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AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

The Habitat Bird Groups

CAMP AT PTARMIGAN PASS, CANADIAN ROCKIES

By FRANK [. CHAPMAN

Curator of Ornithology

GUIDE LEAFLET NO. 28

FEBRUARY, 1909

American Museum of Natural History
Seventy-seventh Street and Central Park West, New York City

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

President
Henry FatrFIELD OSBORN
First Vice-President +;
J. Prerpont MorcGan WE
Treasurer , Secretary
CHARLES LANIER oi. J. Hamppen Ross

Second Vice-President
CLEVELAND H. DopGsE

Class of 1909

J. PIERPONT MORGAN
HENRY F. OSBORN

Class of 1910

JOSEPH H. CHOATE

PERCY R. PYNE
JOHN B. TREVOR

J. HAMPDEN ROBB
ARTHUR CURTISS JAMES
Class of 1911

WILLIAM ROCKEFELLER
GUSTAV E. KISSEL

CHARLES LANIER
ANSON ‘W. HARD
SETH LOW

Class of 1912

D. O. MILLS
ARCHIBALD ROGERS

ALBERT 8S. BICKMORE
CORNELIUS C. CUYLER

ADRIAN ISELIN, Jr.

Class of 1913

GEORGE 8S. BOWDOIN
A. D. JUILLIARD

CLEVELAND H. DODGE
ARCHER M. HUNTINGTON

EXECUTIVE OFFICERS

Director
Hermon C. Bumpus

Assistant-Secretary and Assistant-Treasurer

GrorGE H. SHERWOOD

Tue AMERICAN Museum oF Natura 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 codperation with all similar institutions throughout the world. The Museum
authorities are dependent upon private subscriptions and the dues from members for pro-
curing needed additions to the collections and for carrying on explorations in America
and other parts of the world.

The membership fees are,

Wellowsa,s.trsciteielom aera cheetete
IPAtLONSs c.siosee ieee ene

Annual Members............ $ 10
Life Members........... 100

All money received from membership fees is used for increasing the collections and
for developing the educational work of the Museum.

The Museum is open free to the public on every day in the year.

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Back

Shi
BIKD
The Habitat Groups

OF

NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS

IN THE

AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

By FRANK M. CHAPMAN

CURATOR OF ORNITHOLOGY

NO. 28

OF THE

CUIDE LEAFLET SERIES

OF THE
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

EDMUND OTIS HOVEY, EDITOR

New York. Published by the Museum. February, 1909

JUN 1 7 190
LIBRARIES

NORTH

SOUTH

SKETCH PLAN OF THIRD, OR GALLERY, FLOOR.

The Habitat Groups of North American Birds are in Hall No. 308
on the Third, or Gallery, Floor of the North Central Wing of the
Museum building.

to

THE HABITAT GROUPS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS
IN THE
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

By Frank M. CHAPMAN

Curator of Ornithology
Introduction

HE groups of birds contained in this hall are designed to illustrate
not only the habits but also the haunts or “habitats” of the
species shown. Each group usually includes the nest, eggs and

young, besides the adult bird or birds, with a reproduction of from 60 to
160 square feet of the nest’s immediate surroundings. ‘To this accurate
and realistic representation of the home of the species is added a
painting from nature of its habitat, the real foreground being con-
nected with the painted background in such a manner that one often
does not at first see where the former ends and the latter begins. ‘The
whole, therefore, gives an adequate conception of the nature of the
country the birds inhabit and the conditions under which they live.

It should be clearly understood that these backgrounds are not more
or less fanciful sketches of the haunts of the birds associated with them,
but they are careful studies from nature of definite localities, and there-
fore possess a geographical as well as an ornithological value. When
selecting subjects for treatment, an effort was made to include the birds
of widely diversified types of country, in order that the series, as a whole,
should portray not only the habitats of certain American birds, but
America as well. From the Bahamas to the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
from the Atlantic to the Pacific, localities are represented which show at
least the more characteristic phases of our landscape, and it is hoped
that a tour through this hall of Habitat Groups will not only yield in-
formation in regard to North American birds, but also give one some
conception of the appearance of the land in which they live.

3

AMERIGAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS

Some subjects were in nearby places and were easily visited; others
were in remote regions and were reached with more or less difficulty.'
It is estimated that about 65,000 miles have been traveled to secure the
material on which the groups are based.

Zach group in the series, beginning with Bird Rock in the Gulf of
St. Lawrence, in 1898, is the result of a special Museum expedition in
charge of the Curator of Ornithology usually accompanied by a prepara-
tor, and one of the artists whose names appear in connection with the
backgrounds they have painted.

After arriving, before securing specimens, the birds were first studied
and photographed at short range from an especially constructed um-
brella-blind. ‘This was sometimes placed in the very heart of the bird
community, as, for instance, with the Flamingos and Pelicans; or even
in the tree-tops as with the Egrets. At the same time the artist made
studies on which to base the final background, as well as detailed color
sketches of leaf and blossom, while the preparator collected the needed
accessories, making casts or preserving vegetation in various solutions
as occasion required. When the field-work was concluded, the crates
of branches, carefully packed boxes of foliage, nests, birds and photo-
graphic plates, sacks of earth and other material, according to the nature
of the subject, were shipped to the Museum, subsequently to be prepared
in the laboratories.

The vegetation, for which Mr. J. D. Figgins, Chief of the Museum’s
Department of Preparation is responsible, has been reproduced in wax
either from plaster casts of the original, or by careful duplication of the
original itself. The color has been applied with an air-brush or atomizer,
by which the most delicate tints and textures are faithfully rendered.

Kach group has demanded its own special treatment, and, in the
construction of the series, the many novel problems encountered have
resulted in the development of original methods. This is particularly
true of the manner of installation and illumination of the groups at the
sides of the hall. Here, it will be observed, the background is curved,

with the front opening so reduced in size that at the proper distance, or

‘The narrative of these expeditions is contained in ‘‘ Camps and Cruises of an
Ornithologist”” by Frank M. Chapman. Chapters of this book have been bound
separately and placed with the groups to which they relate.

4

CHAPMAN, THE HABITAT GROUPS

“correct view-point,” neither the ends nor the top of the group can be
seen. By thus leaving the actual limits of the group to the imagination
the illusion of space and distance is greatly heightened.

The groups are illuminated from above by diffused light; electric
light being employed when daylight fails, but, in either case, the rays
strike the group from the same diffusing surface.

Acknowledgments.

The Museum owes this series of Bird Groups primarily to the
generosity of a number of its members, without whose contributions
the collection and preparation of the material would not have been
undertaken.

