Bulletin r HISTORY Vot. 29 ,Ao. 4 MUSEUM 495S / Page 2 CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN January, 1958 Chicago Natural History Museum that just came to the Museum. It is THIS MONTH'S COVER- Founded by Marshall Field, 1893 Darlington's Zoogeography: The Geographi- Roosevelt Road and Lake Shore Drive, Chicago 5 cal Distribution of Animals, a book that was Our cover this month is a Telephone: WAbash 2-9410 twenty years in the writing. It is a mile- photomontage of two views of the stone in its field —the study of the kinds of. colorful bird exhibit recently in- THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES vertebrate animals there are and the where, stalled in Hall 21 (Birds in Sys- Lester Armour Henry P. Isham why, and how of their distribution. It is tematic Arrangement). In the Sewell L. Avery Hughston M. McBain Wm. McCormick Blair William H. Mitchell a summary of one phase of our museum background, Carl W. Cotton, Walther Buchen John T. Pirie, Jr. zoologists' work, and it is the modern Museum Taxidermist, adjusts a Walter J. Cummings Clarence B. Randall only Joseph N. Field George A. Richardson critical summary. It will be a standard toucan's perch. In the fore- Marshall Field, Jr. John G. Searle Stanley Field Solomon A. Smith reference and text for many years. ground, an enlarged view of the Samuel Insull, Jr. Louis Ware The author himself indicates in his refer- exhibit affords a closer look at OFFICERS ences the precise source of his reliance on the spiraling birds. Towering 16 Stanley Field President the past and on the writings of others. feet, the exhibit is truly a spec- Hughston M. McBain First Vice-President Walther Buchen Second Vice-President Listed here are the scientific papers that tacular one, for it is designed to Third Vice-President Joseph N. Field provided raw material, the data that the show solely the beauty, grace, Solomon A. Smith Treasurer Clifford C. Gregg Director and Secretary author has studied, evaluated, digested, and and color of birds in various John R. Millar Assistant Secretary incorporated into his thinking. The result attitudes on the circling wire is an amalgamation of old and new ideas on sculpture. More detailed infor- THE BULLETIN the subject into a fresh modern treatment mation about the exhibit can be EDITOR of zoogeography. In other words, the ideas found on page 5. Clifford C. Gregg Director of the Museum and data contained in individual papers CONTRIBUTING EDITORS published from time to time by many workers have entered a standard Paul S. Martin Chief Curator of Anthropology finally Theodor Just Chief Curator of Botany reference book. Sharat K. Roy Chief Curator of Geology Austin L. Rand Chief Curator of Zoology The more studious of the widespread MANAGING EDITOR and expanding group of natural-history STAFF NOTES enthusiasts will want this book on their H. B. Harte Public Relations Counsel shelves alongside their other books on ASSOCIATE EDITORS Emmet R. Blake, Curator of Birds, animals. College teachers will use it as Helen A. MacMinn Jane Rockwell was a contributor to the recent book, a textbook. Indeed, the material has been Warblers of North America (Devon-Adair presented in a course at Harvard, where the Members are to inform the Museum Co., New York.). Among the several requested author teaches. Students who will become promptly of. changes of address. sections by him are chapters on the warblers teachers will pass on the information, and of Mexico and South America, areas in writers will refer to the book and incor- which he specializes .... Philip Hersh- porate its ideas into their own output. The kovitz, Curator of Mammals, recently LIFEBLOOD OF SCIENCE: ideas and data will be used long after the spent a week at the U.S. National Museum PUBLICATIONS source has been forgotten. in Washington and the American Museum Chicago Natural History Museum has The lifeblood of a science is the stream of of Natural History in New York played its part in making this book, I was studying published papers, large and small, that South American deer .... L. Wen- pleased to see. Some thirty papers written Rupert comprise the "current literature" each year. by members of the Museum's Department zel, Curator of Insects, participated in To write scientific and send them papers of Zoology are cited as having been used in a symposium on "The Future of Taxonomy out into the world sometimes seems a little the preparation of the volume, and there in Entomology" at the annual meetings in like stones into a dropping deep, deep well. are about seventy-five references to our Memphis last month of the Entomological done await the Having your part, you splash Museum authors in the index. Society of America. He was appointed to a that be long in coming. It be may may The individual contributions from our committee that will consider the possibility years before