TWO NEW BIRD GROUPS 105 
cliffs and, from the height, surrounded by all the details of the life there, 
were looking up the river and to the opposite shore. ‘The picture spread 
out before us has atmosphere, an achievement due both to the work on 
the painted background and to the conception carried out in the fore- 
ground. A haze rests over the green wooded hills that slope down to 
the Potomac and are imperfectly reflected in its muddy, slow-moving 
water. Close at hand, the gray lichen-spotted rocks that make up the 
cliffs of the near shore are here and there covered with poison ivy and 
Virginia creeper. Fern and hepatica, growing among dead leaves fallen 
from an overhanging chestnut oak, fiil the crannies of the rocks. 
In one of the larger of the crevices of these rocks two white down- 
covered birds stretch up their heads and spread their wings in supplica- 
tion to a parent bird that has just alighted on a rock above them. We 
realize in looking at these young birds the wisdom of the instinct which 
makes them “‘lie low” in the nest, for we feel, almost with a sense of 
dizziness, so realistic is the group, how precipitous are the walls that 
extend from the nest to the water far below. The Turkey Buzzard has 
a longer period of family life than many birds. ‘The time of incubation 
for the two heavily-spotted eggs is about thirty days, and the young 
must know for fully two months a world limited to the rock and dead 
leaves of the niche in which they first opened their eyes, although as their 
vision is perfected, they see the dome of the sky and the wooded heights 
of the river. 
The Turkey Buzzard is an abundant and well-known bird at the South, 
where it does good service as a scavenger and is protected both by law and 
public sentiment. ‘The studies for the group were made by Mr. Frank 
M. Chapman and Mr. J. D. Figgins in May, 1909, at Plummer’s Island. 
The background was painted by Mr. Hobart Nichols from his own 
sketches, made on the ground. Piummer’s Island is locally interesting 
as the home of the Washington Field Naturalists’ Club, to which organi- 
zation the Museum is indebted for many courtesies extended. 
For these two groups the Museum expresses gratitude to the same 
Members whose generous contributions have made possible the whole 
series: Mr. John L. Cadwalader, 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. 
