* turned to New York months'
after a nine ""PHE Bernheimer Expedition. — Mr. Charles
collecting trip in Abyssinia. Most important of number of
•*•
L. Bernheimer, who has led a
the material collected by the party are eleven American Museum expeditions to southern Utah
specimens of nyala. Many fine specimens of and northern Arizona, during May and June,
other mammals were also brought back, including accompanied by Mr. Barnum Brown of the
an Abyssinian red wolf, Soemmerrung gazelle, Museum staff and Mr. Earl H. Morris of the
tora hartebeest, kudu, waterbuck, aard-wolf,
Carnegie Institution, visited the region in the
and oryx. About 120 birds were also collected. triangle formed by the junction of the San Juan
Natural History hopes to pubUsh an account and the Colorado rivers. On previous expedi-
of this expedition in a later issue.
tions Mr. Bernheimer explored the country south
of the San Juan River,, making important archaeo-
A N expedition has left the American Museum logical discoveries respecting the Basket-Maker
**• for Yucatan to collect the mammals of that and other early types of civilization in our South-
Mexican state and to explore the numerous caves west. The expedition this year located addi-
of the coxmtry for remains of fossil animals. tional Basket -Maker remains and cliff dwellings
These caves occur chiefly in a low range of lime- belonging to later culture periods in the South-
stone hills known as the "Yucatan Sierra." west.
The expedition, which will be in the field about Among the finds of special interest were exten-
three months, is supported by the Angelo Heil- sive carvings on the walls of a chff in Moki
prin fund, and consists of Robert T. Hatt and Canon, at least one thousand feet above the
his wife, MarceUe Roigneau. canon floor. Some of these carvings appeared to
be sun symbols, others appeared to be mountain
'T'HE American Museum has sent Myron sheep, and others were imexplainable shapes.
* Ackland, of the department of mammalogy, It is a curious fact that the Indians living in
to the Okefenokee Swamp of southern Georgia to that coimtry during the Basket-Maker period did
collect a representative series of mammals from not use thebow and arrow, but were dependent
that region. The territory is one of the few upon darts thrown with an atlatl. Mr. Bern-
regions left within the borders of the United heimer found the skins of mountain sheep, weU
AMERICAN MUSEUM EXPEDITIONS 555
preserved in the dry caves, in which the wounds of cotton yarn, the strands of which have a total
made by atlatl darts were plainly visible. length of more than two miles. Accompanj-ing
one of the burial caves was found a
Also, in the burial were five baskets, five pottery vessels,
mummy good condition, together with ears of
ra a bowl, and a planting stick. The stone crypt
corn, golden-brown in color, baskets, andôther containing the body was roofed over with timber
articles used by the person in life. overlaid with matting, cedar bark, and earth.
The ceiUng was so complete that no dust had
'
'HE department of anthropology of the Ameri-
I
worked its way into the cavity, nor had the
can Museum, jointly with the Carnegie
*•
contents been disturbed by rodents or insects.
Institution, carried on explorations in Canon del Another interesting feature is that the pottery
Muerto, Arizona, during July and August. The foimd with the body is of the well-known Mesa
fieldwork was in charge of Earl H. Morris of the Verde type, and the nearest ruin in the Canon
Carnegie Institution, but formerly connected accompanied by such pottery is more than half a
with the Museum. The camp of the field party mile distant. This find not only jdelds unique
was located near the famous ruin known as specimens for our collection but also gives us for
Antelope House, and the excavations were in the first time a complete costvune for the Basket-
the adjacent parts of the Canon. The major Maker period.
portion of the work was the excavation of a These explorations were made possible by the
burial cave opposite Antelope House in which generosity of Mr. Ogden Mills.
were unmolested remains of the Basket-Maker
period in the pre-history of the Southwest. HTHE first detailed geographical study of
From these excavations were secured a fine
* Canon del Muerto, Arizona, was made this
series specimens representing the Basket-
of summer by Edward M. Weyer, Jr., special field
Maker it flourished in the Canon.
culture as assistant in the department of anthropology.
Further, the information provided by this site In addition to this work he carried on geo-
gives a clear picture of the part the Basket- graphical investigations to determine the extent
Maker culture played in the development of the of possible agricultural landsused by the pre-
later cultures occupying the Canon. historic inhabitants of thatCanon. Mr. Wey-
The find of special interest, however, was a er's map and geographical notes will be an
unique burial. In this case the body of the important contribution to the Museum's knowl-
deceased, together with his belongings, were edge of the ancient civilizations of the Southwest.
placed in a stone crypt, carefully sealed. As a
result, the clothing and other grave objects rÛRING the past summer Barnum Brown
were perfectly preserved. The body seems to be '-^ investigated caves in southern Nevada for
that of an old man wrapped in two cotton prehistoric mammals, collected Phocene mam-
blankets, covered with a robe of feather cloth. mals in northern Utah, and found two Jurassic
Attached to the grave bundle were many hanks dinosaur skeletons in eastern Utah.
THE FIELD OF
IN
NATURAL HISTORY
Education —
Scientific Research —
Conservation
Books —
Meetings of Societies
PERCY E. PYNE astronomical editor of Science Service, came

/^N August 22,Percy R. Pyne, for twenty- from Washington, D. C. to deliver the address,
^^ nine years a Trustee of the American Mu- which described his rambles among the leading
seum and its Secretary for the past eight, died at American, Canadian, and European observatories.
his smnmer home, Upton Pyne. An account of "Our Friendly Stars of the Polar Night" will
Mr. Pyne's association with the Museum will be discussed October 2 by Anthony Fiala, com-
appear in a later issueof Natural History. manding officer of the Baldwin-Ziegler Polar Ex-
pedition of 1903-1905.
ASTRONOMY
'"yHE Big Telescopes and What They Do" FREE classes in astronomy will again be open
* was the subject of the address at the first only to members of the Association this fall.
fall meeting of the Amateur Astronomers Associa- Information concerning these may be obtained
lion on September 18. Mr. James Stokley, from the secretary. Miss M. Louise Rieker.
556 NATURAL HISTORY
EDUCATION on birds, to be given by Dr. Frank M. Chapman,
""PHE American Museum, in expanding and curator of ornithology, and Dr. Robert Cushman
' developing its educational activities, wiU Murphy, curator of oceanic birds. Section V will
take a further step this year by initiating " Cul- include a course of six lectures on "The Nature of
tural Courses for Teachers" of both elementary the Living World," by Dr. G. Kingsley Noble,
schools, and high schools and colleges. The cm-ator of experimental biology. The course wiU
Board of Education in New York City requires be closed on June 4, 1930, by a summary lecture
of its teachers thirty hours of cultural courses, on "Classroom Applications of the Course," by
and these courses at the Museum are designed Mr. Paul B. Mann, associate in the department
to give the thirty hours' credit. They are free to of education.
teachers in the pubhc schools of New York City. These courses will be open to those who may
At the end of the course a paper of not less them and
desire are not teaching in pubUc schools
than 5000 words may be submitted in place of upon payment of a registration fee of $15.
an examination. Checks may be drawn to the order of the Ameri-
For the teachers of elementary schools "A can Museum of Natural History and sent to the
Cultural Course in Geography" is offered on Museum at 77th Street and Central Park West,
Tuesday afternoons beginning September 24 and Registration should be made before Sept. 25
continuing untU May 27, 1930, under the direction either by letter or in person at Room 306 of the
of Mrs. Grace Fisher Ramsey. This series wiU School Service Building in the Museum.
be opened by Dr. George H. Sherwood, director
pvURING the fall of 1929 several activities
of the Museum, with a talk on the "Plans and '-^ be carried on for the children in the
will
Aims of the Course." This will be followed, begin-
blind and sight conservation (partially bhnd)
ning on October 1, with a series of six lectiu-es on and for the blind
classes of the public schools
astronomical geography; and in November and
children in private institutions. Members of the
December by six lectures on the "Earth-crust and department of education will give, as formerly, a
Its Changes"; then wiU come a series on "Life in
program of ten lessons in geography, history, and
the Zones," and the "Races of Mankind"; and on
nature fully illustrated by museum
study,
May 27, 1930, a summary of the lectures will be material. Groups of boys and girls from Man-
given in a talk on classroom application by Mrs.
hattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens will visit
Ramsey. Each session will last one hour and will the Museum, some of them only once but others
consist of discussion in the classroom followed by
as many as ten times. In the classroom of the
studj^ and examination in the exhibition halls of
School Service Building, where these lessons wiU
material relating to the subject under considera-
be given, each child will be allowed to examine
tion. The topics for this course are based on the
and handle the objects used as illustrative ma-
new syllabus in geography and will be of great
terial. Under the guidance of a Museum instruc-
value to teachers for current classroom use. The
tor, some groups of partially bUnd children will
sources of the lecture material are, largely, the
visit exhibition halls related to the lesson given
various expeditions of the Museum in all parts
in the classroom.
of the world, and will embody the results of re- Museum
In addition to the class work, the
searches and investigations by members of the
plans to send study collections to the blind and
scientific staff as well as other scientists.
sight conservation classes in the public and
The course for high school and college teachers
Of particular value to the teach-
private schools.
will open on September 25 with a lecture by which are so modelled
ers are the relief globes
Doctor Sherwood on the "Plans and Aims of
with raised land formations, sanded coast Unes,
the Course." This will be followed during
etc., that totally and partially blind children can
October and part of November by six lectures on
easily learn their geography lesson by "seeing"
astronomy by Dr. G. Clyde Fisher, curator of
with their fingers. The department of prepara-
astronomy. Section II, "The Early History of
tion has just completed ten new globes which will
the World," will consist of six lectures: two on
be distributed this fall as permanent loans to the
geology by Dr. Chester A. Reeds, curator of
pubUc schools. These, together with those
geology; two on mineralogy by Dr. Herbert P.
already distributed, wiU supply geographical aids
Whitlock, curator of mineralogy; and two on
to every school where there is a bhnd or sight
fossils by Mr. Barnum Brown, curator of fossil
conservation class.
reptiles.
Section III wall be devoted to five lectures on THE success of the June session of the Nature
anthropology by Dr. Clark Wissler, curator of Training School which is held each year
anthropology. Section IV includes five lectures under the direction of the Coordinating Council
on Natxire Activities, has led the Council, at the for its peculiar skull structin-e.
It is particularly
solicitation numerous camp directors and
of vivid in coloring, frosty silver with blue head
nature counselors, to offer for them two parallel parts and light crimson fins. The anterior dorsal
courses in Nature Training and Camping for the fin rays are produced into a high crimson crest,
eight weekends of October and November at Cold and the ventral fins reduced to long filaments.
Spring Harbor, Long Island. Regalecus as seldom been captm-ed and is prob-
The Cold Spring Harbor region, well known as ably responsible for some sea serpent stories.
a center of scientific research, offers exceptional
advantages for nature study, as it includes sea FOSSIL VERTEBRATES
water, both pure and brackish, with fresh water pRRATUM.— In the caption of the full page
adjoining, with the consequent "transition *— drawing that appears on page
' 507 of this
zones." It provides in the sea water, muddy, number, Ulustrating Doctor .Simpson's article on
sandy, and rocky bottoms, aU within the action "Hunting Extinct Animals in Florida," one of
of the tides, as well as at greater depths. The the two animals pictm-ed is called, by mistake,
region is protected, thereby assuring a very wide a capybara. This animal is a groimd sloth.
range of ecologic conditions with abundant flora
T TPON his return from Peking to the Mu-
and faima. It is also interesting geologically.
^^ seum, Curator Walter Granger, wiU imme-
The locaUty presents excellent opportunities
diately take up the preparation, arrangement,
for camp demonstrations, with its heavily wooded
cataloguing and illustration of the valuable
slopes and hiUs and sand dunes, as well as the
collection of fossil mammals made by the Cen-
famous Hempstead Plains. The Eugenics Record
tral Asiatic Expedition during its season of 1928.
office and the Carnegie Station for Experimental
After a long delay, the collection is reaching the
Evolution and the New York State Fish Hatchery
American Museum in two consignments; the
adjoin the premises.
first, boxes despatched from Peking in
of ten
The Biological Laboratory has placed Black-
AprU, is now being prepared, and the remaining
ford Hall, with its dining room, sleeping apart-
shipment of twenty-seven boxes was sent from
ments, and club room at the disposal of the Coun-
Tientsin in June.
cil for these week-end groups.
All the materials in these boxes have been
The programs in Nature Training and Camp-
carefully worked over in the laboratory of the
ing are so arranged that a member may take
American Museum headquarters in Peking by
either course and receive a certificate at the end
our own staff of Chinese preparators under the
of eight weeks. Students unable to attend the
direction of Mr. Granger and om- chief preparator,
eight consecutive sessions may register for a
Albert Thomson. After this careful preparation
minimum week ends or may attend a
of four
they were recovered with wrappings of burlap
single by
special arrangement.
session The
and spUnts fitting tightly to the sides of the bones
staff wiU include directors and specialists in var-
but readily removable in the New York
ious fields of natural science and camping.
laboratory by the free apphcation of water which
Dr. Bertha Chapman Cady, executive sec-
dissolves the adhesive material applied in Peking.
retary of the Coordinating Council onNature
The results of this method of preparing in Peking
Activities, with headquarters at the Ameri-
and subsequent finishing in the American Mu-
can Museum of Natural History, and Mr. Ben
seum are very gratifying, first, in the great
Solomon, Editor of Camp Life Magazine, 93
economy of expense; and second, because of the
Remsen Street, Brooklyn, New York, are direct-
utiUzation of our entire Peking force in the
ing the courses, and will be glad to furnish full
winter season who otherwise would be idle;
information regarding them.
and on the
third, because of the rehef in pressure
FISHES overcrowded laboratory of the department of
'
'HE model of a rare and highly specialized vertebrate palaeontology in New York. As rapidly
I
*•
deep-sea fish, Regalecus argenteus, the oar- as these specimens are being finished they are
herring king, constructed by C. Margugho,
fish or being placed on exhibition in the Central Asiatic
has been placed on exhibit in the Hall of Fishes at Hall on the fourth floor, east pavflion, so that the
the American Museum. pubhc may see them within a relatively short
The specimen on which the model is based was time after their shipment from China. The first
cast ashore at Moeraki, New Zealand, in 1883. of these new 1928 arrivals has already been
Its skeleton was mounted for the Otago Uni- described by Curator Osborn under the name
versity Museum. Embolotherium, signifying the "battering-ram"
This fish is remarkable for its extreme fragility titanothere. The second and third descriptions
and flatness in proportion to its great length, and wiU appear shortly of the "shovel-tusker"
558 NATURAL HISTORY
mastodont or Ambelodon. Owing to the delay us a much better idea of the real character of the
in theshipment of these specimens from China, four tseniodont genera. I was even able to make a
the American Museum was anticipated by the restoration of the skeleton of Psittacotherium."
Leningrad Museum ra the description of a
"shovel-tusker" mastodont discovered in Chinese WALDRON DE WITT MILLER
Turkestan and described by Dr. A. Borissiak of /^N August 7 Mr. Waldron Miller, associate
the Palseontological Museum of Leningrad. ^^ curator of ornithology at the American
w '"HEN Dr. Wilham

Diller Matthew,
F. R. S., was called
Musevmi
History, died at
Brunswick,
of Natural
New
New
from the head of our Jersey, from injuries

department of verte- received a few days
brate palaeontology to previous, when the
a full professorship of motor cycle on which
the same subject iu the he was riding coUided
University of Califor- with a motor bus.
was agreed that
nia, it For twenty-six years
he should return to the Mr. Miller had been a
American Museum member of the scien-
during his vacation tific staff of the Mu-
periods of the summer seum, giving to the
months to continue his institution and to num-
researches on the oldest berless bird-lovers who
fossU mammals of Ter- have called upon him,
tiary time, chiefly from the benefit of his un-
the famous deposits equaled knowledge of
known as the Puerco- birds and of fauna and
Torrejon of northern flora, particularly with-
New Mexico. Through in a radius of fifty miles
the Cope Collection of Plainfield, New Jer-
purchased in the year sey, his old home.
1894, the Museum ac-
Photograph by James P. Chapin
Since boyhood Mr.
quired the large and "WALDRON DE WITT MILLER Miller had been a close
unique series of fossil 1879-1929 student of birds. In his
mammalsof thisregion, A member of of the scientific staff of the American early twenties he at-
Museum since 1903
ampHfied by the explor- tracted the attention of
ations of Wortman and William Dutcher and
Granger. a bizarre world of life totally un-
It is Frank M. Chapman, through whom
later of Dr.
Uke the present. Through years of research he came to the American Museum. During all
Doctor Matthew has become a master of this the succeeding years he continued his field
subject and on the invitation of the Trustees studies with miflagging enthusiasm, spending
he is preparing a memoir entitled " Revision of every spare moment out of doors, studying the
the Puerco-Torrejon Fauna of New Mexico" of local birds in varying phases during the cycle of
which Part I was finished during the summer of the seasons. He made himself familiar not only
1928, the plates made up and the illustrations with the botany of the region where he worked,
completed. During the present summer Doctor but also with the small mammals and reptiles.
Matthew has completed the second part including Mr. Miller was a member of the committee
twelve plates, about thirty-five text figures and appointed to draw up the classification for the
between three and four hundred pages of manu- new check-list for the American Ornithological
script. The chief feature of this year's work is Union, which was pubhshed by Wetmore and
the re-study of the strange large-clawed mam- Miller in 1926 in The Auk. He was undoubtedly
mals known as 'tseniodonts' (from the Greek one of the best bird anatomists in America.
signifying 'banded-toothed')- He writes: The During his studies and field trips he had gathered
drawings "took most of Mr. Prentice's (the an enormous amount of information on the
artist) time. pieced the skulls and feet together
I anatomy and pterylosis of birds, and his note-
more completely, and restored them in plaster so books bear witness to his keen observations of the
far as justified by exact knowledge. They give specimens that passed under his eyes for record
and preparation. He made a special study of concerned with the flexibiUty of the case-building
woodpeckers and their allies, world-wide in its instinct of caddis-fly larvae, those interesting
scope, as well as of the characters of parrots and aquatic creatures that make "houses''
of sticks or
numerous other families. stones, or of both, according to their species. His
To Mr. Miller's colleagues at the Musevmi to results will probably be pubhshed in a subsequent
whose requests for information and assistance in issue of Natural History. Through the kind-
their work he never failed to respond by placing ness of Mr. Pratt, chairman of the department's
at their disposal his rich stores of knowledge, Trustee committee. Doctor Lutz had with him a
and to his many friends and admirers, the tragedy motion-picture camera with which he filmed the
which has robbed ornithology of one of its leading activities of various insects for the Museum's
students, is cause for prof oundest sorrow and regret. department of pubUc education.
HISTORY OF THE EARTH EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
A N extended vacation during the past summed" TN continuing the investigations on the cause
^^ permitted Dr. Chester A. Reeds, of the of bHndness in cave salamanders, the depart-
American Museum, to observe the geological ment of experimental biology of
the Ameri-
features at many interesting places in Austria and
can Museum extended its activities to a study
Germany. A month in the Austrian Alps of species which do not ordinarily become
afforded an opportunity to examine the Hohe bUnd. Mr. Maurice K. Brady has been study-
Tauern Range, the Gastein, Nassfeld and Seebach ing the rare Coastal Plain salamander, Stereo-
vaUeys near Badgastein and Mallnitz, and the chilus, a close relative of the blind species,
beautiful glacial lakes ZeUer See in the Saalach Typhlotriton. The work was carried on in Winton,
VaUey, Mond See, Wolfang See and Konigs See N. C, where Mr. Brady foimd the species dwell-
near Salzburg. At ZeU am See the recently coming in certain magnolia bog conditions peculiar to
pleted funicular railway, which carries passengers the white cedar and cypress swamp area of the
up 2000 meters, provided a convenient ascent to southern Coastal Plain. He obtained a series of
the top of the Schmittenhohe, where an excellent both adults and larvse for the department.
panorama of the eastern Alps with their snow- Mr. Brady, who has made a special study of
capped peaks and glaciated valleys was to be had. salamanders of the eastern United States and is a
Here the barren Steinernes Meer range, with graduate of George Washington University, has
reddish hue and turreted battlements, was more recently joined the staff of the American Museum
picturesque than the snow-capped peaks of the as assistant in experimental biology.
Hohe Tauern. The descent into the salt mine at
Berchtesgarden revealed extensive beds of rock REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS
salt of variegated colors, which has been mined A NEW appointment at the Museum is Mr.
since prehistoric times and afforded a revenue for
** Charles E. Burt who has joined the staff as
various governments for centuries. assistant curator of reptiles and amphibians.
In Germany special studies were made: He is a graduate of the Kansas State Agri-
(1) of the loess, sand and gravel deposits at cultural College, and during the past two
Mauer near Heidelberg, where Homo heidelbergen- years has been carrying on graduate work in
sis was found in 1907; the University of Michigan. Mr. Burt has made
(2) of the Sachsische Schweiz or Saxon Switzer- special study of the American Uzards, and at the
land where thick sandstone deposits with marked present time has ready for publication a revision
erosion al features are exposed along the Elbe of the race rimners, Cnemidophous, one of the
between Dresden, Germany, and Tetschen, largest and most difficult groups of lizards.
Czechoslovakia
rûring June and July Mr. and Mrs. Charles E.
(3) ofthe varved clay deposits in the valley of '-^ Burt made an extensive collection of reptiles
the Havel River at Zehdenick, 60 kilometers north
and amphibians in the Mississippi VaUey, which
of Berhn. Numerous photographs were taken at
included 784 amphibians and 209 reptiles, ob-
the points visited while at Gastein, Mauer,
tained in thirteen states and in a wide range of
Dresden and Zehdenick. Samples of the material
habitats. The most important material was ob-
were collected for the American Museum series.
tained in the region of the badlands and the
INSECTS Black HUls of South Dakota, in the sandhills of
ITESEARCH work at the Mt. Desert Biological northern and central Nebraska, and in the swampS
'•^ Laboratory, SaUsbury Cove, Maine, has of southwestern Louisiana. The American Mu-
engaged the attention of Curator Frank E. Lutz, seum has very few collections of reptiles and
of the American Museum's department of insect amphibians from the Middle West and this
ife, most of the summer. His studies were chiefly material adds important species to the collections.
560 NATURAL HISTORY
NATURAL HISTORY AUTHORS
Gilbert C. Klingel is a field naturalist of Baltimore and the background for the dramatic shark group in the new
who has for a long time been interested in photograph- Fish Hall, as well as that of the Panama bird group.
ing reptiles and amphibians. The expedition which Mr. Jaques' remarkable artistic ability, self-trained,
he describes in "Lizard Hunting in the Black Republic" and his particular interest in birds, fit him especially to
was sent out under the auspices of the department of interpret an artist's reaction to the problems of museum
herpetology and experimental biology of the American group construction.
Museum, and was financed by Mr. Klingel. Myron Ackland since Februaiy of this year has been
an assistant in the Museum's department of mammals.
Although Vilhjalmur Stefansson has spent a con- As is evident from his article, "Animals in Orchestration,"
siderable portion of his life in exploration in the Arctic
he is not a firm believer in the ancient admonition that "A
and sub-Arctic, his wide interest in aU polar exploration is cobbler should stick to his last"; and it so happens that
evidenced in his former contribution to the September-
music is his avocation.
October, 1928, issue of Natukal History entitled "By Mr. Ackland was formerly a student of chemistry at
Air to the Ends of the Earth." Ithaca, N. Y. During his studies in 1923 and 1924, he had
"The Theoretical Continent," gives the reader a most in- the rare opportunity of making frequent visits to the studio
teresting account of the gradual shrinkage of the Antarctic
of the late Louis Agassiz Fuertes, who engendered and
Continent under the steady advance of exploration. fostered in him the interest in natural history which was
To S. Harmsted Chubb, who tells "How Animals ultimately to take first place in his choice of activities.
Run," is due the credit of ha\'ing had the first inspiration
to mount skeletons artistically and scientifically accurate There appears on the Natural History Cover for this
at the same time. As a boy he spent most of his spare issue a reproduction in color of a painting by Mr. Arthur A.
time in cleaning and articulating the bones of stray mam- Jansson, of the rhinoceros iguana, Cyclura cornuta, the
mal specimens. This early interest developed with the years, largest of the iguanid lizards. It is exceeded in length by
despite the fact that he had to go into commercial work. His the iguanas of South and Central America, but these never
love of the art urged him continually to seek some connec- reach the weight of the rhinoceros iguana. The Iguanidse
tion which would enable him to devote his entire time to it, include the horned toads and the chameleons, as well as the
and he was led to show several of his mounted specimens to greater number of American lizards.
President Henry Fairfield Osborn who presently gave him After several years of work on the earUest mammals, in
an opportunity to do some work for the Museum. That the Yale Peabody Museurn, British Museum, and other
was eighteen years ago. Today Mr. Chubb is known as the American and European institutions, George Gaylord
foremost authority and exponent of artistic expression in Simpson joined the staff of the American Museum
museum exhibits.
skeletal in 1927. Since then he has devoted much time to the
The story of "The Birds of Little Diomede" is told by study of the extinct mammals of Florida. "Hunting
Francis L. Jaques, one of the artists on the staff of the Extinct Animals in Florida" is an outgrowth of these
American Museum's department of preparation. Mr. studies and of field work early in 1929 in cooperation with
Jaques painted the exquisite sky background for the bird the Florida State Geological Survey and with Mr. Walter
dome of the Bird HaU on the second floor of the Museum, W. Holmes, Field Associate of the American Museum.
Facts concerning other contributors have been given in former issues.
NEW MEMBERS
Since the last issue of Natural History, the following Pastor A. P. Franklin.
persons have been elected members of the American Mu- Professors H. M. MacKay, S. D. Psaros.
seum, making the total number 11,200. Doctors Geo. W. Acker, H. A. Beal, Harry S. Bull,
DeWitt Clark, William G. Curtis, Daniel C. Den-
S.
Fellow nett, Richard J. Ellis, Ralph E. Fisher, S. B. Fracker,
Mr. H. F. Benjamin Robert W. Gillman, Melvin Randolph Gilmore,
Life Member Oliver H. Howe, F. J. Hurley, James W. Jameson,
Mrs. Orlando F. Weber Ellwood R. Kirby, Chas. A. McNeil, Robert N. Nye,
Edward Plummer, J. P. Pratt, E. P. Richardson,
Sustaining Members Arthur H. Ruggles, J. H. Schlinkmann, George C.
Shattuck, J. A. Speight, John K. Strbcker, Frank N.
Mesdames John P. Chase, Robert Grant, Jr. Wilson.
Miss F. E. WiCKHAM.
Messrs. Arthur Pforzheimer, Donald F. Tripp, Ran- Messrs. Harry W. Andrewsen, Jr., D. C. Aspril, Edward
dolph S. Warner. Avis, C. N. Baldwin, Roy S. Barnhari, W. Allen Bah-
tels, Robert R. Bennett, D. C. Bixby, Frank W. Blair,
Annual Members Arthur L. Bliss, Clarence L. Brock, Frank G. Brun-
Dr. Florence R. Sabin. NER, A. C. Campbell, Charles Coburn, Burnham S.
Mesdames Caroline W. B. Atkinson, Wm. A. Aycrigg, Colburn, Justin F. Coombs, P. L. Couch, Walter S.
Jack A. Dryfoos, C. B. Gamble, Thomas J. Goddard, Creech, "ir. Conover Grouse, Ernesto Dalman, Duncan
L. R. Hardenbergh, Carl Lang, R. F. Morse, Charles Dana, Armin A. Darmstaetter, Albert Daub, Herbert
T. Plunkett, Jr., Orlando B. Potter, Lew Wallace, E. Dennison, C. a. Difpenderffer, Frank Gilbert
Edmond Weil, W. P. Willetts. DoLLEAR, Dan A. Donahue, William G. Fargo, E. E.
Misses Katharine Beebe, Margaret Henry, M. Annie Fessenden, Geo. B. Flood, Daniel Edward Fogarty,
Miller, Juliette Wedegartneh. Lee M. Ford, Walter Fherking, Felix Fribdlander,
Dr. Max Sturm. Mortimer B. Fuller, Jr., Robert Gaylord, Charles
Messrs. J. Henry Alexander, Jr., J. C. Boyers, R. S. B. Gleason, Henry B. Graves, S. Ellsworth Grumman,
Carter, H. Edward Dreier, H. S. Foley, John Gem- John W. Haarer, Henry C. Haile, V. T. Hammer,
MELL, Jr., Jesse R. Gibson, Milton Price Harley, Edmund Heller, James L. Higgins, Raymond M. Hill,
Raymond Harvey, Edmund Hollos, Abraham Leichter, A. L. Humpert, William R. Huntley, Paul Griswold
F. A. Love, Charles P. Lucked, Paul Manshif, L. Mc- Huston, Enrique Igaravidez, J. Arthur Jennings,
C(Drmick-Goodhart, Hubert McDonnell, Thomas J. Welton E. Johnson, F. G. Jonah, F. L. Jones, Harris
Moore, Charles A. Streuli, Thomas J. White, Joseph Kettering, E. A. Keuthan, E. B. Kirk. Erich Luschei,
Wiener, GilbertCondon Wood, Jr., Hermann Wunder- Michael J. Magee, Ausias March, Early Martin, Jr.,
LiCH, R. M. Youngs. Philip L. Martin, W. N. Matthews, Edward McColgan,
K. E. Merren, Gerhardt F. Meyne, Banks L. Miller,
Associate Members Gayden W. Moerrill, L. F. Muther, J. C. Nichols,
Dr. Carrie W. Smith. John T. Nightingale, John Erwin O'Brien, Jr., C. F. R.
Mesdames John Bakewell, W. F. Baxter, Lou A. Conk- Ogilby, William J. JPape, Sifford Pearre, Theodore
LiN, Brewer Eddy, J. J. Fisher, Charles S. Frost, Lula Baldwin Pitman, Morgn H. Plummer, H. J. Ponsford,
E. Frost, Newton A. Frost, Merle D. Graves, Wil- Edward A. Preble, Ramon Quesada, Hugh W. Ridlon,
liam R. Harr, Frances J. Haskins, Henry J. Kellogg, Charles Ripley, Henry Rottschaeper, Lamont Row-
Chas. C. Mengel, Alton L. Miller, Robetr T. Miller, lands, H. E. Russell, H. C. Sanborn, Alfred H. Schoeli^
Henry DeB. Miner, M. Hubert O'Brien, Geo. D. Pike, Kopp, R. H. Scott, Charles Sedgebeer, J. Newton
John J.Porter, Ralph Robinson, J. Y. Rogers, Clar- Smith, Lewis MacCuen Smith, Luther Ely Smith,
ence ScHOO, W. O. Shultz, F. W. Stearns, Kenneth B. Stanley W. Smith, Otis S. Southworth, Isaac Sprague,
Wetherbee, Donald Worthington. P. W. Sprague, John Thogerson, B. S. Warren, Walter
Misses Mary Beal, Clare C. Casey, Katherine T. Dex- C. Waters, Laurence J. Webster, Theodore T. Whit-
ter, Margaret Stone Hardwick, Jr., Ethel S. Kyle, ney, Jr., Arthur M. Wiggin, Andrew Wineman, Fen-
Helen E. Myers, Frances Prbttyman, Louisa H. Put- DALL G. Winston, Jr., Edgar B. Woodward.
nam, L. C. Sturgis, Caroline Wu. Master Howard Morgridge.
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Board of Trustees
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J. P. Morgan, Second Vice-President Archer M. Huntington
James H. Perkins, Treasurer Roswell Miller
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and for the maintenance of its pubhcations, the American Museum of Natural History is dependent
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guidance
EDUCATION H\ SSS /M EXPLORATION
Natural History a position of recognized importance in the educational and scientific Ufe of
THE NEW SCHOOL SERVICE BUILDING, with the increased facilities it offers, makes it
out the country. Fourteen miUion contacts were made during 1928 with boys and girls in the public
schools of the vicinity alone. Inquiries from all over the United States, and even
New York and
is suppUed to, and thousands of lantern shdes are
prepared at cost for distant educational institutions,
— —
not a local, but a national even an international institution. Through its loan collections, or
"traveling museums," which are circulated locally, 557 schools were reached last year, and 2,282,192
direct contacts were made with the pupils. More than a million lantern slides were lent to the New
York City schools, and 4,851 reels of the Museum's motion pictures were shown in 223 pubhc
COLLEGE AND
UNIVERSITY SERVICE. The President and the Curator of Pubhc Education
have extended and intensified the courses of college and university instruction. Among the institutions
with which the Museum is cooperating are Columbia University, New York University, College of
City of New York, Hunter College, Rutgers College, University of Vermont, Lafayette College, and
Yale University.
others for schools, colleges, and the general public, are dehvered both at the Museum and at outside
Museum, the popular publications include many handbooks, which deal with subjects illustrated by
of especial interest or importance. These are all available at purely nominal cost to anyone who
cares for them.
its collections,
trations and exhaustive treatment; the Bulletin, issued in octavo form since 1881, deahng with the
record the work of the Department of Anthropology; and Novitates, which are devoted to the pub-
lication of preUminary scientific announcements, descriptions of new forms, and similar matters.
mation in many odd corners of the world. During 1928 thirty-four expeditions visited scores of
different spots in North, South, and Central America, Asia, Africa, and Polynesia, and nearly as many