For this valuable coéperation the Museum is indebted chiefly to
Mr. John L. Cadwalader and to Mrs. Morris K. Jesup, Mrs. Philip
Schuyler, Mrs. John B. Trevor, Mrs. Robert Winthrop, Mr. F. Augustus
Schermerhorn, Mr. H. B. Hollins, Mr. Henry Clay Pierce, Mr. Henry
W. Poor and Mr. Courtenay Brandreth.

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VINISYIA “GNV1S!I $.€809 40 34I7-GuNIg YSWWNS

9

SUMMER BIRD-LIFE OF COBB’S ISLAND, VIRGINIA

SHELL-STREWN sand bar seven miles long and about the same
distance from the mainland, Cobb’s Island, off eastern Virginia,
is an ideal resort for sea-birds. Here they are beyond the reach

of most bird enemies, while the surrounding waters furnish an unfail-
ing supply of food. The home of the birds has little or no value as
‘‘real estate’; they themselves are unfit for food, and it might have been
supposed that their continued existence was assured. But about twenty-
five years ago they suddenly acquired a commercial value. ‘Their plum-
age became fashionable for millinery purposes. As a result, thousands
of birds were slaughtered on their nesting-grounds, and within a few
seasons some of the most abundant species were practically extermi-
nated.

At no place were more birds killed than on Cobb’s Island and the
islands immediately adjoining it. In a single day 1,200 Least Terns
were shot on Cobb’s Island; in three days three baymen killed 2,800
Terns in the same locality, at the end of two seasons the Least ‘Terns,
for which there was especial demand, no longer existed in this region,
and the Common Terns were greatly reduced in numbers. Fortunately
the State of Virginia passed a law prohibiting the killing of these birds,
and for several years past the National Association of Audubon Societies
has provided a warden to enforce this law during the nesting season.

In response to this protection the birds are now increasing in numbers
and in time may become as abundant as they formerly were. ‘The Least
Terns have not as yet reappeared on Cobb’s Island, there being no stock
to begin with; but the Common ‘Terns are yearly becoming more num-
erous, several hundred pairs having nested on the island in the summer
of 1902.

Besides the Common Terns, Skimmers, Gull-billed Terns, Oyster-
catchers and Wilson’s Plovers now nest on the beach of Cobb’s Island;
while in the marshes which flank the beach on the bay, or west side,
numerous Laughing Gulls, a few Forster’s Terns and many Clapper
Rails, or Marsh Hens, make their nests.

it i a oo Dee mS

THE DUCK HAWK ON THE PALISADES.

Background by Hobart Nichols.

THE DUCK HAWK ON THE PALISADES

HE Duck Hawk is the American representative of the Old World
Peregrine Falcon, from which it differs but slightly in color and
not at all in general habits.

By falconers the Peregrine was esteemed only second to the Arctic
Gyrfalcons. ‘The latter could be owned and flown only by members of
the royal family, while no one of lower rank than an earl was per-
mitted to use a Peregrine.

Possibly the restrictions imposed on the owning of Gyrfalcons arose
rather from the difficulty with which the birds were obtained than from
their superiority as hunters. In this respect the Peregrine or Duck
Hawk is probably not excelled by any other bird of prey. Its speed
enables it to overhaul with ease the swiftest flying ducks, while it has
sufficient strength to strike and kill them in the air and bear them away
without visible effort.

The Duck Hawk is fearless in pursuit of its prey and will dash down
and capture a wounded bird within reach of the sportsman’s arm; and
will repeat the attempt even if fired at and missed.

Peregrines in slightly varying forms are found throughout the greater
part of the world. "The Duck Hawk, the American form, breeds locally
throughout most of the United States, and migrates as far south as
Chili. When migrating, it is sometimes not uncommon along our coasts,
since it travels with the flocks of wild fowl on which it preys, but when
nesting, it is generally rare.

In the vicinity of New York City the Duck Hawk is known to nest
only on the Palisades of the Hudson, where they are unfortunately mo-
lested by egg-collectors, and among the hills and mountains to the
northward. It is believed that, in the spring of 1908, three pairs were
nesting on the Palisades.

In this region Duck Hawks begin to lay in March. ‘They build no
nest, but lay their eggs, as may be observed, on the bare rock.

The material for the present group was collected by R. B. Potter
on Hook Mountain, near Nyack, N. Y., but it is here shown against
a background representing the Palisades, northward from the ‘ Gorge”’
at Englewood.

9

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“SMOQV3AW MOVSNASYOVH SHL 4O 34/7 GuIg LSNONV OL

AUGUST BIRD-LIFE OF THE HACKENSACK MEADOWS

HE thousands of acres of marshland bordering the Hackensack
River and Newark Bay, so familiar to travelers over the rail-
ways which pass through them, are commonly esteemed worth-

less ground, but to the naturalist they abound in interest.

In their lower portion, colonies of Florida Gallinules and Pied-billed
Grebes have recently been found nesting; but it is in August that birds
are most abundant in the marshes, and they then possess the strongest
attraction for the ornithologist. At this season the wild rice begins to
ripen, bringing to the marsh a large though ever decreasing number of
Bobolinks and Sora Rail which delight to feed upon it.

The Bobolink is now in its streaked, sparrow-like plumage and
under the name Reedbird is ranked in New Jersey as a game bird (!)
and is killed in thousands by men who would not raise a finger against
the black and buff songster of our June meadows.

The Sora, in-spite of its small size and sluggish flight may, with greater
reason, be ranked as a game bird, but at the present rate of decrease it
will pay the penalty of this distinction by practical extermination in this
region. Red-winged Blackbirds also come to feed on the rice.

During the latter half of July, August and September, Swallows, by
far the most abundant birds of the meadows, use the marshes as dor-
mitories, coming to them in the evening in incalculable numbers to
sleep, and leaving them early the following morning to radiate to
every point of the compass. During the day, and as the birds gather
for their evening flight, they may be seen perching in long lines on road-
side telegraph lines.

In August the marshes are as remarkable for their flowers as for
their birds. The great rose mallow is doubtless the most beautiful,
as it is also one of the most abundant species, acres sometimes being
pink with the bell-shaped flowers. ‘There are also brilliant cardinal
flowers, saggitaria, pickerel weed, jewel flowers, all of which are shown
in the group, and many other species.

The studies for this group were made about one mile south of
Little Ferry, N. J. ‘The view shown is toward the west.

FLORIDA GREAT BLUE HERON.

Background by Bruce Horsfall. Birds by H. C. Denslow.

