"The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom like a rose" (Isaiah xxxv, 1). Two views of the forty-foot wide Desert Life Group (left half of the group, above, and the right half, below) recently installed in the Brooklyn Museum. Like the Arizona Bird Habitat Group in the American Museum, only on a larger scale, it reveals the desert in the full flower of springtime. The upper photograph shows some of the cacti of the group, the giant saguaro, the smaller bushlike choya (at the left), the bisnaga or barrel cactus (beneath the saguaro), and the low prickly pear (left foreground). The lower photograph shows the five specimens of pronghorn antelope in the group, the sole representatives of a distinctly North American family of ungulates, and recognized as fleeter of foot than any other American mammal AT THIS time when public attention is turned toward the solution of international problems by agreement between nations we can well look at the international bearings of bird protection. Dr. Joseph Grinnell, of the University of California, has recently devoted an article in the Scientific Monthly to this question, pointing out the necessity for some jou action to protect the migratory irds Our American golden plover breeds in northern Canada and summers as far south as Argentina, passing through about seven political jurisdictions. The common swallow of England migrates to South Africa, and the knot is a visitor on all the seven seas. A single country, however good its intentions, can do little to protect such travelers; it may only spare the birds for the guns of its less conscientious neighbors. A beginning was made in the direction of international protection by the treaty between the United States and Canada with reference to insectivorous and game birds. It is hoped that the countries which have shown the most consideration for the birds may bring a moral influence to bear in extending an appreciation of the value and necessity of conserving the world's wild life. THE Victoria Naturalist reports that 1,500,000 penguins are annually killed for the sake of their oil, but that in spite of this enormous slaughter the penguin colonies have not decreased. A representative of the Australian Ornithologists' Union has been delegated to investigate the traffic at once; it seems scarcely believable that the penguins can escape extinction under such treatment. A METHOD of drying lumber, reported to the Quarterly Journal of Forestry (London) would seem to be the direct antithesis of our familiar "kiln-drying" by hot air. The temperature of the drying shed is reduced by means of a refrigerating apparatus in one end of the shed to such an extent that the moisture of the air is condensed as hoarfrost and the air kept continually dry. In this way all moisture given off by the lumber is immediately disposed of and the lumber dries without the danger of the cracking and checking which accompanies hot-air drying. THE more than ordinary fertility of ground which has been plowed and harrowed by shell fire has suggested the possibility of using explosives in the operation of tree planting, especially where large areas must be covered quickly as in the rehabilitation of the devastated sectors of France. In a report of experiments to the Académie des Sciences, M. André Piédallu recommends this method for the reason that it loosens up the soil to great depths, supplies nitrates, saves labor, and is much more rapid than digging the holes for the trees. A COMMISSION appointed by the Biological Board of Canada has submitted a report on the relation of the sea lion to the fishing industry. At the instigation of the fishermen a bounty of $2 a head had been placed on these animals on the ground that they were inimical to the salmon fisheries. It was not entirely ascertained by the commission just what constitutes the main food of the sea lion, but it was satisfactorily shown that the destructiveness was too slight to warrant a general slaughter. The sea lion may be legitimately exploited, as is its cousin the fur seal, for guano, and for leather and oil by taking the young only, and its protection may therefore be urged for commercial reasons. Quite sufficient protection can be given to the fishermen's nets by frightening away these very timid animals. THE number of fur seals on the Pribilof Islands, according to a census for 1918, is 496,600. The pups born for the season and the breeding cows each numbered 143,005. These figures are exclusive of the 33,881 seals taken during the calendar year, 7000 on St. George Island and 26,881 on St. Paul Island. The catch did not reach the total of 35,000 skins authorized by the Government, but a few seals were likely to be killed from time to time during the remainder of the year as a source of meat supply for the natives. In