NEW YORK, N. Y.
HISTORY
Nov. -Dec.
Price Fifty
Cents
1929
BIRDS OF PARADISE

NEW
YORK, N. Y.
TT o^^^^^-^^^^^^LD OsBORN, LL.D President

r.
Geohoe H-/^™onA^MEr,D ,
Director and ExSive Secretary

î-ARK, Assistant Director, Preparation
Watnf M Faunce,
Wayne M. VA-n^nZ «;
I. DIVISION OF MINERALOGY,
GEOLOGY, GEOGRAPHY,
AND ASTRONOMY
Sc.B.,
William
Assistant to the Director and Assistant
Fishes
K Gregory, Ph.D., Curator
Secretary
Science of Man (continued)

William K. Gregory, Ph.D Associate
m
g'' T N L^. A.B., Curator of in Physicdl
,
Hestrt Fairfield Osborn, Recent Fishes Anthropology

LL D ,
E. W. Gudger, Clarence L. Hay, A.M., Research
D.Sc, Curator-in-Chief Ph.D., BibUographer Associate m
and Associate Mexican and Central
Francesca R. LaMonte, A.B., American Archaeology
ant Curator
Assist- MiLO Hellman, D.D.S.,Research Asso-
Astronomy ciate m Physical Anthropology
Louis Hussakop, Ph.D., Research
Clyde Fishee, Ph.D., LL.D., Curator George E. Brewer, M.D., Research
Associate m Devonian Fishes Associate m Somatic Anthropology
Charles H. Townsend, Sc.D., Re-
search Associate
Minerah and Gems C. ]M. Breder, Jr., Research Associate
Herbert P. Whitlock, C.E., Curator VAN Campen Heilner, M.Sc,
IV. DIVISION OF ASIATIC EX-
George F. Kunz, Ph.D., Research Field PLORATION AND RESEARCH
Representative
Associate in Gems Roy Chapman
Lea McIlvaine Luquer, Ph.D., Re- Andrews, So D
search Associate in Optical Mineralogy
Amphibians and Reptiles, and Curator-in-Cliief
Walter Granger, Curator in Pate-
Experimental Biology ontology
G. Kingsley Noble, Ph.D., Curator Charles P. Berkbt, Ph.D., [Columbia
History of the Earth Clifford H. Pope, B.A., Assistant University], Research Associate in
Henry Fairfield Osborn, LL.D., Curator Ceology
D.Sc., Honorary Curator-in-Chief Charles E. Bust, M.S., Assistant Amadeus W. Grabau, S.D., (Geological
Curator Survey of China], Research Associate
Bertram G. Smith, Ph.D., Research
Fossil Vertebrates Associate
Walter' Granger, Curator of Fossil A. B. Dawson, Ph.D., Research Asso- V. DIVISION OF EDUCATION
Mammals ciate
William Douglas Burden, A.M., Re-
AND PUBLICATION
Barnum Brown, A.B., Curator George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed
Fossil Reptiles
of search Associate
Curator-in-Chief
D
George G. Simpson, Ph.D., Associate
Curator of Vertebrate Palajontology Birds
Charles C. Mook, Ph.D., Associate Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D Library and Publications
Curator of Geology and Palaeontology Curator- Ida Richardson Hood, A.B., Acting
in-Chief
William K. Gregory, Ph.D., Research Robert Cushman Murphy, Curator
Associate m D.Sc, Hazel Gay, Assistant Librarian
Palaeontology Curator of Oceanic Birds
Childs Frick, B.S., Research Associate Jajîes Chapin, Ph.D., Associate
p. Jannettb May Lucas, B.S., Assistant
in Palseontology
Walter W. Holmes, Field Associate in
Curator of Birds of the Eastern —
xlemisphere
Palaeontology Elsie M. B. Naumburg, Research Education and Public Health
Associate
George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed D
Geology and Fossil Invertebrates '
Chester A. Reeds, Ph.D., Curator

Mammals of the World Curator-in-Chief
Clyde Fisher, Ph.D., LL.D., Curator
H. E. Anthony, M.A., Curator of \isual Instruction
Robert T. Hatt, A.M., Assistant Grace Fisher Ramsey, Associate
II. DIVISION OF ZOOLOGY Curator Curator
AND ZOOGEOGRAPHY George G. GooDwiN,Assistant Curator William H. Carr, Assistant Curator
William J. Morden, Ph.B., Field Nancy True, A.B., Staff Assistant
Frank Michler Chapman, Sc D Associate
N.A.S., Curator-in-Chief Elizabeth A. Eckels, Ph.B., Staff
Assistant
Comparative and Human Paul B. Mann, A.M., Associate in
Marine Ldfe Anatomy Education
Roy Waldo Miner, Ph.D. Sc.D. ciate in Outdoor Education
Curator M. C. Raven, Associate Curator
WiLLARD G. Van b.n. Chubb, Associate Curator
Name, Ph.D., Marcei.le Roigxeau, Staff Assistant
Associate Curator
Frank J. Myers, B.A., Research Asso- J.
Howard McGregor, Ph D Re- Ch.arles-Edwahd Amory Winslow,
ciate in Rotifera search Associate in Human Anatomy D.P.H., Honorary Curator of Public
Horace W. Stunkard, Ph.D Dudley J. Morton, M.D., Research Health
, Re- Associate
search Associate in Parasitology Mary Greig, A.B., Assistant Curator
A. L. Trbadwell, Ph.D., Research of Public
Health
Associate m
Annulata III. DIVISION OF ANTHRO-
POLOGY Printing and Publishing
Insect Life •^"j^K^j WissLER, Ph.D., Curator-in- Hawthorne Daniel, Curator, Editor
oi Natural History
Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D., Curator
A. J. MuTCHLER, Associate Curator A. Katherine Berger, Associate
Coleoptera
of Science of Man Editor of Natural History
C. H. CuRRAN, M. A., Assistant Clark Wissler, Ph.D., Ethel J. Timonier, Associate Editor
Curator Curator-in- of Scientific Publications
Frank E W.^tson, B.S., Staff Assistan[ Chief
m Lepidoptera N. C. Nelson, M.L., Curator
of Pre-
William M. Wheeler, Ph.D historic Archseologv Public Information
search Associate in Social Insect's
Re- Shapiro,- Ph.D., As.sistant
^""Al",^-
Curator George N. Pindar, Chairman
Charles W. Leng, B.S.,
of Physical Anthropology George H. Sherwood, A.M., Ed.D.
Research Margaret Mead,
Associate in Coleoptera Ph.D., Assistant William K. Gregory, Ph.D.
Herbert F. Schwarz, A.M., Curator of Ethnologj-
Research George C. Vaillant, Ph.D., Assistant
Wayne M. Faunce, Sc.B.
Associate in Hymenoptera Clark Wissler, Ph.D.
Curator of Mexican Archaeology
Hawthorne D.aniel
Advisory Committee on Natural
History Magazine
^ Hawthorne Daniel, Chairman
Henry V
TT^v,»^ RiiRFiELD
Osborn, LL.D., D Sc t7„ tvt ^ „ ^
Clark Wissler, Ph D Frank M. Chapman, Sc.D.
GeorgeN. Pindar Frank E. Lutz, Ph.D.
A. Katherine Berger^^°"'''' "• S^^^^Ô''' ^-M- F^^'-D- ^-officio
VOLUME XXIX iNyV 1 vJ rv/vL NOV.-DEC.
Number 6 T T T C TT ^^ D ^^ ^9^9
T^he Journal of The American Museum of Natural History
Hawthorne Daniel ^^PJ^^ A. Katherine Berger

Editor ^^^^^^^^^m Associate Editor
CONTENTS
Augusta Victoria's Bird of Paradise Cover
From a Painting by Francis L. Jaques (See Note page 674)
Baker's Bower Bird Frontis'piece

Color Plate from a Painting by Francis L. Jaques
A Collector in the Land of the Birds of Paradise. . . .Rollo H. Beck 563

The Problems and Difficulties of an Ornithologist in the South Seas
To New Guinea for Living Birds of Paradise Lee S. Grandall 579

An Account of an Expedition of the New York Zoological Society
The Mountains of Dominica Paul Griswold Howes 595

Trois Pitons and Diablotin, the Two Highest Peaks in the Lesser Antilles
Some Insects of Barro Colorado C. H. Curran 611

The Struggle for Existence in the Insect World
A Bit of Japan in Miniature V. Roxor Short 621

The Building of a Museum Model of a Japanese Countiy Home
How Atoms Build Herbert P. Whitlock 629

A Proof that Simplicity and not Complexity Lies at the Base of Crystal Structure
Africa's Great National Park Mary L. Jobe Akeley 638

The Official Opening of the Pare National Albert
Voracity in Fishes E. W. Gudger 651

Instances in which Fishes' Appetites Have Run Away with Their Caution
Air Castles in the Tropics Frank E. Lutz 656

A Review of Frank M. Chapman's New Book, My Tropical Air Castle
A Miocene Camel Bed-ground Barnum Brown 658

A Recently Installed Group in the American Museum
American Museum Expeditions and Notes 663
Published bimonthly by The American Museum of Natural History, New York, N. Y. Sub-
History, 77th St. and Central Park West, New York City.
Natural History is sent to all members of the American Museum as one of the privileges of member-
ship.
Acceptance for mailing at special rate of postage provided for in Section 1 103, Act of October
Copyright, 1929, by The American Museum of Natural History, New York.
i
BAKER'S BOWER BIRD
{Xanthomelus bakeri)
Adult male and young male of one of the new species discovered by Mr. RoUo H. Beck near Madan^
on the northern coast of New Guinea. The female is still unknown
VOLUME JNyV 1 \J rv/vL NUMBER
xx.x
HISTORY
NOVEMBER- DECEMBER, 1929
"'^
A COLLECTOR IN THE LAND OF

THE BIRDS OF PARADISE
Collecting Brilliantly Colored Birds Among the Mountains of New Guinea — The
Problems and Difficulties of an Ornithologist in the Savage Interior
of One of the Greatest of Islands
By ROLLO H. beck
Leader of the Whitney South Sea Expedition
WITH FIVE DRAWINGS BY FRANCIS L. JAQUES
After sixteen years of arduous adventure in the service of the American Museum
of Natural History, Mr. Rollo H. Beck and Mrs. Beck had started homeuard from the
Solomon Islands in June, 1928. They looked forward to retirement and a well-earned
rest in their California home.The heat, and danger, and swelter of nearly a decade
among the far-flung islands of the South Seas, during the period of Mr. Beck's leader-
ship of the Whitney South Sea Exepdition, was soon to become only a memory in which
happy episodes would crowd out any less pleasant to remember.
Mr. and Mrs. Beck had not even reached Sydney, Australia, on their homeward way,
however, before a wireless message overtook them, proposing an additional year's work
on the mainland of New Guinea. A study of the birds of paradise loas among the
naturalist's temptations mentioned in the message and, despite their homesickness,
Mr. and Mrs. Beck turned northward again as soon as they had outfitted in Australia.
Some of their experiences during the subsequent year are related in thefollowing account,
in which Mr. Beck tells of the discovery of a bird of paradise new to science, all the more
remarkable because it was obtained in territory supposedly exhausted of such ornitho-
logical surprises. —Robert Cushman Murphy.
hours, and brought in the three
A bird of paradise called far across first
the canon from our hut in specimens of this species, all of them fine
^
Meganum, a little native village, males, with the flowing plumes so beloved
twenty miles inland from Madang, the by the milliners twenty years ago. The
of
principal mainland port of New Guinea absence of these three individuals from the
Territory. From far up the canon vicinity of our camp could not be detected
another answered, and many times a by any in the volume of
decrease
day during the next six weeks we heard paradisian sound that was audible daily,
the strident calls of the yellow-plumed so we classed the species as common,
bird of paradise (Paradisâ minor finschi) From several sources in the Territory
Shortly after our arrival, Manube, our Iwas told that most of the former German
first shootboy, strolled out for a couple of owners of plantations along the coast had
A SIX-PLUMED BIRD OF PARADISE]
{Parotia wahnesi)
The beautifvil jet-black body-feathers of this bird are topped by six plumes, also jet black. A tuft
of bronze feathers grows directly over the bill, and the throat has an iridescent sheen of green and
purple. One of these birds is here pictured in partial display
PRINCE RUDOLF'S BLUE BIRD OF PARADISE
(Paradisornis rudolphi)
Wholly unlike the usual attitude of display is the performance of the blue paradise bird He hangs
from the perch by his feet, spreading the feathers of breast and flanks into a hving tan. Across
Crandall, page 579.)
this blue fan run bands of black and rufous. (See also the article by Lee S.
566 NATURAL HISTORY
"MAIN STREET" IN MEGANUM

A village in themountains inland from the town of Madang which is the principal port of eastern
New Guinea. In the near-by forests, Mr. Beck collected some of his birds of paradise
paid for the clearing and planting of their tions, was apparently wild berries of
properties by selling bird of paradise skins. various kinds.

At one port in the Territory several dozen From the point of view of an ex-
old commercial skins were offered to me, perienced bird collector, Meganum is not
but the law against kilHng and exporting an ideal collecting point. Nowhere on the
this family of birds appears to be well various trails round about can one find a
obeyed at present, for within five miles level stretch of ground fifty yards long.
from where these skins were offered I saw It is either steeply up or down, and
several and heard many of the same birds of paradise as well as other species
species. prefer the larger and highest tree tops to
That at least one New Guinea resident those within reasonable shooting distance.
hopes for a repeal of the present drastic My bird of paradise was a lucky
first
prohibitory law was evidenced by a com- fluke. While I was walking along a trail
munication sent recently to a Sydney through high forest trees, a bird called
(Australia) paper, wherein damage to ahead of me and I answered with a crude
cultivated crops in one section of the imitation. A small brown appearing bird
Territory was laid at the door of maraud- lit over my head and a moment later
ing birds of paradise. During my stay in dropped at my feet. Not till I stooped
the Territory I heard literally hundreds, to pick it up did I see the long, gray,
dozens of these close to native gardens, curled tail feathers, and it was much more
but not one did I see feeding on culti- surprising to see the same curling feathers
vated plants. The usual food of several change to dark metallic blue when their
species, determined by stomach examina- upper surface was viewed. But the multi-
A COLLECTOR IN THE LAND OF THE BIRDS OF PARADISE 567
tudinous colors of the bird when held in often works down to the smaller trees of
hand made one wonder where one's eye- the heavy forest, but ordinarily it keeps
sight could have been when only a dull to the higher parts of the largest trees.
brownish bird had been the apparent One bird that I kept hearing every half
target. Rich green were the underparts, hour or so for several hours, changed his
while brown, yellows, and grays in vari- perch a dozen times during that period,
ous shades and patches marked the upper but did not fly out of a half-mile radius
parts. A page would be needed to from the original perch. Each male of
describe the color combinations of the this species seemed to me to have a
back alone. This beautiful creature has definite area in which he moved, for, on
been burdened with a name which is several of my visits to a given locality, I
spelled Cicinnurus regius similis. would hear the same bird calling. Although
Later in the day a loud call and swish- I frequently tried to see certain individuals
ing wings drew my attention to a dark- that I could hear calling in trees near by
colored bird that lit close to me. This or mayhap directly overhead, only on rare
proved to be another species of para- occasions could the be observed.
bird
dise bird, the rifle bird. Its shiny blue Sometimes the loud swish of the wings
throat color changed to purplish green would give me notice of their passing in
on the breast, while the velvet black back the forest, and on those sounds I based
merged into a metallic blue crown on most of my attempts to get within reach
the head. When feeding, this species of the elusive quarry. An interesting
AUGUSTA VICTORIA'S BIRD OF PARADISE

{Paradissea apoda augustse-victoriae)
the most gorgeous ot
This bird, shown also on the cover of Natural History in fuU color, is among
In display the male stands on the perch with wings raised and
long tlank-
all the birds of paradise.
feathers greatly expanded
~^^^~j/
MEETING THE STEAMER NEAR AITAPE

At certain ports along the New Guinea coast, fleets of canoes hover about the monthly mail steamer
during its stay
CROSSING THE GOM RIVER

The Government pays a monthly stipend to a native to ferry in his canoe all persons wishing to
cross the river
CARRYING TOBACCO TO MARKET
This group of natives is starting from its mountain village with a load of home-grown tobacco to be
sold to plantation owners on the coast
EARLY TRAINING IN NEW GUINEA

Children of the mountain villages early begin their training with bows and arrows, which are highly
important in securing various species of birds as well as opossums and kangaroos
570 NATURAL HISTORY
TWELVE- WIRED
BIRD OP PARADISE
The twelve wires of
the male, Seleucides
ignotus, are recurved
feathers with stiff, bare
shafts, growing among the
lengthened flank-feathers. The black
portions of the plumage are glossed
with green on the back, purple on the
crown, wings, and tail, while the
breast has scaly feathers with metallic
green tips. The lower parts are yellow.
The female is more soberly colored
not one of these birds was heard,

until a height of more than two
thousand feet was attained. Behind
Finschhafen, one hundred and fifty
miles or so south of Keku, I was
surprised to hear one at five hun-
dred feet, and others frequently
below two thousand.
Only at Finschhafen did I have
an opportunity to pass above the
point, to me, about this species was the range of this species, the mountains about
altitude at which it ranged at different the first two camps exceeding little more
stations. At Meganum, and at Keku, a than three thousand feet. This height was
station forty miles south of Meganum, the extreme limit beyond which no birds
A COLLECTOR IN THE LAND OF THE BIRDS OF PARADISE 571
were heard when I worked inland from the behind the settlement, the bird was miss-
port of Finschhafen. How closely birds ing,even though I could hear it calUng a
keep to certain bounds was illustrated by thousand feet below my trail.
the vociferous calls of another bird of At Zagaheme three birds of paradise
paradise {Paradissea guilielmi). This new to me appeared. My
acquaintance
species begins to make itself heard plenti- with one of them began when I crossed
fully at about twenty-two hundred feet, trails with mv shootbov about noon the
where it replaces a related species that in-
habits the forest in the lower zone. From
twenty-two it is heard regularly up to
four thousand, where
it abruptly stops. We
spent some time at
Zagaheme, which is four
thousand feet and,
though we heard and
saw the birds often about
the village and below it,
when I climbed up a few
hundred feet on the ridge
A Superb Bird of Paradise

{Lophorina superba latipennis
is here beginning to display
his iridescent shield. His
plumage is jet black with a
bronze luster on the cape, and
crown and breast-shield me-
tallic green
572 NATURAL HISTORY
first day. He was accompanied by a of birds, the females were the more curi-
small boy carefully carrying (by a thread ous when investigations were to be made.
run through the nostrils) a long-tailed Often a female would drop down quite
black bird which had a collar of burnished close to me to have a good look, while the
gold, separating the black of the throat brightly colored male, if seen at all, would
from the bright green of the breast. be flitting about high above. In addition
Another black- to the birds of para-
bodied bird had dise, pittas, small-
three long feather sized ground birds,
vanes tipped with were on my list of
tinj^ black feathers extra desirable
extending to the specimens. Al-
base of the tail, the though they were
vanes coming from not rare, they prov-
just back of the ed to be very adroit
eyes. A metallic in their movements.
patch of light green Had it not been
or dark blue feath- for some small boys
ers (depending on at Keku whom I
the angle at which interested in trap-

the light struck ping for me, the
them) covered the series would have
lower throat. been very meager.
The third bird of These youngsters
the list was also built miniature
blackish. Its throat duplicates of their
was blue and had fathers' pig traps in
long points sticking the forest, and by
out somewhat after baiting with big
MRS. BECK EXAMINES A SPECIMEN
the fashion of the grasshoppers or
The bird, which is a hornbill, has just been
present-day collars brought in from the mountains near Madang by ether convenient
that I find New the expedition's "shootboy" bird food, succeeded
Yorkers wearing. in capturing several
In addition to the pointed collar, this bird specimens of two species of They pittas.
sports a beautiful ruft" of soft, velvety surprised me by bringing number in also a
feathers, which it raises or lowers as of kingfishers, caught in the same man-
occasion demands. Whether these three ner. In fact they brought me more long-
species live much above six thousand feet tailed kingfishers {Tanysiptera hydro-
I did not determine, my trips to seven charts meyeri) than I captured with
thousand and above being too few to form the shotgun, although later I found it
an opinion. It was disappointing to me much easier to locate the kingfishers
to find no specimens of the blue bird of sitting in the forest. Often the slowly
paradise, its range beginning about five waving tail would be my first intimation
thousand above sea level. Apparently it that one of these beautiful birds was right
does not range so far to the north, as none in front of me. One evening after dark
of the natives seemed to be acquainted one of the boys' working at a mission
with it. station brought in: to me a freshly killed
Contrary to the habits of most species specimen of the blue-bibbed pitta. I
A NEST OF A BLUE-BIBBED PITTA
{Pitta macklotii macklotii)
The nest was discovered tucked away under a decaying log in a heavily forested canon. No eggs
were readily visible, so one was placed at the entrance while the nest was being photographed
THE NEST OF A RED-CAPPED DOVE

{Ptilinopus pulchellus decorus)
A few twigs, carelessly laid on top of some dead leaves, answers for the home of this beautiful dove.
Although it is not uncommon in New Guinea, it is not often seen, due to its habit of frequenting
the thick forest trees
A NATIVE "SINGSING" AT MADANG
When the Resident Commissioner makes his yearly visit to Madang, the mainland seaport of the
Territory of New Guinea, the natives gather by the hundred, and, decorating themselves in gala
attire, dance their oldtime dances for his pleasure
BEDECKED PARTICIPANTS OF THE "SINGSING"

This pair awaiting the signal to begin dancing. The head of the drum is covered with a tightly
is
stretched piece of iguana skin, this being the usual material for drum heads in that region
FIELD LABOR IN NEW GUINEA
These two women, who Uve in the New Guinea mountains, are preparing ground for the planting
of taro, a crop upon which the natives are widely dependent. It is rather unusual for a mother to
carry her child on her back while working in the fields
NEW GUINEA WOMEN PERFORM MOST OF THE LABORIOUS DUTIES

are planting sugar cane in a taro garden at Keku, New Guinea.
The women Other plants introduced
by the missionaries are also interspersed among the taro
576 NATURAL HISTORY
which had fallen about the rotting log,
while an oologist looking for nests would
likely note the structure and give it the
second confirmatory glance. It was
tucked away under a large decaying
branch, in a shallow hole in the bank, and
had at the sides and bottom long dead leaf
stems as if they had fallen naturally.
The roofing was cunningly composed of
fresh green fern leaves and intermingling
dry leaves in the usual forest proportions.
Inside there was a thick lining of fine
black on which the creamy
rootlets
spotted eggs showed plainly.
While sitting before the nest writing
this description in my notebook, a tiny
kingfisher cheeing through the forest lit
over my head for the time took to turn

it
my eyes toward it, and then darted on its

invisible flight to another perch. A larger
CIVILIZATION ENTERS NEW GUINEA

With a plane obtained from the white men, this
schoolboy planes a board for the schoolhouse in
the background
asked him where he got it and how. He

explained as follows:
''Bello, now me go drink water.
Mama belong keow run away. Me lookim,
now me come back. Long night time me
go ketch im. Me come me giv im you."
Translated to plain English all this
means:
"When the noon horn sounded I went
down to the brook for a cool drink and
saw a bird run away from its nest. I saw
eggs in the nest, so at night time I went to
it and caught the parent, bringing it to
you."
This meritorious act earned for the boy
a stick of tobacco and enabled me to get a
photograph of the nest and an egg of the
TOMATOES IN A TARO GARDEN
bird, one of the two the nest contained
Missionaries have introduced many plants new
being broken when the bird was caught.
to the natives. Corn, potatoes, pumpkins, cu-
Glancing casually at the nest in situ, cumbers, tomatoes, and other vegetables are now
nine out of ten persons would see merely a occasionally to be found grown by natives who
jumble of dead leaves and the usual htter have come in contact with white men
4il
AT WORK IN THE INTERIOR

In the mountains of New Guinea Mr. Beck usually had several natives waiting for the flesh of the
birds whose skins he was preparing
MAKING A NEW GUINEA "RAINCOAT"

These garments, which are made of pandanus leaves, are suprisingly light and shed water well.
In the higher mountains practically all the natives carry these, for heavy showers lastmg from
twenty minutes to several hours may occur at any time
578 NATURAL HISTORY
kingfisher (Alcyone azurea lessonii) simi- of the green species, while they worked
larly colored, which flies up and down the up and down and under the limbs of the
mountain streams, reminded me often of trees within twenty feet of me.
the flight of dippers in California moun- They repeatedly pulled off small bits of
tains, but the tiny one has its counter- the dry bark, but just what they found
part only in straight-flying humming underneath I could not determine. Like
birds, for by the time its call reaches some species of kingfishers these little
the ear, the bird itself is yards away, chee parrots use an occupied termite nest for
cheeing as it goes. their home. A cavity in one side of the
One of the Httle birds that I always nest appears to keep dry, even in heavy
hstened for was the pygmy parrot, two rain squalls. Just how they keep clear
species of which I took in New Guinea. of the thousands of termites has never
Its note is a most elusive scree scree, and been explained to me satisfactorily.
frequently, although hearing the note This was just one of the many interest-
regularly, I could not focus my eyes on the ing, incidental questions that puzzled me
spot on the near-by tree trunk where the on the New Guinea trip. There were
bird was. From the hotel porch in Rabaul many others, and still more await future
the capital of the Mandated Territory, I collectors to the unknown mountains in
watched several times the feeding actions the interior of that great island.
on a deserted rubber plantation near madang, new

girlnea, the nest op a common kingfisher was found
hollowed out in the center of a populous white
ants' nest
A Visiting Motumotu Sailing Canoe on Hall Sound
TO NEW GUINEA FOR

LIVING BIRDS OF PARADISE
An Account of an Expedition Sent to New Guinea by the New York Zoological
Society for the Purpose of Collecting the Strange and Beautifully
Feathered Birds of the Island's Forests
By lee S. CRANDALL
Curator of Birds, New York Zoological Park
TWO skins of the greater bird of

brought by the adven-
paradise,
In
naturalists
spite of
and
the occasional
explorers, this
visits
halo of
of
turers of Magellan's voyage around romance hangs over New Guinea and
still
the world, in 1522, are believed to have its near-by islands.