RHE. WIEDeTURKEY IN tik MOUNTAINS OF WEST
VIRGINIA

Frontispiece

HE Wild ‘Turkey, in spite of its name, is distinctly an American
bird which formerly ranged throughout the wooded portion of
the eastern United States, from southern Maine and southwest-

ern Ontario, south to Florida and southwest to New Mexico and Arizona,
whence it extends southward onto the Mexican tableland.

It has now become rare or extirpated in the more settled portions of
its range and is rarely found as far north as Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Throughout its wide range, the Wild ‘Turkey presents some variations
in color, the extremes of which are shown by the Eastern Wild Turkey
and the Mexican Wild Turkey. ‘These birds differ chiefly in the color
of the tips of the tail-feathers and upper tail-coverts, which in the eastern
bird are chestnut, and in the Mexican bird, whitish.

Singularly enough, our barnyard ‘Turkey is descended from the
Mexican bird, which the Spaniards found among the Aztecs in a state of
domestication. It was introduced from Mexico into Europe, where it
had become well established in 1530, and from Europe was brought by
the colonists to Eastern North America.

Although the domesticated bird will readily cross with the wild one,
no extensive effort has been made to domesticate the latter and the in-
habitants of our barnyard still show the whitish tipped tail and_tail-
coverts of their Mexican ancestors.

FLORIDA GREAT BLUE HERON

HE Great Blue Heron, often misealled ‘‘ Crane,” is distributed
throughout North America. On the humid northwest coast it
is darker than in Eastern North America; in the arid Great

Basin region it is paler, and the Florida form, known as Ward’s Heron,
is somewhat larger than the others.

Herons are more aquatic than Cranes and feed largely on fish.
In the eastern states they invariably nest in trees, but in the West they
often nest among the reeds like Coots. Young Herons are born in a
more or less naked condition and are reared in the nest; Cranes are
hatched with a downy covering and can run about shortly after birth.
Herons fly with a fold in the neck, but Cranes keep the neck outstretched.

13

THE SNAKE-BIRD OR WATER-TURKEY.

14

Background by Bruce Horsfall.

THE ANHINGA, OR WATER-TURKEY, IN FLORIDA

HE fact that the Anhinga sufficiently resembles both a turkey
and a snake to have received the names of “Water Turkey”
and “Snake-bird”’ is an excellent comment on the peculiarity of

the bird’s appearance and_ habits.

The first-mentioned name finds its origin in the highly developed,
broadly tipped, turkey-like tail. The second relates to the long,
slender, snake-like neck, and when the bird swims with its body sub-
merged and only the long shining neck, head and sharply pointed bill
above the water, the resemblance to a serpent is greatly increased.
(See bird in group.) It may be added that the bird’s book name of
“Anhinga” is of Portuguese origin and means snaky.

The Anhinga is equally at home in the water and high in the air,
combining in an unusual manner the habits of an aquatic and an aérial
all four toes

bird. Its firm, close plumage and broadly webbed feet
being united by membranes as in the Cormorants — admirably fit it for
life in the water, and it not only dives with great ease, but pursues and
‘aptures its prey under water, the tip of the bill being provided with
fine tooth-like serrations to enable it to grasp its slippery victims.

After prolonged submersion the Anhinga’s plumage, in spite of its
texture, becomes more or less saturated with water, hence the bird,
while drying its feathers, stands with wide-open wings. (See bird at
right. )

The Anhinga’s webbed feet make it at home in the water, but it is
the bird’s tail which renders it, for a diving bird, equally at ease in the
air. With spread wings and tail it soars in circles, hawk-like, for long
periods, evidently for the pleasure it finds in this exhilarating form of
exercise.

Anhingas are born naked and are reared in the nest, which is a
remarkably well-made structure. When a few days old, a buff down
begins to appear which soon covers them. Like the young of Pelicans
and Cormorants, they secure their food from the parent’s throat.

The background represents a ‘‘bonnet,’”’ or yellow pond lily, lake
with its surrounding cypresses and palmettoes, 17 miles west Of St
Lucie, Florida.

AY $8

THE SANDHILL CRANE IN FLORIDA.

Birds by Herbert Lang.

rsfall.

ground by Bruce Ho

ackg

©

B

THE SANDHILL CRANE ON THE KISSIMMEE PRAIRIES

N 1632, when Morton wrote of New England birds, “of Cranes
there are a great store — they sometimes eate our corne and doe
pay for their presumption well enough — a goodly bird in a dishe

and no discommodity,” he referred to the species in this group. At that
time it was doubtless common throughout North America, now it nests
in the Atlantic coast States in Florida only, and, in the interior, only in
the upper Mississippi Valley and in the Canadian border states west-
ward to Oregon and northward into Canada.

In Florida the Sandhill Crane is still common on the great Kissimmee
Prairies and their adjoining low, pine-grown lands, where the studies for
the present group were made. Here, in March, it commonly builds its
little island nest in the water-filled depressions thickly grown with a
species of pickerel weed locally known as “bull-tongue.”

Nest-building is preceded by the singular antics of courtship, when
both males and females hop, skip and jump about one another, bowing
low and leaping high, all the time croaking and calling. ‘Their matri-
monial affairs settled, one hears only the loud, but sonorous, trumpeting
of the male, which, when heard near by, is harsh and rasping, but, when
softened by distance, becomes one of the most attractive sounds of a
Florida dawn.

Although superficially resembling Herons, Cranes are more nearly
related to the Rails. Young Cranes, like young Rails, are born thickly
covered with down, and they run shortly after leaving the egg. ‘The
young Heron, on the contrary, is born scantily covered with hair-like
feathers and spends over a month in the nest. Cranes further differ
from Herons by flying with the neck fully distended (see the birds in the
painting) while Herons fly with a fold in the neck which brings the head
nearly back to the shoulders.

Cranes are less aquatic than Herons. One may see them walking
about the pine-woods or over the prairies, dignified, stately figures,
hunting for seeds, roots, grasshoppers, snails or lizards, while near the

water frogs are captured.

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THE BROWN PELICAN ON PELICAN ISLAND, FLORIDA

ROWN Pelicans normally nest in bushes, and when the birds
first came to Pelican Island, Florida, the island was covered
with mangroves, in which the birds placed their nests. Severe

frosts and over-use by the Pelicans have killed all but a few trees.
When these are occupied by from two to five nests each, the remaining
birds build their nests on the ground, most of them resorting to a sand-
bar at the east end of the island, where they are as thickly grouped
as the painting indicates.