addition, 386 fur seals were speared from canoes by the Indians on the coast of Washington, as reported by the superintendent and physician of the United States Indian Service at Neah Bay. The Canadian and Japanese governments each are entitled to 15 per cent of the year's take of skins, in compliance with the terms of the North Pacific Sealing Convention of July 7, 1911, the market value of this amount being credited to the respective governments to offset certain advance payments made to them by the United States. Work on the new by-products plant for St. Paul Island, designed for the manufacture of oil and fertilizer from seal carcasses, was pushed rapidly in order that the carcasses of seals killed on the island in 1918 might be utilized in the preliminary operations. NOTES "ANTICLINES in the Southern Part of the Big Horn Basin, Wyoming," is the subject of a report dealing with the oil fields of Wyoming, lately issued as Bulletin 656 of the United States Geological Survey. Anticlines, those folds of the earth's crust which cause the strata to dip in opposite directions, lie in a broad belt around the border of the Big Horn Basin and are almost certain indications of the presence of oil. According to the authors of the report, those anticlines lying nearest the central trough of the basin offer the greatest prospect for successful drilling, while those separated from the central trough by other anticlines show scarcely a trace of oil. Oil was discovered in the basin as early as 1888, but no great attempt was made to produce it until 1906, and it was not until 1914 that the largest wells were opened. Since that time, however, the output has increased from 3,560,375 to 6,234,137 barrels, obtained largely from the Grass Creek, Elk Basin, Greybull, and Torchlight fields. As nine anticlines adjacent to the central trough remain untested, other productive oil fields may yet be discovered. VOLUME VI of Fossil Vertebrates in The American Museum of Natural History has just appeared from the department of vertebrate paleontology of this institution. It SINCE the last issue of the JOURNAL the following persons have been elected members of the American Museum: Life Members, MESSRS. SIDNEY A. KIRKMAN, R. E. SEAMANS, and PAUL WATKINS. Sustaining Members, MRS. JAMES MCLEAN and MR. A. MCEWEN. Annual Members, MESDAMES MAURICE W. KOZMINSKI, CHARLES J. LIEBMANN, ANNIE TRUMBULL SLOSSON, HARRIET WEIL, MISSES KATHARINE N. RHOADES, DOROTHEA B. SMITH, HENRIETTE STRAUSS, MARION WILKINSON, MAJOR GARRARD COMLY, THE REV. DR. ARTHUR H. JUDGE, DOCTORS ABRAHAM HEYMAN, PHILIP HOROWITZ, LEO KESSEL, JOKICHI TAKAMINE, MESSRS. WILLIAM EDWIN ALLAUN, D. ELLIS HAMBURGER, A. C. JENKINS, HENRY W. KENNEDY, JOHN E. LEIKAUF, WILLIAM MENKE, HENRY MIELKE, LAURENT OPPENHEIM, F. A. PARK, WALTER PFORZHEIMER, LIVINGSTON RUTHERFORD, and HENRY STEMME. Associate Members, MESDAMES EVERARD 125 includes contributions 168-192, which appeared during the years 1915-17 inclusive, from the studies of Messrs. Osborn, Matthew, Brown, Granger, Gregory, Mook, Anthony, Watson, and von Huene. These articles are collected from the Museum Bulletin volumes of the corresponding years. The edition is limited to sixty and is distributed to the principal research centers in this country and abroad. DR. E. W. GUDGER, of the State Normal College at Greensboro, North Carolina, spent several months in 1918 at the American Museum working on the bibliography of fishes, which is in preparation by the department of ichthyology. Methods of fishing practiced in the South Seas, including the use of vegetable poisons and other primitive devices, were among the points of chief interest in his research. DR. WILLIAM K. GREGORY, associate in palæontology in the American Museum, was recently elected a corresponding member of the Zoological Society of London. AT the meeting of the Entomological Society of America held in Baltimore in December Dr. Frank E. Lutz, associate curator of invertebrate zoölogy in the American Museum, was elected a member of the executive committee. APPLETON, HUMPHREY BIRGE, MISSES ELEANOR J. CHADEAYNE, HELEN A. ILER, THE REV. GEORGE A. THAYER, DOCTORS MAX C. BREUER, ROBERT H. ELLIS, CURTISS GINN, GEORGE M. HORTON, J. C. OLIVER, JOHN F. STEPHAN, MESSRS. CHAS. E. ADAMS, JOSEPH A. ARCHBALD, CHARLES K. ARTER, LELAND G. BANNING, FRANK W. COMMONS, EDWARD COOKINGHAM, WILLIAM G. CROCKER, HARRY TREVOR DRAKE, W. M. DUNCAN, J. MCF. EATON, LOUIS MCLANE FISHER, WILLIAM HUNTINGTON FOBES, EDWARD I. GARRETT, LOUIS W. HILL, EVAN HOLLISTER, Jr., H. E. HOLMES, CHARLES R. HUNTLEY, RICHARD N. JACKSON, JOHN G. JENNINGS, CLARENCE H. JOHNSTON, WILLIAM B. KIRKHAM, HUGO A. KOEHLER, F. W. LEADBETTER, A. L. LOWRIE, JAMES R. MACCOLL, ELBERT B. MANN, DONALD MCBRIDE, AMOS B. MCNAIRY, CHARLES NAGEL, O. E. OVERBECK, EDWARD