Various professional
been the first of these beautiful birds to collectors have gained fame through their
have reached Europe. Like most native labors and sacrifices in this forbidding
skins,even to this day, these specimens country and more than one thousand
were without wings or feet. The unex- species of birds have been described. Yet
plained lack of extremities, coupled with the supply of new bird species appears to
the ethereal beauty of the birds' plumage, be inexhaustible, and we know next to
gave rise to a great variety of conjectures nothing of the hfe histories of this tre-
of rashly romantic nature. For years it mendous avian population.
was believed that they ''live in the air, There are several excellent reasons why
always turning toward the sun, and never zoological exploration in New Guinea has
lighting on the earth until they die, for done little more than scratch the surface.
they have neither feet nor wings." Even The mainland of this great island contains
as late as 1758, perfect skins were still a surface area of well over 300,000 square
unknown, and the great naturalist Lin- miles of almost impenetrable jungles and
naeus, quite possibly with his tongue in his towering, inaccessible mountains, that
cheek, designated the species as Paradisea offer every obstacle to the uncovering of
apoda, the name it bears today. their many treasures. A few great rivers,
580 NATURAL HISTORY
the mountains rise al-
most directly from the
sea. Here the going is of
the roughest, up and
down sharp, razor-backed
ridges, or along their
narrow crests, ever climb-
ing higher and higher.
If there is a govern-
ment or mission track to
follow, the way is fairly
clear, if not easy. When
these are not available,
native tracks usually can
be found. A
day spent
in climbingan almost
perpendicular mountain-
side, on a native path,
should convince the most
rabid anti-evolutionist.
Tremendous areas
have never been trod
by foot of white man.
Other great stretches
have been ''explored" by
small parties of govern-
ment officers, who have
threaded their way
LESSER SUPERB BIRD OF PARADISE through the wilderness,
(Lophorina superha minor)
glad to return safely to
The southern race of a species collected also by Mr. Beck. (See p.
571.) Many of the shorter feathers of the metallic breast-shield of civilization and report
this bird have velvety black centers
new mountains, lakes, or
such as the Fly and the Sepik, which are rivers. Many years must pass before the
navigable by small craft for considerable last elusive "new species" of the New
distances, provide comparatively easy in- Guinea fauna is taken and described,
gress to sections of the interior. But the and many more before the last life history
huge mass of country, lying between is finally worked out.
the larger waterways, can be traversed Since the primary purpose of all public
only on foot. Food and equipment must zoological institutions is to attract the
be cut to less than necessities, for every greatest possible number of people, and to
ounce means an added burden for the re- attempt to arouse in them an interest in
luctant native carriers, who never can be natural history, no birds can equal in value
secured in sufficient numbers. This need the birds of paradise. The brilliance of
of economy is increased by the extreme their plumage and the bizarre nature of
difficulty of the terrain. In some sections their decorations set them apart as the
coastal swamps or plains must be world's most beautiful group of birds.
traversed before the foothills of the great Nearly one hundred forms are known,
mountain ranges are reached. In others. including several that are doubtfully
TO NEW GUINEA FOR LIVING BIRDS OF PARADISE 581
placed among the bower birds. Living in New Guinea proved to be invaluable.
specimens have always been uncommon Our was Inawaia, in
particular village
in captivity —in fact, when three greater the Mekeo District of the Central Division
birds of paradise arrived at the New York of the Territory of Papua, once known as
Zoological Park in November, 1910, they British New Guinea. Mekeo is a plain of
probably were the first of any species ever considerable area that extends northward
to reach America alive. from Hall Sound, about sixty-five miles
The need of a fine collection of living west of Port Moresby. The natives here
birds of paradise has long been felt by are of the Papuo-Melanesian group that —
the officers of the New York Zoological is,they appear to be the descendants of
Society. In consequence, I found myself, Melanesian immigrants, more or less
early in October, 1928, established in a intermixed with the true Papuans. They
tiny, rickety "rest house" in a native are mostly light brown in color, though
New Guinea village. I was accompanied occasionally very dark or very pale in-
by Mr. J. E. Ward, of Sydney, Australia, dividuals are seen. The hair is of the
and we had come in an attempt to secure "mop" type, long and bushy, and usually
for the New York Zoological Park the not tightly curled. It is seen to the best
beautiful birds we had been unable to advantage in the men, who regard their
obtain b}^ other means. I ought to say here coiffures with pride and give them con-
that our final success was due chiefly to stant attention. The women, on the other
the knowledge, grit, and determination hand, are accustomed to wear their heads
of Mr. Ward, whose previous experience closely clipped, apparently for the excel-
LONG-TAILED BIRD OF PARADISE

{Epimachus fastosus meyeri)
This specimen is an immature male. The adult is chiefly metaUic black and in length measures more
than forty inches
PORT MORESBY FROM THE HARBOR
The seat of colonial government, Port Moresby is the first town of the Territory. It boasts of a
number of substantial, well constructed buildings
A SEA-GOING CANOE
This clumsy craft, composed oftwo large canoes, decked over, was sailed to Yule Island from Motu-
motu, native village, about fifty miles to the west
f>
A TRADING STATION ON YULE ISLAND
The headquarters of the Ansâbunga Companv, known as Arure. The manager's house is seen at
the right, with the store and boys' quarters at center and left
STREET SCENE IN SAMARAI

Situated on a tiny island at the extreme southeastern end of Papua, Samarai is the second
town of
the Territory. It is a green and lovely spot, in sharp contrast with dusty Port Moresby
584 NATURAL HISTORY
lent reason that they are too busy in the in the hair, completes a really striking effect.
gardens to devote much time to their In common with most of the New
personal appearance. Guinea tribes, the Mekeo people make use
Clothing is confined to a perineal band of the "dubu" or boys' house. Here the
formen and a grass skirt for women. The unmarried boys of the village live together,
men, however, particularly those who are in theoretical isolation from their families.
as yet unmarried, decorate themselves Actually, however, they continue to re-
elaborately. The body smeared with a
is ceive most of their food from the family
heavy coat of cocoanut oil and red ochre, pot. It is brought to them, usually in the
or some other reddish dye. Intricate and evening,by mother or sister, who must re-
beautiful designs, in red, black, and yel- tireimmediately on leaving the offering on
low, are painted on the face, sometimes the platform of the dubu, for no woman
covering its entire surface. These patterns may enter the sacred precincts. It is bad
would repay study, for not only are they form, also, for a dubu boy to eat food
carefully done, but I never saw two alike. before a woman, and none will willingly
The designs are not the property of do so. This custom appears to have its
individuals, for each boy changed the origin in the desire of the unmarried boy
pattern when redecoration was necessary. to impress the women with the idea that he
Pale green, scented Colius and Croton is a light feeder and that his wife would
leaves are inserted in woven armlets and have an easy time in her garden. He
sometimes in leg bands as well. A deep wears a broad belt, drawn to really alarm-
cream or scarlet Hibiscus blossom, inserted ing tightness, to prove it.
PRINCE RUDOLPH'S BLUE BIRD OF PARADISE

(Paradisornis rudolfi)
Among the rarest and most beautiful of the birds of paradise, this species was one the expedition
was most anxious to obtain. Seven specimens were brought ahve to the New York Zoological Park
COUNT RAGGT'S BIRD
OF PARADISE
{Paradissea apoda raggiana
Of the group of typical birds
of paradise, with long,
filamentous side plumes,
this is the only member
found in southeastern New
Guinea. The plumes are
crimson, paling to brownish
at the tips
5-3
FAWN-BREASTED
BOWER-BIRD
{Aljihachlamydera cervini-
ventris recondita)
A characteristic bird of the
lowlands. The beautiful
bowers, or play grounds, are
usually found close to
native tracks. They are
easily located because of the
noisy chattering of the bird
as one passes near
BOYS' HOUSE OR "DUBU" IN THE MEKEO DISTRICT OF PAPUA
In most parts of New Guinea it is customary for the unmarried boys to leave the family circle and
enter the dubu
OUR LANDING IN MEKEO

Just as the expedition finished unloading, the two boys in the foreground came along, on their way
down river to a dance. The photograph shows the splendid physique of the Mekeo native
The Mekeo people undoubtedly have through this grass country is ordinarily
been cannibals, but under the influence both difficult and unpleasant. However,
of government and mission, have long it is occasionally burnt off during pig and
since given up the practice. In fact, wallaby hunts, and when the grass begins
they express horror at the suggestion of to grow anew, a very beautiful parklike
such a thought. But this apparent abhor- effect results.
rence carries little weight, for even in There are many birds here, of course
remote districts, where contact with white swarms of parrakeets and lories, fly-
people has been of the slightest, known catchers and honey-eaters —but only one
cannibals will often vehemently deny bird of paradise is common. This is the
that they have ever heard of a habit so green manucode (Manucodia ater alter), a
disgusting. black, crowlike bird which is very abun-
The language of Mekeo is of Melancsian dant from Yule Island to the foothills.
origin and apparently very difficult for a The twelve-wired bird of paradise (Seleu-
white man to master. However, many probably occurs in Mekeo,
cides ignotus)
of the men are able to speak Motu, an- where the sago palm grows, and Koi
other Melanesian tongue
spoken by the Port \
Moresby natives. This i
is a comparatively simple
language and with a
vocabulary of fifty or
sixty which are
words,
easily one is
acquired,
able to get on very well.
Extended conversations,
of had to be
course,
carried on through an
interpreter and in this
capacity, the services of
Koi, our cookj^-boy, were
constantlyin demand.
Koi was a Mekeo boy,
but he spoke understand-
able pidgin-Enghsh, as
well as several native
dialects. The Mekeo
country is quite flat and
only a few feet higher
than sea level. In a few
scattered localities, high
primitive forest still re-
mains, but for the most
part, the bush is low and
intermingled with large
patches of saw grass, MOUNT lOLA
This isolated peak rises from the floor of the Aya Valley, northeast of
which frequently is ten or
Deva-deva. The top is saddle-shaped, and on each point is a %allage.
twelve feet tall. Travel The two are known, collectively, as lola
THE CHIEF OF
JESUBAIBOA
In Papua a chief has prac-
tically no control over the
individual actions of his
people, except as they
may affect the general
good of the communitv
PARTICIPANTS IN THE
DANCE
Adornment for such social
occasions is carried out
with elaborate attention
to detail. The ornaments
are handed down from
generation to generation
MOTUMOTU NATIVES
These people come from
near the mouth of the
Lakekamu River, about
fifty miles west of Yule
Island. They probably
represent the purely
Papuan type
BAGGING COPRA
The dried cocoanut meat
isbeing packed for ship-
ment on the launch which
took the expedition to
Jesubaiboa. The skirted
man at the left is a boat
boy
590 NATURAL HISTORY
assured me that the magnificent bird of than two hundred feet, we heard the
paradise {Dyphyllodes magnificus hun- raucous calls of the magnificent rifle bird
sometimes found there also. At
steini) is (Craspedophora magnifica), a beautiful
the northwestern edge of the district, just black bird of paradise, which inhabits the
MEKEO WOMEN AT THE DANCE

Women are invariably reluctant to pose for photographs and pictures are difficult to get. The elabo-
rate decorations are well shown, particularly in the figure at the left. The woman at the right is not
participating
before the foothills are reached, I saw the mountains up to about two thousand five
only king bird of paradise {Cicinnurus hundred feet. From Kubuna, the eleva-
regius daudii) that was recorded during tion rises abruptly so that traveling became
the expedition. very strenuous indeed. After three days
After some difficulty in organizing a of hard marching we finally came to a
staff of carriers, we set out on the long point known as Deva-deva, at an eleva-
march to the mountains, which lay to the tion of about four thousand feet, in the
northeast. During the second day we western extension of the Owen Stanley
reached the the foothills, and here,
first of range. The place takes its name from a
at an elevation of less than one hundred native village that once existed there and
feet, we heard the first call of Count on which we had relied for food. Un-
Raggi's bird of paradise {Paradissea fortunately, the former inmates had scat-
apodaraggiana) . Thereafter, even at eleva- tered up and down the lovely valley of the
tions of six thousand feet, the piercing Aiya River, so that there was no food to
notes of this splendid species were con- be had. Most of our boys immediately
stantly in our ears. deserted, leaving us in an alarming fix.
At Kubuna, where the elevation is less The reduced size of our party, however,
A VILLAGE DANCE IN MEKEO
These dances are purely social affairs, given by one village, to repay similar courtesies of their neigh-
bors. On this occasion, ten Mekeo villages were the guests of Eboa
Pl^r^
A PHASE OF THE DANCE

The steps are graceful and dignified, in perfect time with beats of the drums carried by the men. The
women in the foreground are waiting to join in at the proper time
592 NATURAL HISTORY
dampened and will always seek shelter if
he can.
The Kuni language, while apparently
fundamentally Melanesian, is quite differ-
ent from that of Mekeo, and of all our
boys, only Koi was able to make himself
understood. Under his benign influence,
the people quickly overcame their natural
shyness of white men. They soon began
to bring us small supplies of sweet pota-
toes, and after further persuasionand the
display of trade knives and axes, they
began to bring us the birds we had come
so far to get.
The magnificent bird of paradise (Dy-
phyllodes magnificus hunsteini) is very
abundant here and in spite of our assur-
ance to the natives that we did not want
this bird, they brought us more than we
could take. Iâwes' six-plumed bird of
paradise {Parotia lawesi) and the lesser
superb (Lophorina suverba minor) were
AYA, THE EXPEDITION'S BIRD BOY
Aya finds it difficult to control his expression,
because the other boys are making fun of him
\indoubtedly increased the confidence of

the local natives,who eventually came in
and made friends.
The Deva-deva people belong to the
Kuni tribe, whose boundaries extend
northwestward to the Mafulu country.
In appearance, the Kuni people are quite
different from those of Mekeo. They are
noticeably shorter in stature, averaging
hardly more than five feet one inch . They
are much darker in color and oblique eyes
are common. I noted several people with
strikingly Mongolian features, including
obHque eyes. The hair is not worn in the
bush formation of Mekeo, and usually is
covered with a headdress of bark cloth.
It seemed to me that climatic conditions
have made this custom necessary, for in
the mountains rain falls heavily nearlj^
every day. The mountain native goes GPU KAKI, VILLAGE CONSTABLE
about indifferently, his hair safely pro- OF JESUBAIBOA
tected. The Mekeo boy, on the other Opu is a splendid specimen of the Mekeo native,
excelling in physique and intelligence. He is well
hand, is very reluctant to have his mop known throughout the district
almost as numerous. Mt. Kebea, which

Hes between Dilava and Deva-deva, and
rises to a height of about six thousand
feet, seems to represent the hmit of the
southwestward range cf Prince Rudolph's

blue bird of paradise (Paradisornis rudolfi)
This beautiful species is very local in dis-
and only a very few living speci-
tribution
mens have been taken. Consequently,
our efforts were concentrated on securing
it,but it was only when we had begun to
refuse others that our constant persuasion
began to have its effect and our first blue
bird was brought in. Whether because
the blue bird hves very high up the per-
cipitous slopes, or from some superstiti-
ous dread, the natives are reluctant to
takeit. However, a nice, shiny, seventy-
five-cent trade ax is a powerful argument
against superstition, in the eyes of people
who use axes of stone to clear the forest
for their gardens. Seven lovely blue
A DUBU BOY FROM EBOA
This boy came frequently to visit the expedition
at Inawaia, but would pose for his photograph
only when he considered his toilet perfect
birds of paradise, landed safely in New

York, witness this fact.
At the last moment, a pair of ycung
long-tailed birds of paradise (Epimachus
fastosus meyeri) were brought in. This is
the largest species of the group, the adult
male reaching a length of more than forty
inches. found in the high mountains
It is
northeast Deva-deva, and we had
of
hardly hoped that even the promise cf an
ax would cause the hunters to go so far
afield.
After many difficulties, caused chiefly

by lack of carriers and scarcity of food, we
succeeded in getting our precious collec-
tion down to Mekeo, where no one who
can live on sweet potatoes and excellent
bananas is likely to starve. We stopped
again in Inawaia, for some weeks, to make
A BOY FROM THE VILLAGE OF WAIACKA further collections, and just as we were
A typical dubu boy, in his everyday finery. Un- about to leave, I had the great good
fortunately, the camera failed to pick up the
intricate pattern painted on his face fortune to be able to witness a native
594 NATURAL HISTORY
dance, a thrilling experience. This event beautiful, many of the men wearing
took place at Eboa, a village about two magnificent headdresses composed largely
miles to the north of Inawaia. of the plumes of Count Raggi's bird of
This dance was of purely social char- paradise. As individuals tire, their places
acter, given by Eboa, to repay the inhabit- are taken by others, the performance going
ants of ten neighboring villages for on continuously, day and night, for three
similar entertainments previously en- or four days, without pause longer than a
joyed. Such an cannot be arranged
affair few seconds. At the end cf this period,
until the host village has accumulated a when everyone is thoroughly exhausted,
great store of surplus food, which requires there is a great feast, at which the village
months of planning and hard work. We pigs are killed for the guests. It is a
heard excited talk of this dance almost as curious fact that no one ever dreams of
soon as we reached Inawaia on our first eating his own pig.
arrival, but it failed to materialize, and I We left New Guinea on December 10,
thought I should miss it entirely. How- 1928, but it was not until March 21, 1929,
ever, it actually began the day before we that our forty birds of paradise, in com-
were to leave, and T had full opportunity pany with some two hundred other speci-
to make observations, photographs, and mens, finally reached New York. Soon
moving pictures. after their arrival, a number were pre-
The actual dancing is of a graceful and sented to the zoological gardens of other
dignified character, performed by both American cities. Those that remain at the
men and women, to the beat of drums, New York Zoological Park-are now in per-
carried by the men participants only. fect condition, displaying their handsome
The costumes are both weird and plumage daily to the delight of our visitors.
MOTUMOTU CANOE IN THE LITTLE HARBOR AT ARURE, YULE ISLAND

These coastal people are skilled seamen. Their double canoes are propelled by both oars and sail,
and can hold their own in heavy seas
A view on the coast of Dominica
THE MOUNTAINS OF DOMINICA

The Two Highest Mountains in the Lesser Antilles, Diablotin and Trois Pitons, on
Which Plant Life Is Still in the Process of Ascent and Increase
By PAUL GRISWOLD HOWES

Curator of Natural History, The Bruce Museum, Greenwich, Connecticut
Photographs by the Author and Dickenson S. Cummings
THE highest and most beautifully

forested of the Lesser Antilles is
perfect weather, but during the remain-
der of our stay in the island we saw the
Dominica, which lies about mid- top of the mountain emerge only once
way between Guadeloupe and Martinique. from the clouds.
In Roseau, the capital, we heard There is no place in the world where it
strange stories regarding the mountains rains harder or longer, once it sets in, than
we had come to investigate. Few people in Dominica, and I do not hesitate to say
have chmbed Trois Pitons and Diablotin, that it can be the windiest and most dis-
and no accurate observations have ever agreeable, or the sunniest and most de-
been recorded so far as Dickenson Cum- hghtful country of all. One must know
mings and I could ascertain. Even more actual conditions in order to succeed in
confusing and vague were the accounts of mountain work there, for, though the
some who claimed to have reached the mountains are not high, they are difficult
summits, and many of their statements to ascend and explore.
were too absurd to record. We were told that the Diablotin region
We were assured that the time we had abounded in huge boa constrictors that
selected to climb Diablotin (between "hung from every- tree," and various other
March 2 and 14) was not the proper time
, good-natured little dangers were rumored
at all, but no one reahzed that we were about for our special benefit, but we took
basing our plans upon actual meteoro- these warnings philosophicall3^
logicalrecords carefully prepared for In addition to all this, our search for
this very purpose upon a former expedi- data before leaving the United States had
tion. As it finally turned out, we were resulted in the following interesting in-
correct. We encountered ten days of formation —the mountain Diablotin might
596 NATURAL HISTORY
CLOUDS COVERING THE SUMMIT OF TROIS PITONS

The round leaves in the foreground are those of the "Ka-klanh" tree that here, near the summit, has
dwindled into bushes. This tree exudes a disagreeable sticky slime whenever bruised or cut
be any height from 4747 feet, by authority Our guide, Son Esprit, had sent a mes-
of the maps, up to say 5313 feet as the sage that was never delivered, but upon
Encyclopaedia Britannica has it, a mere his arrival with two porters for the trip,
difference of 563 feet! we soon were off, leaving Sylvania about

And so, after despairing of finding out nine-thirty o'clock.
anything of particular value in advance, The clouds hung leaden and heavy over
we decided to ascend Trois Pitons first. Trois Pitons, curling down from the
It was close to our headquarters on the summit over the cloud-forest below and
estate of Captain Struan Robertson, 1800 then evaporating as the warmer air met
feetabove sea level, and would supply us thisvapor from above.
with the desired information as regards Leaving the trail, we crossed two rivers
the zones to be encountered, the best almost at once and found ourselves in a
methods of working, and the equipment magnificent forest of great trees which
necessary, so that we might know just even at this low altitude were already
what conditions we would have to face in coated with a delicate blanket of feathery
the ascent of Diablotin in March. mosses, for, as we found later, this moun-
Having waited many days for the tain is the highest in the island and
weather to and in the interval
settle therefore catches the maximum of
having missed one or two clear afternoons moisture from the clouds above.
when the clouds had lifted entirely from The zones on Trois Pitons and upon all
the mountains, we finally decided rather of theseDominican mountains are start-

unexpectedly to make the ascent on the hngly abrupt. At 2500 feet on Trois
morning of February 16. Pitons, one runs into that strange area
THE MOUNTAINS OF DOMINICA 597
where the big forest of the sub-tropical during the previous September had rav-
zone merges with the cloud-forest a few ; aged these mountains. We were now
feet above this, the big forest disappears above the clouds, and far below on the
altogether, leaving one in a gloomy, Caribbean a tiny steamer could be seen
dripping place, inhabited by spindly headed toward the north.
trees, shaggy with dark-colored mosses. The hurricane which hit Dominica was
Again, at 2650 feet, a change is noted, the same one that ruined Porto Rico.
the trees becoming stunted and fan- From our lofty observation point we could
tastically gnarled, and covered with see the strange tricks that such a storm
calumet vines and at 3300 feet comes the
; can play. Some mountains were
of the
true central cloud-forest with its dwarfed, untouched, but others were covered with
twisted, and otherwise deformed trees, heavy jungle on one side only, while the
weighted and staggering under countless other side was swept almost free of vegeta-
parasitic and epiphytic plants and drip- tion. Viewing them from a distance, I
ping mosses that gush forth their water at could not help but liken them to a man
the shghtest touch. with a heavy growth of beard who had
Under foot there is deep, sticky mud, shaved only one side of his face.
and as the mountain-
sides grow steeper and
steeper, and the vegeta-
tion more stunted and
tangled, progress with-
out a previously marked
route ends in exhaus-
tion and total loss of
direction.
To make matters
worse, we were making
the climb during the
endless rainy weather of
the spring season, and
because of the peculiar
manner in which the
trees grow out from the
mountain instead of up
in the usual fashion, it
was necessary to walk
and climb and pull the
body hand over hand
through the slippery
hmbs for hundreds of
feet at a stretch.
We forced our way
ahead to 3500 feet and
here for a brief period
we encountered more
BESIDE THE TRAIL
open country because
The vegetation at an elevation of 1850 feet on Trois Pitons includes a
of the hurricane that plant known locally as "staghorn"
598 NATURAL HISTORY
A BROMELIAD AT THE BASE OF A GOMMIER TREE

The bromeliads are parasites, the leaves of which hold water harboring all kinds of life from amoebae
to amphibians. This plant was 6 feet 8 inches high
We made photographs and records from At the base of the mountain these trees
and then continued our labori-
this point were twenty-five feet in height, but as we
ous way through trees that grew smaller ascended they became smaller and smaller
and more stunted as we ascended. We until finally they dwindled into bushes
passed through masses of lava from and became the dominant vegetation up
ancient upheavals, explored dingy, drip- to an actual tree line fifty feet from the
ping caves in the clouds, and fell a dozen summit.
times into watery holes and crevasses, We had been told that the top was all
fortunately without serious results; then, rock, but such was not the case. No more
as suddenly as we had encountered the beautiful or fantastic spot could be im-
cloud-forest, we left it and found our- agined, for the whole ground was covered
selves in another world. with countless small bromeliads that look-
A tree, called by the natives "Ka- ed something like the leafy parts of pine-
klanh" or ''Figi" had been encountered apples. There were bromeliad bushes
almost from the start of the trip. We were also, if one might call them such, con-
conscious of it continually because of a sisting of fifty or a hundred small plants
disagreeable, heavy slime whichit exuded all stemmed together and growing as a
whenever bruised or cut. This sap was living whole. White, gray, red, salmon,
extremely sticky, and our clothes and and emerald green mosses, were here also,
hands were smeared with patches of black. and two or three varieties of low bushes,
It never came out of our clothes, and it one in orange flower, constituted the sum-
was some days before we were able to re- mit vegetation for the most part. There
move the last of it from our skins. were absolutely no trees, but a rock stuck
J. ^ .-V -»- . .
^ Paul Griswold Howes
THE FALLS IN SALTOUN GORGE

This picture graphically illustrates the difficulties of exploration in the
mountains and gorges of
Dominica. Note the fall at the lower right issuing from an invisible source
600 NATURAL HISTORY
pressed surprise at certain forms of vege-
tation which we had found when nearing
the top. The significance of these things
I will speak of later.
On March 2 we left Roseau for the
ascent of Diablotin. We traveled by
launch to the httle village 'of DuBlanc,
where Mr. Shillingford, a native of
Dominica, gave us every possible assist-
ance. From here we proceeded with
eleven porteis up the hills to the plateau
at Milton, where we pitched our base
camp near the great lava gorge of the Du-
Blanc River. From here we directed the
cutting of a passable trail to 3400 feet on
Diablotin, where a second camp was
estabhshed and made ready. This camp
was a typical native hut of boughs and
palm leaves, called an adjoupa. Another
one was constructed by our men for them-
SON ESPRIT— GUIDE selves, less elaborate than ours, and then
This native, who knows more about the moun- the trail was continued to the summit.
tains of Dominica than most white people, having On March 9 we moved up from the base
spent his 76 years among them, told the author at
the outset that Trois Pitons was higher than
Diablotin
up here and there, and upon the highest

one our aneroid registered 4600 feet.
It was cold and very windy, and we had
to hold the tripod to keep it from blowing
off the mountain. The men, used to the
heat of the lower levels of a tropical
island, crouched in the bushes shivering,
despite the rum that had been served
Clouds made seeing
liberally to all hands.
and the moisture con-
difficult at times,
densed upon the glass and metal of the

camera and fell from the instrument as
rain.
Two things that seemed of importance
stood out in my mind after we had
returned to our headquarters. One was
the fact that an actual tree line had
been encountered, and that we had found
Paul Griswold Howes
a treeless summit. The other was that our A PRIMITIVE DOMINICAN
chief man. Son Esprit, had stated that the All types were met during the expedition, but this
top was all rock and that he had not made was the most primitive mental type found —
man who was bewildered and frightened by the
the ascent in some time. He also ex- camera's shining eye
MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION

Paul Griswold Howes, the author of this article, stands at the right. The other white man is Dicken-
son S. Cummings. The negroes are local natives
to the adjoupas wi th our equipment. With He had fired at the spot where the dove
us were five men : Babtiste, our own man; had been fully a minute before, and now
John Joseph, who spoke Enghsh and the whole forest vibrated with a deafening
assumed a sHghtly superior air; Casimer, roar. Flame belched from the gun, and a
lean, with tremendous Hps, and muscles huge cloud of smoke enveloped everj^-
like iron; Toulon, loud, talkative, and gay, thing, while a shower of newspaper wads
a huge fellow, who staggered up the cliffs and glowing sparks fell all about us.
and through the labyrinth of the forest The charge blasted away leaves and
with a seventy-pound load; and Sicite branches, and was truly a remarkable
Ploui, woodsman, hunter, and the proud spectacle, and then to make the whole
possessor of mustachios and an ancient procedure more ridiculous, Sicite insisted
shotgun. As mascot we took a dog, whom upon searching the ground minutelj^ for
Cummings appropriately christened his bird!
"Bromeliad." This part of the forest of Diablotin is
We had not gone far before Sicite spied much like that on Trois Pi tons, but the
a ramier, or wild dove. It flew from the trees are of greater diameter and very
forest floor to a limb, perched for a mo- beautiful. We climbed up slowly and
ment of observation, and then made off were nearing our second camp when we
through the trees. We saw it plainly, heard a strange squeaking and twittering
but our hunter, wishing to impress us, in the ferns and begom'as near by. Upon
placed his gun to his shoulder, cocked the investigating, we witnessed a furious
hammer with much difficulty with the aid battle between two tiny plumbeous
of his cutlass, and then pulled the trigger. warblers. They rolled about in a gray,
A DISTANT VIEW OF DIABLOTIN
The long ridge leading to the summit of Diablotin is plainly visible in this view, which shows the
mountain fifteen miles distant
Paul Griswold Howes

SUBTROPICAL GROWTH ON DIABLOTIN
This beautiful forestlies at an altitude of 1700 feet. It was through such growth that the expedition
was forced to travel in order to reach the summit of the mountain
Paul Grisuold Howes
THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPH EVER TAKEN FROM THE SUMMIT OF DIABLOTIX
The Y-shaped mark in the middle distance is the result of a huge landslide that removed a great strip
of forest from the other mountain
Photograph by Dickenson .^. Lummings

MR. HOWES HIGH ON MT. DIABLOTIN
Here the leader is shown in the expedition's native camp at 3400 feet elevation. The hut is made of
palm leaves
604 NATURAL HISTORY
Paul Griswold Howes
THE CAKIBBEAN SEA

From 3400 feet up the side of Mt. Diablotin. This picture was taken from one of the expedition's
camps. In the center distance is the bay and the town of Portsmouth
squeaking ball of feathers and dirt. httle comfort, when a delegation of shiver-
Never have I seen such a display of fury ing men came grumbling to our adjoupa.
in such tiny bodies. Still more remarkable With the exception of Babtiste, they
is the fact that about them sat a gallery
all had all decided to try to intimidate us.
of their own species, cheering on the com- Dissatisfaction with their rations, which
batants and apparently enjoying the were all too good, was the excuse for the
spectacle enormously. trouble, and they demanded more food.
It was late when we reached camp and In the growing darkness of the abrupt
found a wet howling wind blowing through Dominican night, these disgruntled black
our hut. The roof was dry, but the floor men, each armed with a long gleaming
consisted of heavy mud. Besides this, we cutlass, looked rather unpleasant by the
were badly infested with fleas which had light of the fire. We stood our ground and
overrun everything at our base camp, and refused point-blank to add to their rations,
things were not too comfortable. A huge although actually we had been cooking
roaring fire was successfully kindled only an extia large batch of erbswurst in an old
because we had remembered to collect a kerosene tin, as a special treat for them.
good quantity of Gommier gum from the If they wanted more food they could go
trees below. Everything is saturated back down the mountain and get it, and
with water and soaking moss covers all the that ended it. They looked at one another,
branches up in these mountains. Soon we and their cutlasses flashed in the light of
were making ready a pot of steaming erbs- the flames, but we held our gun, which was
wurst, and we were just settling down to a a good gun, and we had demonstrated it
Paul Grisu-old Howes
A HAZY VIEW FROM DIABLOTIN
Looking toward the Atlantic side of Dominica. A faint white Une may be seen at the upper left-
hand corner which is the surf on the Atlantic coast
© Paid Grisuold Hotces

A STRANGE VEGETABLE WORLD
At the top of Diablotin and of Trois Pitons the expedition found such growth as this. In the water
gathered by the leaves of these weird plants strange life forms were found. Insects, worms, and tmy
frogs of the Eleutherodactylus group Uved among the vivid mosses. The ground vegetation was very
similar on the summits of Diablotin and Trois Pitons
606 NATURAL HISTORY
Paul Griswold Howes

THE TREMBLEUR
Cinclocerthia ruficauda ruficauda
Found only inDominica is the trembleur, a strange brown bird of the mountain forests that droops
and trembles its wings and holds its long tail above its body. It feeds upon everything from hard
nuts to tree frogs. Here it is shown one-third life size
not without reason earlier in the day, and mountains, and the surf may be seen
just for good luck. breaking all along the northeastern and
They backed off to their hut, but Sicite, eastern shores, while great masses of
the gloomiest of the lot, went down the cloud drift by or about one, changing the
mountain again. Before morning he re- scene every minute. Our photographs had
turned but, as far as we could find out, he to be shot through the holes in the clouds.
brought no extra food. All the other men The dense masses to the south and south-
were cheerful and happy. west prevented pictures being made in
The last part of the climb on Diablo tin those directions, but as the ones we did
is more exhausting than that on Trois secure toward other points of the compass
Pitons, but conditions are very similar as were the first ever taken from the summit
regards the vegetation, until the top is of this mountain, we felt well satisfied.
reached. Diablotin was supposed to be the high-
After coming out into the open, we est mountain in Dominica, but to our
proceeded along a gradual ridge which great surprise our instrument registered
may be seen plainly miles away from the 4550 feet, or fifty feet lower than Trois
mountain. We walked along this ridge on Pitons. At the top we found one other
the edge of a great canon and looked down record left by Mr. Tavernier of Roseau,
on smaller mountains that had been some years before, and at 4450 feet
ripped and scarred by the hurricane. The another bottle contained the date and the
view is superb over endless great valleys names of a party headed by Mr. Aird and
Kl (gl Paul Grisu-old Howes
A PARROT FOUND ONLY IN DOMINICA

Amazona bouqueti
in Dominica and encountered frequently

b^ the menjhers o^^^
While common shghtJ\ over one imru lue
m
expedition, this bird occurs no place else
the world. Shown
608 NATURAL HISTORY
teristic. Anyone who knows Dominica,
or who has paid the slightest attention to
conditions as they actually exist, knows
that an altitude of 1850 feet or even less,
anywhere on the Caribbean side, would

carry one into the heavy subtropical
forest zone with its attendant living forms.
Recalling what Son Esprit had said
about the top of Trois Pitons, it appears
that noticeable changes have taken place
even between the time he went up with us,
and with a former party. I should hke to
climb these two mountains fifteen years
from now.
The zoology of the mountains is of
much interest also, but I shall have to
ANOLIS LIZARDS mention it briefly. At the top of Trois
These lizards possess yellow throat fans which and at all
they extend when excited, and after eating
Pitons we heard frogs calhng,
levels on Diablotin, from base camp to
Mr. Archer, that did not reach the summit. summit, we collected specimens of the
Undoubtedly our readings are correct, remarkable httle frog called Eleuthero-
especially in view of the conditions which dactylus antillensis. They become paler
we found on the two mountains. The as the altitude increases, and it is interest-
summit of Trois Pitons is treeless and the ing that they have reached the top of this
tree line lies about fifty feet from the top. island world.
On Diablotin there are trees fifteen feet These frogs have no tadpole stage at all
and one of
high, almost at the very peak, that is free-swimming. The entire process
my photographs shows palms growing

along one of the highest ridges. ^'
It is very interesting that the vegeta-

tion appears still be to creeping up these
mountains. They are not high enough to
allow of permanent tree lines as in greater
ranges, and I firmly believe that in the
future trees will reach the top of Trois
Pitons and that they will become more
numerous on Diablotin.
As to the readings of Diablotin which 's -
ascribe to the mountain an altitude of

5000 feet or more, let it be said that 5000
feet would be 450 feet higher than we
recorded which would also make the
it,
plateau at Milton 450 feet higher, or 1850

feet. This would be absurd, for the
reason that the plateau is a grassy, un-
f orested area, with underbrush and clumps
or lines of medium-sized trees, with many

life forms living upon it that are charac-
AN ANTILLEAX liliOAU-WIXGED HAWK

Buteo platyptenis antillarum
This bird, which was captured alive by the expedtion is of a common species. Stomachs examined
contained giant centipedes and spiders, and the birds were frequently seen eating or carrying the
black and white snake, Leimadophis juliae. The species is shown about one quarter life size
takes place within the unusually large were found beside a rock where they had
eggs, which are deposited upon the ground. doubtless been cracked open by the
The young frogs step out of the eggs thrush, Chichlherminia dominicensis.
perfect in every detail and are about the Species of Neocydotus were also found
size of a black-headed pin! well up on the slopes of Diablotin; this
There is plenty of hfe up on these may possibly be a new species. At the
mountains, for the stomachs of these summit found a beautiful
of Diablotin I
frogs contained flies, two kinds of beetles, horn-colored Amphihulima, its shell
and many ticks and mites. In the water streaked with dehcate, wa\ing lines of
caught by the leaves of bromehads, black brown, and another as yet unidentified
worms and other semi-aquatic creatures snail with a high spiral shell.
were thriving. Land crabs were not uncommon in the
Molluscs in the form of land snails have subtropical zone of both mountains, and
reached the summit of the mountains also. the streams on the lower slopes were in-
A variety of Bulimulus gicadeloupensis habited by hundreds of shrimps and many
inhabited the plateau at Milton (1400 of those strange gobies, fitted îth suc-
feet) and also a small, flat-shelled species tion discs for chnging to stones in the
of Amphihulima. The beautiful snail, roaring mountain streams. The species
Pleurodonte josephinse, occurred up to which we found was Sicydium punctatum.