The young Pelican (ground nest, front, left, in the group) is born
naked. When about ten days old a downy plumage begins to appear
which soon changes the bird from black to snowy white (ground nest,
front, rear, and center, front). ‘The brown flight-plumage now begins to
grow, showing first in the shoulders and humeri (ground nests, front,
center and right) and at the age of about two months this plumage is
fully developed.

The young are fed on predigested fish regurgitated by the old bird
into the tip of the pouch (ground nest, left, rear). Later the young
birds (sometimes all three at once) eagerly thrust their heads into the
parent’s mouth and get their first fish from the base of its pouch. —Possi-
bly in this habit may be found the origin of the myth in which the parent
Pelican opens her breast to supply nourishment for her offspring. When
the young Pelican secures fish longer than it can swallow, it sits with the
tail projecting from its mouth patiently waiting for the head to digest
(ground nest, center, front).

The inhabitants of Pelican Island have often been wantonly molested
by man, and at times the vandalism of tourists, who killed the birds and
robbed them of their eggs, has threatened the existence of this remarkable
colony. ‘To prevent so unfortunate a catastrophe, President Roosevelt
has set aside Pelican Island as a government reservation, and the National
Association of Audubon Societies employs a warden to guard it during
the nesting season. Only visitors who have secured a permit from this
warden (P. Kroegel, Sebastian, Florida) are allowed to land on_ this
island.

19

THE AMERICAN EGRET IN A SOUTH CAROLINA CYPRESS FOREST.

10}

9

THE AMERICAN EGRET IN A SOUTHERN CAROLINA
CYPRESS FOREST

NYONE who knows how abundant the Snowy “Herons” or
Egrets were in our southern States twenty-five years ago, will
doubtless be surprised to learn that no little difficulty was

experienced in finding a locality where the necessary studies could
be made for an Egret group. So effectively, indeed, have the plume-
hunters done their work that it was feared that this beautiful and fast-
vanishing species could not be included among the Habitat Groups,
when, quite by chance, a colony of Egrets was heard of on a shooting
preserve in South Carolina. It appears that when the land was acquired
it contained a few Egrets, survivors of a once flourishing colony. ‘The
new owners rigidly protected them, and they soon began to increase,
forming, at the end of seven years, a rookery which would have done
credit to the days of Audubon.

The nests were in cypresses at an average height of forty feet, and
the birds were studied and photographed from a moss-draped_ blind
attached to the limb of a tree forty-five feet above the water.

Sketches for the background were also made from the trees in order
to secure the desired effect of height.

The plumes or “‘aigrettes”’ for which this Heron and its near relatives
inhabiting the warmer portions of the world have been slaughtered are
worn by both sexes. ‘They are acquired prior to the nesting season and
constitute the birds’ wedding costume, to be displayed as the pose of the
bird in the group indicates. As the season advances and they become
frayed and dirty, they are shed.

Aigrettes are to be secured, therefore, only during the period of
reproduction, and this fact, added to the Heron’s communal habits,
accounts for the surprising rapidity with which the birds have been
brought to the verge of extinction. Concealed in the rookery, it is a
simple thing to shoot the parents as they return with food for their young;
and in the early days of “pluming,” it was not unusual for a man to kill
several hundred birds at a sitting. It will be observed that the plumes
grow only from between the shoulders, where a circular cut of the knife
“sealps”’ the bird by removing the skin to which the forty or fifty

aigrettes are attached.

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A CACTUS DESERT AND ITS BIRD-LIFE

HE great cactus-covered deserts, so characteristic of the more
arid portions of Mexico, push a well-developed arm northward
into Arizona, forming too marked a feature of North American

scenery to be omitted from any series of representations designed to
include at least the more pronounced types of our landscape.

Since this region has no colonies of birds and no one bird of sufficient
size to be treated alone, it was decided to prepare a group which should
show its common birds as well as its commoner forms of vegetation.

Tueson, in southern Arizona, was selected as a suitable locality for
our studies, throughout which we had the invaluable advice of Dr.
D. T. MacDougal, Director of the Desert Botanical Laboratory of the
Carnegie Institution, which is situated at this point.

At the time (May 9-20, 1906) of our visit the desert vegetation was at
its best, and looking out over the variously colored blossoms it was
difficult to believe that we were not in a land of great fertility.

The birds of this region, like its plants, are of Mexican origin. Along
the “washes,” which after rains in the mountains are streams for a
brief period, mesquites and acacias grow abundantly, and here such
brightly colored birds as Cardinals and Vermilion Flycatchers are found.
Where this irregular but natural type of irrigation is lacking, the vegeta-
tion is chiefly of cactus which, affording but little shelter for birds of
bright colors, is inhabited chiefly by species of neutral-tinted plumage.

Here Mockingbirds and Thrashers (chiefly Toxostoma curvirostre
palmeri), Cactus Wrens, Roadrunners, Gambel’s and Scaled Quail,
Texas Nighthawks, Inca, White-winged, and Mourning Doves, Black-
throated Sparrows, Gilded Flickers and Crested Flycatchers (Myvar-
chus) nested in the giant cacti.

The making of the vegetation for this group called for unlimited
skill and patience on the part of the preparator. Every joint of cactus
shown is a facsimile reproduction of the original. Before making the
plaster molds, every one of the hundreds of spines was carefully re-
moved. After the casts had been taken from the mold (the Opuntia
in wax, the others in plaster) they were colored from field studies of
growing plants, and the original spines were then set in their proper

positions.

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CALIFORNIA CONDOR IN PIRU CANON,

Background by Carlos Hittell.

24

THE CALIFORNIA CONDOR

EWIS and Clarke found the California Condor as far north as
the Columbia River in Oregon, and, at this time, it was dis-
tributed southward through California to northern Lower

California. ‘This was assuredly a surprisingly restricted range for a bird
possessing such unusual powers of flight; but it now occupies an even
smaller area, being found only in the Coast Ranges of southern Cali-
fornia, from Monterey County southward.

The Condor’s rapid decrease is believed to have been occasioned by
its feeding on the poisoned carcasses of cattle exposed by ranchmen as
bait for bears, panthers and wolves. Since these predaceous animals
have now become exterminated or greatly decreased, this unfortunate
habit has been abandoned and the Condor is now holding its own.

The California Condor weighs from 20 to 25 pounds, and while not
as heavy a bird as the Condor of the Andes, slightly exceeds it in stretch
of wing, the average California Condor measuring about nine feet from
tip to tip. When flying, the Condor bears a strong resemblance to the
Turkey Buzzard, but when the two are seen together the Condor’s much
greater size is pronounced, while its white under wing-coverts are con-
spicuous as the bird soars overhead.

