THE endowment fund of the Museum has recently received an addition of five thousand dollars from Mrs. William H. Bliss. Mrs. Bliss has been elected a patron of the Museum in recognition of her gift.

THE ANNUAL MEETING OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF AUDUBON SOCIETIES was held in the east assembly room of the Museum on Tuesday, October 29, 1912. The report of the secretary and executive officer of the society, Mr. T. Gilbert Pearson, showed that the association had had the most successful year in its history. With an income of approximately sixty thousand dollars, new protective laws had been secured and existing ones enforced; wardens had been maintained on the fifty-odd bird reservations which have been established largely through the efforts of the association, and twenty-eight thousand school children had received systematic instruction in bird study.

At the afternoon session, the association was addressed by Mrs. Alice Hall Walter of Providence, Rhode Island, and by Mr. Gustave Straubenmüller, associate superintendent of schools of the Board of Education of New York City, on the educational value of nature study.

At four o'clock a public address was given in the large lecture hall by Professor Homer Dill of the University of Iowa, on the birds of Laysan Island in the Hawaiian Reservation. Shortly preceding Professor Dill's visit to this island, the United States government had arrested twenty-three Japanese poachers who were living on the island while slaughtering its birds to preserve their plumage for millinery purposes. It is estimated that no less than three hundred thousand albatrosses, terns, and other sea birds were thus destroyed, and Professor Dill found abundant evidence of the results of this destruction in acres of bleaching bones and thousands of wings which were in process of preservation at the time the poachers were apprehended by the United States revenue cutter "Thetis." Professor Dill learned that the poachers cut the wings from living birds which were left to bleed to death, while other birds, which were too fat to be readily prepared, were thrown into cisterns slowly to starve and thus reach a condition in which their plumage could be more readily preserved.

At the meeting of the Executive Committee on October 16, the following persons were elected life members of the Museum in recognition of their interest in the institution: Messrs. Alfred J. Klein, R. D. O. Johnson, Benjamin Strong, Jr., and Frederick Taylor.

HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN, as President of the American Museum of Natural History, has been appointed a trustee in perpetuity of the Kahn Foundation for the Foreign Travel of American Teachers.

DR. J. G. KNOWLTON has presented to the Museum a few skulls and other specimens from the Eskimo of North Baffin Land. Among the latter are a

lot of miniature weapons, tools, etcetera, for the most part carved of wood, which Dr. Knowlton reports were found in a small cache at a grave. The objects were covered by a small heap of stones placed at the front of the corpse and were no doubt made that "their respective souls might accompany and serve the deceased in the future land."

AMONG the visitors to the Museum during the autumn was Dr. Carlos de la Torre, professor of geology in the University of Havana and one of the most distinguished Cuban scientists. Dr. La Torre is known not only as a naturalist of high repute, but also as an influential leader in the prolonged struggle which culminated in the independence of Cuba, and as a former mayor of Havana. He has brought to the Museum for study and comparison a remarkable collection of fossils more fully noticed elsewhere.

MR. JULIAN S. HUXLEY, a grandson of the great English scientist, visited the American Museum early in October on his way to Houston, Texas, to take part in the inaugural ceremonies of the Rice Institute. He will be a member of the scientific faculty of the Institute, his duties commencing with the year 1913.

AT the meeting of the Executive Committee on October 16, Mr. Alanson Skinner was appointed assistant curator in the department of anthropology.

THROUGH the kindness of Dr. Aleš Hrdlička of the United States National Museum, the department of anthropology has received casts of all the large fragments of the famous Neanderthal man discovered near Düsseldorf on the Rhine in the spring of 1857. This skeleton must ever be renowned as the first positive evidence of a new and very ancient type of man. Since that date more complete and better preserved examples have come to light so that many European museums now possess real skeletons of this type.

THE MUSEUM has received from Mr. D. C. Stapleton the gift of valuable prehistoric objects in gold and platinum from the Province of Esmeraldas, Ecuador, and the head-waters of the San Juan River, Colombia, and has placed the collection on exhibition in the South American gallery on the third floor. The objects show examples of casting and beating, of plating where copper has been covered with thin gold, of the union of two pieces of gold by welding and of the soldering of two minute surfaces in such manner that it is difficult to detect the solder. The objects in platinum are of most interest, as it is not known that this metal was ever worked, except in this locality, by a prehistoric people.

