A Birds Eye View . , , 



BIRDS OF THE WORLD -(PART) - SHOREBIRDS. GULLS AUKS AND DODOS 



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of the 



MUSEUM'S NEWEST EXHIBIT 



By EMMET R. BLAKE, Curator of Birds 



A new bird exhibit recently installed 

 in Hall 21 treats in synoptic form all 

 16 families of the avian order Charadrii- 

 formes, a cosmopolitan group containing 

 some 300 species. Most of these are 

 shorebirds — plovers, sandpipers, and 

 similar families of long-legged waders — 

 but the order also includes many other 

 birds of distinctive appearance and un- 

 usual habits, such as skimmers, gulls and 

 terns, sheathbills, auks, and others. 



About fifty species, representing five 

 of the families featured in the new ex- 

 hibit, have been reported from the Chi- 

 cago region. The majority of these pause 

 in the area only briefly in spring and fall 

 while traveling between their summer 

 and winter homes. Most shorebirds have 



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remarkable powers of flight and some 

 regularly migrate thousands of miles. 

 Typical of many is the eastern golden 

 plover, which nests in Arctic Canada 

 and spends the winter in southern South 

 America. Its migratory route is most 

 unusual : the autumn flight is mainly 

 over the Atlantic ocean, but the return 

 trip is by way of Central America and 

 the Mississippi Valley. The migratory 

 pattern of a western variety of golden 

 plover is equally noteworthy : after 

 breeding in western Alaska, it flies 2000 

 miles or more across the open Pacific to 

 winter in Hawaii, southern Asia, or even 

 Australia. 



Diversity of habits is a prominent at- 

 tribute of the shorebird assemblage. 



Phalaropes are unusual in that the fe- 

 male is brightly colored and courts the 

 male, who builds the nest and raises the 

 young. Among painted-snipe, also, the 

 female is dominant during courtship; 

 she even has several extra loops in her 

 windpipe which produce deep, booming 

 sounds. The crab-plover, unlike any of 

 its relatives, nests in a burrow deep within 

 the sand and lays unmarked white eggs. 

 Avocets, surely the most graceful of all 

 shorebirds, feed by immersing their thin, 

 recurved bills in the water, and then 

 walk about sweeping the bill from side 

 to side. The thick-knees are nocturnal 

 and prefer grassy or arid regions to the 

 water-side habitats favored by most 

 shorebirds. 