The Condor lays its single egg in crevices in the rocks or in caves
without pretense of nest, in February and March, and the researches of
Finley and Bohlman show that the young bird is between four and five
months old before it makes its initial flight.

Studies for the present group were made in Piru Canon, some twenty
miles north of the village of Piru, and fifty miles southeast of Santa
Barbara, where for many years a pair of birds had nested in a cave
which pierced the vertical cation wall 150 feet above the water. From
this cave were taken when young the Condors now living in the
National Zoélogical Park in Washington, D. C.

The visitor is supposed to be in the Condor’s eave, from which he
looks up the canon. The cave was not occupied at the time the studies
were made, a passing hunter having wantonly shot one of the birds.

Condors were also found by the Museum expedition up the Agua
Blanca, a tributary of the Piru, on one occasion seven of the magnifi-

cent birds being in sight at once.

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BRANDT’S CORMORANT AT MONTEREY, CALIFORNIA

ISITORS to Monterey, California, on the Southern Pacifie R. R.,
who have taken what is known as the ‘“‘Seventeen-Mile Drive,”
may recall the rocky islet standing in the Pacific about a quarter

of a mile off the coast near Cypress Point. ‘This islet, and the Cor-
morants which each year nest upon it, are shown in this group.

Brandt’s Cormorant also nests on other islets off our Pacific Coast,
and it is a regular visitor to the rocks off the Cliff House at San Fran-
cisco, where, however, it does not nest.

Both when flying and when resting upon the water the Cormorant
suggests a large duck. ‘The resemblance, however, is superficial, the
Cormorant being related to the Pelicans, Gannets, Anhinga and all other
birds which have the hind toe connected with the front toes by a web.

The Cormorant is an expert diver and catches its food of fish by
pursuing it under water, the hooked bill of the bird doing good service,
while the broadly webbed feet propel it at great speed. It is the skill
of the Cormorants in fishing that has led both the Chinese and Japanese
fisherman to train the birds to act as assistants to them in pursuit of
their calling.

The young Cormorant, in common with other members of its order,
and unlike the downy young of ducks and geese, is born naked and
passes more than a month in the nest. The young secure their food
by thrusting their heads down the parent’s throat. At first sight one
might easily imagine that the old bird was trying to swallow its offspring.

When the young bird is a few days old, a thick black down begins
to appear on it. Shortly after this coat becomes complete, it is suc-
ceeded by the flight plumage. This is dull brownish black, the glossy
plumage of maturity being acquired later. As special adornments of
the breeding season both the male and female Cormorant don certain
spiny, white nuptial feathers on the back or about the head and neck,
while the bare skin of the cheeks and pouch becomes brightly colored.
In Brandt’s Cormorant, as will be observed, the pouch is rich blue and
the birds appear to distend it for the purpose of display.

Cormorants, like their near relatives, are virtually voiceless, a harsh,

rasping call being their only note.

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SUMMER BIRD-LIFE OF AN IRRIGATED PORTION OF
THE SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY.

T Los Banos, in the San Joaquin Valley of California, the waters
of the San Joaquin River are used to flood vast areas to create
grazing land for cattle. The region is naturally dry and arid,

but irrigation soon transforms the desert into a series of creeks, ponds
and marshes. ‘lhe desert plants are replaced by Sagittaria, Ranunculus,
tulés and cat-tails, and the desert birds give way to a remarkable assem-
blage of water birds, whose local distribution is governed by the presence
or absence of water.

Driving along a levee, which extends as far as the eye can reach,
the old and the new life is found to be separated only by the width of the
dike. On the left is a parched and sterile plain with Horned Larks,
Burrowing Owls, Jack-rabbits, Coyotes, Rattlesnakes and other char-
acteristic desert forms; while on the right is water and fertility, with
Ducks, Herons, Ibises, Coots, Stilts, Avocets and other aquatic species
in countless numbers.

To the east the view stretches across the desert toward the distant
Sierras, where on clear days may be seen the snow fields, which, eighty
miles away, supply the water at one’s feet. To the west (the view
represented in the group) one looks over green marshes and shining
ponds fairly twinkling with flitting wings, to yellow fields leading up
through molded brown foot hills to the crests of the Coast Range.

The group contains only the commoner birds of the region, Black-
necked Stilts, Avocets, Killdeer, Black and Forster’s ‘Terns, Black-
crowned Night Herons, White-faced Glossy Ibises, Coots, Mallards,
Pintails, Cinnamon ‘Teals, Ruddy and Fulvous ‘Tree Ducks.

While it is true one would not find all these species in a space eight
by twenty feet, one could frequently see all or most of them in a single
glance, and the impression the group seeks to convey is therefore within
the truth.

The sudden changes occasioned by the irregularity of the water
supply are often disastrous to the birds nesting here. ‘The homes of
birds which begin to nest before the water has reached its height are
sometimes flooded, while the withdrawal of the water deprives the birds
of its protection and makes their nests and eggs accessible to marauding
animals.

29

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“SVWVHVE SHL NI ANOIOSD OONINVI4 V 0g

A FLAMINGO COLONY IN THE BAHAMAS

EFORE the studies for this group were made, very little was
known about the nesting-habits of Flamingos. For this reason,
and because of the belief that a reproduction of a Flamingo

city (beyond question the most remarkable sight in the world of birds)
would possess exceptional interest, an expedition was despatched to the
Bahamas in 1902, to find Flamingos on their nesting grounds. It was
unsuccessful; but in 1904, the search was resumed and on this occasion
the birds were discovered, and from an artificial blind, concealed in
the very heart of their rookery, containing 2000 birds, a series of
unique photographs and observations was made.

The birds begin to lay their eggs early in May. ‘Their nests are
constructed by scooping up mud with the bill and patting it down with
bill and feet. The nests are raised to a height of from eight to fourteen
inches to protect their contents from a subsequent rise in the water.

Both sexes incubate; one by day the other by night. ‘he young
are born covered with down, like young ducks. ‘Vhey remain in the nest
three or four days and during this period are fed by the parents on
predigested juices of a mollusk of the genus Cerithium. (See standing
bird at the left and also the sitting bird at the right, which is brooding
and is about to feed.) They also eat the shell of the egg from which
they have so recently emerged.

The singular shape of the bill of the adult Flamingo is related to the
manner in which it secures the small spiral Cerithium shells which, in the
Bahamas, appear to constitute its only food. ‘To obtain them, the bill
is pressed into the soft mud until its point turns upward. ‘The lower
mandible moves rapidly, forcing out the mud and water through the
channels along the sides of the bill and leaving the shells.

It will be noted that the bill of the young Flamingo is essentially
straight, but when about two weeks old the curve becomes evident and
the young bird begins to feed as does its parent.

