Vol io^5 XH ] Notes and News. I07 



Two bird groups which are nearing completion in the American Mu- 

 seum of Natural History are believed to exceed in beauty, in scientific 

 accuracy, and in educational value anything of the kind which has 

 heretofore been attempted. 



The first group is designed to represent the bird life of the irrigated 

 portion of the San Joaquin Valley in California, near Los Baiios. Mate- 

 rial for this group was collected by Mr. Frank M. Chapman in May and 

 June, 1903. Mr. Chapman was assisted by Mr. Louis A. Fuel tes, whose 

 sketches from life and whose paintings of the soft parts of birds proved 

 of the greatest value to the taxidermists ; Mr. John Rowley, formerly 

 chief of the Department of Taxidermy of the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History, who prepared models of the characteristic vegetation of the 

 region ; and Mr. C. J. Hittell, the well-known San Francisco artist, 

 ■who painted a background representing the Valley with the Coast Range 

 in the distance. 



The group will contain the Avocet, Stilt, Killdeer, Mallard, Cinnamon 

 Teal, Coot, and Black Tern, all with newly hatched young, and also 

 Forster's Tern, the Ruddy Duck, the Pintail, the Fulvous Tree Duck, 

 the Red-head, the Black-crowned Night Heron, and the White-faced 

 Glossy Ibis. All these species were abundantly represented in the irri- 

 gated section, their presence or absence depending largely upon the 

 distribution of water. 



The group is twenty feet long, nine feet wide, and ten feet high, and 

 will contain about eighty individuals of the species mentioned. The 

 birds have been successfully mounted by Mr. H. S. Denslow and the 

 aquatic vegetation, consisting of over ten thousand leaves, has been pre- 

 pared at the American Museum of Natural History, and is a facsimile 

 reproduction of the actual plants. Doubtless no more difficult subject 

 has previously been attempted in this line of bird exhibits, but the group 

 is already sufficiently near completion to place its success beyond 

 question. 



A second, and even more remarkable group, which will be opened 

 to the public some time during the present month, will represent the 

 nesting habits of the American Flamingo. .This group is also based upon 

 Mr. Chapman's studies from life, and perhaps better than any other 

 group of birds which we can now recall, illustrates the importance of 

 detailed studies in nature as a basis for an accurate representation of the 

 nesting habits of a bird. 



Mr. Chapman made two trips to the Bahamas before he succeeded in 

 finding an occupied colony of Flamingoes. On the second journev to 

 these islands, in the spring and summer of 1904, a fully occupied colony 

 of birds was discovered, and a large series of photographs was made, 

 portraying very satisfactorily the heretofore unknown nest-life of this 

 remarkable species. Specimens were also secured, representing not only 

 the adults, but the newly-hatched chick, which illustrate its development 

 to about the age of one month. 



