File:The American Museum journal (c1900-(1918)) (17975247209).jpg

Title: The American Museum journal
Identifier: americanmuseumjo16amer (find matches)
Year: c1900-(1918) (c190s)
Authors: American Museum of Natural History
Subjects: Natural history
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Biodiversity Heritage Library

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MUSEUM NOTES 475 New York City in December, has accepted the invitation of the trustees and scientific staff of the American Museum for the eve- ning of December 26. An address by the retiring president of the Association, Dr. W. W. Campbell, of Lick Observatory, will be given in the auditorium, followed by a re- ception in the hall of the Age of Man. In connection with this meeting of the Associa- tion, arrangements are being made for a spe- cial exhibition by the National Research Committee of the Association, in coopera- tion with the American Chemical Society, showing the application of scientific research in chemistry to pure science, industrial prog- ress, and national defense. Two rare specimens of horses have been secured by Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn for the horse collection of the American Mu- seum of Natural History. They have been sent to this country by Professor J. Cossar Ewart of the University of Edinburgh and are now at the New York Zoological Park. One of them, a yellow-dun animal, represents the type of horse known and described by Linnaeus in 1766, and is a result of breeding back; the other, a gray-dun specimen, is a true Celtic pony, the same species as that depicted in the caves of France and Spain thirty thousand years ago by the artists of the Old Stone age. This pony was selected by Professor Ewart out of a herd of five hundred sent from Iceland. On July 20 of this year the library of the American Museum became possessed of three more of the stupendous works on birds written by that able English naturalist and master of taxidermy, John Gould, F. R. S. The volumes represent the generous and timely gift of Mr. Ogden Mills and are entitled: The Birds of Europe, (5 vols. London (1832-)1837); The Birds of Great Britain, (5 vols. London (1862-)1873); and The Birds of New Guinea and the Adjacent Papuan Islands, (5 vols. London 1875-1888). The books are folio in size, handsomely bound, and profusely illustrated with color plates. Their acquisition is greatly appre- ciated by the ornithologists of the Museum, and outside readers have already consulted them frequently. The matter, moreover, becomes a cause of justifiable pride in that the library's collection of Gould is now, with a Jew exceptions, on a par with that of the British Museum. Finally, it is gratifying to note that the many artists and designers who have lately discovered in the library's files on textiles and primitive art a new well of inspiration, are beginning to grow equally enthusiastic over the bird plates in Mr. Mills's latest gift. The arrival of the steamer "Danmark," which was chartered to bring back the mem- bers of the Crocker Land Expedition to this country, is expected daily. The "Danmark" received her instructions and left her winter quarters in south Greenland on July 18, 1916, and was reported off Upernivik on August 3, 1916. From earlier reports it would appear that the "Kap York" and the "Danmark" were both probably in the vicinity of Cape York about the middle of August. The Crocker Land Committee has no information of the cause of the unexpected delay in the return of the "Danmark." No anxiety need be felt, however, for the safety of the party, even though the vessel should have been unfortunately caught in the ice. The "Danmark" is a very staunch wooden vessel of four or five hundred tons and is thoroughly equipped for her work. A mail is due from Greenland the latter part of November. The skeleton of a gigantic and very re- markable fossil bird was the most important discovery made by the field parties from the department of vertebrate palaeontology last summer. It was found in the Lower Eocene of Wyoming by Mr. William Stein. Fossil
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birds are excessively rare in any of our west- ern fossil fields, and this discovery was wholly unexpected. The bird was much larger than an ostrich, although not so tall, and had a huge head with high compressed beak, unlike any living bird. Its size and remarkable proportions are well shown in the illustration

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