S. PAGE, WM. P. PALMER, H. E. PARTRIDGE, CHARLES L. SOMMERS, FRANKLIN D. L. STOWE, CARLETON B. SWIFT, and MASTER BENJAMIN PATTERSON BOLE, JR. The American Museum of Natural History Its Work, Membership, and Publications The American Museum of Natural History was founded and incorporated in 1869 for the purpose of establishing a Museum and Library of Natural History; of encouraging and developing the study of Natural Science; of advancing the general knowledge of kindred subjects, and to that end, of furnishing popular instruction. The Museum building is erected and largely maintained by New York City, funds derived from issues of corporate stock providing for the construction of sections from time to time and also for cases, while an annual appropriation is made for heating, lighting, the repair of the building and its general care and supervision. The Museum is open free to the public every day in the year; on week days from 9 A.M. to 5 P.M., on Sundays from 1 to 5 P.M. The Museum not only maintains exhibits in anthropology and natural history, including the famous habitat groups, designed especially to interest and instruct the public, but also its library of 70,000 volumes on natural history, ethnology and travel is used by the public as a reference library. The educational work of the Museum is carried on also by numerous lectures to children, special series of lectures to the blind, provided for by the Thorne Memorial Fund, and the issue to public schools of collections and lantern slides illustrating various branches of nature study. There are in addition special series of evening lectures for Members in the fall and spring of each year, and on Saturday mornings lectures for the children of Members. Among those who have appeared in these lecture courses are Admiral Peary, Dean Worcester, Sir John Murray, Vilhjálmur Stefánsson, the Prince of Monaco, and Theodore Roosevelt. The following are the statistics for the year 1918: For the purchase or collection of specimens and their preparation, for research, publication, and additions to the library, the Museum is dependent on its endowment fund and its friends. The latter contribute either by direct subscriptions or through the fund derived from the dues of Members, and this Membership Fund is of particular importance from the fact that it may be devoted to such purposes as the Trustees may deem most important, including the publication of NATURAL HISTORY. There are now more than four thousand Members of the Museum who are contributing to this work. If you believe that the Museum is doing a useful service to science and to education, the Trustees invite you to lend your support by becoming a Member. Complimentary tickets admitting to the Members' Room for distribution to their friends Services of the Instructor for guidance through the Museum Two course tickets to Spring Lectures Two course tickets to Autumn Lectures Current numbers of all Guide Leaflets on request Current copies of NATURAL HISTORY Associate Membership In order that those not living in New York City may associate with the Museum and its work, the class of Associate Members was established in 1916. These Members have the following privileges: Current issues of NATURAL HISTORY-a popular illustrated magazine of science, travel, exploration, and discovery, published monthly from October to May (eight numbers annually), the volume beginning in January A complimentary copy of the President's Annual Report, giving a complete list of all Members An Annual Pass admitting to the Members' Room. This large tower room on the third floor of the building, open every day in the year, is given over exclusively to Members, and is equipped with every comfort for rest, reading, and correspondence Two complimentary tickets admitting to the Members' Room for distribution by Members to their friends The services of an Instructor for guidance when visiting the Museum All classes of Members receive NATURAL HISTORY, which is a magazine issued primarily to keep members in touch with the activities of the Museum as depicted by pen and camera; also to furnish Members with reliable information of the most recent developments in the field of natural science. It takes the reader into every part of the world with great explorers; it contains authoritative and popular articles by men who are actually doing the work of exploration and research, and articles of current interest by men who are distinguished among scientists of the day. It takes the reader behind the scenes in the Museum to see sculptors and preparators modeling some jungle beast or creating a panorama of animal life. It shows how the results of these discoveries and labors are presented to the million public school children through the Museum Extension System. In brief it is a medium for the dissemination of the idea to |