MR. RODMAN WANAMAKER has presented to the Museum the valuable

expeditions for the study of the North American Indian in 1908-1909. The opening of the exhibition of these pictures on the evening of October 24 in the west assembly hall, was made the occasion of a reception given by the president and trustees of the Museum conjointly with the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. After the reception a lecture was given in the auditorium of the Museum by Dr. Joseph K. Dixon with colored slides and moving pictures illustrating the "Last Great Indian Council." The striking music accompanying the motion pictures was composed by Dr. Irvin J. Morgan, who used the phonographic records made during the Wanamaker expeditions as his source of Indian rhythms and themes. The JOURNAL hopes to reproduce in a later issue a series selected from the Wanamaker photographs presented to the Museum.

DR. R. M. ANDERSON of the Stefánsson-Anderson Arctic expedition, arrived in San Francisco November 2 on the steam whaler "Belvedere," the guest of Captain and Mrs. Cottle. The "Belvedere" picked up Dr. Anderson and the sixty cases of the expedition's collections at Baillie Island (Cape Bathurst), July 28 and carried them on a four months' whaling cruise, during which Dr. Anderson had the opportunity of seeing the capture of twelve specimens of the huge bowhead whale.

DR. ALEXIS CARREL, the recipient of the Nobel prize for research in medicine for 1912, lectured at the Museum November 11, under the auspices of the New York Academy of Sciences and the American Museum of Natural History. The subject of Dr. Carrel's lecture was "The Results of the Suture of Blood Vessels and the Transplantation of Organs."

ONE of the smaller archæological collections secured by Mr. Stefánsson is from Point Hope. This has now been catalogued. Among other things it contains a fine series of worked bone and ivory illustrating the methods and processes formerly used by the Eskimo. The ends of a piece of ivory were cut off by drilling holes in toward the middle, until the piece could be broken asunder; long slender pieces were cut off by grooves from opposite sides, and so on. A large series of chipped points and many ground slate knives accompany the ivory and bone objects.

AMONG interesting recent accessions to the department of geology, mention may be made of a particularly good slab of Tennessee marble showing sections of characteristic fossils and a large block of quartzite from Luverne County, Minnesota, with a highly polished surface produced by wind-blown sand. The department is in possession also of the most recent model of the Isthmus of Panama, showing the canal in its completed form.

Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City

THE MUSEUM IS OPEN FREE TO THE PUBLIC ON EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR. THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY was established in 1869 to promote the Natural Sciences and to diffuse a general knowledge of them among the people, and it is in cordial cooperation with all similar institutions throughout the world. The Museum authorities are dependent upon private subscriptions and the dues from members for procuring needed additions to the collections and for carrying on explorations in America and other parts of the world. The membership fees are,

THE MUSEUM LIBRARY contains more than 60,000 volumes with a good working collection of publications issued by scientific institutions and societies in this country and abroad. The library is open to the public for reference daily - Sundays and holidays excepted - from 9 A. M. to 5 P. M. THE MUSEUM PUBLICATIONS are issued in six series: American Museum Journal, Annual Report, Anthropological Papers, Bulletin, Guide Leaflets and Memoirs. Information concerning their sale may be obtained at the Museum library.

GUIDES FOR STUDY OF EXHIBITS are provided on request by the department of public education. Teachers wishing to bring classes should write or telephone the department for an appointment, specifying the collection to be studied. Lectures to classes may also be arranged In all cases the best results are obtained with small groups of children.

for.

WORKROOMS AND STORAGE COLLECTIONS may be visited by persons presenting membership tickets. The storage collections are open to all persons desiring to examine specimens for special study. Applications should be made at the information desk.

THE MITLA RESTAURANT in the east basement is reached by the elevator and is open from 12 to 5 on all days except Sundays. Afternoon Tea is served from 2 to 5. The Mitla room is of unusual interest as an exhibition hall being an exact reproduction of temple ruins at Mitla, Mexico.