Xs"*] Chapman, Ornithology at the World's Fair. 319 



and designed groups, with natural surroundings, of the English 

 Song Thrush, with a nest and vonng birds: Butcher Birds, with a 

 field mouse and Dickcissel impaled on thorns; Bower-Birds, 

 with their strangely decorated playhouse ; and Ivory-billed Wood- 

 peckers at the entrance to their nest. There are two groups ol 

 Carolina Paroquets, one showing the birds on a frost}' morning 

 feeding on their favorite 'cockle-burrs,' the other showing the 

 interior of a hollow tree with roosting birds clinging to the side, 

 supporting themselves by the aid of bill, feet and tail. A group 

 of Prairie Hens represents these birds engaged in the singular 

 'prairie minuet,' while two groups of Ptarmigans give a fine 

 illustration of protective coloration. In the first the birds are in 

 the brown or summer plumage, with surroundings to correspond ; 

 in the second they are in the white or winter plumage, with snowy 

 surroundings. 



A group of Wild Turkeys occupies a space about thirty-five feet 

 in length and shows the method of capturing these birds l>v means 

 of the 'Turkey pen.' Two Flamingoes, with their truncate mud 

 nests, constitute a unique group, while Jacanas walking over 

 floating lily-pads show the use of their long toes. A group of 

 nine Wild Pigeons feeding on acorns completes an exhibit which 

 is a credit alike to those who planned and executed it. The birds 

 are exceptionally well-mounted and the exhibit as a whole repre- 

 sents our best efforts in avian taxidermy. 



The collection was unfortunately somewhat too crowded to 

 show to proper advantage, and Mr. Ridgway writes me that 

 owing to inadequacy of space he was compelled to re-pack at least 

 one third of the collection sent to the Fair for exhibition. 



As a graphic lesson in the relations of birds to man, the 

 exhibit of the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy 

 has probably never been equalled. Here are groups which tell 

 their own story so plainly that the most casual observer, attracted 

 at first by their beauty, cannot leave them without at least some 

 knowledge of the facts they are designed to explain. 



The exhibit is of two kinds, one strictly economic, the other 

 faunal. The first illustrates the food of birds, the second their 

 geographical distribution. The following groups of birds with 

 natural surroundings are included in the first class : A Robin 

 worm-hunting on a bit of lawn, attended by its ever-present 



