AMERICAN MUSEUM GUIDE LEAFLETS 



Some subjects were in nearby places and were easily visited; others 

 were in remote regions and were reached with more or less difficulty.^ 

 It is estimated that about 65,000 miles have been traveled to secure the 

 material on which the groups are based. 



Each group in the series, beginning with Bird Rock in the (ndf of 

 St. Ivawrence, in 189S, is the result of a special Museum expedition in 

 charge of the Curator of Ornithology usually accompanied ])y a [)repara- 

 tor, and one of the artists whose names appear in connection with the 

 backgrounds they have painted. 



After arriving, before securing specimens, the birds were first studied 

 and photographed at short range from an especially constructed um- 

 brella-blind. This was sometimes placed in the very heart of the bird 

 community, as, for instance, with the Flamingos and Pelicans; or even 

 in the tree-tops as with the Egrets. At the same time the artist made 

 studies on which to base the final background, as well as detailed color 

 sketches of leaf and blossom, while the preparator collected the needed 

 accessories, making casts or preserving vegetation in various solutions 

 as occasion retpiired. When the field-work was concluded, the crates 

 of branches, carefully packed boxes of foliage, nests, birds and photo- 

 graphic plates, sacks of earth and other material, according to the nature 

 of the subject, were shipped to the Museum, subsequently to be prepared 

 in the laboratories. 



The vegetation, for which Mr. J. D. Figgins, Chief of the Museum's 

 Department of Preparation is responsible, has been reproduced in wax 

 either from plaster casts of the original, or by careful duplication of the 

 original itself. The color has been applied with an air-brush or atomizer, 

 l)y which the most delicate tints and textures are faithfully rendered. 



Each group has tlemanded its own special treatment, and, in the 

 construction of the series, the many novel problems encountered have 

 resulted in the development of original methods. This is particularly 

 true of the manner of installation and illumination of the groups at the 

 sides of the hall. Here, it will be observed, the background is curved, 

 with the front (opening so reduced in size that at tlie propei- distance, or 



'The narrative of these expeditions is contained in "Camps and Cruises of an 

 Ornithologist " by Frank M. Chapman. Chapters of this book have been bound 

 separately and placed with the groups to which they relate. 