3400 feet, where a number of the shells The fishes were feeding upon algae.
610 NATURAL HISTORY
Insects were numerous, but space a grossbeak, a wren and a honey-creeper,
prohibits a discussion of them in this three thrushes, and a solitaire called the
article. must mention, however, a large
I mountain whistler (Myiadestes domini-
green mantis from 1500 feet on Diablotin canus), which is peculiar to the island.
that was quite different from any other There was also a comical bird, the
species I have taken in Dominica. trembleur, Cindocerthia ruficauda rufi-
Bats were encountered, but not at the cauda, with the habit of continually droop-
higher levels, while bird life was much in ing and trembling its wings, a swift, and
evidence. The Imperial parrot, Amazona four humming birds, the Antillean broad-
imperialis, and the smaller Amazona winged hawk, Buteo platypterus antil-
houqueti both inhabit Diablotin, and the larum, and a wild pigeon and a dove.
latter was seen several times on Trois All of these except the Imperial parrot
Pitons. Imperialis is scarce, but houqueti were found also between our headquarters
was seen many times every day during our at 1800 feet and the top of Trois Pitons,
Diablotin expedition, and on one day we but birds were scarcer on the higher parts
saw seventeen. than on Diablotin, although the Domini-
On the grassy plateau at Milton and in can sparrow, Pyrrhulagra noctis domini-
the rows of trees and the thickets which cana, flew over the very top of it while
grew here, twenty-seven species of birds we sat making our notes! Near by, but
were found including anis, cuckoos, four not actually on Trois Pitons, at 1850 feet,
flycatchers, two warblers, two finches, and Cummings and I secured a specimen of
the very rare Euphonia
flavifrons three days be-
fore the end of our trip.
The onty other record
of this we know of is
that of Ober made in
1887.
Our time, was far too
short for our purpose,
and there is doubtless a
great deal more of in-
terest and value to be
found out about these
rugged mountains. I
hope sometime in the

future to climb them
again, in order to check
up on my predictions.
White Pierid Butterfly

newly emerged from its
chrysalis. This species some-

times appears in great
broods, both at sea level
and high in the mountains.
About four times life size
A TROPICAL RELATIVE
OF THE KATYDID
SOME INSECTS FROM

BARRO COLORADO
A Region of the Panama Canal Zone Where Insects of PecuKar Shapes and Habits
Carry on the Never-ending Struggle for Existence—How They Kill and in
Turn Fall Prey to Enemies
By C. H. CuRRAN
Assistant Curator, Department of Insect Life, American Miiseum
Mr. Curran, assistant curator of insect life at the American Museum, spent several months early
in 1929 studying the insect fauna of the Canal Zone, -particularly Barro Colorado.
Barro Colorado was originally a headland on the shores of the Chagres River. When the Gatun Dam
loas closed, the surrounding lowlands were flooded and the water level rose 85 feet, making of the headland
an island that stands 452 feet above the lake.
The 3500 acres comprising the island are heavily forested, and support an essentially primeval fauna
of the greatest interest to scientists and naturalists. Through the efforts of Mr. James Zetek, specialist in
tropical insects, U. S. Department of Agriculture at Washington, D. C, the United States Government has
set aside Barro Colorado as a laboratory for students of tropical animals and plants, and has placed
it under the care of the Institute for Research in Tropical America.
Mr. Zetek, as resident custodian, has earned the gratitude and esteem of all visiting scientists by his
unflagging interest and assistance in their scientific investigations. Another resident of the Zone whose
influence is felt is Mr. J. B. Shropshire of the Army Sanitary Division. In work carried oriin the Zone
Mr. Shropshire was always at Mr. Curran' s service and much of the success of the entomological studies
in the Zone is due to his cooperation. Dr. William H. Weston, professor of botany at Harvard University,
also gave much of his time to the preparation of the insect photographs in the following article.
The Editors
no part of the world is the eternal they themselves may live. The mighty
INstruggle for existence so obvious as in giants of the forest are brought to earth
the tropical regions. There animals by the ravages of insects, fungi, and wind;
and plants are engaged in continual war- the larger animals succumb to others of
fare, and even the casual observer in the greater or less skill, which possess the
wooded region, or "jungle," cannot fail advantage of being able to make surprise
to be impressed by the rapidity with attacks.
which death swoops down upon the ever Among animals, the insects very greatly
watchful inhabitants of the " underworld
. '
exceed in point of numbers of individuals

No animal is safe; no plant is secure. In as well as species, all the other animals
the case of all Hving things, enemies are found in any given portion of the world.
awaiting the opportunity to destroy that Not only do insects make war upon aU
612 NATURAL HISTORY
ON THE BEACH AT BRUJA POINT

The swamp land to the right provided a breeding place for countless Anopheles mosquitoes, and the
ravages of malaria once made the region almost uninhabitable. Drainage by the Army Sanitary Divi-
sion eliminated the conditions favorable to the mosquitoes, and malaria is now practically unknown
hereabouts
the animals and plants in their neighbor- missed. On one occasion a moth escaped
hood, but they war upon one another. If the first plunge, but with the speed of
any analysis were made, therefore, it lightning the bird wheeled, and before
would be found that they have, in reality, the moth had gone a dozen feet in its
many more enemies than any other one mad flight to escape, bird had
the
group of the animal kingdom. grasped it in its claws and was carrying
Since they are so preyed upon and their it to the treetop, there to devour the tasty
lives are so precarious, it is not surprising morsel, the torn wings drifting slowly to
to learn that insects secure protection the ground a hundred feet below. So
in many ways. As a rule they are unable speed no real measure of safety.
is
to defend themselves, and once fairly in Concealment in the direct sense is the
the grasp of an enemy, they are doomed to safeguard of many insects, but its limita-
destruction. Since they are weak defen- tions are evident. Yet, if we include
sively, how do they escape their enemies? under concealment such terms as pro-
Is it by speed or by concealment? tective coloration, deceptive form, and
Speed seemingly plays but a small part so-called mimicry, it may be said that
in the safety of insects. One evening a insects find concealment to be their
bat-hawk, having set himself up in the greatest protection. To the observer of
top of a dead tree near our laboratory on insects it becomes obvious that
soon
Barro Colorado Island, made numerous under certain conditions some insects are
sorties after large moths. He never almost invisible even when in full view
80ME INSECTS FROM BARRO COLORADO 613
and but a few feet distant. If their presence It will be gathered from this that bizarre
is betrayed, it is usually because of some forms are rare, and this is indeed the
movement on the part of the insect. It case. Many insects of strange structures
may seem a strange anomaly to assert are quite small, and it is only when they
that motion which warns an insect
it is have been examined under a powerful
of the presence of an enemy, and at the microscope that their peculiarities become
same time it is usually some motion on the strikingly apparent.
part of an insect which acquaints an One day while walking along the trail
enemy of its presence. at a point where the growth was no

higher than ten or twelve feet, I saw
INSECTS OF PECULIAR SHAPE
what appeared to be a brown, twisted
One finds, as a rule, that insects which stem of a leaf, or a dried portion of a
have developed in such a way that they leaf, wafted downward from an overhang-
are bizarre in appearance have formed the ing bush. But it did not reach the ground.
basis of a great many papers dealing Instead it made an upward sweep and came
with tropical forms. As a result of this, to rest on the slender stem of a plant. It
the opinion prevails that the tropics are was one of the little tree hoppers, or
full of weird six-legged creatures which brownie-bugs, as they are sometimes
may be secured in almost countless called, and as it rested upon the stem,
numbers. Yet the visitor to the tropics its peculiar shape might well have de-
would be exceptionally well repaid could ceived any observer into the belief that
he find three or four creatures so bizarre it was merely a piece of dried leaf stuck
as to attract more than usual attention. to the plant. On Barro Colorado there
THE AIRPLANE BUG

This assassin bug lives fairly close to the ground, although its name and structure would seem to
indicate that this was not the case
614 NATURAL HISTORY
in close proximity to a stream.
Some of these creatures are of
unusual structure and one of
them has its eyes situated on
the ends of long stalks. This is
one of the two really "stalk-
eyed " flies known from America,
yet they are not closely related
to the true stalk-eyed flies of
the Old World tropics. So far
as could be observed, the de-
velopment of the head serves
no useful function. Perhaps it
A STALK-EYED FLY has grown in this way in order
The wierdest fly occurring on the American continent and to please the eye of the female,
known only in the tropics. In life it is even more grotesque
than it appears here which is an ordinary looking in-
dividual with a normal head.
are at least two more tree hoppers of Possibly the males look quite dangerous
striking form. One of these is said by to other insects; certainly the outline,
James Zetek to be the original pawn- as the fly rests on a leaf, always on the
broker's sign, as it bears upon its back under surface, is scarcely fly-like.
three swellings which do remind one of
the pendent spheres. This little
''brownie" is quite common. Whether

its unique armor is of much service as a , !\ i;
means open to question.

of protection is
Occasionally the bushes on the side of
the trail will harbor two or three ferocious
looking bugs belonging to the family of
which our common squash bug is a mem-
ber. In the several instances that these
were observed, almost always two male
bugs were found on the same bush, rarely
three, never a single individual. Had
they been in pairs, one might have con-
cluded that here was marital fidelity
among the bugs, the two sexes going

happily about the business of enjoying
lifetogether. Evidently the opposite was
true, and they could not get along peace-
fully, because the males seemed to enjoy
each other's company and to travel
in pairs. Why? It is a problem still to
be solved and one which promises to be of
interest.
AN ASSASSIN OF THE TRAILS
Many flies are found resting beneath the An assassin fly, crouched in waiting attitude ready
leaves of the Panama hat palm (it is not a to spring forth and inflict death upon any un-
wary insect which may come within range
true palm), especially if the plants grow of its clutching legs
SOME INSECTS FROM BARRO COLORADO 615
SOME INSECT ASSASSINS

Assassins are numerous in the
insect world. Many entire fam-
ilies of insects prey upon
others, pouncing upon them
suddenly during flight, lying in
wait for the unwary individual
that comes within their domain,
or pouncing upon their victims
after a stealthy approach.
On many of the very low
shrubs which spring up on the
trails, there rests an assassin
ever alert, turning itshead this THE PAWNBROKER'S SIGN
way and that in search of some The common and wierd treehopper enlarged several times,
carries three globular swellings above its back
which would furnish
flying insect
a much-needed meal. These
assassin flies, or robber flies as they are than the would-be murderer, has little
usually called, though they never rob any- chance of escaping from the clutching legs
thing but life, are extremely strong, and of the aggressor. Some of them live almost
an insect, unless it be of much larger size entirely upon bees, in some unaccountable
manner escaping the searching sting as
th( bee fights for its Hfe.
The stink bugs are evil smelling crea-

tures. A very large, green kind with orange
stripes is very often met along the trails.
It takes to the air very readily upon the
approach of danger, and for this reason
often escapes recognition. It enjoys a
meal of caterpillars, although other in-
sects also seem palatable to it.
Among the assassin bugs is a pecuUar

creature in whose hind legs the tibiae have
become expanded into an orange and yel-
lowish mottled leafhke structure. To this

bug Zetek has aptly appHed the name of
''airplane bug." Itisnotdifficulttoimagine
it soaring high above the treetops, skim-
ming along with little alar effort. How-
ever, it lives fairly close to the ground and
may be found resting upon leaves, eager to
locate some other insect to furnish it a meal.
One afternoon I observed a relative of the
airplane bug sitting on a leaf enjoying a
repast of stingless bee. On the same
A VICIOUS LOOKIXG BUG by the dead
leaf, evidently attracted
Related to the squash bug, this creature looks
dangerous, but it is not. It lives on the juices insect but careful to keep out of reach
of plants. Perhaps the huge hind legs cause it to
appear ferocious to its enemies of the hving one, were two tiny flies.
616 NATURAL HISTORY
A SANITARY DIVISION BUILDING IN SCENIC SURROUNDINGS

A Army Air Station, on the Atlantic side of the Isthmus. The
view from France Field, building is
used primarily for the storage of tools needed for the digging of drains for the elimination of mosquito
breeding places
They seemed to be anxious to secure

some Perhaps they intended
of the meal.
to await theend of the assassin's dinner,
and then themselves feast upon what re-
mained.
"lantern" flies
On the side of a cliff-like slope leading
up from a small stream, stood a tree with
quite a smooth bark and patches of
lichens scattered sparsely on its surface.
To the human eye, it was apparently
not at all different from others of its kind
scattered through the forest. But to one
species of lantern fly (Fulgorid) it must
have had some special attraction for there
seemed to be quite a large colony per-
manently residing on its trunk. They sat
there, some thirty or more, usually one
above the other, in rows of four or five,
A TREE HOPPER Scattered on the shady side of the tree.
The droll facial expression of this insect has The formation was not unlike that of
suggested the name brownie bug, by which
it is sometimes called soldiers engaged m an attack, each keeping
SOME INSECTS FROM BARRO COLORADO 617
the proper distance from the other. But

the Fulgorids are no soldiers, and their
green, gray, yellowish, and white waxy
bodies stood out conspicuously on the
tree trunk. When frightened off, they
and found tempor-
flew a short distance
ary quarters on some other tree, but
they always came back. Why was this
tree selected above all others? This
is another question still to be answered.
Many Fulgorids resemble moths. The
resemblance can scarcely be any protec-
tion, but nevertheless it is very great,
especially when the insect takes wing or
rests upon the underside of leaves. The
family contains many examples of remark-
able structure and beautiful coloration,
as well as numerous dull colored forms.
GRASSHOPPERS AND ALLIES AN INSECT CONVEYANCE

This walking stick served as a unique chariot for
Most people will agree that the katy- a pair of biting midges. The larger wingless
dids are graceful creatures, and that female has a yellow bodv and is shown to the
right of the male
their cheery song is not unwelcome music
LIKE SENTRIES ON GUARD

Together with many others of their kind these two Fulgorids sat for days on the same tree trunk.
"Lantern flies " are not luminous, as the name implies, and are not flies. They are bugs
618 NATURAL HISTORY
averaging alittle more than three inches.
Walking sticks are familiar friends,

and many species occur in Panama.
They do not always walk. Many of them
fly, and their flights, in which their
colored under-wings are conspicuous,
might well lead to confusion as to their
identity. One of them appeared to assume
the role of an insect passenger plane.
It had been commandeered as a means
by a pair of tiny biting
of transportation
midges. Such an association is truly
remarkable, and it also happens to be
rather necessary as far as the travels
of the flies are concerned. The male fly
is furnished with wings, but not so his
meek but fat little wife. She knows not
what it is to soar through the air by
her own vohtion, so to overcome the
defect in her transportation equipment
and in order that she might enjoy the
DEATH
The parasites formed their white cocoons and
departed before this caterpillar succumbed
during the night in northern regions.

Many of their relatives occur in the trop-
ics, some of them quite conspicuous. One
common species closely resembles in
color the dead leaves among which it
spends much of its time, flying, when

disturbed, to some neighboring low bush
or tree trunk. Another has antennae
or feelers about three times as long as
its body, and the female possesses a very
strong ovipositor. The so-called ''ears"
of the grasshopper, located
on the front
tibiae,show up very strongly in the
picture on page 619.
Occasionally a large cockroach found
its way into the laboratory. These
did not make themselves disagreeable,
and they were really "strays," preferring
the free life of the open spaces to the con-
fines of the building. They were not
beautifully colored as many of their kind COCKROACHES MAY BE LARGE
are, and were therefore conspicuous only This one is reproduced natural size and, like
most of its relatives, lives out-of-doors, occurring
because of their great size, their length rarely in dwellings
\^-
"Itm^
A ''LONG-HORN" GRASSHOPPER
She carries her "ears" on her front legs and has antennae several times longer than her body. The
"ear" on the right leg appears as a whitish spot on the inner surface of the front tibiae near the base
A ''WALKING STICK"
It is always a matter of surprise to see what appears to l)e a part of the branch of a tree walking away,
These insects feed upon foUage, and many of the adults are winged and quite good fliers
620 NATURAL HISTORY
thrills of aerial travel, she has chartered several fungus diseases peculiar to in-
a walking stick for her flight. sects, and these are responsible for a
Probably the female midge takes only goodly percentage of the insect death
one flight. It seems likely that this occurs rate. At times the diseases reach the
when she feels the need of reaching new epidemic stage and then certain species
ground where her numerous family can may be all but wiped out.
develop undisturbed by overpopulation Parasites attack almost all of the larger
and escape possible famine. In order to insects, and perhaps also most of the
travel, she sinks her proboscis or small ones. Caterpillars are occasionally
mouth into the short wing covers of the observed struggling along on their dying
walking stick. In this particular case legs,too weak, almost, to move, bearing
(it may
be only an exception) her mate on their backs several white cocoons of a
(he was presumed to be such) had also hymenopterous parasite. As a rule the
fastened himself in the same manner. parasite does not reach maturity and
It is really a very interesting relation- emerge until the caterpillar is dead, but
ship. Of course the walking stick is an some of them do emerge before and leave
unwilling carrier of the family, but he is the host free to continue feeding, although
not inconvenienced in any way. no adult butterfly or moth will later de-
WHEN DEATH COMES velop from the caterpillar. Parasitism is
Death, in insect terms, lurks every- a study full of interest and teeming with
where. Insects are born by the million, remarkable relationships between host
and it is safe to presume that they die in and parasite. Very little is known of
equal numbers. It is difficult to picture this phase of entomology.
an insect dying from old age. If such a one article
It is possible to discuss in
death is natural, it is at least rather un- but a very few of the great numbers of
usual. If an insect escapes its predaceous during two
species of insects observed
enemies, there is still a possibility that months spent on Barro Colorado Island
disease will carry it off. There are in the Panama Canal Zone.
A MOTHLIKE FULGORID
"Lantern flies" display a great diversity of form. This
tj'pe is found on the under side of leaves, from which it
sucks the juices
A BIT OF JAPAN IN MINIATURE
The Building of a Museum Group Showing a Japanese Country Home of the Middle
Class — How Such Models Are Constructed
By V. ROXOR SHORT
Department of Preparation, American Museum
is hardly practicable to present, in the having been made, I was fortunate

IThalls of our museums, actual full scale enough to be assigned to the task of erect-
exhibits of many of the objects that it ing it, and for more than six months have
is desirable to show, for large though the been engaged in building the house, lay-
exhibition halls are, temples, tombs, and ing out the garden, creating a tiny
houses are often equally large, with the artificial pool, setting up trees, bushes,
result thatthey must be shown in model rock gardens, pergolas, fences, and all the
form or not at all. Thus it is that almost other delicate features that go to make up
everj^ museum presents models of many this elfin home — all of which is built on
objects, and remarkably accurate presen- the scale of one-half inch to the foot,
tations can be made. With these visual with the result that the house and garden
aids, the visitor can re-create, almost complete cover an area measuring onh'-
perfectly, the original that is represented. 48X53 inches.
has long been recognized as desir-

It As I have been working on the model I
able by the department of ethnology of have been impressed by the number of
the American Museum that a model be people who have told me that they had
constructed of a Japanese country home, imagined that Japanese houses were built
for only by such means could the depart- of bamboo and paper. Paper, of course, is
ment readily explain the details of con- used only in screens, and takes the place
and the plan and appearance of
struction, of our glass in order that fight may be
one of these thoroughly charming resi- admitted; and bamboo, while often used
dences. The decision to build the model in making furniture, is extensively used
NATURAL HISTORY
THE PRELIMINARY SKETCH

With this sketch as a beginning, and with innumerable sources of information upon which to rely,
the group was begun
as lathing and under-surface structure. found a minor difficulty in the measure-

Naturally, when confronted with the ments we had to use.
task of erecting this model, my first activi- In Japan the shaki is a unit of linear
ties had to do with gathering all the avail- measurement, and fortunately it is equiv-
able information concerning the attitude alent to our foot. It is, however, divided
of individual Japanese toward their into tenths instead of twelfths, so all of
homes. Thus armed with a point of view our figures had to be converted into
which among Japanese is fairly constant, shakis and parts of shakis called suns.
I began to study very carefully the details The frame of the house is constructed
of construction. Sound reasons underlie of cedar, with each individual board and
all the structural intricacies of Japanese timber cut accurately to scale. By these
architecture, and many formulae enter careful means construction was pushed
into their designs and plans. forward slowly and accurately, measur-
After studying several Japanese archi- ing and verifying until the siding was in
tectural drawings, I started out with a place and the delicate joists of the roof
prehminary sketch for our model, and were erected, ready to support the thick
almost before a plan was decided upon, I layer of grass thatch.
THE MAIN ENTRYWAY
It is difficult to believe, from the picture, that the house shown here measures only 6 inches from the
Even the shrubbery has been so chosen as to suggest the same proportions as
ground to the eaves.
the house
FROM THE WISTARIA ARBOR
Showing the garden pool and the house. In the pool, over which the bridge passes, very tiny real fish,
infiltrated with paraffin, give the impression of life
A GUEST VIEWS THE GARDEN

The little lady on the bridge, made of wax and standing only two and a half inches high, may be intent
on the arrested activities of a real, paraffin-infiltrated frog, which sits on a wax lily pad on the glass
of the garden pool
THE GARDEN FRONT OF THE HOUSE
Looking across the pool, one sees into the guest room, which has been opened to the garden by sliding
the wall screens aside. Within, tea is being served to the guests of the house
THE WISTARIA ARBOR AND THE GATE

In the background is the kura or fireproof storehouse for the treasures of the family. The boy standing
near the gate has unfortunately entangled his kite among the branches of a tree from which he is
never likely to recover it
626 NATURAL HISTORY
AN "AIRPLANE" VIEW
Looking do-RTion the house and the garden, one sees two square yards of miniature Japanese country-
side, representing about one quarter of an acre. The incompleted portion of the roof has been left to
show the construction of the house
Boards, of course, could be cut and with the utmost care in order to choose
trimmed to scale, but the problem of ob- only those that seemed to have, on a small
taining something to imitate the thatch scale, the characteristics that one would
used in Japan, and of having it, too, to find in such rocks in a full-size garden.
scale, was less easy. Furthermore, it was Endless hours were spent collecting odd
during the month of May that this thatch stones, twigs, tiny bushes, and unusual
was required, and for a time it seemed as if plants,which would lend themselves to
Nature had nothing to offer us. Finally, the scheme of things on that ever-present
however, on a collecting trip that led us scale of one-half inch to a foot.
fifty miles out on Long Island, we found a After laying and trimming the thatch,
bed of dried pine needles in the midst of we turned our attention to the construc-
a delightful pine forest. Carefully tion of tiny tiles for those portions of the
selected, these dried pine needles served roof on which thatch was not used. The
our purpose admirably, and seem an al- roof of the yen-gawa, or verandah, alone
most perfect thatch for a house built on required more than 600 individual tiles,
the scale of one-half inch to the foot. each less than half an inch square.
Another task lay in the selection of For the shoji, or screens, we had the
stones for rock gardens, walls, and walks. good fortune to obtain some real Japanese
The result was that we spent hours along shoji paper, and the screens themselves
the Long Island shore picking pebbles are so constructed as to slide on tracks as
A BIT OF JAPAN IN MINIATURE 627
they do in a real Japanese house. The develop on a small scale — or a large one
wooden storm doors, too, and the gates, either, for that matter — is the illusion of
are swung so as to be movable. water. It is generally either stiff or badly
The house had progressed considerably colored, and the methods that are adapt-
before much detail work was done on the able to a large scale do not lend them-
garden, and the kura, or fireproof ware- selves to manipulation to the scale on
houses, were constructed. Sometimes, which this Japanese garden is buUt. Con-
in the more decorative kura, the art sequently, a piece of fine plate glass was
treasures of the establishment are kept, flowed with a layer of hquid cellulose and
for Japanese houses are readily destroyed dehcately colored to give the soft varia-
by fire. In other simpler kura rice and tion of hue that is found in a quiet pond
other grains are stored. The walls of these or pool. Careful scrutiny wiil divulge
structures are heavily built of mud and several real fish, not ahve, it is true,
plaster, and the vaulthke doors were but preserved, in the pond; and com-
reproduced in the Hghtest of wood — balsa. fortably established on a neighboring lotus
One of the difficult problems in the pad is a frog — also an actual preserved
garden was the construction of an elm specimen.
tree, which was finally made of wax, for If one were able to dwindle in size, as
there are no shrubs that take a shape that did AHce in Wonderland, and were then
is satisfactorily elm-like. The leaves of introduced to this Japanese garden, one
the elm tree were made of oatmeal care- would have attained the ideal \dewpoint
fully colored green. necessary to a model builder. One might
About the most difficult illusion to then follow the stone-flagged path and tell
"MOONLIGHT" IN JAPAN
The completed group be shown in its case as if in broad daylight. The photographer, however,
will
was able, with the careful use of electric lights, to get this moonlight effect
628 NATURAL HISTORY
in an instant if the wax vegetables and the entangled it in an effort to create a bit of
berry bushes were ever so slightly out of "human and the preserved fish
interest,"
scale. in the pool, after the manner of live fish,
In order to add to the illusion, and to pay no attention to what is going en in the
show more clearly the relative size of the airy garden about them.
house and its occupants, several figures It is by such methods that the depart-
appear in the garden. A Japanese lady ment of preparation of the American
with a parasol stands on the tiny bridge Museum attempts to depict those distant
over the garden pool, her costume show- objects that cannot be brought bodily
ing, by its symbols, her station in life and into the Museum, and even if, as in this
the family of which she is a member. case, the "thatch" is of pine needles,
Japanese kimonos usually carry the insig- the figures are of wax, the water is made of
nia or coat of arms of the family on the glass, the leaves are made of oatmeal,
sleeves or in the middle of the back,and and the grass is represented by finely
this wee garment is no exception to the clipped silk, the illusion is convincing.
rule. The lady's method of doing her The accompanying illustrations were
hair explains her position in matrimony made by Irving Dutcher of the American
and there are many other such symbols Museum photographic department, and
woven into the model. A boy is trying to present a series of pictures that tell with
extricate his kite from among the oat- great accuracy the story of a home in the
meal leaves of the waxen elm tree where I Land of the Rising Sun.
MR. SHORT COMPLETING THE MODEL

The scale on which this bit of Japan has been built is here shown plainly
HOW ATOMS BUILD
A Proof that Simplicity and Not Complexity Lies at the Base of Crystal Structure
By HERBERT P. WHITLOCK
Curator of Minerals and Gems, American Museum of Natural History
has been said that the deeper we these tools of modern science, can map the
ITpenetrate into the knowledge of relative position of the atoms in crystal-
natural processes the wider is the line substances with as much certainty as
vista of the unknown that opens up before the physical astronomer can name the
us. The theory that j&fty years ago was elements that compose a distant star.
hailed as a veritable outpost of scientific This relatively new field of investigation
achievement, has today become a part of a isknown as crystal structure. Its units
larger, fuller, more far-reaching theory. are almost immeasurably small; so small,
And as we travel this road of knowledge in fact, as to be farbeyond the limit of
we are beginning vaguely to grasp the vision of ourmost powerful microscopes;
rhythm, order, and continuity of these and in deahng with them we do not
processes of nature. Gradually there attempt to assign to them the attributes
emerges from what formerly seemed un- of size and shape. What we do know,
related facts and phenomena, basic prin- thanks to the special properties of the X
ciples of great and supremely beautiful ray, is the relative distances between
simplicity. We become fundamentahsts them. Even these distances are exceed-
in science searching always for the key ingly small, andwe are obHged to resort
note of simphcity, the deep basic tone tominus exponents of high value and to
that makes for harmony in the scheme of somewhat fantastic comparisions to con-
material things. vey an adequate idea of the minuteness of
Such a fundamentalist in science was these atomic distances.
Rene Just Hauy, who, amid the appaUing For instance, let us assume a fragment
circumstances of the French Revolution, of crystallized conmion salt no larger

sat calmly in his Paris prison, surrounded than the head of a pin. In order to repre-
by his little collection of mineral speci- sent the spacing between the sodium and
mens, and evolved the great law of sym- chlorine atoms of this tiny chip of crystal-
metry that is the basis of the science of such a manner as we have
lized matter, in
crystallography. used in the model shown in Fig. 6, we
Such fundamentalists, no less, were the would have to magnify it to a mighty
little group of workers, Debye, Laue, mountain of salt whose base would
Scherrer, and the Braggs, father and son, extend about twenty-five miles and whose
who, a century later, used the short summit would tower far above the highest
waves characteristic of the X ray to clouds. Is it then at all remarkable that
demonstrate how the atoms composing crystals in the perfection of their develop-
crystalline bodies are grouped in symmet- ment should present to our eye the bril-
rical three-dimensional patterns, thus giv- liant smooth surfaces that are the bound-
ing us a far-reaching and definite reason ing planes of their countless mjTiads of
for theoutward harmony of symmetry atomic units?
that was Hauy's contribution to our Let us consider the plan upon which
store of knowledge. Today the physicist some of these atomic edifices are reared,
and the crystallographer, working with atom next to atom, like bricks in a trf-
630 NATURAL HISTORY
Drmnnq by Mrs. E. R. Fulda
A GRAIN OF SALT
Fig. 1. —A grain of rock salt so small that even an ant can carry it, contains many millions of atoms
mendous wall which by some transcendent confronted with the very significant fact
magic has become small enough to be that a number of simple substances (the
encased in a nut shell. above metallic elements) form in crystals,
No doubt many of us have noticed that the atomic structure of which consists of
when we attempt to crowd together a num- the simplest particle grouping.
ber of objects of similar size, such as peas, Let us study the close-packed grouping
golf balls, or oranges, they inevitably of Fig. 4. If we were to consider the
form groups of three, and that these uppermost ball pyramid as the
of the
groups of three are linked together until corner of a cube and complete the cube by
the layer of objects makes a pattern, hke the addition of four more balls as in Fig.
that pictured in Fig. 3. If we were to add 5, we would find that the added balls
to the first layer of balls such as we have (representing atoms) have only extended
used in Fig. 3, another layer piled upon the close-packed grouping, and that Fig.
it and still another piled upon that, the 5 is only another expression of close pack-
assemblage of balls would look like Fig. ing. some ways more convenient
It is in
4. This arrangement of particles of and illuminating to consider the aspect of

matter, no matter what their size, has close packing shown in Fig. 5 (which is
been called "close packing" because by called a face-centered cube) as our starting
this method the greatest number of point, although we should by no means
particles are made occupy a given
to lose sight of thevery significant triangular
space. It is therefore the simplest and the aspect of Fig. 4, because it emphasizes the
most obvious of particle grouping. group of four atoms arranged at the
Research with the X
ray has shown us angles of a tetrahedron (compare the four
that the atoms of many of the metals topmost balls of Fig. 4).
such as gold, silver, copper, lead, nickel, If we were
to suppose the close-packed
aluminum, calcium, iron, and platinum grouping to consist of alternate layers of
are grouped in this way, so that we are two different kinds of atoms as in Fig. 6,
HOW ATOMS BUILD 631
and if we were to suppose the atoms plaining why sodium chloride crystals
represented in the model to be those of show a marked tendency to break parallel
sodium and chlorine, the resulting group- to cube planes. And finally note that the
ing would show the atomic structure which relation between the two face-centered
the X ray has revealed to be that of sodium groupings of sodium and chlorine atoms is
chloride or common salt. Notice how the that of two tetrahedrons, one reversed on
smaller balls representing the chlorine the other, as shown in Fig. 8. Among the
atoms, which have a smaller atomic crystallized substanceswhose atomic
domain than those of sodium, fit into the structures are at present known, a con-
open spaces between the larger balls siderable proportion have structures of the
representing the larger atomic domain of sodium chloride type.
sodium atoms. Both sodium and chlorine Let us now suppose that two kinds of
atoms as represented in the model (Fig. 6) atoms are separately spaced in close-
are in face-centered cubic arrangement, packed (or face-centered cubic) group-
and in an extension of the grouping there ing, and that these two groupings or sets
would be as many of the one kind of atoms of atoms are so interlocked that the corner
as of the other. atom of the tetrahedral cell of the one
Also note that the planes of atomic grouping falls in the center of the tetra-
crowding are parallel to the face-centered hedral cell of the other grouping. The
cubes of both aggregates of atoms, ex- relation of the tetrahedral cells in such an
A COMPARISON
Fig. 2. — If we were to try to magnify the fragment of common salt that the ant is carrying in the
preceding picture until we could atoms that compose it, we would have to enlarge
distinguish the it
until its huge size would completely cover Greater New York and tower up above the clouds
632 NATURAL HISTORY
CORK BALLS IN CLOSE-PACKED ARRANGEMENT

