THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9. 1948
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN, LAWRENCE, KANSAS
PAGE NINE
KU Biologist Prepares For Mexican Vampire Hunt
J. R. Alcorn, field biologist for Dyche museum, and his family will leave for Mexico this week—in a truck loaded with special traps, guns and complete camping equipment.
The four Alcorns recently returned from an Alaskan trip where they collected approximately 600 specimens for the museum.
Mr. Alcorn expects to be in Guadalajara, a town northwest of Mexico City, a week after leaving Lawrence and hopes to rent a house there, to be used by his family as home base.
"We probably won't be home much," he grinned. "I expect they'll all be out in the field working with me."
The Alcorns will work north from Guadalajara and then westward along the coast where they plan to make an intensive study of the various species of bats which inhabit Mexico, including the blood-sucking vampire.
"We are studying the bats in Mexico because less is known about their range and distribution there than in the United States," Mr. Alcorn said. "We want to observe some of the bats' habits, such as the 'radar system' they use when they fly. Bats飞 through dark tunnels and old mine shafts and are unable to see in the dark. While flying they squeak continually and the echoes help them to determine the location of the walls."
Mr. Alcorn said the most dangerous bats are the vampires, which attack burros and other animals. They have a special substance in their saliva which keeps the animal's blood from coagulating until they have had their fill.
The Alcorns will also study other small Mexican mammals, such as gophers, reptiles, birds and amphibians.
This will be the second Mexican winter for the Alcorn family, as they spent last year in the state of Sonora. Mr. Alcorn was in Mexico
in 1943 with Dr. E. R. Hall, head of the zoology department, on a field expedition for the University of California.
A six-month field trip takes a lot of preparation and one of the big jobs has been pounding small circles out of sheets of roofing tarpaper.
These circles ft into regular shells to keep a fine dust shot from falling out. Mr. Alecorn fills an empty shell with powder, covers this with circular pieces of heavy paper and puts the fine shot on top of this, placing the tar paper in the end of the shell.
"If we shot a bird with an ordinary bullet we would tear it to pieces," Mr. Alcorn said. "Instead we use this fine shot which only makes small perforations in the bird's body."
The Alcorns must pack special wire which they insert in the feet and tails of animals when they stuff them. They also must check their many traps.
Sand Company Has Sideline
In Natural History Museum
Pratt — (UP) — A sand company today had added a well-preserved dinosaur tooth to its collection of prehistoric reliics.
The Carroll sand company said its machine had sucked up the tooth from 45 feet below the bed of the Ninescah river.
The tooth is in good condition, with nerve centers and tracks still intact.
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Russell Recital Will Be Sunday
Ruth Russell, soprano, will present a graduate recital at 4 p.m. Sunday in Frank concert auditorium.
Miss Russell who graduated from the University in 1945, has done advanced work under Bruce Benjamin and Franz Proszchowski in New York City. In 1946 she attended the Berkshire Music festival on a scholarship, which included choral work under Robert Shaw. She was a member of Mr. Shaw's collegiate chorale when the group made recordings of the Bach "B Minor Mass" and Brahms "Requiem." She also sang the soprano solo in their presentation of the Bach "Magnificat."
She is a student of Alice Moncrieff. Her recital will include both modern and classic numbers.
Math Colloquium Hears Ling Tell Of Quantum Mechanics
Quantum mechanics was discussed by Prof. Daniel Ling, department of physics, at a meeting of the mathematics colloquium Monday.
Professor Ling showed that the essential problems of quantum mechanics are the solution of Eigen value problems. An approximation method originated by Wentzel, Kramer and Brillouin for the solution of these problems was presented.
Dr. Robert Shatten will be the speaker at the next meeting. His subject will be "On Some Inequalities."
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For All K. U. Varsity Football Players and Their Wives or Girl Friends As Guests of CARL ELLIS, HUGH JOHNSON, FLOYD TEMPLE and BILL MACE, Members of Alford Clarke Post 852
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Read the University Daily Kansan—Patronize Its Advertisers.
See a show any-time at Theatre Enterprises Jayhawker and Varsity. Continuous from 1 p.m.
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