THE HABITAT GROUPS OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS 



IN THE 

 AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 



By Frank M. Chapman 



Curator of Ornithology 

 Introduction 



THE groups of l)ir(ls contained in this hall are designed to illustrate 

 not only the habits but also the haunts or "habitats" of the 

 species shown. Each group usually includes the nest, eggs and 

 young, besides the adult bird or birds, with a reproduction of from 60 to 

 160 square feet of the nest's immediate surroundings. To this accurate 

 and realistic representation of the hoine of the species is atlded a 

 painting from nature of its habitat, the real foreground being con- 

 nected with the painted background in such a manner that one often 

 does not at first see where the former ends and the latter begins. The 

 whole, therefore, gives an adequate conception of the nature of the 

 country the birds inhabit and the conditions under which they live. 



It should be clearly understood that these backgrounds are not more 

 or less fanciful sketches of the haunts of the l)irds associated with them, 

 but they are careful studies from nature of definite localities, and there- 

 fore possess a geographical as well as an ornithological value. When 

 selecting subjects for treatment, an effort was made to include the birds 

 of widely diversified types of country, in order that the series, as a whole, 

 should portray not only the habitats of certain American birds, but 

 America as well. From the Bahamas to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, localities are represented which show at 

 least the more characteristic phases of our landscape, and it is hoped 

 that a tour through this hall of Habitat Groups will not only yield in- 

 formation in regard to North x\merican birds, but also give one some 

 conception of the appearance of the land in which they live. 