Fig. 3. —Whenever a number of objects of similar size are crowded together, they inevitably form
groups of three, which when linked together, form a pattern such as is pictured here
atomic structure is pictured in the model are not shown. Such a structure composed
shown in Fig. 7, in which the positions of of zinc and sulphur atoms has been found
the atoms at the angles of the tetrahedra to be characteristic of the mineral sphaler-
ite, a zinc sulphide, in which every zinc
atom lies at the center of a tetrahedral
group of the sulphur atoms, and every

sulphur atom at the center of a similar cell
formed of zinc atoms. The model shown
in Fig. 9 will help to make clear the in-
tricate relations of a crystal structure of
this type. In this model the larger balls
represent the zinc atoms with the larger
atomic domain, and the smaller ones re-
present the sulphur atoms.
Although not so frequently met with
among those crystals which have been
studied, as the atomic structure of the
sodium chloride type, groupings of the
zinc sulphide type are nevertheless char-
of a number of substances.
acteristic
A CLOSE-PACKED PYRAMID
The carbon atoms in a diamond crystal
Fig. 4. — When the units are fastened together,
the pyramid will appear the same, no matter on are spaced in this manner, except that in
which one of its four sides it may rest this instance all of the atoms are of one
HOW ATOMS BUILD 633
element, and a single tetrahedral cell

would appear as the model shown in
Fig. lOA, or assembhng several such cells
in the atomic grouping of diamond, we
have the model shown in Fig. lOB. It is
very obvious from this aspect of the dia-
mond atomic structure that the carbon
atoms are firmly linked together in a
pattern that is highly resistant to physical
deformation. We would therefore expect
such a crystal structure to be very haid.
It does, in fact, belong to the hardest
substance known.
There is, as we all know, another kind
of crystallized carbon, the mineral
graphite. Now investigation has shown
graphite
A "FACE-CENTERED CUBE"
that the crystal structure of
differs from that diamond in a rela-
of
Fig. 5. —Theclose-packed arrangement of cork
Ijalls in this model
is the same as that of Figure 4.
If the lowest ball, the upper right one, and the
tively slight particular from a mechanical
upper left one were removed, we would see the
point of view. Observing Fig. 10 closely, arrangement of Figure 4
ATOMS IN A CRYSTAL OF SALT

Fig. 6. —The arrangement atoms in a crystal of common salt is represented in this model. It is
of the
close-packed grouping like Figure 4, spread apart so as to show the relative position of
the atoms.
a
The large balls represent sodium atoms, the smaller ones chlorine atoms
634 NATURAL HISTORY
Hitherto we have been considering the
crystal structure of such minerals as
common salt, sphalerite, and diamond,
all ofwhich crystallize in the isometric

system, and the atomic groupings
involved have consequently all pre-
sented the perfect symmetry of that
system; they have all (with the ex-
ception of graphite)shown us a three-
fold arrangement of atoms when
viewed from the direction of the corners
of a face-centered cube. Let us now turn
back to the consideration of Fig. 4 and
assume that the close-piled aggregate of
material particles are pressed together
along one three-fold axis, or drawn
apart in the same direction. Such con-
INTERLOCKED CELLS OF ZINC SULPHIDE ditions produce atomic structures that
Fig. 7. —The balls representing the atoms in this no longer show isometric symmetry, but
model of the interlocked cells of zinc sulphide which present the symmetry of rhombo-
have been omitted. There should be one ball at
hedral crystals, that is one axis of three-
the four points of every tetrahedron, placing an
atom of zinc in the center of every group of four foldsymmetry. If we were to assume the
sulphur atoms and an atom of sulphur at the sodium chloride grouping of Fig. 6 to be
center of every such group of zinc atoms
we we may consider the atoms

find that
as lying in layers, upon one of which
the model rests, as shown in the illus-
tration. Imagine the second layer of
atoms from the bottom to be slightly
shifted (one sixth of a circle) until it
"clicked" into place, and at the same

time was drawn away slightly from
the lower layer. The result of this
slight mechanical shift will be seen
in the model shown in Fig. 11, which
represents the position of the carbon
atoms in graphite. This crystal
structure has not thesymmetry of
the diamond pattern the close bond
;
that tied together the atoms of that

remarkable substance is gone, and in
itsplace we find open spaces between
successive layers of atoms, suggesting THE ATOMS OF A SINGLE ''CELL"
the possibility of the layers slipping Fig. 8. —The eight forming the top corner of
balls
Figure 6 are arranged as in this model, which by
one upon the other. Graphite is soft
separating them from the others and linking them
and greasy or slippery to the sense of in fours shows how the atoms of a "cell" of a
touch. crystal of common salt are related
HOW ATOMS BUILD 635
so compressed, say in a vertical direction, tion. The model shown in Fig. 12 repre-
our model would bear a close resemblance sents the arrangements of atoms in a
to the structure of a common rhombo- crystal of calcite. The largest balls repre-
hedral mineral, calcite. sent calcium atoms the black ones spaced
;
Calcite is composed of the atoms of alternately with them represent the car-
three elements, calcium, carbon, and bon atoms and the smallest balls grouped
;
oxygen. There are

in its composition as in threes about the caibon atoms are those
many atoms carbon as there are of
of of oxygen. Just as the cleavage of rock
calcium, and three times as many oxygen salt is cubic, the cleavage of calcite for a
atoms as there are of either calcium or similar reason is rhombohedral.
carbon. X ray research has shown us The few examples with which we have
that the oxygen atoms are grouped in dealt in the foregoing pages constitute
clusters around every carbon
of three only an introduction into the bewildering-
atom, and that the atoms of calcium and ly fascinating field that has been opened
of carbon are grouped as those of sodium up by this "new crystallography." For
and chlorine are in rock salt, except that instance, no attempt has been made to
the entire atomic aggregate has been show how the structure of crystals in
slightly compressed in one trigonal direc- systems other than the isometric and the
ATOMS IN A CRYSTAL OF ZINC SULPHIDE

Fig. 9. —A model showing the arrangement of atoms in a crystal of zinc sulphide. The face-centered
cube grouping of the larger units (representing zinc atoms) is quite obvious. The smaller units (repre-
senting sulphur atoms) are also on a face-centered cubic pattern
A B
TETRAHEDRAL CELLS
Fig. 10.
—
"A" shows a single tetrahedral cell formed by the carbon atoms of a diamond crystal, and
"B" shows a number of such cells linked together as in the atomic structure of diamond
ATOMS IN A CRYSTAL OF GRAPHITE

Fig. 11. —A model showing carbon atoms arranged as in a crystal of graphite. The six balls upon
which this model rests are in the same position as the six upon which that shown in Fig. lOB rests
HOW ATOMS BUILD 637
rhombohedral are derived from the close- much it may add to convenience in treat-
pilmg principle, although such a demon- ing them mathematically, and when we
stration would have been quite simple and consider the atomic structure of sphalerite.
along the theoretical lines made classical In general, the work that is now being
by Bravais and others. energetically pursued in countless labora-
The new demonstration of crystal toriesthroughout the world by investiga-
structure has been responsible for the tors who are using the X
ray to deter-
elimination of some of the time-honored mine crystal structure, has shown that
concepts of mathematical crystallography. simplicity and not complexity lies at the
We have found, for instance, that rhombo- base of this great problem.
hedral crystals, like calcite and quartz, The examples we have taken to show
that have heretofore been classed with how directly in very many instances
the hexagonal system, are structurally crystal structure has at its foundation the
more nearly allied to isometric atomic close-piling principle, are not exceptions
groupings, and should therefore belong but standard types. It would then seem
to a distinctly separate system. Also the that herewe have another comprehensive
old concept of hemihedrism in crystals law reaching down to the very roots of
becomes structurally unfounded, however material things.
ATOMS COMPOSING CALCITE

jrig_ 12. —The atoms composing calcite, represented in relative position by the cork balls of this model,
are of three kinds. The large balls represent the atoms of calcium, the black lialls those of carbon,
and the white balls, grouped in threes about the black ones, atoms of oxygen
Photograph by Mary L. Jobe Akeley
Mount Karisimbi in fresh snow
AFRICA'S GREAT NATIONAL PARK

Carl Akeley's Gorilla Sanctuary and Biological Survey Station
Becomes a Reality —The Formal Inauguration of
the Pare National Albert at Brussels
By MARY L. JOBE AKELEY

On October 19, 1929, the Belgian Government officiallij opened the Pare National
Albert, in the Belgian Congo, the plan for which originated with Carl Akeley of the
American Museum. The following article, by the wife of this explorer and naturalist,
tells in detail of the development of this important step in the conservation of African
wild life.
—The Editors.
January, 1922, while homeward communicating with the authorities at
INbound on the Red Sea, from his gorilla Brussels in regard to establishing a sanc-
expedition in the Belgian Congo, Mr. tuary for the gorillas of the Kivu country
Akeley's idea of a gorilla sanctuary took where they may have protection for all
definite shape. He wrote to Judge Paul time. He then added: "If this is not
Salkin, Elisabeth ville, Katanga, Belgian done very soon, they are in positive danger
Congo, that he had found the gorilla "a of being exterminated. I do not think it
wholly acceptable citizen and not the is fair to future generations to exterminate
wicked villain of popular belief"; that he an animal of such intense human interest
is "a splendid animal in every sense, in as the gorilla. He is harmless; the natives
no sense aggressive or inclined to look for have no fear of him and he in
of the region
trouble." no way interferes with them. He occu-
He also said that the largest male, a pies a region that will never be available
magnificent creature weighing 380 pounds, for agriculture or other human uses more
like all the others secured by the expe- than to supply forest products such as
dition, showed only a disposition to get bamboo and fire wood, and the native
out of danger. He stated that he was privileges need not be curtailed by con-
AFRICA'S GREAT NATIONAL PARK 639
verting a great tract of primitive country him and were apparently unconcerned,
into a gorilla reserve. I not only want to though he was in full view operating a
establish a sanctuary, but also a biological motion-picture camera. He recalled the
survey station, where students of animal fact thateven with one of their number
psychology and kindred subjects may shot, they moved away only a short
carry on their research work under most distance where they were easily ap-
advantageous conditions." proached again, and he stated that ob\d-
On January 18, 1923, Mr. Akeley com- ously it would be a very easy matter to
piled various suggestions regarding the exterminate this colony.
estabhshing of a sanctuary for the gorillas, He suggested setting aside as an abso-
and submitted these to his esteemed friend. lute sanctuary an area approximately ten
Dr. John C. Merriam, of the Carnegie miles square, where, when undisturbed,
Institution, Washington, dean of ardent the gorillaswould soon have complete
conservationists and promoter of scientific confidence in man and would doubt-
research. He called attention to the fact less afford opportunity for observation
that the number of gorillas in the Kivu and study and also that
at close range;
region is which seems strange
small, the area should be bounded by a native-
since, so far as we know, they have no police-patrolled roadway, a "dead line,"
enemy but man and the natives do not within which the "gorillas would soon learn
molest them; that they are healthy; that they were safe, and beyond it in
that they are not wild, as was shown danger" and that there wculd be "no diffi-
when three of them ran onto a leaning culty in keeping them within the sanctu-
tree 150 feet away to get a better look at ary unless it became over-populated."
THE PRIMITIVE FORESTS OF THE PARC NATIONAL ALBERT

This shows a section of the Rugeshi or Cold Forest on the slope of Mount Karisimbi
640 NATURAL HISTORY
gorilla sanctuary plan to Baron Emile de
Cartier de Marchienne, then Belgian Am-
bassador to the United States. Doctor
Merriam also submitted a statement cov-
ering the organization, history,and meth-
od of establishing the national parks,
monuments, and bird refuges in America.
Several months before, Mr. Akeley had
interested the Belgian Ambassador in the
results of the gorilla expedition and the
plan of conservation. Accordingly, early
in 1924, the Ambassador began active
efforts with his home government to the
end that not only the small area of the
reservation be secured, but that a larger
outlying tract of land be set aside as
additional protection to the gorilla.
Map showing location of the Gorilla Sanctuarj^
Seconding the efforts of Baron de
Cartier with unremitting devotion, was
"In cooperation with the Bel-
gian Government/' he wrote,
"it is my desire tc see an organi-
zation estbHshed which shall un-
dertake to make provision for its
care and maintenance; to estab-

lish and maintain a scientific re-
search station with residence and

laboratory facilities located at an
altitude of approximately six
thousand feet where the chmate

is suitable for the continued resi-
dence of Europeans. One resident
white superintendent would be
required to be in charge of the
station and to oversee the patrcl
and maintenance. I wish to em-
phasize the importance of making
this region an absolute sanctuary!
Sanctuary is not sanctuary unless
absolute."
Doctor Merriam immediately
turned over this statement with
his strong recommendation of the
Map showing the enlarged area of the

Pare National Albert as established
by Royal Decree of Albert, King of
the Belgians, May 6, 1929, and sug-
gested by the Akeley-Derscheid Mis-
sion of 1926
Phnlograph by (' Akeley
A GROUP OF KIVU PYGMIES

The pygmy, doubtless the earliest of primitive peoples in the Kivu forest, dwells in the lower reaches
of the volcanoes. The mature pygmy is approximately four and a half feet in height, and looks hke
a ten-year old child in contrast with the native Wahutu, who is only average height
the Belgian Consul-General at Baltimore, the historical development of the Park

Mr. James Gustavus Whiteley, whose at this point:
helpful interest for more than twenty The advance of civilization into Central Africa
years had furthered the scientific expedi- has brought with it its inevitably attendant
menace to primitive forms of wild Ufe. This
tions sent to the Congo by the American
National Park has therefore been laid off, under
Museum of Natural History.
the auspices of His Majesty Iving Albert, as a
Among American organizations inter- sanctuary where both animals and plants and
ested in the project were the Camp Fire natural scenery may be preserved and where
Club Michigan and the New -York
of scientists from all over the world may eventually
come to study the flora and fauna of Africa in
Zoological Society, both of whom in
their original and natural surroundings.
resolutions to Baron de Cartier expressed
During the past few years there has been an
keen interest in the undertaking. The ever-increasing influx of big game hunters and
Department of the Interior of the United natural scientists into the Belgian Colonj^ which
States also voiced its interest in a is the last refuge of many rare species of African
fauna. The Belgian Government has recognized
memorandum to the press.
the necessity of permitting a certain number of
On March 2, 1925, His Majesty, Albert,
such rare animals to be taken for scientific pur-
King by Royal
of the Belgians, created poses, but has consistently endeavored to preserve
Decree the Pare National Albert, Kivu these rare species and also to prevent the wanton
A letter from destruction of other less rare, but harmless,

District, Belgian Congo.
animals, whose slaughter serves no useful purpose.
His Excellency, Baron de Cartier, to
In these circumstances the Belgian Colonial
Doctor Merriam, president of Carnegie Authorities have found it necessary to restrict
Institution and vice-president of the not only private hunting expeditions but also
National Academy of Sciences, supplies simQar expeditions contemplated by many of the
642 NATURAL HISTORY
THE HEART OF THE PARC NATIONAL ALBERT-

This painting, by W. R. Leigh, was made under the direction of Carl Akeley, and is, in Mr. Akeley's
own words, of "the most beautiful spot in the world"
most distinguished museums of natural history project may receive the sympathetic cooperation
and other scientific bodies. of the members of the National Academy of
Among the rare animals which are in danger of Sciences, and the benefit of their experience and
—
extinction is the Gorilla an animal of extreme wise counsel.
interest to scientists. The Belgian Government
has, in the past, felt it its duty to permit a few
This letter was presented at the meeting
specimens to be killed or captured for strictly of the National Academy of Sciences, in
scientific purposes, but the time has come when, Washington on April 29, and a resolution
in the interests of humanity, as well as in the was passed expressing the Academy's
interests of Science itself, steps must be taken to
gratification at the establishment of
preserve the remaining gorillas from extermina-
tion.
the Albert National Park, and assur-
The reservation embraces the three volcanoes, ing His Majesty of its disposition to
Mt. Mikeno, Mt. Karisimbi and Mt. Bishoke. cooperate in the realization of the bene-
In this Pare National Albert it is planned to fits to science and mankind arising from
erect a laboratory for biological studies where
this wise and generous action.
scientists from all parts of the world may event-
ually come and study the flora and fauna of the
Mr. Akeley's enthusiasm for the con-
Belgian Congo as well as the geological and summation of his dream and his apprecia-
meteorological conditions. tion of the action of His Majesty, the
In inaugurating this new experiment —the King, and the efforts of Baron de Cartier,
first of its kind in Central Africa —the King and are voiced in the following letter to the
his have studied the great American
officials
reservations and national parks and have sought Belgian Ambassador

the advice of eminent American scientists. May I offer to you hearty congratulations on
In order that the best results may be achieved the successful result of your work in connection
it is hoped that this humanitarian and scientific with the campaign for the protection of the
IE SADDLE BETWEEN MOUNTS MIKENO AND KARISIMBI

In the distance, across the lava plains shown in these two pictures, may be seen the two active
volcanoes, Nyiragongo and Nyamlagira. Lake Kivu lies at the extreme left
gorillas of theKivu? May the Pare National It is possible that we "alarmists" who are
Albert continue indefinitely to the honor of His interested in preventing the destruction of the
Majesty, King Albert, and his Ministers, who gorilla have overstated our case and that there
have been instrumental in establishing this are more than one hundred gorillas in the forests
splendid wild sanctuary.

life of the three mountains now included in the Pare
Of course the killing of a reasonable number of National Albert. / hope there are more than one
specimens for scientific institutions is legitimate hundred, but I doubt it. The point of paramount
and necessary, but the indiscriminate killing by importance is that we " play safe,"' and that is the
sportsmen and others is unpardonable. Killing thing that is accomplished through the estabUsh-
gorillascannot possibly be considered sport; the msnt Pare National Albert. If in the
of the
animals are easily located with the help of native future found that there are, for any reason,
it is
guides in the regions they inhabit, easily ap- too many gorillas, it will be very simple to reduce
proached, and easily killed. They are not wild their numbers; while, on the other hand, if we
in the sense that most hunted animals are wild. were some day suddenly brought face to face
They are not great wanderers. They are re- with the fact that the last gorilla had been killed,
luctant to leave the region in which they live, so it would be a very different story.
it is possible, by following a band or a
single ani- In reply to Baron de Cartier's request
mal, to come within shooting distance a number for Mr. Akeley's suggestions in relation
of times in one day.
to the enlargement of the Pare National
Unfortunately there is a large class of men who
Albert, he wrote the Ambassador "that
forone reason or another, are constantly seeking
there much of this region that might
excuses for killing. The gorilla, because of his is
unjust reputation for vicious ferocity, makes a well be included—the southern end of
strong appeal to the would-be hero type of sports- Lake Edward with its wonderful herds
man, and the gorilla is menaced by the "white the Ruindi plains with
of hippopotami;
hunter" who would exploit him in catering to these
their lions and then- great herds of
"sportsmen" and for his own financial benefit.
644 NATURAL HISTORY
antelope of several species; the forests of ered us to execute a general survey of the
the Ruindi valley —the haunt of elephant National Park; to fix on the map native
—
and buffalo not much more than a villages, position of forests, bare rocky
graveyard now, but the game would country, grass lands, cultivated land and
come back if given sanctuary there; the pasture, and areas inhabited by gorillas
slopes of the volcanoes Nyamlagira and and chimpanzees; to estimate the number
Nyiragongo, of little use except as a of these animals; to study methods of
reserve for game and for its scenic inter- preservation of the fauna, especially the
est;Lake Bulera, to the east of the Pare gorillas; and to select suitable sites
ône of the most beautiful of all the favorably located and naturally endowed
smaU lakes of the region. All these are for laboratories and residences for park
worthy of being included in the Pare conservators and visiting scientists.
National Albert." Later Dr. J. M. Derscheid, of Brussels,
To Baron de Cartier on the same day research zoologist, conservationist, and
he also wrote asking for permission to cartographer, joined our 1926 expedition
return to the Belgian Congo to obtain the Kivu to assist in this survey. After
to the
accessories and painted background for Mr. Akeley's death. Doctor Derscheid's
his Gorilla Group, and stating that he had presence made it possible for the expedi-
delayed asking permission to do this work tion to fuUfil the mission of the Belgian
pending the establishment of the GorUla Government.
Sanctuary. On this expedition he wished In April, 1927, President Henry Fair-
to take with him two scientists, one of field Osborn, who from the beginning was
whom should be a Belgian, to carry on in warm sympathy with the idea of gorilla
preliminary studies of the Uve gorilla. protection and deeply interested in this
"I have definite, and I trust good, rare spot so rich in its possibilities for
reasons for wishing to be of the party scientific investigation, received from the
making the initial studies of the gorilla Belgian Government a letter inviting the
when first approached by man as a friend American Museum of Natural History to
instead of as an enemy," he wrote. "It participate in plans for scientific develop-
is of great importance that these first ment and research in the Kivu region.
observations be carefully made and To this he replied that the "American
recorded; that the process of 'taming' Museum is keenly interested in this great
and making the acquaintance of them be movement."

done intelligently, taking every precau- In further response, a unanimous resolu-
tion against accidents such as might result tion of the trustees of the American Mu-
in injury to one of the party or unneces- seum of Natural History expressed their
sary shooting of a gorilla because of in- appreciation of the action of His Majesty
judicious approach." and their wilhngness to cooperate in carry-
It may be stated here that back in ing out plans for scientific development of
1921 the officials of the Belgian Govern- research in this area.
ment kindly gave Mr. Akeley permission It was in June, 1927, that Derscheid
to obtain ten gorillas. He took only five, returned to Belgium, and during a year
feeling that this number of specimens was of mihtary service, prepared an initial
ample for a group that would tell a true report on his gorilla findings and also did
story of the gorilla. yeoman service in the correcting and am-
In February, 1926, in Brussels, while plifying of the maps of the region between
en route to Africa, we were entrusted with Lake Kivu and Lake Edward. In Sep-
the Mission to the Kivu, which empow- tember and October, 1928, I spent four
Photograph by Carl Aketey

A VIEW IN THE PARC NATIONAL ALBERT
Here, following Carl Akeley's death, his widow, Mary L. Jobe Akeley, obtained the background and
accessories for his Gorilla Group. Thehorizontal branch in the foreground bears a great platform or
cushion of green and golden moss. Frequently giant lobehas and orchids, flowering in taU red and pink
racemes, are rooted in these mossy platforms
weeks in the home of Doctor Derscheid An important section from our plan
collaborating on the preparation of the follows: •
First Memorandum for the Belgian Gov- We consider theParc National Albert a Royal
ernment concerning the Pare National Institution, remembering that His Majesty
has shown the deepest interest from its creation
Albert.
to the present time. The first words of the
Our memorandum proposed that the Royal Decree give \iS the essential character
limits of the Park be extended to include and the true meaning of such an undertaking:
the arid active volcanoes of Nyamlagira 'Le Pare est cree dans un but'scientifique.' Since
the promotion of science is the definite and final
and Nyiragongo, which are of geologic,
goal, not only for today,but also for the benefit of
volcanologic, meteorologic, and seismo- future generations, we wish to emphasize most
logic importance, and also the swamp strongly the necessity of preserving in the park
-andsandy lands along the south shore of all wild and natural conditions as they now exist.
Lake Edward and the Rutshuru River, in The richness and exceptional variety of flora
and fauna of this region, its extraordinary geo-
and about which are large herds of hippo
logical and geographic interest, as well as an
and a fair number of antelope. It was almost unique opportunity of saving some of the
further proposed that certain outljdng primitive African pygmies, a race now threat-
regions of the park be contracted in order ened by extinction, are the chief reasons for de-
and arable manding that this area should remain inviolate.
to exclude native villages
Furthermore, on account of the different
Such arrangement would increase
land.
—
altitudes ranging from 2,500 feet to more than
the area from 24,000 hectares (the original —
14,000 feet nearly all kinds of vegetation,
area set aside) to 200,000 hectares from the palm-fringed equatorial rivers to the
(500,000 acres). flower-filled alpine meadows under the snow-
64e NATURAL HISTORY
':M'i^?A

"THE CASTLE"
The culminating peak of Mount Mikeno, viewed from south of the Saddle Camp at Kabara
capped peaks, are to be found, with a correspond- colonial buildings as a warden's office and
ing variety of animal life, thus affording a wonder- domicile, and for the construction of
ful opportunity for endless scientific investiga-
others for the essential use of scientists
tion in a rather small area of comparatively easy
access.^ In the proposed area half is mountain- and desirable visitors. Well equipped
ous, the other half consists of the sand and laboratories, an adequate scientific
swamp lands of Lake Edward.
library, a small local study museum of
It is believed also that the region is of prac-
geological, botanical, and zoological col-
tically no economic value, which eliminates
between the material development of the
conflict
lections should be established in order to
country and the interests of science. Further- facilitate research.
more, except for the pygmies who should be left It suggests also that "small ranger
undisturbed in their ancestral way of living
stations be located in places of strategic
because they are few and of slight menace to
any living species, the areas are uninhabited. importance and rich in opportunity for
The memorandum further includes accomplishing a serious survey of the
questions of ownership, native rights, Park, the first being located on the middle
jurisdiction, etc. slopes of the north side of Mount Kari-
As a final matter, the question of simbi on the shore of the small Lake
scientific research is dealt with. It Rukumi, discovered by Derscheid in 1926
provides for a central station at Rutshuru near tree line. This pond is above the
for the administration of the park and to region of heavy cloud and abounds in the
serve as a permanent base for scientific most interesting animal species gorilla,, —
research; for the use of certain vacant buffalo, elephant, leopard, hyrax, ante-
'The main motor highway from Redjaf to Kisenyi, which lope, squirrel, sunbirds, plaintain caters,,
is now nearing completion, will run through the Pare Na-
tional Albert. et cetera."
In conclusion, the memorandum count of the findings of the Akeley-Der-

states that "in view of the determination scheid Expedition and projected photo-
of the Belgian Government to support the graphs of the Kivu. I had taken with me
park, which is a region of international to Brussels the gorilla film which Mr.
scientific importance, and because it Akeley had made in the Kivu, and this
seems wise to secure competent direction we showed to His Majesty and Their
by men perfectly aware of the needs of Highnesses.
scientific research and nature conservation A few days after our evening at the
and who have had experience in such Palace in Brussels, Derscheid and I
matters, it appears wholly desirable to described the gorilla country, the plans
place the management of the park in the for conservation, and also our scheme for
hands of a Belgian scientific institution scientific research therein before the
which is so favorably situated as to obtain Society for the Preservation of the Fauna
financial and scientific help both in of the Empire at the Zoological Society
Belgium and in foreign countries." in London. At the December meeting of
This memorandum approved by His this societv Baron de Cartier introduced
Highness, Prince Albert

de Ligne, and His Excel-
lency, Baron de Cartier,
was submitted to His
Majesty, Albert, King
of the Belgians, on Octo-
ber 8, by Prince
1928,
Albert de Ligne. The
following evening His
Majesty and Their Royal
Highnesses, the Duke and
Duchess of Brabant, re-
ceived in the Palace at
Brussels the Belgian Am-
bassador to the United
States and Princess de
Ligne, the American Am-
bassador to Belgium, and
Mrs. Hugh Gibson, the
Prime Minister and Min-
ister of the Colonies, M.
Henri Jaspar and Mme.
Jaspar, M. and Mme.
Franqui, and other friends
of science, as well as Doc-
torand Mme. Derscheid,
and myself. There,
throughout a long and
Plinlograph by Mary L. Jobe Akeley
intensely interesting eve-
ning, the project of the M'GURU, GORILLA GUIDE
He is perched in a moss-covered tree, which was brought to America
park was discussed. bv Mrs. Akeley as an accessory for the GoriUa Group for the Akeley
Derscheid gave an ac- African Hall
648 NATURAL HISTORY
Mr. Akeley's gorilla film and Derscheid Yale, to conduct a psychological investiga-
again spoke, both expressing the earnest tion of the habits and behavior of the
hope that the British Government may mountain gorilla in the Kivu sanctuary.
make absolute sanctuary of the Uganda Another expedition, sent out jointly b}^
side of the gorilla volcanoes. Columbia University and the American
Inasmuch as the boundary between the Museum of Natural History for scientific
Belgian and British volcanoes is not an investigation in both the Belgian and
impassable natural barrier, it is easy for French Congo, entered Africa in July,
goriUas to range from one side to the other 1929. It is in charge of Henry C. Raven,
as they undoubtedly do. To have com- associate curator of the department of
plete protection on the British side would comparative anatomy in the American
be an unquestionable guarantee that the Museum. The other members are Dr.
Belgian gorillas would have absolute WiUiam K. Gregory, curator of the de-
sanctuary. Mr. C. W. Hobley, acting as partment of anatomy in the American
Secretary of the Society for the Preserva- Museum, professor of vertebrate paleon-
tion of the Fauna of the Empire, wrote me tology at Columbia University, and
on June 20, 1929, that the society had this author of works bearing on the evolu-
matter in hand, and that the Zoological tion of man; Dr. J. H. McGregor, pro-
Society of London was supporting the fessor of zoology at Columbia University,
proposal and had taken the matter up and an on the anatomy
authority
independently with the Government. of the anthropoid apes and man; and
Throughout the fall and winter months Dr. E. T. Engle of the department of
of 1928-29 Prince Albert de Ligne has anatomy at the College of Physicians and
been untiring in his efforts to push to Surgeons, Columbia University, and a
completion the satisfactory organization speciaHst in endocrinology and physiology.
of the Park to the end that scientific work Their object is to trace the source of
be begun and also that the always neces- functional common to both
disorders
sary financial support be secured. Like- gorillaand man, with a ^dew to alleviating
wise Dr. John C. Merriam, in a letter to the sufferings of man. These scientists
me on March 30, 1929, expressed his con- also expect to visit the Pare National
tinued interest: Albert to observe the gorilla in his wild
state and to study the gorilla's relation-
The Pare National Albert project is to me one
of the most interesting and important plans of this ship to man. That the findings of both
nature being studied in the world at the present expeditions will be of rare significance is
time and I am extremely desirous of seeing it without question.
reach the very high level of effectiveness which I
The crowning achievement in the
know is desired by all concerned.
history of the organization of the Pare
As an outgrowth of this keen interest, National Albert is The Royal Decree
in the late spring of 1929 a joint expedition signed May 6, was confirmed
1929, which
was proposed
to the Pare National Albert by the Colonial Council and re-confirmed
by the Carnegie Institution and Yale by King Albert in June, 1929. King
University. Permission for the under- Albert has by this act created a corporate
taking was received from the Belgian body in the Belgian Congo and in the man-
Government through Prince de Ligne. dated territory of Ruanda-Urundi for
The expedition started for Africa in June, preservation of fauna and for strictly scien-
under the direction of Dr. Harold C. tific purposes.
Bingham, associate of Dr. Robert M. The park has been greatly enlarged by
Yerkes in the Institute of Psychology at this act and now consists of 500,000 acres