your contribution is heard from Museum vary from a two-page paper to of establishing a national institute of ento- again. But that doesn't mean that no one a catalogue whose various volumes occupy mology .... Loren P. Woods, Curator of has read it. Scattered over the globe are two feet of book shelf. my They deal with Fishes, recently returned from a four-week fellow naturalists who make card files of the and mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, exploratory fishing cruise in the offshore things they read and index them under such fishes. Their subject-matter comes from waters of the coast of the Guianas and as: the birds headings Kergulenland, of; all as one would from continents, expect Brazil Dr. Theodor Just, Chief Cu- rafts, transportation of animals by; migra- a world-wide museum and from out- many rator of in a effect of colonization Botany, participated sym- tion, by; barriers, of-the-way islands such as the Ryukyus last month at the 124th of water as. Such read and index posium meeting gaps people and Tristan da Cunha. Their approach is the American Association for the Advance- your paper. diverse: nomenclature, descriptions of new ment of Science held in Indianapolis. His This is only the first step in the use of kinds of animals, check-lists, faunal reports, paper was entitled "Post-Glacial History a scientific paper that has been printed in faunal analysis, relationships and taxonomy, of the Vegetation of the North Central a small edition of a thousand or so copies, climate and evolution, and anatomy. States" .... Dr. S. the step that keeps our colleagues through- Thus in Darlington's book we have an Eugene Richardson, Curator of Fossil also out the scientific world informed of our example of how our scientific papers on even Jr., Invertebrates, attended the where he activities and scientific progress. But these the most abstruse subjects—such as the meeting, presented a on scientific papers have still to reach a wider proper name for a snake, the presence of symposium paper "Postulates Em- in a public. Finally, and it may be years later, Bidder's organ in a toad, the relationship ployed Pennsylvania Paleoecological even the smallest worthwhile paper may be and the systematic position of a genus of Study". Forest Highland, Assistant incorporated into more comprehensive writ- bird—are synthesized in a textbook and are Recorder in the Division of Publications, ings and summaries. well on the way to entering the public resigned last month after five years at the I found this well illustrated in a new work domain. —A.L.R. Museum. January, 1958 CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN Page S PRIMITIVE ART EXHIBITS ARE INSTALLED IN AFRICAN HALLS By PHILLIP H. LEWIS ASSISTANT CURATOR OF PRIMITIVE ART EXHIBITS of African art have NEWbeen installed in Halls D and E. To- gether with the Cameroons King's House (completed a year ago), these comprise a series of primitive art exhibits that are re- E-IFE- lated because the peoples represented occupy I I BO 0S an almost continuous area across Nigeria and IBIBIO,'W into the Cameroons. These exhibits are the Cameroons King's House, the series of wall cases showing the art of Benin, and the presentation of West African masks from IBIBIO MASK Twelve inches high and painted black, this carved wooden mask comes from the Ibibio people. the private collection of Dr. William R. Bascom. The Cameroons King's House (Hall E) is an exhibit of both ethnological and artistic significance. Objects of art from the Mu- seum's extensive Cameroons Grasslands collection are exhibited in the appropriate setting of a Cameroons king's residence, his ancestor shrine, and his drum hut. The objects, mainly wood sculpture, are archi- tectural ornaments, ceremonial masks, soci- ally important state regalia (such as carved stools), and sacred ancestral images. The King's House exhibit illustrates a signifi- cant point about primitive art, namely that art in such societies has very important religious and social functions, and in places like West Africa it is closely linked to royal activities. Another presentation of African art is the series of newly installed wall-case ex- hibits devoted to the art of Benin (Hall E). Page k CHICAGO NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM BULLETIN January, 1958 the highly sophisticated Benin and Ife MUSEUM ACQUIRES ZETEK SHELL COLLECTION and art-forms (such as Ibo, Ibibio, Cam- By ALAN SOLEM have marine shells are in this Museum. Both eroons) poses complex questions. We ASSISTANT CURATOR, LOWER INVERTEBRATES institutions benefit by sharing his fine col- mentioned the possibilities of diffusion of In November, Chicago Natural History lection, and the specimens are now located bronze casting from Egypt, but another Museum received 40,000 non-marine shells where they can be used most advanta- question looms larger.