NOTES fective as the contiguous application of the nant hue is practically 359 nature was ultimately found to be most successful for protecting ships. By means of stripes and other "dazzle" figures all vertical and horizontal lines are eliminated so that it is nearly impossible to see the prow or tell in what direction it points. These stripes also destroy the perspective to such an extent that a range finder will miss the range by many meters. In addition to the Courtesy of Sea Power and the Brooklyn Museum Quarterly Early attempts at the production of a "dazzle" were not very effective. This photograph of the British transport "Tuscania," taken the day before she was sunk, represents rather the vagaries of vorticists than any systematic method of deception. The practical effectiveness of the later types of camouflage is well established, however, as naval records show definitely the greater chance of life" of the protectively painted ship Courtesy of Sea Power and the Brooklyn Museum Quarterly The "Vaterland," the largest ship afloat, stripped of her dazzling lights, rechristened the "Leviathan," and given a new "dazzle," represents the best in marine camouflage. The "Leviathan" is here shown painted with a low-visibility dazzle, the essential elements of which are (1) the juxtaposition of colors which, when seen at a distance, will combine to form a neutral tint, and (2) the "painting out" of all horizontal and vertical lines which might fit the scale of a range finder. Especially noticeable are the series of dark triangles at the bow. These triangles gave the impression of a series of prows and so completely confused judgment as to the ship's direction that she was almost a menace to her convoy THERE has recently passed out from within the American Museum's walls an organization whose work has now become history. Local Board, Division No. 129, of the city of New York, here since the inauguration of the draft, has quietly proceeded in its work of choosing men for the United States Army. On the occasion of final departure the President of the Museum received a letter of appreciation from Mr. Julius Henry Cohen, chairman of the Board, in the course of which he said: "There appears nowhere a record of this contribution which the American Museum has made to the great service of winning the war, but our Board has an indelible record; it has a very definite memory of the spirit of cordiality and helpfulness displayed by every one connected with the Museum with whom our work brought us in contact." Courtesy of Sea Power and the Brooklyn Museum Quarterly A living example of protective marine coloration is found in the whale bird (Prion) of the subantarctic Atlantic. The color of this petrel is a neutral blue-gray, not unlike the "horizon blue" of French field uniforms and of substantially the same wave length, saturation, and reflecting power as "omega-gray," the shade used by the Navy for low visibility. It is said that the latest British experiments in airplane camouflage point toward designs and colors similar to those of Prion confusing dazzle, however, the color scheme for the stripes and figures is so selected that the color combinations fuse at a distance into a blue gray of low visibility. A MODEL of a killer whale, the so-called "wolf of the sea" (Orca orca), posed as if making an attack on a sulphur-bottom whale, is now completed and on exhibition in the American Museum. The killer is a small whale of no commercial value but distinguished from other whales by its great strength and ferocity. It preys on warmblooded sea animals such as seals and sea lions and attacks other whales, biting off the ends of their flukes and flippers and tearing out their tongues. Killers hunt in "packs." When attacking, they bellow in a way that paralyzes their prey with fear. The present model is a life-size reproduction, twenty-two feet long, built with a wooden framework planked diagonally in basswood and covered with wire netting. This surface is filled with a coating of white lead and whiting over which the final paint is laid. A structure of this nature eliminates the great weight which would encumber a plaster cast. Mr. Otto Block, of the American Museum's preparation shops, constructed the model under the supervision of Director F. A. Lucas, from measurements and photographs taken by Mr. Roy C. Andrews, of a specimen captured on the Pacific Coast. MR. GEORGE K. CHERRIE, ornithologist and field naturalist, has returned from Venezuela with a large collection of birds for the American Museum. Mr. Cherrie, well known to readers of NATURAL HISTORY and of Colonel Roosevelt's Through the Brazilian Wilderness, has had a long and varied experience