THE HOME OF THE GORILLA
Looking across the jungle-clad lower slopes of Mt. Mikeno to the lava plains below
and comprises four Reserves, or Sectors, As the four Reserves, or Sectors, of the
lying in theKivu District, in proximity to Pare National Albert include certain
one another. Within these Reserves it is tracts of land now occupied bj^ natives or
forbidden, under penalty of penal servi- previously granted to private persons or
tude or fine, or both, (1) to pursue, capture, companies, provision is made for the ex-
kill, or molest in any way, any kind of wild propriation of these tracts, found proper
if
animal, including animals which are re- and desirable, and it is further pro\aded
puted dangerous or harmful, (2) to take or that even on these tracts under private or
destroy the eggs or nests of wild birds, native occupation, the destruction, crlpture
(3) to cut down, destroj^, or remove any or pursuit of the gorilla, as well as all forms
uncultivated plant, or (4) to make any of hunting this animal, are absolutely
excavation, embankment, boring, or any forbidden.

operation of a nature to change the aspect To the four Reserves, or Sectors, of the
of the ground or of the vegetation. park proper, there are added certain adja-
Unless provided with a special permit, cent territories, under less severe restric-
no one (except officials and others properly tions, to serve as protecting zones to the
qualified) may enter the Pare National Reserves. These protecting zones are
Albert, or circulate, camp or sojourn sparsely inhabited by natives. In these
therein, or introduce dogs, traps, or fire- zones, hunting, fishing, and, cutting down
arms, or possess or transport or export trees are prohibited, except that the few
skins or other parts of wild animals or natives now hving there will be permitted
uncultivated vegetable products. to exercise their customary rights which
650 NATURAL HISTORY
they now enjoy but only with the primi- In addition to its administrative func-
tive weapons which they still use. tions, the Commission is authorized,
The Belgian Colonial Government subject to the approval of the King, to
undertakes to create and maintain, at its accept gifts, legacies, and other dona-
own expense, a corps of conservators and a tions which may be contributed to further
corps of native pohce, and to pay the the scientific purposes of the Pare Na-
strictly administrative expenses of the tional Albert.
park. The Pare National Albert is to be King Albert has already appointed Dr.
administered by a Commission (" Commis- John C. Merriam and Dr. Henry Fairfield
sion du Pare National Albert") and by a Osborn as members of this commission.
Committee of Direction. This act of the Belgian Government
The Commission du Pare National stands as an epochal opportunity for
Albert will consist of not less than eighteen science. Both broad-mindedness and
members; one-third, including the Presi- liberality are shown in their willingness to
dent, to be appointed by the King; an- have foreign scientists share in the ad-
other third to be selected by the King ministering board. It points to that long-
from nominations made by Belgian scien- hoped-for internationalism in conserva-
tific institutions and another third to be
; tion and in science and to a widening
chosen from among members of foreign interest in protection throughout all
scientific institutions. Africa.
A NATIVE IX
A GORILLA NEST
Photograph hij Mnry L. Jobe Akeley

A saw-belly has become firmly lodged in the widely distended jaws of a lake trout
VORACITY IN FISHES
How Fishes, in Their Search for Food, Occasionally Choke on Finnj^ Prey
Too Large to Be Engulfed
By E. W. GUDGER
Bibliographer and Associate in Ichthyology, American Museum of Natural History
WE are
engineer
all
semi-classical
acquainted with the
who was
allusion
"hoist
to
by
the
his
22-inch red grouper {EpinepheJus morio),
which had in its 8-inch
inch snapper, 3% inches of whose
stomach an lljo-
tail
own petard," and with the very unclas- protruded from the oesophagus into the
sical allusion to the boy who "bit off more mouth of the grouper.
than he could chew/' but that such a fate The fishes pictured in the headpiece of
could happen to a fish is at least unusual. this article are a lake trout (Cristivomer
So unusual is this in the experience of namaycush) which attempted to swallow

even those who have to do with fishes that a saw-belly {Pomolohus pseudoharengus)
it seems well worth while to set forth the with dire results to both. These fishes
facts about the fishes pictured above, and were picked up on the shore of Lake
also to bring together as a background Keuka, in New York State, about 10 a.m.
the few scattered instances and figures of on August 2, 1929, by Arthur A. Jansson,
like occurrences known to the writer. Jr.and by him presented to the depart-
Carnivorous fishes, while not averse to ment of ichthyology of the American Mu-
other animal food, find their chief alimen- seum. Both fishes were dead when found,
tation in their finny fellows. It is interest- but were still limp. Possibly their mutual
ing to note what large specimens are decease had occurred that morning,
swallowed, compared with the size of the certainly not earlier than the night before.
aggressor and the capacity of its stomach. There is nothing unusual in the attempt
At Tortugas, Florida, I once dissected a of the trout to swallow the saw-belly.
652 NATURAL HISTORY
since small specimens of the latter are the Undoubtedly there are to be found,
favorite bait used by trout anglers on this especiallyin sporting journals and in
lake. The unusual thing is that the trout books on angling, accounts of such hap-
(8% inches long over all) attempted to penings. Few, however, have come to
swallow a saw-belly (5 inches long and 1 hand, but these will be of interest as a
inch deep) which was too large for his background to the accident described
capacity. The trout could not work his above. The first is by the distinguished
French ichthyologist, Jacques Pellegrin,
who has figured such an incident on page
130 of his memoir on the Cichlidse
(fresh-water perch-like fishes found
mainly in Africa and South America
(Memoires Societe Zoologique de France,
AN UNTIMELY FATE
1903, tome XVI). This figure, which
This greedy young Cichlid attempted to swallow
a fish almost its own size. After Pellegrin, 1903 is reproduced on this page, shows a young
Cichlid only 45 mm. (1% inches) long,

(relatively) large prey down into a attempting to swallow a fish but little
stomach too small to contain it, nor could smaller than itself.
he disgorge his capture. The head and Among our North American carnivor-
foreparts of the saw-belly (measuring ous fishes, the black bass (especially the
1% inches) fitted very accurately into the large-mouthed form, Micropterus sal-
mouth and pharynx of the trout and dis- moides) is particularly voracious. That
tended its jaws so widely that the teeth this voracity begins early in life is re-
caught in the dorsaland ventral surfaces vealed in notes on the rearing of this fish
of thebody of its prey and held it fast. by Leon J. Pray, published in Aquatic
However, another factor in retention is Life (1918, Vol. TV, pp. 77-79). He found
found in the peculiar structure of the that his baby bass early developed canni-
body of the saw-belly which gives it its balistic characteristics. "The larger and
name. The body of this fish is shaped stronger ones quickly swallowed the small-
like a capital V, the two sides of the ab- er, afterwards going slowly about with
domen coming together in a sharp angle
on the midventral line with the scales so
set as to give this line the appearance and
feel of a saw with the teeth pointing back-
ward. These teeth catching inside the
anterior angle or ''point of the jaw" of
the trout made it impossible for it to dis-
gorge its prey. With a glass one may
note in the drawing the sawlike edge of
the ventral surface of the fish.
Since the fishes were bent to get them A CANNIBALISTIC BASS

into the container in which they were The tail fin of its twin brother projecting from
its mouth revealed the voracious appetite of this
brought to the Museum and since they baby black bass. After Pray, 1918
have become hardened in the preserva-
tive, it is impossible to photograph them the tail fins of their brothers and sisters
in lateral view. The spirited sketch protruding from their mouths" —as may
at thehead of this article was made by be seen in the figure at the bottom of
Arthur A. Jansson, Sr. this page reproduced from his sketch of
VORACITY IN FISHES 653
Courtesy of Field and Stream

CHOKED BY ITS PREY
A 44-pound striped bass which met with disaster when it attempted to swallow a 2-pound carp
one specimen. This kept on until only Pennell writes in his interesting book The
two were left, and inspection of the Angler-Naturalist (London, 1863, p. 60),
aquarium one morning showed but one that when a perch has filled its stomach to
fish. However, the aldermanic outline repletion with minnows, it will still en-
of the survivor and the caudal fin of his deavor to catch others, and that "it is by
twin brother projecting from his mouth no means uncommon under these circum-
told the tale of the nocturnal tragedy. stances to capture a Perch with the tails of
This bass was then supphed with
little the minnows, which he has already par-
small live minnows on which he fed regu- tially swallowed and been unable to
larly —
twice a day in mid fore- and after- pouch, protruding from his gullet."
noon — consuming 160 before attaining an Corroboratory of this, C. M. Breder,
age of three months and a length of Jr., of the New York Aquarium, tells
slightly under three inches. He would me that he once found in a stream in

catch his prey midwise, deftly shift it New Jersey a black bass about 5 inches
about until he had "head on," when it
it long,which had been killed in trying to
would be quickly engulfed. But ''Nearly swallow another bass about 3 inches long
always the tail of the minnow protruded —the posterior third of the smaller fish
from his mouth
two or three hours
for protruding from the mouth of the larger.
afterward." However, as the minnows A similar fate overtook a striped bass

were small and the mouth and gullet of the (a related marine form which ascends
little bass relatively large, this impetuous rivers for some San
distance) found in the
feeding was carried on without such a Joaquin River district, California. This
fatality as has been depicted in this fish's photograph was published on page
article. 78 of Field and Stream, New York, for

Of a related form, the fresh-water perch December, 1928, and is reproduced on
(Perca fluviatilis), H. Cholmondeley- this page. No explanation or account of
654 NATURAL HISTORY
it is given other than the caption, which of a large eel stuck in the pike's throat, the
says "This 44-poimd striped bass met head parts of which had been swallowed
with disaster when he attempted to swal- and partly digested, while the tail pro-
—
low a 2-pound carp" the tail of which truded out in the water.
protruded from his mouth. Whether the This particular matter of digestion of
bass was choked to death, or whether it the head end of the prey also is corro-
was caught in a net before the swallowing borated by Mr. Breder's repeated observa-
process was over, cannot be said. tions on the fishes in the New York
The most ravenous fishes found in the Aquarium. Specifically he tells of a 5-foot
fresh waters of Europe and North America sand shark which captured and partially
are the pikes, members of the family swallowed a dogfish about half its length
Esocidse. Definite accounts of mishaps — leaving about 10 inches of the dogfish's
among pikes, similar to these shown on tail projecting beyond its jaws. For
pages 553, 555, are known. First of all about two and one half days it swam
to be quoted is E. J. Stanley, who, writing around in the large aquarium with the tail
in The Zoologist (1845, Vol. Ill, page 1039), of its prey waving in the water, until as a
says that, once when walking by a piece of result of the progressive digestion of the
water, he heard a commotion, and coming anterior parts, the tail was slowly taken in.
nearer he "found two pike, of about a Illustrative not merely of the voracity
pound each, the head of one being entirely but of the cannibalistic proclivities of the
within the other's mouth, the snout com- pike, Cholmondeley-Pennell relates (page
ing out at the gills of the fish that was 198) that, on a fine set overnight in the
holding it." Stanley was able to catch River Avon, a large and heavy pike was
these two fish since 'they seemed nearly found. In order to get out the hook, the
exhausted with their exertions " — a thing fish was opened and in it was found
at which one can hardly be surprised. another and smaller pike with the line
A similar and equally well authen- proceeding from its mouth. Dissection
ticated account is narrated by Sir Herbert of pike number 2 revealed in its stomach
Maxwell in his British Fresh-water Fishes a still smaller pike, number 3, the original
(London, 1904, p. 169). In 1870 two taker of the bait. Surely this is the cham-
fishermen on Loch Tay, Scotland, noticing pion "fish story" illustrative of voracity
a disturbance in the water, rowed to the in fishes.
spot and found two fish apparently fight- Anent the matter under discussion,
ing. When gaffed and pulled on board Jonathan Couch writes (British Fishes,
they proved to be a pair of pike weighing 1869, Vol. IV, p. 152):
19 pounds and nearly of the same size. It [the pike] has been known on some occa-
"The head of one was firmly fixed as far sions to seize and devour one of its own species
as the pectoral fins within the jaws and almost as large as itself. When this occurs,
however, the whole body of the prey cannot be
gullet of the other."
received at once into the stomach; and the
Of the voracity of the pike and the
devourer has been seen with the tail and a por-
rapidity of its digestion, Cholmondeley- tion of its victim protruding from its mouth,
Pennell gives many instances in the book until by a dissolu'ion of a part there is room af-
previously referred to. Of these the one forded for the remaining portion to be in turn
subjected to the power of digestion.
on page 197 is to the point. A pike,
lying in a semi-torpid condition among Not all the cannibals of the genus Esox
some water weeds, was easily caught and are so fortunate in their attacks on their
brought ashore. The explanation of this fellows. C. Tate Regan, the director of
behavior was then found in the presence the British Museum, relates (British
VORACITY IN FISHES 655
Courtesy of Field and Stream

A DUEL TO THE DEATH
Mutual destruction of two pikes in White Loch, Scotland
Freshwater Fishes, 1911, page 145) that fishgot the head of the smaller fish in his
in one season two pikes, weighing 35 and mouth, where the gill covers of the latter
29 pounds respectively, were found float- stuck in the gill arches of the former, caus-
ing dead on a lake in Dorsetshire. Each ing a great distension of the mouth and gill
had tried vainly to swallow a fish about covers of the aggressor as may be seen
one third of its own size, a pike in one case in the figure. The two fishes, being unable
and a carp in another, and each had per- to get free from each other, either died a
ished miserably. slow and painful death (let us recall here
Unfortunatelj'^ illustrations are lacking the stories of deer with interlocked horns)
in the accounts just quoted, but I am or possibly before this were so weakened
pleased now to present ocular evidence of that they were easily caught.
cannibalism in pikes in the form of a A possible explanation of how this
photograph kindly lent me by Mr. Ray comes about is to be found
state of affairs
Schrenkeisen, associate editor of Field in an incident related by Cholmondeley-
and Stream, New These fish were
York. Pennell in the book (page 214) previously
photographed at White Loch, Monreith, quoted. Two pike were kept in a glass
Scotland, whence they were taken. This aquarium. When a bit of food was thrown
photograph was reproduced on page 78 of in thisabout midway between them, they
Field and Stream of December, 1928, but simultaneously dashed at it, with the sin-
no data are given other than that one fish gular result that the head of the smaller fish
weighed 7 and the other 8 pounds. (From penetrated the open mouth of the larger,
this one may conjecture that, as in the case where it was so firmly fixed that it was
of my fishes, it was possible to separate some time before the two fish freed them-
them after death). Evidently the larger selves from their unfortunate predicament.
At the entrance to the forest. — The figure on the trail stands at the viewpoint of the habitat
group of Barro Colorado in the American Museum
AIR CASTLES IN THE TROPICS'

A Review of "My Tropical Air Castle," Dr. Frank M. Chapman's New Book on
Barro Colorado Island
By frank E. LUTZ
Curator of Insect life, American Museum
A IR Castles in the Tropics—at least the charming detail, rightly leaves the reader
Z-X one which Doctor Chapman calls with an impression that the half has not
his own —
are most interesting been told.
and seem to be filled with scientific reali- Barro Colorado, speaking geographi-
ties surpassing mere dreams. He calls it cally, was a mountain in the valley of the
his own, but, with the generosity of a Chagres in Panama. With the damming
scientist, he invites us to share his dream- of that t
river to make the Panama
come-true and, with the skill of an ex- Canal, Barro Colorado became an island
perienced writer, he makes us feel at home. in Gatun Lake. Speaking biologically,
There are few who have seen more of the it is a typical example of a tropical forest,
American Tropics than he has or who are and it is now surrounded by a protecting
as well qualified to speak of its natural barrier of water. Administratively, it is
history. further protected by a governmental

What, then, is this Barro Colorado and proclamation which has placed it in
why has it become the site of the castle? charge of a committee of the National
A brief notice of Doctor Chapman's book Research Council to be used as a center
can certainly not fully answer these ques- for the investigation of tropical biology.
tions, and even the book itself, devoted as The American Museum's first contact
it is to the answering of them and full of with Barro Colorado was when one of our
^My Tropical Air Castle. By Dr. Frank M. Chapman. xvi 417 pp. 29 text figures; 47 plates. D. Appleton and
Co., N. Y. City.
AIR CASTLES IN THE TROPICS 657
entomologists hunting stingless bees acceptable part of the book's numerous

camped on the site of the present labora- illustrations is a series of such auto-
tory and cut the first trail through the portraits in connection with a chapter
forest. Now "there are nearly twenty on "Who Treads Our Trails?"
miles of these pathways and not one tree The American Museum's second con-
of size was felled in their construction. tact with Barro Colorado and Doctor
They are cross-sections through the life Chapman's discovery of his long-sought
of the forest, and afford unending possibili- Air Castle was his expedition to make
ties for intimate views of beast or bird studies for the habitat group of tropical
and the forest itself. One may follow American forest birds now on exhibition
them almost as noiselessly as he glides here. Since then we have come to look
along the shore in a cayuca. Instead of upon the Barro Colorado laboratory as
being an enmeshed, perspiring, vitupera- a regular part of our Museum activities.
tive creature he now feels more a part of So, this book is by way of being an Ameri-
the fauna." can Museum report, but it is a very
One of the book's illustrations repro- readable report that will appeal to all
duced here gives a daylight glimpse from who are interested in tropical natural
the laboratory clearing of a main trail, and history — "beast or bird and the forest
the other photograph is a flashlight por- itself
" — described by one who knows and
trait of a puma made on a near-by path who does not hesitate to season his
with the unintentional cooperation of the descriptions with humor and human
photographed. In fact, a novel and very feeling.
A PUMA PHOTOGRAPHS HIMSELF

Note the broken wiie which was connected with the camera. The presence of this species, tapirs,
and other large animals on Barro Colorado is an indication of the primeval character of its fauna
A restoration model of the Miocene camel group, made by Louise Waller Germann under the
direction of Barnum Brown
A MIOCENE CAMEL BED-GROUND

A Recently Installed Exhibit at the American Museum, Showing a Phase
in the Lives of the Now Extinct Camels that Originally Ranged
the Grassy Plains of Western Nebraska
By barnum brown
Curator of Fossil Reptiles, American Museum
Judging from the number of skeletons

SINGLE skeletons of prehistoric ani-
mals are not uncommon, but to find buried in this quarry and their rarity
a herd, dozens of which are com- elsewhere, we suppose that Stenomylus
plete, entombed at one place, is a rare was in habits similar to the guanaco of
occurrence. Such was the find near Agate South America.
Spring in Western Nebraska, where nearly The guanaco feed over the pampas
a hundred skeletons of the little camel singly and in small groups during the
Stenomylus hitchcocki were found close summer but, as winter approaches, they
together. band together in great herds of thousands.
This remarkable deposit was discovered During severe winter weather in Pata-
by Dr. F. B. Loomis, of Amherst College, gonia, the writer has seen a herd of five
in 1907. In 1908 he excavated twenty-one thousand bedded close together hke sheep.
skeletons there for Amherst College, and When they arose from the bed-ground in
several other institutions shared in the the morning, a hundred bodies remained
find. Yale University secured three skele- dead of starvation and winter kill.
tons, and the Carnegie Museum, in 1908 Our mounted group recalls such a
and 1909, about thirty skeletons. morning scene; a section of the bed-
In 1908 Mr. Albert Thomson collected ground from which most of the living
nine skeletons from the same deposit for have departed. A few stragglers remain,
the American Museum of Natural His- the largest presumably a male. A mother
tory. It is this group of nine skeletons stands close to her young which lies, like
that recently has been mounted, and dis- all camels, with legs folded, the front feet
played with models, five in characteristic, —

palms up the hind feet with palms down.
life-hke camel attitudes, four lying in Another is rising, in which movement the
the original matrix as found. hind feet are first straightened, the
A NEW GROUP OF MIOCENE CAMELS 659
forward part of the body resting on the America and flourished here until near
elbows; with a spring the animal comes the close of the Pleistocene period, when
up on all fours. they, like the horses, died out before the
It was similar bed-grounds that Charles coming of the white man.
Darwin observed on the pampas during The family is now represented by the
his summer's visit to South America, genus Camelus of which there are two
described in the Naturalises Voyage Round species; in North Africa and Arabia,
the World, but as the guanaco were then the Arabian camel with one hump, and in
feeding singly and in small groups, he Central Asia the Bactrian with two humps.
thought it was their habit to go to certain The true camels are distinguished by
places to die. these humps, which are in reality huge
Like the guanaco, most of the Steno- masses of fat that serve as a reserve store
mylus skeletons were close together, with of food. A closely related genus is the
bones articulated and heads drawn back, Auchenia of South America, of which there
although some of the bodies had been are two wild guanaco and the
species, the
mutilated and torn apart by carnivorous smaller vicuna. The llama and alpaca,
animals. Later these bodies were covered beasts of burden, are regarded as do mesti-
first by wind-blown sands and later by cated varieties of the two wild spe cies.
river drift. The South American camels are grass

The camel family originated in North grazers and in habits very different from
EARLY MORNING
Miocene camels {Stenomylus hitchcocki) leaving a bed-ground. The herd leaves behind it each
morning those of its numbers that have succumbed to starvation, old age, or inclement weather.
From a painting based on the group, by Mrs. E. Rungius Fulda
660 NATURAL HISTORY
QUARRY WHERE THE CAMEL SKELETONS WERE FOUND

Scene of the American Museum's operations in 1908, five miles southeast of Agate Spring,
Sioux County, Nebraska
Asiatic and Arabian camels, so important the most striking and best known series
to the inhabitants of those countries. illustrating the evolution of a race of

No desert traveler equipped with a well mammals. They passed through nearly
organized camel caravan could fail to the whole of their development in North
respect this interesting animal. Some- America and did not migrate to other con-
times called stupid; often complaining, tinents until the lateMiocene or Early
but never failing. His wants are few and Pliocene.
his burdens many. Camels appear first in the Eocene as
With Arab drivers who know their very small animals with four complete
camels, a white tent village will hterally toes on each foot; the neck and Umbs of
melt away and the long caravan be on the only moderate length. Probably, like
march with scarcely a sound. But with other races, they were descended from a
Somali drivers and the same camels, to five-toed animal, but this initial ancestor
break camp is confusion confounded. has not yet been discovered. Protylopus,
The Arabian camel never falters ; over one of the first genera known, is probably
blistering, slithering sand, or jagged lava not in direct line of descent, but it nearly
flow, his footfalls are as regular as heart- represents the proper ancestral stage.'
beats, and march,

after the long day's It was an animal scarcely larger than a
with burdens removed, he ambles away, jack rabbit.

never seeing the grass he tramples, to In each succeeding epoch we find the
carefully choose his thorny titbits, from race increasing in size and gradually
mimosa or acacia trees. Truly he is a losing its side toes, which become slender,
marvelous beast. then the tips of the toes disappear leaving
Next to the horses, the camels furnish only splint-bones, then the spKnt-bones
A NEW GROUP OF MIOCENE CAMELS 661
are reduced to small nodules and finally times, and its race apparently had a brief
disappear completely. The two central career — disappearing in the Lower Mio-
first entirely separate, but their
toes are at cene. It was an upland feeder, unique
upper bones become consolidated into a among camels in having the first premolars
"cannon-bone." The toes at first had and canines developed like incisors; a
small sharp hoofs like those of deer or modification that doubtless related to its
antelopes, but gradually a large, soft, feeding habits. Oxydadylus, a con-
elastic pad was formed, which
fibrous temporary of Stenomylus, was a more
enables the animal to walk on soft, shift- hardy type and precursor of the "giraffe-
ing desert sands or equally well on the camels."
sharp irregular surfaces of lava fields. Camels reached their maximum size
The teeth in the earliest camels are of and abundance in the Phocene Epoch.
primitive pattern, adapted to an omnivor- In the Lower Pliocene the two modern
ous diet; but they gradually become fitted phyla had separated, and there was a
for browsing with grinding teeth of four third now extinct —a very long-legged,
crescentic ridges. The premolar teeth long-necked group, the "giraffe-camels"
become dwarfed and disappear; so do the whose appearance and habits probably
upper incisor teeth, the lower incisors were much like the giraffe.
being pressed against a flexible upper lip At this time camels were the most
to nip off the leaves or grasses. numerous of all the large animals of the
During the Miocene, the period in which plains, and some were of gigantic size,
our little Stenomylus lived, the family one species discovered in Arizona in 1928
became diverse in size and is represented being a third larger than the largest living
by several genera and many species. camel. They ranged all over North Amer-
Stenomylus lived during Lower Miocene ica, and the uniting of this continent with
THE GROUP OF MIOCENE CAMEL SKELETONS

{Stenomylus hiichcocki)
Five of the skeletons in the group are mounted in characteristic camel attitudes, and four others are
lying in the original matrix as found. Mounted by Charles J. Lang
662 NATURAL HISTORY
GENERAL VIEW OF STENOMYLUS REGION

It was here 1907 that Dr. F. B. Loomis of Amherst College made the remarkable find of nearly
in
100 skeletons of Stenormjlus hitchcocki, and in 1908 Albert Thomson collected nine skeletons for the
American Museum, which have been mounted and are now on display \\'ith restoration models
South America and Asia enabled them to from North America where it originated
spread over the greater part of the Old and reached its maximum size. In short,
World and most of South America. Since the race is becoming extinct, to be re-
that epoch they have declined in numbers placed by the higher ruminants (ante-
and their range has become more restricted lopes, sheep, and cattle) which are now
The camel has entirely disappeared at the zenith of their prosperity.
AMHERST HILL AND

Stenomylus quarry
1. Central Asiatic; 2. Whitney South Sea, Solomon Islands, for birds; 3. Vernay-Faunthorpe for Asiatic Mammals;
4. Morden-Graves, Turkestan, for mammals; 5. Madagascar, for birds, mammals, and fossils: 6. Tanganyika, for birds
and mammals; 7. Columbia University-American Museum, to Africa for anatomical study; 8. Thorne-Correia, Gulf of
Guinea, for birds; 9. Heilprin-Hassler, Haiti, for reptiles; iO. Frick-Rak-Falkenbach, Sante Fe, for fossils; 11. Vaillant,
Valley of Mexico, archfeblogical study; 12. Heilprin-Hatt, Yucatan, for mammals and fossils; 13. Shapiro, Pol>Tiesia,
physical anthropology; 14. Naumburg-Kaempfer, Southeastern Brazil, for birds; 15. Ottley-Anthony, South America,
biological reconnaissance; 16. Byrd, Antarctic
AMERICAN MUSEUM EXPEDITIONS

It is the purpose of this department to keep readers of Natural History informed
as to the latest neios of Museum expeditions in the field at the time the magazine
goes to press. In many instances, however, the sources of information are so
distant that it is not possible to include up-to-date data
Museum them nearly

THE Columbia University-American
Africa reports that has ob-
ing distance of a family party of
a week ago, and, writes Doctor Gregory, all are
Expedition to it
tained one of the two gorillas permitted it by the hoping for similar opportunities soon.
Belgian government. The gorilla, a magnificent Of Africa, Doctor Gregory continues:
male in the prime of was a staggering load
life,
At every step, east and central Africa contradict all
In the first place we have as yet
for twenty-five porters. Inasmuch as the party one's preconceptions.
experienced no really hot weather except at Djibuti near
can collect but two specimens, great care was the Red Sea. Here in the mountains at 6700 feet elevation,
it is moderately hot at midday and almost freezing at night.
exercised in the selection. Doing this was com- Then, too, I expected to see deadly snakes and venomous
pUcated by the fact that they Uve in the thickest insects, but although I have searched constantly in the
bush and jungle for snakes I have seen not one, while in-
bush where one can seldom see more than an sects are relatively few and largely inocuous. Probably
this paucity of life is largely due to the constant burning of
indefinite shadow. After the second gorilla has grass and bush by the natives in order to gain grazing space
been obtained, the work of photographing living for their cattle. Goats and cattle are devastating .\frica
as they are Australia.
gorillas will begin, but Dr. William King Gregory We are fortunate in being camped here in a paradise of
most lush green fields sprinkled with brilliant trees and flowers.
writes that the conditions are difficult,
The natives furnish us with a continuous performance. 'V^ e
and only a fortunate chance can yield any see them everywhere in their settlements, and at present
we are surrounded by forty porters and four "personnel"
photographs of value. The gorillas are masters boys. Every one of them could be studie<i individually by a
humanists, phj-sicians
staff of anthropologists, sociologists,
in the art of concealment and of disappearance. Moreover they are equally interesting, from
and others.
Doctor McGregor managed to get within speak- the larval stage to tottering old age. With what gu.sto the
664 NATURAL HISTORY
tiny boys greet one with a snappy salute and a quavering would stay there instead of falling or perhaps walking down
" jambo," and how the mothers love to have their babies and coming so near our feet. Almost every day we meet a
photographed, from all sides and angles, especially if a tarantula or scorpion. Last night we had two tarantulas.
franc (3i,2(^) is forthcoming. Yesterday three of us walked An entomologist would have a good time here. By the
down and up the mountains to a great native market about way, roaches fly in this country.
eight miles from here. We
were like pilgrims marching to
Mecca in the midst of a toiling stream of black humanity. /^N November 1, Dr. George C. Vaillant left
VVT'ORD has just come from Mr. and Mrs.
^^ New York to resume the stratigraphical
' ' R. T. Hatt of the Angelo Heilprin Yucatan excavations in the Vallej^ of Mexico, continuing
Expedition that they arrived at Chichen Itza at the sites of Ticoman and possibly Teotihuacan,
on October 12. Thej'saj': the work begun last season. In January he
plans to go to a conference at Chichen Itza at
The country here is strikingly different from what we
anticipated. Instead of being xerophytic, everything is the invitation of the Carnegie Institution at
covered with a dense tangle of wet green brush all over- — Washington, to report on the progress of his
grown with convoh"ulus (twining herbs). There has been
rain everj- day since we arrived. . . . archaeological work.
The ruins are beautiful beyond description have not. We
had time to study and visit them all yet. The carvings and
paintings take a long time to study and one cannot grasp A CARD from Wilham J. Morden of the
all the details at one glance. Before we leave we will take ^~^ Morden-Graves Expedition for mammals
a daj' off to see what we have not seen and take a few-
pictures. states that on September 27 his party was at
Speaking of pets, we should tell you that our thatch roof
contains as much life as the sea. Scorpions, tarantulas, big
Tashkent. From there they plan to go on to
cockroaches, geckos, bats, different kinds of wasps, mantis, Samarkand and Bokhara, and shortly after the
spiders, and many more live about our heads. do not We
mind them, but wish that the scorpions and tarantulas November to strike eastward to Siberia.
first of
NOTES
ASTKONOMY Amateur Astronomers Association, attracted an
DY
•'-'
invitation of the Bond Astronomical Club attendance of 3000 people. It had to be projected
on the screen twice during the evening to accommo-
of Harvard College, Dr. Clyde Fisher,
president of the Amateur Astronomers Associa- date this record audience. Manj^ caUs are being
tion, made the opening address at their meeting, received for another showing, and it is possible
October 28, 1929, at the Harvard College Observa- that this may be done later for members only.
tory, in which he described the rnechanism of The November 20 meeting was devoted to a
the Zeiss Planetarium. The following evening description of "Our Place in the Milky Way
Doctor Fisher addressed the American Associa- Galaxy" by Dr. Clyde Fisher.
tion of Variable Star Observers at their annual
fall meeting at the Harvard Observatory. THE MARTIN JOHNSON-
AFRICAN EXPEDITION
COMMENCING Saturday, December from 7,
5:30 to 5:45 P.M., Station WOR will broad- /^N November 2 Mr. and Mrs. Martin
cast a series of radio talks on astronomy under the
^^ Johnson sailed for Africa, to be gone for a
auspices of the Amateur Astronomers Association. period of two j'ears. Accompanj'ing them on this
Dr. Clyde Fisher, president of the Association, trip are Mr. George Dryden of Chicago, and his
wall give the initial talk. Dr. C. S. Brainin of son, who will be with the Johnsons for the first
Columbia University, Dr. Oswald Schlockow, three months.

