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By W. D. Matthew

HIS skeleton, presented by Mr. Frank K. Sturgis, represents the earliest known stage in the ancestry of the horse. It was found in

1910 in the Wasatch formation of the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming. Three skeletons of the little four-toed horse of the Eocene period are now on exhibition. The first, from the Wind River formation, was one of the gems of the Cope collection, purchased by the Museum in 1894. The second, found by the Museum expedition of 1905 in the Bridger Basin, represents a later stage of evolution, the middle Eocene. This third skeleton, found at a lower geological horizon, is an earlier stage than the Cope skeleton and although of somewhat larger size is more primitive in retaining on the hind foot tiny splint-like vestiges of the first and fifth digits, reminiscences of an earlier five-toed condition which have been completely lost by its successors. Although these vestigial splints are not preserved in this skeleton, their existence is indicated by articulating facets on the adjoining digits and in another partial skeleton of the same species found in 1911, one of the little splints is preserved entire.

Numerous specimens of jaws and teeth of these little four-toed horses have been secured by the persevering work of the American Museum field parties, but skeletons and skulls are exceedingly rare and this one, although by no means complete, is somewhat more so than any hitherto found. It has been restored and mounted in a grazing attitude by Albert Thomson.

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THE SEVENTEEN-YEAR LOCUST GROUP

By John A. Grossbeck

ECENTLY there has been installed in the insect hall a new group illustrative of the biology of the seventeen-year locust or periodical cicada (Cicada septendecim L.), the studies having been made in the early summer of 1911 when the insects appeared in such swarms in the vicinity of New York City.

The long life of the cicada, both as a larva and subsequently as a pupa, is passed in the earth at some distance beneath the surface where it feeds in both these stages on fluid food. In a "locust year," by which is meant the year in which the insects appear above ground, the active pupa, which stage is assumed six or seven years prior to appearance above ground, makes its way toward the surface and there awaits the advent of summer before breaking through the upper crust into sunshine and the outer air. When the latter part of May or the first part of June arrives, the uncouth creature emerges. At the same time incredible numbers of other pupa have also emerged and attaching themselves to some surface, preferably to the trunk of a tree or to the undersides of leaves of shrubs, they shed the pupal skin and appear as winged cicadas.

Egg-laying begins in a few days after the emergence of the adults, and it is this process which results in the only injury caused by them. They select the slender terminal twigs of a great variety of orchard, shade and forest trees, for the purpose of depositing the eggs. Deep punctures are made in the twig, one immediately above the other, and in each puncture from twelve to twenty eggs are laid. These hatch toward the latter part of summer and the little grub-like

From the seventeen-year locust or cicada group. The cicada pupa emerges from the ground and ascends some tree trunk where it bursts the outer horny skin and crawls out an adult

animals immediately drop to the ground and burrow into the soil to dwell in darkness until that subtle influence called instinct calls them into the outer world.

But ere these little fellows have broken through the eggshell the weight of the branch beyond the point at which the eggs were laid, aided by the wind, may have caused the twig to break, and the leaves beyond the break may then turn brown. The injury to a large tree, aside from the unsightly appearance of the dead leaves, is slight and the tree soon recovers completely; but small trees, especially seedlings are often killed. All in all, little apprehension need be entertained by the farmer or fruit-grower as a locust year approaches, for at most he must needs only forbear to plant young trees that year; and to the lover of the curious in nature a locust year is one looked forward to with great interest.

In the group now installed on the third floor the insects are shown emerging from the ground through neat circular openings on a level with the surface where the soil is compact and bare of vegetation, and through the tops of mud towers or "cones" which the young cicadas have constructed where the soil is moist, particularly where there is a layer of leaves or grass. On the trunk of a sweet gum tree and on some of the leaves of the scrub white oak nearby are numerous shed pupal skins, and adults delicate and white are seen breaking through the skins, or expanding their wings after having just emerged. Fully colored adults, blackish conspicuously marked with red, are shown resting on the twigs, some in the act of egg-laying. Certain of the insects in the group are represented as affected by the fungous disease known as Massopora cicadina. Also egg punctures are shown on some of the twigs, and the result of these in the broken twigs with dead leaves is conspicuous among the fresh summer foliage.

An English sparrow, that inveterate destroyer of the cicadas among the many birds

MUSEUM NOTES

that prey upon them, has just captured one of the insects, and hosts of cicada wings (which are not eaten by the birds) are strewn on the ground. A nest of the ant Formica fusca subsericea is shown also with the ants feeding on the dead bodies of the cicadas. The cicadas are too large to be carried into underground galleries, so are merely dragged to the entrance of the nest and eaten there.

A small variety of the cicada which has been named Cicada cassinii and occurs locally in nature with the large form is shown in one corner of the group.