When a month old, a second downy plumage is acquired (see bird at
right), and at the age of two months, this is replaced by a dress of brown-
ish feathers (see bird at the left). In October or November this is
probably followed by the pink plumage of maturity, since no brown
birds are seen in the spring.

31

a,

BOOBIES AND MAN-O’-WAR BIRDS ON CAY VERDE.

32

Birds by Herbert Lang.

Background by Bruce Horsfall.

THE BOOBY AND THE MAN-O”-WAR BIRD IN THE
BAHAMAS

AY VERDE is a coral islet, some forty acres in area, situated
about two hundred and thirty miles southeast of Nassau in the
Bahamas. Like all reef keys, it is at the junction of a bank

with the ocean, and the background clearly shows how sharply the dark
blue water, indicating the great depths of the sea, is separated from the
lighter water over the shallow banks.

Cay Verde was reached on the “ Physalia,” a small yacht which the
Marine Biological Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution placed at the
disposal of the Museum for this occasion. ‘The voyage was begun at
Miami, Florida, on March 28, 1907, but unfavorable weather, including
a severe storm, in which the “ Physalia” narrowly escaped being wrecked,
delayed the arrival at Cay Verde until April 8. The Cay has no fresh
water and its only vertebrates are birds, one species of snake and two of
lizards.

The Boobies, of which there were about 1500 pairs, nested only
on the ground, making little or no nest. ‘They were so tame that one
could walk about among the sitting or brooding birds without causing
them to leave their eggs or young. As a rule Boobies lay two eggs;
but the second is apparently not laid for about a week after the first,
and as a rule only one hatches.

The two or three hundred Man-o’-War Birds which lived on Cay
Verde placed their nests in the dense growth of “sea-grape”’ and cactus
which covered a portion of the Cay. They lay but one egg. The
young acquire a covering of whitish down when a few days old, and this
is quickly followed by a surprising development of the feathers of the
back, which it will be observed more than cover the back before the
corresponding feathers appear in the young Booby.

The male Man-o’-War Bird has the remarkable habit of inflating its
red gular or throat-pouch until it resembles a toy balloon. The birds
sit on their nests or even fly about displaying this surprising appendage.

With a wing expanse of between seven and eight feet and a body
no larger than that of a hen, the Man-o’-War Bird is one of the most
powerful and graceful of flyers. It feeds largely on flying-fish, which
it catches in the air.

33

AMERICAN EGRETS IN CUTHBERT ROOKERY.

Study for the group from Nature.
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CUTHBERT ROOKERY ‘GROUP.

L. A. Fuertes making sketches for the background.

34

A FLORIDA ROOKERY

66 OOKERIES” are one of the characteristic features of the bird-
life of Florida. ‘The term is generaily applied there to all
gatherings of roosting or nesting birds, whether Pelicans,

Cormorants or [bises, but, because of their commercial importance, one

more frequently hears of Heron rookeries. Before the demand for their

plumage had brought the aigrette-bearing Herons and Roseate Spoonbill
to the verge of extermination, a Fiorida rookery was one of the most
remarkable sights in the bird-life of our country.

One may still find colonies of Ibises, Cormorants, Pelicans and plume-
less Herons, but of those great gatherings of birds which were so abun-
dant in the state twenty-five years ago, Cuthbert Rookery appears to be
the only one remaining. Here aione will one find the birds just named
and with them American and Snowy Egrets and Roseate Spoonbills.
It seemed therefore especialiy desirable to make studies there on which
to base a representation of this almost vanished phase of our bird-tife.

As may be imagined, Cuthbert Rookery has continued to exist only
because of its remoteness. It is situated in the heart of the great man-
grove swamp which borders the Evergiades at the extreme southern part
of the state. So shallow is the water off this part of the Florida coast
that the sharpie bearing the Museum expedition, although it drew only
two and a half feet, could not approach nearer the shore than seven miles,
and five hours were required to reach land by pushing and poling in
small boats. In four hours more, following narrow passages through
the dense mangroves, Cuthbert Lake was reached. ‘The Rookery is on
a small islet, about a mile from the entrance to the lake. At this time
(March 29, 1908) it was estimated to contain about 35 Roseate Spoon-
bills, 15 Snowy Egrets, 850 American Egrets, 50 Little Blue Herons, 2000
Louisiana Herons, several hundred Ibises and a few Cormorants and
Water Turkeys. Only the Spoonbills, Herons and Egrets were nesting.

The group is designed to show a portion of the rookery with the birds
nesting and roosting in the mangroves, while the background portrays

the whole islet at evening when the birds are returning.

A GOLDEN EAGLE’S NEST IN BATES'S HOLE, WYOMING.

Photograph from nature of the scene reproduced in the group.

36

THE GOLDEN EAGLE IN WYOMING

HE Golden Eagle ranges throughout the mountainous parts of
both the Old and the New World. In North America it is
now very rare east of the Rocky Mountains, but from the

Rockies west to the Pacific, and north to Alaska, it is not uncommon.
In the mountains, the bird nests in cliffs, but in California it often builds
in trees, white oaks being frequently chosen.

Although the Golden Eagie is powerful enough to prove a dangerous
antagonist, it never attacks man, in spite of sensational stories to the con-
trary. Even when its nest is approached, the bird makes no attempt to
protect its young, but either disappears entirely, or, calling, circles high
in the air.

Eagles, like most raptorial birds, nest early in the year. ‘They
usually lay but two eggs, which hatch after thirty-five days’ incubation.
The young remain in the nest about two months. ‘The natural food of
the Golden Eagie in the west consists chiefly of small mammals of various
kinds, such as prairie dogs, rabbits, squirrels, spermophiles and rats,
together with ducks, geese and grouse. Occasionally it takes a young
deer or antelope. On the whole, however, under natural conditions,
the Golden Eagle is a beneficial bird because of the large number of
rodents it destroys. But where sheep have been introduced, the Golden
Eagle may become more or less injurious through its acquired habit of
preying on lambs.

Four species of Eagles have been recorded from America north of
Mexico. Of these the Gray Sea Eagle, an Old World species, is found
in this hemisphere only in Alaska; and the Harpy Eagle, a tropical
species, has been recorded but once, from ‘Texas. ‘This leaves virtually
only two North American species, the Golden and the Bald Eagle.
When the Bald Eagle is mature, with a white head and tail, the two
species are very unlike in color, but before the Bald Eagle acquires its
distinctive marks, it bears a general resemblance to the Golden Eagle.
The latter, however, has the legs feathered to the toes, while in the
former the lower part of the legs (tarsi) is bare.