as a collector in South America, making twenty-eight expeditions into tropical America and visiting every country in the southern continent except Chile. Mr. Cherrie took his latest journey alone, except for an attendant, and lived for weeks at a time on the native diet of corn and goat's milk. His recent collection contains about eight hundred specimens of great variety and scientific interest. "A MOST interesting modern development," observes the Report of the British Educational Mission, "is the increasingly important part played by the museums, not only in respect of educational visits of school children, popular lectures, etc., but, as at the Natural History Museum of New NOTES York, by means of traveling collections sent out to schools." In this connection it is interesting to report that the Department of Education of the City of New York has made a supplementary appropriation of $4100 to renew the popular lecture courses for children and the distribution of nature collections to the schools, which had been suspended for a time for reasons of war economy. THERE are only two remaining colonies of gannets on the North American coast, one on Bird Rock near the Magdalen Islands, the other on Bonaventure Island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The rookeries of the latter are described in a recent Ottawa Naturalist. The seaward face of Bonaventure Island is a vertical cliff rising about three hundred feet from the sea. "Approaching this side from the sea, one is aware that every ledge and shelf is covered with white as though snow had piled in drifts upon them, allowing only the overhangs to show dull red between the glistening surfaces. A wind seems to stir the white masses, and they blow off in eddies and clouds of great white birds that swirl about the cliff faces and circle round the intruder amid a pandemonium of hoarse cries. These are the gannets, the solan geese of older authors, each as large as a goose, pure white with black wing tips. . . .” NATURAL HISTORY will publish in its next issue an article by Director John M. Clarke, of the State Museum at Albany, on the protection of these bird colonies. 361 usually associate peat with poor communities which cannot afford coal and must turn to the swamps for fuel, but in some places in Europe peat commands a higher price than the coal for which it is supposed to be a substitute. In this country we have about 11,188 square miles of peat bog which would produce more than twelve billion tons of fuel. So far this natural resource has been almost unexploited. Numerous other uses of peat are explained in the Philadelphia exhibit, such as the spinning of fibrous peat into yarn and its manufacture into paper; its use for packing; and its value as a preservative because it contains large amounts of humic acid. Ground up peat may also be used as a filler for fertilizer, making possible the use of slaughterhouse waste, and as a filler for stock feed, such as molasses, which could not otherwise be fed to animals. Insulations, sound-proof boards, paving stones, and even alcohol are among its manufactured prod ucts. Two publications in the field of California zoology have recently appeared. One is an exhaustive treatment of the game birds of that state, including an account of their life histories, which should appeal to the hunter as well as the naturalist and serve as a basis for intelligent legislation on the matter of bird protection. The other treats of the ground squirrels of California and supplies information of importance to the farming interests with reference to a number of species inimical to the crops. 1 The Game Birds of California. By Joseph Grinnell, Harold C. Bryant, and Tracy I. Storer. Octavo, pp. 642, with 16 color plates by Louis Agassiz Fuertes and Allan Brooks. The Ground Squirrels of California. By Joseph Grinnell and Joseph Dixon. F. HEIDE, EDWIN W. INSLEE, FRANÇOIS KLEINBERGER, ERNEST A. NEILSON, M. NEWBORG, HAROLD OTIS, ALBERT F. THALHIMER, SAML. G. TIBBALS, S. W. TRAWICK, and JOSEPH B. WHITNEY. Associate Members, MRS. ELIZABETH M. MOLINEUX, MISS ROSE DOUGAN, DOCTORS ALBERT H. FREIBERG, W. P. MANTON, WALTER E. NEWCOMB, H. W. OSBORN, MESSRS. FRANK DABNEY, DANIEL HOWLAND, EDWIN F. MACK, EDWARD P. WELLS 2D, WALTER D. WILCOX, ROBERT C. WRIGHT, and GEORGE W. YORK. 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. NATURAL HISTORY The various Classes of Membership are as follows: Associate Member (nonresident) Annual Member. Sustaining Member Life Member. Fellow Patron Associate Benefactor Associate Founder They have the following privileges: An Annual Pass admitting to the Members' Room 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 |