MUSEUM NOTES

SINCE the last issue of the JOURNAL the following persons have been elected to membership in the Museum:

Patrons, MRS. ARCHER M. HUNTINGTON, DR. CHARLES E. SLOCUM and MR. FRANK K. STURGIS;

Life Members, MRS. EDGAR S. AUCHINCLOSS, JR., MRS. GHERARDI DAVIS, MRS. W. B. DINSMORE, MRS. WILLIAM F. MILTON, MRS. JAMES M. VARNUM, MISS MARIE LOUISE CONSTABLE, MISS ANNA J. PIERREPONT, MISS E. LOUISE SANDS, MISS HARRIET WADSWORTH and MESSRS. CARROLL BALDWIN, THOMAS G. BENNETT, JOHN R. BRADLEY, EVERSLEY CHILDS, JOHN LYMAN Cox, GLENN FORD MCKINNEY, EDWARD LUDLOW PARKER, JAMES S. WATSON, J. GRISWOLD WEBB, WILLIAM P. WHARTON, WILLIAM WILLIAMS and EDWIN O. WOOD;

Sustaining Members, MRS. ROBERT F. BALLANTINE, MRS. G. GRANVILLE WRIGHT and MESSRS. W. C. BROWN and E. W. VANDERHOOF;

Annual Members, MRS. HENRY A. ALEXANDER, MRS. WILLIAM ALEXANDER, MRS. C. VANDERBILT BARTON, MRS. E. J. BERWIND, MRS. JOHN E. BORNE, MRS. GEORGE B. CASE, MRS. ALICIA D. CONRAD, MRS. THOMAS CRIMMINS, MRS. JOHN M. DILLON, MRS. CHARLES D. HALSEY, MRS. ENOCH PRATT HYDE, MRS. J. F. MCKEAN, MRS. CHARLES E. PROCTOR, MRS. GEORGE ROSE, MRS. H. L. SATTERLEE, MRS. GEORGE E. SCHANCK, MRS. GRACE LEE SMIDT, MRS. JOHN WOOD STEWART, MRS. C. W. TRUSLOW, MRS. ALFRED TUCKERMAN, MRS. ARTEMAS WARD, MRS. HENRY B. WILSON, MRS. T. DENON WILSON, MISS RUTH AUCHINCLOSS CHILD, MISS M. KATHARINE HUSTED, MISS ELIZA B. MASTERS, MISS CONSTANCE PULITZER, MISS JULIA L. WALDO, MISS MARGARET S. WHITNEY, REAR ADMIRAL C. H. DAVIS, DR. JOSEPH D. BRYANT, DR. MARTIN COHEN, DR. R. B. CONTANT, DR. ROBERT JOHNSTONE KAHN, DR. HARRIS KENNEDY, DR. JAMES STEPHEN

W. BACON, EDWARD L. BALLARD, LEMUEL C. BENEDICT, S. N. BOND, LEON DURAND BONNET, HILARY R. CHAMBERS, GEORGE L. CHENEY, HARRIS D. COLT, CHARLES S. Cook, JENNINGS S. Cox, MORGAN Davis, B. DELIN, SAMUEL R. DORRANCE, WILLIAM HARRIS DOUGLAS, EDWARD F. EBERSTADT, EZRA H. FITCH, RICHARD E. FOLLETT, AARON V. FROST, G. H. GENTZEL, HENRY G. GRAY, KALMAN HAAS, F. B. HOFFMAN, CLEMENT S. HOUGHTON, WILSON S. HOWELL, A. C. HUIDEKOPER, WALTER KERR, ROLAND F. KNOEDLER, REGINALD B. LANIER, J. LAWRENCE MCKEEVER, G. H. MIDDLEBROOK, MARTIN H. MURPHY, HUGO NEWMAN, JOHN E. NICHOLSON, WILLIAM H. PARSONS, T. H. HOGE PATTERSON, JOHN J. PAUL, JOHN C. POWERS, JAMES MCALPINE PYLE, WILLIAM RAUCH, WALLACE REID, SYLVAN E. ROSENTHAL, ARTHUR SACHS, H. J. SCHWARTZ, EDMUND SEYMOUR, W. HINCKLE SMITH, ENRICO N. STEIN, THERON G. STRONG, LOUIS S. STROOCK, EDWARD GRAHAM TAYLOR, WILLIAM R. K. TAYLOR, STEPHEN Dows THAW, WILLIAM LYMAN UNDERWOOD, REGINALD C. VANDERBILT, TERTIUS VAN DYKE, CARL VIETOR, W. G. WALKER, J. MCLEAN WALTON, and R. THORNTON WILSON.

AT the regular meeting of the board of trustees on May 6, 1912 the following patrons of the Museum were elected associate benefactors in recognition of their generous contributions and continued activity in the growth of the institution: George S. Bowdoin, Cleveland H. Dodge, Archer M. Huntington, Arthur Curtiss James, Charles Lanier, Joseph F. Loubat, J. Pierpont Morgan, Jr., Henry Fairfield Osborn, Percy R. Pyne, William Rockefeller, Jacob H. Schiff and Felix M. Warburg.

THE MUSEUM was visited on April 9 by a committee from the Deutsches Museum of Munich, consisting of Director Oskar von Miller and ten of his associates. The committee was received by the president and director of the American Museum and by Mr. Felix M. Warburg of the board of trustees, the last-named always a great admirer of the work of administration and exhibition as carried out in the Deutsches Museum. It is inspiriting to the Museum that it was this American institution and its published plans for future extension that were said to have been the determining factors in deciding the Munich committee to visit the United States; and also to hear now that this committee maintains after visiting the large cities from the Coast to the Middle West that "of the works of man, they saw nothing equal to the American Museum in New York City" all of which augments the institution's zeal to be worthy such distinction.

THE forty-third annual report of the president of the American Museum of Natural History, issued in February as a preliminary report to the trustees and members of the institution and to the municipal authorities of the city of New York, was published in permanent form during the past month. The volume is particularly instructive as to the Museum's administration and support as well as in regard to its work in exploration, research, exhibi