The taxidermy and accessories of the earlier bird groups were the work of Messrs. 

 Julius Friesser, Ashley Hine, and I.eon L. Pray; of the more recent groups, of Messrs. 

 John La Bonte, Carl Cotton, Frank H. Letl, John W. Moyer, Arthur G. Rueckert, 

 and Leon L. Walters. The backgrounds of the earlier groups were painted by Mr. 

 Charles A. Corwin and Mr. Pray. Mr. Rueckert painted the more recent ones, and 

 the latest was done by Mr. Douglas E. Tibbitts. 



The specimens and accessory materials for the 32 habitat groups now in Hall 20 

 were either collected by Museum expeditions or obtained through the generosity of 

 various friends of the Museum. Most of the North American exhibits and several from 

 tropical America were presented by Mr. Stanley Field, while others were a gift of 

 Colonel A. A. Sprague; the actual collecting was done by members of the Staff. The 

 green peafowl exhibit was provided by the late Dr. Wilfred Osgood, formerly Chief 

 Curator of Zoology, who conducted a personally financed expedition to French Indo- 

 China for that purpose. 



Many of the exotic exhibits resulted from expeditions sponsored by patrons of 

 the Museum. One expedition, conducted by Mr. Leon Mandel, collected the three 

 habitat groups of Guatemala. Mr. Sewell Avery sponsored an expedition to Brazil to 

 procure material for the exhibit of rheas. Two of the four .African groups were ob- 

 tained by Mrs. Oscar Strauss of New York City, during the course of her expedition to 

 West Africa. The third African exhibit, that of the Kalahari Desert, was collected and 

 presented by Mr. Arthur S. Vernay, also of New York, and the fourth, by Mr. and 

 Mrs. Walther Buchen, of Winnetka, Illinois. 



Several of the groups were presented by scientific or ci\'ic societies. The emperor 

 penguins were a gift of the Chicago Zoological Society. These interesting birds, cap- 

 tured alive by the Byrd Antarctic Expedition of 1935, were exhibited by the Society at 

 Brookfield Zoo some time before their death. Of special note, also, is the white stork 

 exhibit, a gift of the Polish American Chamber of Commerce of Warsaw, Poland. 



[4] 



