The Museum as it stands To-day 103 



The Ornithological Department 



THIS department, with its mounted birds, its habitat groups, 

 its collection of skins, and its fine collection of eggs, is perhaps 

 the most complete department of the Museum. 



Some 350 species mounted and on exhibit in the bird room form 

 a collection second to none in its arrangement, display, complete- 

 ness, and excellent taxidermy. Among these are all the breeding 

 birds of New England and most of the migrants and accidental 

 visitors, some of them unique, such as the Whooping Crane, Eskimo 

 Curlew, Passenger Pigeon, Barnacle Goose, Labrador Duck, Moun- 

 tain Plover, Black-capped Petrel and Pink-footed Goose. Also ex- 

 hibited are the only New England records of Lark Bunting, Black- 

 throated Gray Warbler, Audubon Warbler, and Varied Thrush. 

 In most cases several individuals of each species are on exhibit. This 

 offers opportunity for quick comparison of plumages which vary 

 with the sex, age, and color-phase of the bird. 



Over seventy of the commoner birds of the New England region 

 are demonstrated in habitat groups. About half of these are in wall 

 cases, artificially illuminated, and each accompanied by a label giv- 

 ing necessary data relative to the bird exhibited. These comprise 

 the birds which one meets in almost any ramble through the coun- 

 try, such as Brown Thrasher, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Barn Swal- 

 low, Scarlet Tanager, Kingfisher, House Wren, and Red-breasted 

 Nuthatch. A habitat group of winter birds of the Massachusetts 

 coast illustrates such visitors as Murre, Uovekie, Razor-billed Auk, 

 and Purple Sandpiper. Two other habitat groups, representing the 

 birds on fall migration through the marshes and beaches of Ipswich, 

 Massachusetts, show birds such as Semipalmated Plover, Yellow- 