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‘ANO1O9D GUuId 3XV1 HLVAVIy ¥ 20

KLAMATH LAKE BIRD-LIFE

LAMATH LAKE is situated in northeastern California on the
Oregon boundary line. Its shallow water permits a great
growth of tulés, or rushes, which almost completely fringe the

shore, in places expanding to a width of several miles. ‘They also form
islands varying in size from a few square yards to many acres in extent.
It is on these islands that the bird colonies are established. ‘There is no
soil or beach, and all the birds nest on the beds of matted tulés, usually
at the border of the island. ‘Che White Pelicans, therefore, find here no
pebbles with which to construct their usual mound-like nests; the Cas-
pian ‘Terns do without sand, and the Cormorants without rocks. Far
more important than these is the protection which ground-nesting com-
munal birds require, and this the islands supply.

Fifteen colonies of White Pelicans were counted in this locality
between June 30 and July 7, 1906, and doubtless there were others,
since only a part of the bird-inhabited region was examined. ‘There
were also great numbers of California and Ring-billed Gulls, Caspian
Terns, and Farallone Cormorants, while Great Blue Herons, in default
of trees, built platform nests of tulés among the growing tulés. White
Pelicans feed while swimming, and were here devouring diseased fish
which were floating in the water in large numbers, while Brown Pelicans
capture their prey by diving; but the young of both species make their
first attempts at fishing down the parental pouch, as a comparison of
this group with the one of the Brown Pelican on the opposite side of the
hall will show. ‘The White Pelican weighs sixteen pounds, twice as
much as the Brown Pelican. Its wing expanse is between eight and
nine feet, and when in the air, it is one of the most impressive of birds.

Only one colony of the Caspian ‘Tern, the largest, as it is one of the
rarest members of its family, was observed. Unfortunately, this interest-
ing bird community must give way to the demands of civilization, for a
Government Reclamation project plans the draining of the lake and
within a few years alfalfa will doubtless flourish where now tulés are
growing.

The group represents the border of a tulé island, while the back-
ground shows other bird-inhabited islets, the surrounding treeless hills,
and Mt. Shasta in the distance.

39

ARCTIC-ALPINE BIRD-LIFE IN THE CANADIAN ROCKIES.

40

Background by Carl Rungins from a sketch by L. A. Fuertes,

ARCTIC-ALPINE BIRD-LIFE OF THE ROCKY
MOUNTAINS

HERE the summits of the Rocky Mountains, Sierras and Cas-
cade Range reach above timber line to the limits of perpetual
snow, the boreal nature of the climate produces conditions

favorable for the existence of many plants and animals which in the
Arctic Regions are found at sea-level. ‘The altitude at which these
conditions appear increases as the latitude decreases. For example,
in Colorado, at latitude 40°, timber line is at 11,000 feet altitude, while
in Alberta, Canada, at latitude 50°, timber line is at about 7,500 feet.

Where the area of sufficient altitude is practically continuous the
presence of arctic forms of life may be due to extension of range south-
ward; but where it is discontinuous, a boreal area may be separated
from a similar region to the north by intervening lower ground, when
the occurrence of boreal forms may be attributed to the influence of the
Glacial Period. Forced southward during the Ice Age, they were left
stranded on these high Arctic-Alpine islands as the ice receded.

The characteristic Arctic-Alpine birds of our western mountains are
the White-tailed Ptarmigan; the Rosy Snow Finch (Leucosticte) and the
Pipit. In the Rockies they are found as far south as Colorado or New
Mexico. ‘The Pipit migrates southward in winter, but the Ptarmigan
and Snow Finch are practically permanent residents in winter descend-
ing only slightly below timber line. At this season, as is well known, the
Ptarmigan acquires a pure white plumage. (For a seasonal group of
Ptarmigan and an explanation of their plumage changes, see the Main
Bird Hall).

The studies for this group were made in the Canadian Rockies
about fifteen miles north of Laggan at the Ptarmigan Lakes. The
party outfitted at Lake Louise, and ascended the mountains to the
northward, from which one obtains a beautiful and impressive group of
mountains in the Canadian Rockies. At the left, beyond Mt. Redoubt,
in the foreground, lie the peaks of Moraine Lake; in the center is Mount
‘Temple and to the right Hungabee, Lefroy and Victoria.

At this season (July 15, 1907) the alpine spring was at its height.
The lakes were opening; great white anemones were blooming at the
border of the snow fields; the heather was white with little bellike
flowers, and the beds of fluted Dryas leaves were starred with blossoms.

41

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‘ONINOAM NI 3SNOY¥D 39vS oF

THE SAGE GROUSE IN WYOMING

EXT to the Wild Turkey the Sage Grouse is the largest of North
American game birds. Its range is restricted to the high,
sage-brush (Artemisia tridentata) plains of the West, from

western Nebraska and western Dakota north to, and in places, slightly
beyond the Canadian boundary, west to eastern Oregon and north-
eastern California, east of the Sierras, and south through Utah and
Nevada.

Within these limits the Sage Grouse is resident, but it migrates
locally at the approach of winter from higher to lower altitudes, as the
snows deprive it of its food. ‘This consists largely of the leaves of the
sage-brush, but in summer the leaves and seeds of other plants are
eaten. When feeding on sage-brush leaves, the flesh of the old birds is
flavored by the nature of their food, but the birds of the year are very
palatable.

The Sage Grouse begins to mate very early in the spring, or in some
localities as soon as late February, and at this season the males indulge
in the most remarkable performances; inflating the yellow sacs at either
side of the neck, spreading the tail, dropping the wings and strutting
like a turkey cock.

At times the bird varies this performance by plowing its breast
along the ground, as it utters a ‘‘variety of chuckling, cackling or rum-

’

bling sounds.” ‘This habit is represented by one of the birds in the
group, and is the cause of the abraded condition of the breast feathers
of the cock Grouse.

The nest is a slight affair, usually placed beneath a sage-brush where
it is often found by a marauding coyote. The hens hatch the eggs and
raise the young unaided by the male, which, when its mate begins to sit,
joins with others of its sex to form flocks composed only of males.

When the young are grown the sexes mingle in great bands which
formeriy contained thousands of birds. The birds drink night and
morning at some reguiarly frequented spring, about which they some-
times gather so thickly that they must await their turn to reach the water.

The studies for this group were made at Medicine Bow, Wyoming,
on the line of the Union Pacific Railway. ‘The mountain to the right
is Elk Mountain; those in the distance belong to the Snowy Range of
Colorado.