and Anthony Fiala are scheduled for the three DeWitt Sage of New York will join the John-
succeeding broadcasts, respectively. sons in Nairobi to assist Mr. Johnson in his
photographic work. Also on this trip there will
'HE December program of the Amateur
I be a sound and camera man from Fox Movietone.
•*•
.\stronomers Association wiU include the
Mr. Johnson is taking along the new Grandeur
following speakers:
Movietone outfit, (70 millimeter j, also a camera
December 4, Dr. John A. Miller, professor of
for making color pictures, and an outfit to make
mathematics and astronomy, Swarthmore Col-
sound pictures.
lege. "The EcUpse of 1929. " (Illustratedj.
The party after visiting the Johnson's Nairobi
December 18, Dr. John C. Duncan, professor
home, will go to the slopes of Mt. Kenya, where
of astronomy at Welleslej' College. "The Mr. Johnson hopes to photograph the bonga.
Nebulae." (Illustrated).
Next they will go to the Ituri forest in the
'
I
'HE motion picture reels illustrating the Ein- Belgian Congo and make camp on the Ituri
* stein Theory of Relativity, which were the river. Here they expect to photograph the
feature of the November 6 meeting of the gorilla, pygmy people, pj'gmy elephants if they
NOTES 665
exist, and also the okapi, which Mr. Johnson used eagerly by the general pubhc, who have
describes as a cross between a giraffe and a learned to journey away from the crowded
zebra, although it really is not. The okapi is a centers of population in search of recreation and
very rare animal and has almost never been seen fresh,pure air.
by a white man, although the natives have killed The department of pubUc education of the
them from time to time and brought them in. American Museum has kept pace with the times
in following the footsteps of the people of Greater
EDUCATION
'
'HE Courses for Teachers, in-
Cultural
New York in their exodus to the open. Many
I
other organizations throughout the United States
augurated this fall by the department of
*•
have seen the value and importance of this form
public education of the American Museum, proved
of nature education and now support similar
to be very attractive to hundreds who were evi-
projects, all with the one purpose of stimulating
dently impressed by the illustrative resources of
a more lively and lasting interest in the out-of-
the Museum and by the quaUty of the lectures.
doors on the part of the American public. The
Enrollment in the Tuesday afternoon course in
Nature Trails and the Trailside Museum, main-
geography for elementary school teachers
tained by the American Maseum of Natural
cUmbed to the unprecedented total of 1311.
History, in cooperation with the Commissioners
The course on Wednesday afternoons arranged
of the Palisade Interstate Park at Bear Moun-
for teachers in secondary schools totaled 232.
tain, New York, have been visited by more than
Dr. George H. Sherwood, director of the
200,000 people since 1927.
Museum, gave the opening lecture in each course.
The development during the season from May
He used photographs of wild animals contrasted
to October, 1929, has progressed rapidly in sev-
with pictures of the habitat groups of the same
eral directions. The third year of operation has
animals, prepared by the experts of the Museum
seen an increase in attendance nearly double that
for exhibition in the various halls, to show the
of 1928. The trails are now completely indicated
scientific fidehty of the exhibits of the Museum.
and marked, and the museum building, provided
He development and growth of
also analyzed the
by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Foundation,
the Museum, particularly in education. His
is fully equipped with exhibits and demonstra-
slides and films were enthusiastically received
tion materials, nearly all of which have been
by both audiences, and his entertaining and valu-
made at the Trailside Workshop. This new work-
able talks were generally taken to be harbingers
shop has proved a most valuable acquisition.
of the good things to come in the courses.
Cooperation with the educational and camping
While the extremely large registration has
department of the Interstate Park has been
compelled some adjustments in the methods of
carried on in a more extended way than
presenting the courses, it is hoped that it will
heretofore. A new branch of the work, initiated
still be possible for each of the registrants to
this year, is that of aiding in a very definite
complement the lectures with a certain amount
way nature councilors and directors throughout
of laboratory work and accessory reading.
museum and
the Park, with their individual
BEAR MOUNTAIN NATURE TRAILS general educational problems. The evident
A 11 trails leading through the woods, along the increase in interest on the part of the pubhc in
•*"*•
margins of lakes, or over the tops of moun- trailside museums and in the nature of the trails
tains, are, in effect "nature trails." Unfortunately, has showm itself in many ways, and is most
however, not manj^ trails aid in disseminating encouraging.
information about nature to the uninitiated who Major Wilham A. Welch, general manager and
tread their paths. The purpose of labeled chief engineer of the Interstate Park, has been
"nature trails" and of "trailside museums" is to most kind in his wiUingness to aid the nature
present opportunity to nature lovers to gain a program of the Trailside Museum. Miss Ruby
real conception of the meaning of "nature- M. Jolhffe, superintendent of camping in the
mindedness," by providing them with simple, Park, by her friendly assistance aided the exten-
visual means of becoming better acquainted tion work of the Museum very materially. Mr.
with the wonderful world in which they Uve. John Tampsen, chief of construction, has also
The dwellers of the cities are turning their eyes, been very helpful as have the entire poUce force
their steps, and their mental perceptions to the of Bear Mountain under the direction of Captain
woods, the fields, and the streams. In ever in- Mandago. Dr. George H. Sherwood, director of
creasing numbers they are avaihng themselves the American Museum, has given valuable help
of many opportunities to spend hours in the and has made possible many new features of the
open. State and national parks are being work. The support of Dr. Clyde Fisher, curator
666 NATURAL HISTORY
of visual instruction at the American Museum, During the early part of the camping season,
has also been of great assistance. announcement was made through Miss JolHffe,
The Nature Trails, the Trailside Museum, and of the Park Staff, to many of the camp directors
the educational extension work, have again been in the Park area, to the effect that the directors
directed by Wilham H. Carr, assistant curator of of the Trailside Museum would be glad to give
education at the American Museum. Mr. Carr instruction to Nature Teachers in the way of
has been assisted by his wife, Marion B. Carr. caring for their captive animals. The teachers
A rehef model of the Nature Trail area has responded at once, and during July and August,
been installed in the Trailside Museum this fifteen bird houses, eighty-two animal cages,
summer. It shows, in raised contours, the eight museum models, and three museum
different trails, and points of interest, and not aquariums were made by the campers in the
only gives specific direction as to the location of Trailside Workshop. The American Museum
certain "natural history events," but it also furnished transportation, materials, tools, and
serves as a general guide to the region, teaching instruction for all of this work.
the visitor at the same time how to read contour The result of this service was that manj^ camps
maps correctly. that could not provide museum equipment were
Indoor exhibits of living animals have been thus given exhibit materials that soon proved to
greatly increased, both as to numbers of species be of considerable value in the nature educational
exhibited and interesting species cared for. A life of the individual camps. As a direct result
complete equipment of new cages and other of this activity, at least five of the camps have
physical means of exhibiting the creatures to the planned to "carry on" in a much larger way
best advantage have been designed and made in during the next season.
the Trailside Workshop. About fifty of these It was our privilege during the camping season
new cages have been in use. At one time during of 1929 to cooperate with the camping depart-
the season the Trailside Museum had thirteen ment of the Interstate Park to a much greater
species of local snakes, all properly housed. extent than we have ever been able to do hereto-
The exhibit of microscopes continued to be fore. This was largely made possible because
the most popular educational feature in the mu- of the automobile supplied to the Nature Trail
seum building. Indeed, the floor in front of the by the American Museum. This automobile
microscope table was quite worn by the feet of traveled more than 5000 miles, thus bringing
people, many of whom were permitted for the nature education to the 90,000 children, who
first time actually to use a microscope. visited the camps during July and August.
A new exhibit that showed "something todo The four regional museums in the principal
with leaves" attracted manj^ visitors, both camping centers of the Park received a major
adults and children. The only glass case in the share of attention. Individual camps were also
building was used for this exhibit. Here were served. This work consisted of lending slides
shown the various steps by which different kinds and other material, and of giving lectures.
of impressions could be taken of leaves.
This year the "Return Trail," the "Swamp CONSERVATION
Trail," and the "Hidden Label Trail," were r^ IFTS have been announced
totalling $75,000
completely marked. The labels on the historical ^~-* by Dr. Frank Aydelotte, president
of Swarth-
trail were all replaced, and sturdy chestnut posts more College, for the establishment at Swarth-
were firmly fixed so that this particular trail more of the Arthur H. Scott Foundation of
should be virtually permanent. New exhibits Horticulture.
along the trails included the insec*^ table and the This foundation is to be in memory of the late
turtle pens. Many new labels were added to the Arthur H. Scott, former president of the Scott
entire trail system. All damaged labels were Paper Company, who graduated from Swarth-
replaced almost as rapidly as they became more in the class of '95. The sum total is com-
scratched or otherwise mutilated. posed of gifts contributed by his widow, Edith
The new building at the end of the trail Wilder Scott, '96, of Rose Valley, and his sister,
designated as the "Trailside Workshop" has Mrs. Margaret Scott Moon and her husband,
given excellent service to the entire nature Owen Moon, '94, of Winston-Salem, N. C.
project. It served as living quarters for four The terms of the foundation state that it "is
people, as a workshop and the mu-
for the trails created for three purposes: (1) The founding of
seum, and as a nature laboratory for more than an arboretum; (2) the development of floricul-
one hundred nature councilors and directors in ture; (3) the promotion of interest in better
the camps of the Interstate Park. gardens." President Aydelotte explained that
NOTES 667
in the furtherance of these aims, three projects This library, a large part of which is in the
are proposed: the horticultural development of Dean Research Room, con.sists of approximately
the Swarthmore campus, the Crum Creek region seven hundred bound volumes and a collection
and the Crum-Martin woods, recently given b^' of unbound papers and pamphlets. It is an
Dr. and Mrs. Martin; endowment of a chair of invaluable asset to the department and to
horticulture in the faculty at Swarthmore; students of both fossil and recent fishes.
and the annual award of a medal and a prize of The bequest also includes a beautiful and very
$1,000 based on a nation-wide competition for valuable collection of unpublished embryological
outstanding service for better gardens. drawings made by Doctor Dean himself.
President Aydelotte explained that the project
for the development of the arboretum would FOSSIL VERTEBRATES
an early dream and wish of Arthur H.
fulfill TN a recent issue of Palseobiologica, Prof.
Scott. His enthusiasm as a naturalist and flower ' Julius Vigh of Budapest describes a natural
lover led him to become a contributor to the mummy of a house cat. After death the cadaver
Arnold Arboretum at Cambridge, and he always of the cat dried out thoroughly without decay
felt the need of a similar undertaking in the and has been preserved for more than ten years.
Philadelphia region. He knew Crum Creek and This is of interest as an example of the process
its territory since boyhood and college days and by which the skin of some extinct animals has
believed it was "an ideal location for such a been preserved, particularly that of ground
project, having water and high land, rolling land sloths found in caves —
one in Patagonia and one
and fiat land, rock land and rich land, with all in southern New Mexico. It also illustrates the
varieties of exposure." Mr. Scott enlisted the first step in the formation of such fossils as the
cooperation of his friend and classmate. Prof. so-called dinosaur mummy preserved in the
Samuel C. Palmer, of the Swarthmore Botany American Museum, in which the skin is not
Department, of John C. Wister and other '
preserved but a natural cast of the skin has been

horticulturists in and around Philadelphia. The formed.
thought of Mr. Scott, left uncompleted by his
Touring November, Mr. Barnum Brown visited
sudden death in 1927, will now find fulfillment in '-^ Arizona to investigate dinosaur tracks which
the undertaking of his widow, his sister and
had been reported there. He also went to the
various friends.
University of Utah to study the dinosaur collec-
tions in that institution.
'
I
'HE abnormally long fire season which has
* harassed the National Forests of the West HONORS
since early summer has not yet closed, says the recognition of Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn's
Forest Service, U. Department of Agriculture,
S.
IN
splendid work in the field of palaeontology,
upon receipt of reports in Washington from its he has been notified of his election as a foreign
forest districts. Dry conditions and dangerous member of the Royal Academy of Lincei,
"fire weather " still prevail in most of the western and
Italy, in the class of geology, palaeontology,
districts, a condition unprecedented in the history mineralogy of the physical, mathematical, and
of the U. S. Forest Service for this time of year.
natural sciences.
Forest officers regret that the danger of man-
caused fires has made it necessary temporarily to OTHER MUSEUMS
close a number of National Forests to public rich local Indian
IN the hope partly of seeing
entry. collections. Curator N. C. Nelson of the
This year, up to October 20, approximately department of anthropology in the American
900,000 acres of the National Forests have been Museum, recently made a six weeks' vacation
burned over and fire suppression has cost trip through parts of the provinces of Ontario,
$3,145,000. Combinations low pre-
of drouth, Quebec, and New Brunswick. All told, ten
cipitation, and humidity, high winds and tem- public museums were visited: the Royal
peratures, made 1929 an extremely bad fire year. Ontario Museum and the Ontario Provincial
Museum in Toronto; the Victoria Memorial
FISHES Museum (the National Museum of Canada) at
•"THE will of the late Dr. Bashford Dean, Ottawa; the Redpath, the McCord, and the
*•
curator of the department of fishes,
first Strathcona museums at McGill University.
and honorary curator, leaves to the Ameri-

later Montreal; the Ramesay Museum in the old
can Museum his ichthyological Hbrary and the French governors" chateau, Montreal city proper;
sum of $5,000 for its upkeep. the Laval University Museum in Quebec city;
668 NATURAL HISTORY
the New Brunswick University Museum at and essays, translator of Osborn's Origin and
Fredericton and the Natural History Museum at Evolution of Life, writes as follows on September
St. John, New Brunswick. The Kst includes 4, 1929, regarding the energy concept of evolu-
probably all the more important institutions of tion and the chromosomal or genetic concept:
the kind in central and eastern Canada. A new edition of your fine work, Origin and Evolution
of Life, would be extremely interesting; there have been, in
These museums vary greatly in size, in age, in fact, so many discoveries made since1917. But your funda-
purpose, and in importance. One or two are old- mental ideas on the forms of energy are always true. Are
we not on the point of discovery of forms intermediate
fashioned curio places, some are essentially between inert matter and life, in what is called here " les
Virus filtrants?" I have read on this subject a very inter-
historical museums, and several of the best are
esting communication to our Academy of Sciences by a
well organized departmental institutions serving —
French biologist, Honduroy the theory of the "factors"
and the role of the chromosomes is very much in favor
primarilj' as adjuncts to the different universities among us at present (Caullery, Guyenot; see a remarkable
little book, Les Chromosomes, by J. Rostand, son of the poet,
with which they are affiUated. Unfortunately
published by Hachettein 1928, or 1929, which is a very good
nearly every curator was away on vacation, or popular r6sum6). But I object to much of it; your point of
view seems to me superior.
else was in the field, so that Uttle could be learned
either about past history or future prospects, and
SCIENCE OF MAN
the visitor was left to judge merely from appear-
ance. Some of the institutions would seem— âfter MENTAL Development of Primitive
the European manner perhaps —to be monuments Children. —Doctor Margaret Mead has
just returned from a year's leave of absence
to the principal donors as well as places for the
which she spent in field work in the Mandated
preservation of specimens. Everywhere there
was shortage of space; but this is about to be
Territory of New working under a
Guinea,
fellowship grant from the Social Science Research
remedied in a number of places. Thus St. John
Council. Doctor Mead made an intensive study
is preparing to erect an entirely new and larger
of the young children in an isolated sea village
building which is to be advanced to the rank of
of the Manus tribe in the Admiralty Islands. In
Provincial Museum. Quebec is in the act of
addition to an ethnological study of the Manus
finishing what is probably her first Municipal
people, she made an ethnographic survey of some
Museum, beautifully situated on the historic
battlefield —the Plains of Abraham recently — of the related peoples in the Admiralty Islands
and collected a large number of specimens for
converted into a pubhc park. The largest and
the American Museum of Natural History. This
most richly stored institution, the Royal On-
representative collection which contains many
tario Museum in Toronto, is also looking forward
specimens of artistic interest will be placed on
to expansion in the near future. Indeed, there is
exhibit in the South Seas Hall in the course of
evidence in Canada not only of normal progress
the next few months. Doctor Mead also spent six
along museum lines, but of something like a
weeks in northern New Britain, making a his-
resuscitation in recent years.
torical study of the role plajêd by Samoan half
All of these museums, whatever their main
castes and Samoans in the development of the
purpose, contain more or less strictlj^ anthro-
Bizmark Archipelago, once a part of German
pological material, though except for the — New Guinea, now an Australian Mandate under
Toronto and possibly the Ottawa institutions
the League of Nations.
not merelj' so much of local origin as had been
hoped for. However, there was little oppor- THE American Museum has received a gift
tunity for loafing. No American can visit from Mr. E. Hope Norton of more than two
French Canada for the first time without finding hundred archaeological specimens from the high-
himself fully occupied with interesting cultural lands of Ecuador. The value of this collection is
facts not mentioned in his school histories. enhanced by the fact that it is accompanied by
Those who are selhng Canada to the foreign fulldata as to the places and conditions when
tourists call these facts "quaint" and "romantic; each object was found. Such location data adds
but the student of culture history is likely greatly to the value of any museum collection.
to find them of sufficiently deep significance to The gift consists chiefly of pottery vessels, stone
cause a rearrangement of some of his fixed axes, and stone pottery figurines and pendants.
ideas.—N. C. N. The highly developed technique of metal working
attained by the ancient peoples of Ecuador is
ORIGIN OF LIFE exempHfied in this collection by a number of
'
I
'HE Energy Concept of Evolution. —FeHx copper and bronze objects, both cast and
*• Sartiaux, administrative on the
engineer hammered, and by a splendid gold ornament
Chemin de Fer du Nord, author numerousof decorated in low relief. The relation of the high
and delightfully written archaeological volumes cultures of Peru and Bolivia to those of Columbia,
NOTES 669
Central America, and Mexico is one of the major possessed only a few handfuls of specimens from
problems of American archaeology, and its solu- the great Lone Star State, and this miscellaneous
tion must depend partially upon the acquisition lothas now been increased by about four times.
of abundant materials from the intervening The new accessions are also of miscellaneous
areas. The collection just given is therefore of character, to be sure, but we at least know where
more than ordinarj' interest. and under what conditions they occurred. The
general localities sampled range over the greater
A MERICAN Archaeology. —Every year there part of the state, as follows: Alpine, in the
** come to the Museum a large number of southwest; Brackettville, in the south central;
letters relating to archaeological possibilities in Amarillo, in the northwest; AVjilene, in the north
various parts of the country. Most of these central; and Waco, in the east central section.
communications are of the bona fide sort, often Aside from the skeletal material collected, the
well worth investigating; but not a few are artifacts include mealing stones, rubbing stones,
merely additional proofs that archaeology still hammerstones, red paint stones, notched sinkers
is a peculiar touchstone which readily sends off (?), flaked blanks of various stages of finish,
unwary minds on a course of wild imaginings knives, spear and arrowpoints, end-scrapers,
such as even the hardened professional may not shell spoons or scrapers, shell disk beads, bone
succeed in bringing to a halt. Disposing of awls, notched bones, blunt antler implement, reed
these cases in some way or other, there remain arrowshafts (?j, checker and twilled matting,
for serious consideration many more inviting twined basketry, two-ply cords, postherds of
suggestions than any one institution can possibly non-Pueblo type, traces of charred maize and
attend to . Some correspondents are consequently obsidian. The available information, such as it
referred to workers or institutions in their own seems to warrant the conclusion that while the
is,
state and the rest are given satisfaction in some Texas aborigines had some traits in common with
instances by letter, in others by examination of those of their neighbors of the arid Southwest,
their specimens sent in for the purpose, and, in general, their culture cannot be grouped with
lastly, if circumstances warrant, by an actual that of the Pueblo Indians proper. —
N. C. N.
visit by a member of the Museum staff.
This year has been no exception to the rule. THE Alaskan explorer, George Thornton
Emmons, recently visited the American
In the spring many requests for some quaUfied
Museum, bringing the completed manuscript of
person to come were on hand from several of the
an invaluable memoir on the TUngit Indians of
western and middle western states. In an effort
southeastern Alaska, which is now in preparation
to comply, the department of anthropology took
and which will be pubhshed by the American
advantage of the fact that our newly appointed
Museum Press as a final contribution from this
staff member, Dr. Ronald Olson, was planning
hfelong in our great Northwestern
explorer
to drive his car here from California. The result
Territory. A Ueutenant in the U. S. Navy, the
was that stops were recorded for cursory survey's
author began his exploration in the year 1882
or test excavations, as the case seemed to require,
while still on duty, and is now completing forty
at no less than thirty-seven different places:
years of naval duty and exploration in Alaska and
two in New Mexico, thirty-two in Texas, one in
British Columbia, having attained his seventy-
Oklahoma, two in Iowa, and one in Minnesota.
eighth year. He is one of the senior explorers of
The sites included pueblo ruins, house and
the American Museum, in the front rank in
village remains of less substantial character, exploration.
ethnological and anthropological
quarry and workshop places, caves with evi-
dence of former occupation, refuse mounds and LENGTHENING Human Life.—Dr. T. Win-
cemeteries, as well as geological exposures con- gate Todd comments on the relatively brief
taining flints of eoUthic type. Small collections fife of our classic ancestors as well as of men of
of one sort or another were obtained at all but one the Bronze age and men of unci\ihzed races.
or two of the places visited, totaUng several "Some twenty years ago Karl Pearson analyzed
hundred specimens, all of which have been cata- the mortaUty curve of Enghsh males and resolved
logued and in part placed on exhibit. the complex curve into its simpler components
The most important data obtained by Doctor with peaks of mortaUty at three, twenty-three,
Olson, considered both quaUtatively and quanti- forty-two and seventy-two years respectively.
tatively, were those from Texas. Texas, for We may call these the peaks of childhood,
various reasons, is known archaeologicaUy
httle adolescence, middle age and old age. It is the old
and not all that is known has been adequately age peak which of modern days.
is characteristic
pubUshed. The American Museum has hitherto If we take the records of the Roman colonies in
670 NATURAL HISTORY
Africa,we find an attempt at formation of this 1927, Dr. Wilhelm Freudenberg found in Bam-
peak at the same age of seventy-two years, menthal parts of the cranium, face, jaw and
although its apex is there much lower than that scapula of what he believes to be a new primate
of adolescence. This means that the great species and genus named Hemianthropus osborni
majority of African Roman citizens died young, in honor of Professor Osborn on the occasion of
though a minority lived to a considerable age." his seventieth birthday. The brain surpasses in
"In 1925, through the kindness of Sir Arthur width that of any anthropoid ape; the face
Keith, I examined the collection of West African across the gorilla-like cheek bones is extremely
Negro skulls in the College of Surgeons Museum. broad. The femur of the young Hemianthropus
I found the middle age peak of mortality among when restored is the same length as that of a young
these native people the same as among our Ameri- chimpanzee. The author describes Hemian-
can Negroes and I found no old age peak at all. thropus as an intelligent being with a large brain,
In the native Tasmanians of the same museum surpassing the Trinil man {Pithecanthropus) and
similar results were encountered. From London equalling in size that of Homo neanderthalensis.
I went to a Bronze Age burial place in the English The fragment of the jaw shows that there cannot
Lake District and on this site among seventeen have been a prominent chin, in fact, it must
skeletons, found none over thirty years. From have been even less prominent than in the Heidel-
the Lake District I was called across country to berg man. The lower border rather resembles
Scarborough on the east coast to examine a that of Pithecanthropus, the ape-man of Java.
cemetery of eleventh and twelfth century people. The question of the validity of Hemianthropus
Among the 143 burials the peaks of childhood, osborni as distinct from Heidelberg man remains
adolescence and middle age were readily identi- an open question.
fied but no old age peak." Recently Doctor Freudenberg found a portion
of a broken and water-worn femur which he
'
'HE Miocene Gibbon of France and Germany.—
I attributes to a fossil gibbon, Postpliopithecus
•*•
It is difficult to believe that the tree-living
hominoides. In discussing these fossils before
gibbon, now confined to the tropical forests of the
the session of the physical anthropologis+s in
East Indies, in Miocene times ranged widely
1929 a colleague remarked: "One must praise
through the forests of France, Switzerland,
highly the extreme patience and persistence with
Germany, and Austria, as described in a recent
which Herr Freudenberg has searched for
article by Prof. E. Stromer of Munich under the
primate fossils for so many years and in so many
scientific name of Pliopithecus antiquus which was
places. I wish him and science the happy reward
applied to it by the French palaeontologist
which crowned Schoetensack's equally diligent
Gervais a hundred years ago. Doctor Stromer
search in Mauer."
observes:
Pliopithecus is especially an example of how much the
palaeontological study of mammals is dependent on a single TN Section XIV of South Africa and Science
fortunate discovery, and how slow and painful must be its *•
Dr. Raymond A. Dart comments as follows
exact progress. One hundred years ago the type of this
beautiful fossil of the lower jaw of Pliojnthecus was found in on the Rhodesian and Boskop races:
the French Miocene, and from that day, in correlated strata
in other parts of France, Switzerland, Germany, and "It was in 1913, with the discovery, near Pot-
Austria toothed fragments or single teeth have ben found chefstroom in the Transvaal, of a new and un-
which may be doubtfully referred to the species, but it is
only in the lignites of Goriach, Austria, that such fossils, known, bizarre, big-brained, human type, which
in a crushed condition, have been isolated in any quantity.
Over and over the teeth have been studied to the last little has hitherto not been retrieved outside of Africa,
point, and conviction has been reached that this species the so-called Boskop man or Homo capensis of
was widely distributed throughout middle Europe in the
Miocene, that time in which deciduously-treed forests Broom, that the attention of scientists was first
were partly filled with southern species and various mam-
mals existed whose nearest living relatives today are found seriously directed to the likelihood that South
only in the primeval forests of Southern Asia, as the Munt- Africa had played something more than a sub-
jac-Deer and the rhinoceri of the genus Dicerorhinus.
The skeleton is still lacking, the very skull of Pliopithecut: sidiary role in the early history of the human race.
itself is unknown; we do not even know whether the brain-
capacity was less than in living species, and above all
That probability was greatly increased by the
whether that most striking specialization, the great arm- finding of a skull in 1921 at Broken Hill with the
length, had already developed, if the Pliopithecus was com-
pletely equipped for arboreal life, as are the living Gibbons. most bestial, human muzzle known, and with
— H. F. O. receding forehead and enormous overhanging
/CONTEMPORARY of Heidelberg Man.— eyebrows simulating in these features the gorilla.
^^ Thelower Pleistocene gravels of Bammen- For the reception of this being whose nearest
thal near Heidelberg are of the same geologic age known human relatives were the extinct Nean-
as the classic sands of Mauer which yielded the derthal race of Europe, the creation of a new
type jaw of Heidelberg man, technically known species Homo rhodesiensis, more primitive even
as Paleanthroq)us heidelbergensis. On July 1, than the Neanderthal's, has been necessitated.
NOTES 671
Unfortunately, nothing is yet known of its The Desert Road to Turkestan. By Owen Latti-
geological age or its geographical distribution. more.
"With respect to a knowledge of Boskop men,
we are in a much more happy condition than
nPHE beginnings of the caravan trade between
•*•
China, Mongolia, and what is now Chinese
with regard to Homo rhodesiensis. Between
Turkestan are lost in antiquity, but from beyond
1923 and 1926 by the unearthing of remains by
the memory of man, long files of silent-footed
Mr. Fitzsimons, at Zitzikama, neart Port
camels have plodded their way across the Gobi
Ehzabeth, and by Major T. G. Trevor, at
Desert, carrying westward the silks and manu-
Kalomo in Northern Rhodesia, it was shown that
factures ofChina and bringing back skins of wild
the Boskop type of mankind was a very distinc-
animals, gold, and jade to the markets of the
tiveone with a widespread distribution in South-
East. The profession of the caravans is among
ern Africa. Mr. H. S. Gear has been able to give
the oldest in the world, and the business was
us much information concerning the Boskop
once so lucrative that great family fortunes
skeleton and two other points of great impor-
were built upon it. It is a world far removed
tance were established; firstly, that Boskop
from modern existence; it goes on today, how-
man preceded the Bushman because his remains And
ever, almost exactly as it has for centuries.
have been found at lower stratigraphical levels
it is of this World of the Caravans that Mr.
than Bush remains at Zitzikama and other sites
Lattimore tells in his well written and beautifully
along the coastal area, and secondly, that the type
illustrated volume.
was not so removed zoologically from the Bush
In the troubled times of 1926, when he made his
type as to rule out hybridisation between the
journey from Kuei-hua in western China to Ku
two races. The most startling evidence in this
Ch'eng-tze in Turkestan, political conditions in
latter respect came from the occurrence in the
Outer Mongolia were such that the compara-
dissecting room of the Anatomy Department at
tively easy and well traveled routes through that
Cape Town of a typical Boskopoid skull as
country had to be abandoned. Caravans, there-
announced by Professor Drennan in 1925.
fore, were forced to use another way to the
Actual Boskopoid hybridisation amongst the
westward, the dim "Winding Road," least known
Zitzikama material of the higher Bush levels at
of all the routes to Central Asia. Though it is an
Zitzikama was demonstrated by Dr. Gordon D.
ancient trail, and great areas of
scarcity of water
Laing (1925)." camels from the
sand take a heavy toll of lost
BOOK REVIEWS heavily laden caravans, so until just before Mr.
Audacious Audubon. By Edward Muschamp. Lattimore made his journej-, the "Winding
Brentano's. 312 pages. Road" had been almost forgotten. He was the
white traveler over
THE romance of the life of John James first
The
it.
lure of the far places of Inner Asia has

Audubon, the charm of his personality, and
the marvel of his achievements have tempted the drawn many explorers, travelers and adventurers,
pen of numerous biographers, and in the authori- but few have brought back from their wander-
ings such a wealth of information. Mr. Latti-
tative work of his granddaughter, Maria R.
Audubon,! and scholarly volumes of Francis more's excellent knowledge of the Chinese lan-
Herrick,^ we have eminently satisfactory records guage particularly him for the gathering of
fitted
of his life. The present volume, however, is fascinating sidelightson the Uves and customs of
better adapted to the general reader. Freely the desert travelers who were his only com-
acknowledging his indebtedness to the sources panions. He belonged to no mission or expedi-
mentioned, Mr. Muschamp gives us a more tion, but, impelled by the urge of the unknown,
closely woven whole. His well-written story he went simply "for to admire and for to see."
moves swiftly and quickly succeeds in arousing He traveled and Uved as a caravan man in a world
our interest in Audubon the naturaUst, artist, of caravan men; he ate their food and sat listen-
and man, and in holding our attention to its ing among them when they talked of "the prices
of wool and camels, of cart-hire, of journeys
closing pages. an adequate
It pays, therefore,
and effective tribute to this remarkable man, one counted in many tens of days into the remote
which should make him and his achievements hinterland of Asia, and of the bandits besetting
familiar to thousands to whom
he is now httle this road or the soldiers obstructing that."
more than a name. One cannot but regret that There is a tremendous amount of all sorts of
the author could not have found a title more information in the book, but it is never hea\M,- or
worthy of his theme. F. — M. C. wearisome. DeUghtful anecdotes of the road and

