282 Bird -Lore 



In 1898 therefore he went with Abbott H. Thayer, under whom he was 

 studying, Gerald Thayer and Charles R. Knight, to Florida. The following 

 year, as a member of the Harriman Expedition to Bering Sea, he had excep- 

 tional opportunities to meet in life many boreal birds which had been studied 

 by few, if any, bird artists. The reports of this expedition contain some of the 

 studies made on this trip. In 1901 he accompanied a party of the Biological 

 Survey into western Texas. In 1903 he studied in California and Nevada; in 

 1904 in Jamaica; and in 1909 in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. 



In 1902, 1907, 1908-11 and 1913, Fuertes acted as artist to the American 

 Museum's expeditions, which during these years made field studies and gath- 

 ered material for habitat groups in the Museum from the Bahamas, Florida, 

 Saskatchewan and Alberta, Yucatan, Mexico and Colombia. 



On these expeditions he has collected about thirty-five hundred specimens, 

 which are beautifully prepared and fully labeled with data of special value to 

 the artist, when necessary. These data are in the shape of color sketches of bill, 

 feet, eyes, or other unfeathered areas, the colors of which disappear after death. 

 Such studies can be obtained only from the living or freshly captured bird, and 

 Fuertes' collection of them is unique. 



As the artist of American Museum expeditions, Fuertes has not only made 

 sketches of the birds secured, but oil studies of the landscape selected as the 

 panoramic background for the habitat group in which the birds were later to 

 appear. In each instance these are accompanied by detailed color sketches of 

 leaves and blossoms for the guidance of the preparator of the vegetation modeled 

 for the group. Where birds appear in the background of the completed group, 

 they are painted there by Fuertes himself; and the landscapist who realizes 

 his limitations gladly avails himself of this expert cooperation. Thus we have 

 in these groups (notably the Famingo group) paintings by this artist which to 

 bird-lovers of later generations will have all the interest a panoramic painting 

 by Audubon of, for example, a flight of Wild Pigeons would have for us today. 



Because of the accuracy of his work, Fuertes is ever in demand as the illus- 

 trator of technical and popular books and articles on ornithology. His con- 

 tributions to pubHcations of this nature amount to thousands of drawings; 

 many of them have been adequately produced in color and, through their 

 wide circulation, they have exercised an educational influence of the highest 

 importance. Such for example are the illustrations in Eaton's great work on 

 the Birds of New York, published by the State, those in the National Geographic 

 Magazine, and the series appearing in Bird-Lore. 



In all of these illustrations everything is made subservient to the bird itself, 

 which usually claims as large a share of the picture as it does of Fuertes' atten- 

 tion. But in a series of twenty-four large panels in oils, done for the library 

 of Mr. Frederick F. Brewster of New Haven, the birds, chiefly water-fowl and 

 shore birds, take their proper place in a series of strongly handled landscapes 

 which reveal Fuertes' art in a new aspect. With no sacrifice of his skill and 