‘Mojsued “) “HE Aq spurge ‘]peystozy oonag £q punoisyorg
‘NSH JIdIVYd SHL 4O ONIMVI-3AO7 SHI

FP

THE PRAIRIE HEN IN NEBRASKA

N frosty spring mornings, as the sun rises over the prairies, one
may at times hear a singular, resonant, booming note, boom-
ah-b-o-o-m, boom-ah-b-o-o-m. It is the love-song of the Prairie

Hen. He may be near at hand or possibly two miles away, so far does
this sound, unobstructed by tree or hill, carry in the clear air. It is well
worth following, however, for we may find the maker of it, with perhaps
ten to fifty of his kind, engaged in a most remarkable performance.

During the mating season, from March until early in May, the
Prairie Hens of a certain district or area gather before daybreak to take
part in these courtship demonstrations. ‘The feather-tufts on either
side of the neck are erected like horns, the tail raised and spread, the
wings drooped, when the bird first rushes forward a few steps, pauses,
inflates its orange-like air-sacks, and, with a violent, jerking, muscular
effort, produces the startling boom, which we may have heard when two
miles distant.

At other times, with a low cackie, he springs suddenly into the air,
as though quite unable to control himself, and, finally, he comes within
striking distance of a rival who has been giving a similar exhibition.
Then, with much clashing of wings, a fight ensues which often strews
the nearby grass with feathers.

These tournaments of display and combat are doubtless designed to
arouse the attention of the females, but they also occur when only
males are present. Within an hour or two after sunrise, the time
varying with the ardor of the birds, the competition is over for the day
and the rivals feed peacefully together, until they enter the lists the
following morning.

Market hunting has greatly decreased the numbers of Prairie Hens,
but on the United States Government Forest Reservation, in the sparsely
inhabited sand hills of western Nebraska, on the line of the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincey R. R., where the studies for this group were
made, they are still common.

The eastern Prairie Chicken, or Heath Hen, was once locally com-
mon from New Jersey to Massachusetts, but it is now found only on
Martha’s Vineyard.

GREBES

(UPPER FIGURE) AND WILD GOOSE

(LOWER FIGURE)

SASKATCHEWAN.

Backgrounds by Hobart Nichols.

46

ON

CRANE LAKE,

Birds by Herbert Lang.

THE WILD GOOSE AND GREBE GROUPS

WEN'TY years ago the lakes and sloughs of our more northern
plains and prairies were the breeding homes of vast numbers
of wild-fowl of many species, but the demands of agriculture

have forced the birds to find new haunts north of the Canadian boundary.
There, too, if proper protection is not accorded them, they will again be
dispossessed by the advance of civilization.

Crane Lake, Saskatchewan, near the line of the Canadian Pacific,
where the studies for both the Goose and Grebe groups were made, is
typical of many similar resorts of wild-fowl in western Canada. In
the vicinity of and about the border of sloughs and lakes there nest
Willets, Marbled Godwits, Long-billed Curlew, Killdeer, Avocets,
Wilson’s Phalaropes, Spoonbill Ducks, Gadwails, Mallards, Pintails
and Blue-winged ‘Teal; while among the reeds and tulés Western and
Eared Grebes, Franklin’s Gulls, Black Terns, Redhead and Canvas-
back Ducks, Ruddy Ducks and Coots build their homes. ‘The Geese
resort to islands where also Ring-billed and California Gulls, Common
Terns and Pelicans are found. Favorable islands are also selected by
Ducks, and on the island shown at the right in the background of the
Grebe Group, Messrs. Bent and Job estimated that on June 17, 1905,
“at least 150 pairs of Ducks were breeding or preparing to breed.”

The Wild Geese arrive from the south before the ice leaves the lakes
and lay their eggs early in May. ‘The young birds in the group were
taken June 15, 1907, when they were about two weeks old. Grebes’
nests are mere platforms of water-soaked vegetation. ‘These eminently
aquatic birds walk with difficulty and their homes must therefore be
near the water. They leave the nest at the slightest alarm, but usually
first cover their eggs with a part of the nesting material. One of the
birds is shown in this act.

The young swim soon after birth and for a time are carried on the
back of the parent.

The background in both groups shows the rolling, treeless plains
with, in the Goose Group, a line of dune-like sandhills, where, among the
low bushes, Sharp-tail Grouse are found.

CAMP ON CAY VERDE, BAHAMAS.

48

No.
No.

No.

No.

. 12— THE COLLECTION OF FOSSIL VERTEBRATES. By W. D. Mart-

THEW, Ph. D., Associate Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology. Octo-
ber, 1903. Price, 10 cents.

. 13.— A GENERAL GUIDE TO THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL

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. 14— BIRDS’ NESTS AND EGGS. By Frank M. CuHapman. Associate

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15.— PRIMITIVE ART. July, 1904. Price, 15 cents.

16.— THE INSECT-GALLS OF THE VICINITY OF NEW YORK CITY.
By WiLui1AM BEUTENMULLER, Curator of Entomology. October, 1904.
Price, 15 cents.

(Reprinted from The American Museum Journal.)

. 17— THE FOSSIL CARNIVORES, MARSUPIALS AND SMALL MAM-

MALS IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY.
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. 18— THE MOUNTED SKELETON OF BRONTOSAURUS. By W. D.

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. 19— THE REPTILES OF THE VICINITY OF NEW YORK CITY. By

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. 20— THE BATRACHIANS OF THE VICINITY OF NEW YORK CITY.

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. 21— THE DEVELOPMENT OF A MOLLUSK. By B. E. Dautcren,

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. 22.— THE ’*BIRDS OF THE VICINITY OF NEW YORK CITY. By Franx

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. 23.— THE SPONGE ALCOVE. By Roy W. Miner, Assistant Curator of

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(Published as a separate series.)

. 24.— PERUVIAN MUMMIES. By Cuarues W. Mrap, Department of Eth-

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. 25.— PIONEERS OF AMERICAN SCIENCE. Memorials of the naturalists

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. 26— THE METEORITES IN THE FOYER OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM

OF NATURAL HISTORY. By Epmunp Otis Hovey, Ph.D.,
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28.— THE HABITAT GROUPS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. By
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The American [luseum Journal

Epmunp Otis Hovey, Editor.

FRANK M. CHAPMAN,
Louis P. GRATACAP, Advisory Board.
WitiiamM K. Grecory,

The JouRNAL is sent free to all Members of the Museum.

Guide Leaflets Published by the
AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY
For Sale at the Museum.

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No. 1.— THE BIRD ROCK GROUP. By F. M. Cuapman, Associate Curator
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(Continued on page 3 of cover.)

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