Âudubon and His Journals. and of the
' Audubon the Naturalist. striking word pictures of the country
672 NATURAL HISTORY
weird existences of the caravan men hold the more than passing attention. Indeed it would be
reader's interestfrom beginning to end. Nor impossible for anyone to begin to tell in the,space
are thrills lacking —as when, one night on Dead available more than a fractional part of all that
Mongol Pass, a thousand camels were trapped isknown about insects, and the tendency of Doc-
by deep snow and had to be turned around in the tor Neumann still further to strengthen the focus
darkness and bitter cold. Only one familiar with upon the native fauna by Umiting the quota of
winter caravan travel in Central Asia can fully eUgible aliens, far from being a defect, is, under
realize the almost impossibility of such a feat. the circumstances, a virtue.
Altogether, The Desert Road to Turkestan will While in general the work is one to be com-
take its place among the foremost volumes of mended for its authoritative character, it contains
Central Asian travel. Willi.^m J. Morden. some errors, the result of carelessness often rather
than of unfamiliarity. Thus on page 47 the
number of described species of ants is referred
"Insects" Volume VII of the Jubilee Issue of
to as 4000, but on page 71 as 5000. The latter
Brehm's Tierleben. Jubilaums-Ausgabe in
figure is nearer the truth. On page 83 the im-
acht Banden-Herausgegeben von Carl W.
pression is given that the young queen sets forth
Neumann. Siebenter Band: Die Insekten. with the new swarm of honey bees; on page 94
Verlagvon PhiUpp Reclam Jun., Leipzig. correctly assigned to the old queen.
this role is
THE newest Brehm's Tierleben—

edition of Without wishing to undervalue the important re-
a work originally brought out in the sixties of searches of MoUer, the distinction of being the
the last century, but repubUshed with revisions "first investigator" of the leaf-cutting ants
and additions at intervals of from ten to twenty belongs rather to Belt, who reached the conclu-
—
years is designated a Jubilee Issue, for it com- sion that the leaves are employed not as food but
memorates the one hundredth anniversary of the "a minute species of fungus, on
for the rearing of
birth of Brehm. Although Brehm's name is which the ants feed." The statement (p. 105)
rightly associated with the series, for he was the that there are only two species of Eucera in
author of five of the six volumes that constituted Germany should be quaUfied by the phrase "com-
the first edition, Taschenberg was responsible for mon species," as other Eucera of rarer occurrence
the section on the insects and for the additions to have been reported. There seems no need, in
and revisions of this section in the second and view of the researches of Sladen and others, to
third editions. His name, therefore, is still express uncertainty as to the agency through
featured in the present edition as the author which the larvae of Psithyrus, the inquiUne in the
of the volume on the insects, but his text, as the nests of Bombus, are fed. Additional infelicities
title page tells us, has been thoroughly recast of this type might be cited.
by Carl W. Neumann. Unless the lay reader is unfamiliar with simple
In the new edition the reader will find amplifi- German, he need not be deterred from reading the
cations in some parts, but in general there has volume. The subject matter is presented with-
been condensation both of subject matter and of out ensnaring technicalities, and the fact that the
statement, with the result that the compass of the insects are predominantly European rather than
book has been reduced by possibly one half. American should not alienate the reader's interest
Attention is focused on the insects exclusively as many close relatives of these insects with
by the eUmination from the volume of the spiders similar habits are represented in our own fauna.
and of other invertebrates that competed for The volume contains eight illustrations in color
space with the insects in the earlier editions. and and white. Among the
sixty-four in black
These have doubtless been relegated to some illustrationssome are duplications of the pre-
other volume of the series, and their interesting viously issued plates of Flanderky and Specht,
habits certainly entitle them to indepedent while others represent the work of a new
treatment. collaborating artist, Franz Schmidt-Kahring.
Taschenberg in his day was confronted by the —
Herbert F. Schwarz.
bewilderingly rich fauna that clamored for in-
clusion in his volume. He decided the question, "Field Book of the Marine Fishes of the Atlantic
as he tells us in the second and third editions, by Coast from Labrador to Texas." By Charles
giving preference to common, native forms, and M. Breder, Jr.
including only to a Umited extent exotic insects. nnO the series of Putnam's Nature Field Books,
This is method pursued also in the present
the • there has recently been added a "Field Book
edition,, which even eliminates some of the of theMarine Fishes of the Atlantic Coast from
foreigners to which Taschenberg had given often Labrador to Texas" by Charles M. Breder, Jr.
NOTES 673
of the New York Aquarium, who is also a his collections at the Paris Exposition of 187S.
research associate in the department of He remained an indefatigable collector almost to
ichthyology of the American Museum of Natural the end and was consequently the possessor of a
History. It contains keys for identification, a tremendous amount of material, the bulk of which
very full series of outUne figures of the many he left as a legacy to the French National Mu-
species of salt-water fishes of our coast, which seum at St. Germain, where a hall is especially
will be helpful to the same end, and a number of reserved for its display.
attractive color plates and half tone reproductions As a Capitan took a leading
field investigator
from photographs. All in all this book should part,from 1893 onward, with his pupils Breuil,
prove invaluable to the salt-water fisherman or Peyrony, and others, in the investigation of the
casual seashore visitor who wishes accurate French caverns, helping to institute the strati-
knowledge of all the different kinds of fishes met graphic method of debris excavation and a
with, and we know of none other that will serve similarly refined technique for deciphering the
this purpose. It isan attractive little volume of remarkable engravings and paintings preserved
convenient pocket size, and whereas the sales on the cave walls. As a result, we may assume,
price of five dollars might seem excessive, one he later became a member of several different
must bear in mind the large amount of informa- civic commissions for the preservation of monu-
tionand the many illustrations which it contains. ments, historic and prehistoric, holding various
—J. T. N. offices, including that of president.
LOUIS CAPITAN As a teacher Capitan was equally

active. In
VY'T'ORD has recently come of the death, on 1899 he succeeded Gabriel de Mortillet in the
"' September 1, of Dr. Louis Capitan, the Chair of Prehistoric Anthropology at the Ecole
veteran archgeologist of Paris. Doctor Capitan d'Anthropologie. At some unknown early date
was born in 1854, and although he held a medical he was also made Loubat Professor of American
diploma, was a member of the Academy of Archaeology at the College de France. He \\Tote
Medicine, and an officer of the Legion of Honor vigorously almost to the last and kept up his
with military title for war service, he occupied lectures until past seventy.
himself from early youth largely with problems of It was the writer's pleasure to hear Capitan
prehistory, including those of the two Americas. and
lecture as late as 1922, as well as to travel
Years ago he visited Mexico and the United work with him for a number of weeks in Belgium,
States, and he was one of the few Europeans who Holland, and England. With him may be said
continued to write affirmatively about Paleo- to have passed the last of the distinguished group
ithic Man in America. of men who first made us properly acquainted
According to his own words, Capitan began with the character and culture of Paleolithic
his pubHc career as archaeologist by exhibiting Man.—N. C. N.
OUE CONTRIBUTORS
A chance association in early boyhood with such \vell- Carl Akeley passed out on his last expedition before his
known ornithologists as T. S. Palmer, F. H. Holmes, and plans were consummated, but his widow valiantly brought
C. H. Keeler, furnished the stimulus that started Rollo to completion his part of the work of the expedition, and
H. Beck on his career as a bird collector. He has studied she is now advisor and assistant in the work of the Carl
and collected the land and sea birds of North and South Akeley-African Hall at the American ^Museum. "Africa's
America from Alaska to Cape Horn, and in his quests he has Great National Park" is a chapter from Mrs. Akeley's
experienced all the thrills of shipwieck, and even hunting new book, Carl Akeley's Africa which is to make its
for lost treasure on desert ocean isles. appearance this autumn.
In 1920, Mr. Beck started on a collecting trip to the
South Seas for Dr. Leonard C. Sanford which lasted eight Paul Griswold Howes, curator of the Bruce Museum of
years. Following this he spent a year in New Guinea col-
Natural History and Art at Greenwich, Connecticut, was
the leader of an expedition for this Aluseum to Dominica,
lecting birds of paradise. He tells about this trip in the
British West Indies, in 1926, and again in 1927, in com-
present issue under the title of "A Collector in the Land of
pany with Dickenson S. Cummings. The purpose of the
the Birds of Paradise."
later expedition was to climb, measure, and make photo-
graphic records of the two highest mountains in the islands
Lee S. Crandall, author of "To New Guinea for Living and to make studies of Dominican wild life. "The ^foun-
Birds of Paradise," has been associated with the depart- tains of Dominica" tells the story of how this was acconi-
ment of birds in the New York Zoological Park since 1908. phshed. Messrs. Howes and Cummings are working out a
He became cuiator in 1919, and has made a number of schedule of expeditions to various parts of the world which
expeditions, principally to South and Central America to will be undertaken by them every other year for the
obtain birds for the Zoological Park. The expedition to purpose of gathering zoogeographical data and collections
New Guinea was the most important, and was the culmina- for the Bruce Museum.
tion of many years of hopes and planning.
The earliest boyhood interest of Barnum
Brown, author
No one is better qualified to tell the history of the Pare of "A Miocene Camel Bed-ground," was collecting fossil
National Albert, Africa's great gorilla sanctuary and shells in the Coal Measures of Kansas, and this interest
biological survey station, than Mrs. Mary L. Jobe Akeley, determined his future career. After graduating from the
the widow of the late Carl Akeley with whom the idea of University of Kansas, he joined the scientific staff of the
the Sanctuary first originated. American Museum, with which institution he has been
674 NATURAL HISTORY
affiliated since 1897. He excavated the first dinosaur for models for the Museum groups. He studied at Pratt
the American Museum, and the great hall of fossil reptiles Institute, concentrating on design, modeling, and interior
has been built up under his direction. His explorations in decorating, and later came to the department of lower
the Americas have taken him from the Arctic to the Ant- invertebrates at the Museum to do modeling and wax
arctic. work on exhibits protraying marine life.
He is the author of many popular and scientific articles,
which have appeared in N.vtur.^l History. The cover design for this issue of Natural History is
a number of
from a painting by F L Jaques of Paradissea apoda augustae
. . ,
victorise, named in honor of Kaiserin Augusta Victoria in

"A
Bit of Japan in Miniature" describes in this issue 1888. It is now regarded as a geographic race of P. apoda,
the first large anthropological group built by V. Rozor a species in which the long flanks vary from yellow to red
Short, a young artist in the preparation department of the according to the regions inhabited by the several races.
American Museum. The name apoda, or footless, was suggested by the old
Mr. Short originally planned to become a civil engineer, belief that birds of paradise had no feet, and spent their
and the practical work in wood turning, pattern making, entire lives in the air. Augusta Victoria's paradise bird is
and foundry work which he did to prepare himself for such found only along a short section of the northeast coast of
a career, gave him a valuable background for making the New Guinea.
Facts concerning other authors ha'oe appeared in former issues.
NEW MEMBERS
Since the last issue of N.vtur.î. History, the followmg J. Lawrence Aspinwall, Frederic A. Baker, I. W.
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seum, making the total number 11352. S. Blagden, Vernon H. Brown, Kenneth C. Brownell,
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NEW YORK, N. Y.
INDEX TO VOLUME XXIX
TEXT AND ILLUSTRATIONS
Names of articles are set in capitals and small capitals. Titles of works are f:(t in italics.
Ackland, Myron: Animals in Orchestration, 519-520; 560 Canadian museums, 667-668

Acrobats of the Monkey World, W. Henry Sheak, Illus- Capitan, Louis, 673
trated, 307-312 Carlisle,G. Lister, Jr.: Eleven Weeks in a Lion Pasture.
Afloat on Many Waters, photographic series of boats, 169-180; 224
353-366 Carr, WUliamH: Trailing Nature. 312-318; .328
Africa: Chapman, Frank M: Jonathan Dw^ght f 18.58-1 929). 327-
Adventure in, 383-389 328; The Conquest of Claudia, 369-.379; 333; 440
National Park 638-6.50
,
Children of the Ortmco Plains, Sidney F. Tyler, Jr..
Roadways of, 261-272 Illustrated, 27.3-282
White Nile, 410-420 Chubb.S.Harmstftd: How Animals Run. 543-551 560 ;
Africa's Great National Park, Mary L. Jobe Akeley, Ciark, Harold T: Inspiration, 437-439
Illustrated, 638-650 Clark, James I,: By Motor from Nairobi to the Nile, 261-
Air Castles in the Tropics, Frank E. Lutz, Illustrated, 272; 328
656-657 Cloud Formations, 261-260
Air Pioneering in the Arctic, 440 Cockerell, Wilmatte Porter: New Caledonia A Modern —
Akeley, Mary L. Jobe: Africa's Great National Park, Fragment of an Ancient World, 75-82; 111 330 ;
638-650; 673 Collector in the L.\nd of the Birds of Paradise, .\,

American Archaeology, 530-542; 669 Rollo H. Beck, Illustrated, 563-578
Amundsen, Roald, 100-102 Coming of Age in Samoa, 110
Andrews, R. C: Further Adventures of the American Men Connolly, Charles A., 220
of the Dragon Bones, 115-128; 208-209; 220; 224 Conquest of Claudia, The, Frank M. Chapman, Illus-
—
Andros An Island of the Summer Seas, Roy Waldo trated, 369-379
Miner, Illustrated, 481-496 Conservation
Animals in Orchestration, Mvron Ackland, 519-520 Egret, 445
Antarctic Continent, 129-142, 465-480 Forest fire protection, 667
Anthony, H.E: To the Arctic for Walrus, 50-64; Glimpses Forestry, 220
Along the White Nile,410-420; 108; 111; 334 Gorilla, 638-650
Astronomy: Scott Foundation of Horticulture, 666
Amateur Astronomers Association, 106; 219; 330; 444; Whale, 445
555; 664 Crandall, Lee S: To New Guinea for Living Birds of Para-
Bond Astronomy Club, 664 673
dise, 579-.594;
Free Classes, 555 Curran, C. H: Mosquitoes and Other Flies, 45-49; Some
Junior Astronomy Club, 219; 331 Insects of Barro Colorado, 611-620; 111
Mars, 106; 219
Atoms, 629-637 Darwin, Charles, 447
At the Edge of the Antarctic Ice, John T. Nichols, Dean, Bashford, 220
Illustrated, 129-142 Desert Road to Turkestan, The, 671
Audacious Audubon, 671 Dickey, Herbert Spencer, 335
Augusta Victoria's Bird of Paradise, Cover design, Dominica, 595-610
November-December ; 673 Down House, 447
Dwight, Jonathan, 222; 327-328
Bailey, AlfredM: Wings Along the Gulf, 227-240 Early Man in North Arabia, Henry Field, Illustrated,
Baker's Bower Bird, color plate, 562 33-44
Barton, Otis: Fossil Bones in a Persian Garden, 143-154;
224 Education
Bashford, Dean, Henry Fairfield Osborn, with portrait, Art Study, 330
102-103 Aviation show, 220
Bashford Dean memorial exhibit, 220 Baker Memorial Professorship, 331
Beck, Rollo H: A Collector in the Land of the Birds of Blind classes, 556
Paradise, 563-578; 673 Brazil summer school, 331
Children's fair, 330
Birds:
Antarctic, 129-142 Crippled children, 331
Baker's bower bird, 562 Cultural courses for teachers, 556; 665
Birds of paradise, 563-594 Japanese art exhibit, .330
Great white heron, 332 Junior Astronomy Club, 219; 331
Hawks, 390-399 Nature Trails, 312-318; 444; 665-666
Little Diomede, 521-529
Nature Training Schools, 219; 557
Louisiana coast, 227-240 Underwood slides, 445 <~, i- ,
Woodpecker, 106 Eleven Weeks in a Lion Pasture, G. Lister Carlisle, Jr.,

L. Jaques, Illus- Illustrated, 169-180
Birds of Little Diomede, The, Francis
trated, 521-529
* Ellsworth, Lincoln: Roald Amundsen, 100-102: 436-439;
Bit op Japan in Miniature, A., \ Roxor Short, Illustrated,
.
111
621-628 Emmons, George Thornton, 669
Expeditions:
Black Art, The, Margery L. Loeb, Illustrated, 400-409 Ackland, Georgia, 554
Blazing the Trail to the Distant Past, Cover design,
January-February; 110 American Museum-Carnegie Institution, .•)5.t
Anthropological, 442
Boat development, 352-366 Barton-Callaghan, 143-154
Book Reviews: Bernheimer, Southwest, 329; .5.54
Air Pioneering in the Arctic
Audacious Audubon, 671 Brown, Nevada, 555
Carlisle-Clark, 104; 169-180 .-„--,
Brain from Ape to Man, The, 215-217
Central Asiatic, 3-16; 104; 114; 128; 218; 5o2-oo3
Coming of Age in Samoa, 110
Desert Road Turkestan, The. 671 Chapman, Barro Colorado, 106 --o mo
4ff/ .^.i.i-
Columbia University-American Museum, W4-;
to 66,1
"Field Book of the Marine Fishes of the Atlantic
Desola, Cuba, 331
Coast from Labrador to Texas" (Nature Field Books),
Frick, Southwest, 107
672 Heilprin-Hassler, 554
Holiday Pond, 448 Heilprin-Hatt, .5.54; 664
" Insects" (Tierleben) 672
Johnson, African. 664
,
My Tropical Air Castle, 656-657 Klingel, Haiti, 106

Our Face from Fish to Man, 336 Morden-Graves, 106; 329; 442; 664
Brady, Maurice K., 559 Ottley-Anthony 553
Brain from Ape to Man, The, 215-217
,
Sanford-Legendre, 105.329; 444: .5..1

Broom, Robert, 220 StoU-McCracken, 50-64; IDS; 109
Brown, Barnum, A Miocene Camel Bed-ground, 6o8-h6^; Straus, Abvssini.T, 105
673
Tyler, Duida. 105; 218; 329; 442
Burt, Charles E., 559
By Motor from Nairobi to the Nile,
^
James r î
L. Clark,
. m
Illus- Vaillant, Valley of Mexico, 664
Vernay-Faunthorpe 106; 218; .3.54
trated, 261-272
II INDEX TO VOLUME XXIX
Weyer, Southwest, 555 Loeb, Margery L: The Black Art, 400-409; 440
Experimental Biology: Lucas, Frederic Augustus, Robert Cushman Murphy, with
Blindness in cave salamaiiders, 559 portrait, 211-214
Metamorphosis in amphibia, 332 Lutz, Frank E. Experments with Wonder Creatures, 160-
Siren collections, 440 168; Air Castles in the Tropics, 656-6,57; 108; 219;
ExpEEiMENTS WITH WoNDEE CREATURES, Frank F,. Lutz, 224; 559
160-108
Mammals
Falconing, George G. Goodwin, Illustrated, 390-399 Antarctic, 129-142
Field, Henry: Early Man in North Arabia, 33-44; 111 Australian, 83-94; 200-207
"Field Book of Marine Fishes of the Atlantic Coast from Ground squiriel, 181-189
Labrador to Texas" {Nature Field Books), 072 Howler monkey, 309-379
Laws governing running, 543-551
Fish: Lions, 169-180
Angler, 155-159 Manatee, 334
Dean bequest, 667 Mangabey monkey, 307-311
Fossil, 220 Red squirrel, 318-326
Model of Rcgalecus argentevt<, 557 Tigers, 339-352
New Museum hall, 106 Walrus, 50-04
Frimitive fishing appliances, 446 Marine life:
Voracity in, 051-655 Life on continental shelf, 283-295
Fisher, Clyde: Now Nature Plants Her Flowers, 65-74; Constable shell collection, 334
The Ruddy Wanderer of the Sky, 190-199; 111 Masks and Dramas of Old Japan, S. Ichikawa, Illustrated.
P lowers, 65-74 241-250
Fossil Bones in a Persian Garden, Otis Barton, Illus- Matthew, William Diller, 558
trated, 143-154 McWilliams, Ste.vart, A Trail that Led to Mongolia, Illus-
Fossil vertebrates trated, 208-209; 224
Chinese, 557 Members' dav, 335
Dinosaur tracks, 607 Miller, DeWitt, 558
Florida, 506-518 Mills, Ogden, 210
Miocene camels, 658-002 Miner, Roy Waldo: Outposts of the Sea, 283-295; Andros
Mummy of cat, 067 —An Island of the Summer Seas, 481-490; 328
Fuertes, Louis Agassiz, 110 Minerals, Museum department, 220
Further Adventures of the American Men of the Dragon Miocene Camel Bed-ground, A, Barnum Brown, Illus-
Bones, Roy Chapman Andrews, Illustrated, 115-128 trated, 658-662
Morden, William J: Tiger Hunting in Nepal, 339-352; 440
Gardner, Charles H., 110 Mosquitoes and Other Flies, C. H. Curran, Illustrated,
Glimpses Along the White Nile, H. E. Anthony, Illus- 46-49
trated. 410^20 Mountains op Dominica, The, Paul Griswold Howes,
Goodwin, George G Falconing, 392-399; 440
: Illustrated, 595-610
Granger, Walter, 557 Murphy, Robert Cushman: Frederic Augustus Lucas, 211-
Great White Heron, The, Cover design, May-Jiine,; 332 214
Gudger, E. W: Wide-gab, the Angler Fish. 155-159; My Tropical Air Castle, 656-657
Voracity in Fishes, 651-055; 224 New —
Caledonia A Modern Fragment op the Ancient
World, Wilmatte Porter Cockerell, Illustrated, 75-82
Haitian Rhinoceros Iguana, A, Cover design, September- New Guinea, 563-594
October; 560
Harrold, Cyril Guy, 222 Nichols, John T At the Edge of the Antarctic Ice, 129-143
:
Hassler, William G: Salamanders of the Great Smokies, 224

95-99; 111 Night with an African Herder, A, William R. Leigh,
Hatt, Robert T: The Odyssey of a Ground Squirrel, 181- Illustrated, 380-389
189; The Red Squirrel Farm, 319-326; Noses, 497- Noble, G. Kingsley, 446
505; 224 Nordhoff, Charles, 108
History of the Earth: Norton, E. Hope, 668
Pre-Cambrian eurypterids, 334 Noses, Robert T. Hatt, Illustrated, 497-505
Holt, Ernest G: Itatiaya, Brazil's Most Famous Mountain,
427-436; 440 Odyssey of a Ground Squirrel, The, Robert T. Hatt,
Honey Wasps, Herbert, F. Schwarz, Illustrated, 421-426 Illustrated, 181-189
How Animals Run, S. Harmsted Chubb, Illustrated Olson, Ronald, 609
How Atoms Build, Herbert P. Whitlock, Illustrated, On the Threshold of Native American Civilization,
629-637 Geogre C. Vaillant, Illustrated, 530-542
Howes, Paul Griswold: The Mountains of Dominica, Osborn, Henry Fairfield: The Revival of Central Asiatic
595-010; 673 Life, .3-10; Bashford Dean, 102-103; 111; 334; 607
How Nature Plants Her Flowers, Clyde Fisher, Illus- Our Face from Fish to Man, 336
trated, 65-74 Outposts of the Sea, Roy Waldo Miner, Illustrated,
Hunting Extinct Animals in Florida, George Gaylord 283-295
Simpson, Illustrated, 506-518
Pare National Albert, 638-6,50
Ichikawa, S: Masks and Dramas of Old Japan, 241-250; Pyne, Percy R., 555
328
' '
Insects
'
( Tierleben) ,672
'
Raven H. C: Strange Animals of the Island Continent, I,
82-94; Strange Animals of the Island Continent, II,
Barro Colorado, 611-620 200-207; HI
Experiments with, 160-108 Red Squirrel Farm, The, Robert T. Hatt, Illustrated,
Honey wasps, 421- 426 319-326
Mosquitoes, 45-49 Reeds, Chester A: When Wintei Comes, 17-32; 111; 559
Umbrella ants, 296-306 Reptiles:
Inspiration, Harold T. Clark, Illustrated, 437-439 Brooklyn Museum collection, 446
—
Itatiaya Brazil's Most Famous Mountain, Ernest G. Frog photography, 332
Holt, Illustrated, 427^36 Mississippi valley, 559
Rhinoceros iguana, 449-465
Jaques, Francis L: The Birds of Little Diomede, 521-529; Salamanders, 95-99 332
560 Revival of Central Asiatic Life, The, Henry Fairfield
.lapanese home, 621-628 Osborn, Illustrated, 3-16
Jonathan Dwight (1858-1929), Frank M. Chapman, 327- Ringing the Tiger, Cover design, July-August; 440
328 Ro ALD Amundsen, Lincoln EUworth with portrait, 100-1 02
,
Ruddy Wanderer of the Sky, The, Clyde Fisher, Illus-

Klingel, Gilbert C: Lizard Hunting in the Black Republic, trated, 190-199
449^04; 500
Salamanders of the Great Smokies, William G. Hassler
Leigh, William R: A Night with an African Herder, 380- Illustrated 95—99
389; 440 Schwarz, Herbert F: Honey Wasps, 421-420; 440
Lizard Hunting in the Black Republic, Gilbert C. Science of Man:
Klingel, Illustrated, 449^04 African wood carvings, 108
Locke, David: Seeds of Disaster, 290-306; 328 Aleutian studies, 108, 109
INDEX TO VOLUME XXIX III
Contemporary of Heidelberg man, 670 H. C. Raven, Illustrated, 200-207

Ecuador archaeological collection, 668 Sunset in the Gobi Desert, Cover design, March-April;
Guahibo Indians, 273-282 224
Japanese drama, 241- 250 Sushkin, Peter, 110
Laussel sculpture, 221
Miocene gibbon, 670 Theoretical Continent, The, Vilhjalmur Stefansson,
Mongolian collection, 221 Illustrated, 465-480
North Arabia, 33-44 Tiger Hunting in Nepal, William J. Morden, Illustrated,
Palestine flints, 222 339-352
Polynesian survey, 335 To New Guinea for Living Birds of Paradise, Lee S.
Primitive beliefs, 400^09 Crandall, Illustrated, 579-594
Sand-dune burials, 335 To the Arctic for Walrus, H. E. Anthony, Illustrated,
Shoemaker exhibit, 222 50-64
Span of life, 669 Trail that Led to Mongolia, A, Stewart A. McWilliams,
Stone fishhooks, 108 Illustrated, 208-209
Upper Pliocene man, 446 Trailing Nature, William H. Carr, Illustrated, 312-318
Seeds OF Disaster, David Locke, Illustrated, 296-306 Tyler, Sidney, F., Jr.: Children of the Orinoco Plains, 273-
Serviss, Garrett P., 444 282; 328
Sheak, W. Henry: Acrobats of the Monkey World, 307-312;
328 Underwood, WiUiam L., 222
Sheldon, Charles, 109
Short, V.Roxor: A Bit of Japan in Miniature, 621-628; 674 Vaillant, George C: On the Threshold of Native American
Simpson, George Gaylord: Hunting Extinct Animals in Civilization, 530-542; 560
Florida, 506-518; 219; 560 Voracity in Fishes, E. W. Gudger, Illustrated, 651-655
Societies:
Fifteenth International Geological Congress, 335 Weather Prophets of the Sky, H. P. Whitlock, Illus-
Geological Survey, 335 trated, 251-260
Fourth Pacific Science Congress, 335 Weyer, Edward M., Jr: 108; 109
American Association of Museums, 446 When Winter Comes, Chester A. Reeds, Illustrated, 17-32
Some Insects op Barro Colorado, C. H. Curran, Illus- Whitlock, Herbert P: Weather Prophets of the Sky, 251-
trated, 611-620 260; How Atoms Build, 629-637; 108
South Africa and Science, 670 Wide-gab, the Angler Fish, E. W. Gudger, Illustrated,
Stefansson, Vilhjalmur: The Theoretical Continent, 465- 155-159
480; 560 Wings Along the Gulf, Alfred M.Bailey, Illustrated, 227-
Strange Animals of the Island Continent, I, H. C. 240
Raven, Illustrated, 82-94 Wissler, Clark, 333
Strange Animals of the Island Continent, II, Wu, C. C, 334

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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

Blazing the Trail to ttie Distant Past Cover

The Odyssey of a Ground Squirrel Robert T. Hatt 181

' : Review 440

JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN

I. DIVISION OF MINERALOGY, GEOLOGY, Mammals of the World

Advisory Committee on Natural History Magazine

The yournal of The American Museum of Natural History

Hawthorne Daniel l^m^tSKm ^- K^^therixe Berger

A Giant Denizen of Ancient Mongolia Frontispiece

The Revival of Central Asiatic Life Henry Fairfield Osborn 3

When Winter Comes Chester A. Reeds 17

Early Man in North Arabia Henry Field 33

Mosquitoes and Other Flies C. H. Curran 45

To the Arctic for Walrus H. E. Anthony .50

New Caledonia —A Modern Fragment of the Ancient World

Strange Animals of the Island Continent H. C. Raven 83

Salamanders of the Great Smokies William G. Hassler 95

Roald Amundsen Lincoln Ellsworth 100

Bashford Dean (1867-1928) Henry Fairfield Osborn 102

In the Field of Natural History 104

Copyright, 1929, by The American Museum of Natural History, New York

By HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN

With Three Drawings by Margaret Flinsch Under the

REVIVAL or the bringing back to giant appendage or peninsula to the far

majestic hfe histoiy during^the

geologic period now estimated by geolo-

fairly revived this sleeping giant of pre-

12,000,000 Mastodonts from Africa Loh

20,000,000 Mammals akin to those f Gashato, Kolobolchi, Irden

SURVEYING THE BADLANDS OF URTYN OBO

THE REVIVAL OF CENTRAL ASIATIC LIFE

AMERICAN MUSEUM CAMP AND WORKINGS AT CHILIAN HOTOGA

Mammals and the beginning of the Age

of Man. These new monarchs of the

entirely distinct families, namely, first,

EXCAVATING THE TITANOTHERE BONES

unknown except in the Ohgocene and Miocene of ologist] ,

central and southern Asia. considered these sites worthy of a whole

ments; none but the most extreme diffi-

HEROIC LEADERS OF THE EXPEDITION OF 1928

TAKING OUT DINOSAUR EGGS

Copyright, Asia Magazine and The Amtrican Museum of Natural History

CHIEF TROPHY OF THE 1923 EXPEDITION

solutely blocked by mountains of driven covery of extensive exposures of Pliocene

trucks turned toward the northeast, the entirely new."

the typical Irishman's

Above. —The giant Baluchi-

Left.— Colossal scale of the

THE GIANT SHOVEL-TUSKER

of the Dawn Man, which still elude dis- vision of Isaiah?

UNEARTHING THE BATTEBING-RAM-NOSED TITANO-

Courtesy of Northern Pacific Railway Co

WHEN WINTER COMES

EVERY winter the varied

Courtesy of Northern Pacific Raihcay Co.

MOUNT RAINIER, WASHINGTON, CLAD IN ITS WINTER COAT

when the moisture in the

of ice is known as rime. It may be several landscape appear as if dressed in gar-

NIAGARA FALLS IN THE DEPTH OF WINTER

FROST FEATHERS ON WINDOW PANE, MOUNT WASHINGTON, NEW HAMPSHIRE

often frozen into fantastic and beautiful designs