1909 1 Allen, Habitat Groups of North American Birds. 165 



THE HABITAT GROUPS OF NORTH AMERICAN 



BIRDS IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF 



NATURAL HISTORY. 



BY J. A. ALLEN. 

 Plates I-IV. 



Methods of exhibition in museums of natural history have 

 greatly changed during the last twenty years. Previously it was 

 nearly the universal custom to mount birds as single specimens, on 

 stands or perches, the well-known T -perch sufficing for all perching 

 birds, and flat stands for terrestrial birds, with no attempt to illus- 

 trate their habits or natural surroundings. 



The American Museum of Natural History, in New York City 

 was the first museum in this country to depart radically from this 

 time-honored method, by direction of its late President, Morris K. 

 Jesup. Early in 1887, twelve groups, illustrating the nesting 

 habits of as many species of our common birds, were placed on 

 exhibition, the cost of their preparation having been generously 

 contributed by the late Mrs. Robert L. Stuart, widow of a former 

 president of the Museum. 1 The accessories for the groups were 

 prepared by the late Mrs. E. R. Mogridge, of London and New 

 York, whose admirable work at the South Kensington Museum had 

 attracted Mr. Jesup's attention. Her methods of reproducing in 

 facsimile the foliage and flowers that composed the principal 

 accessories of these groups was known for a time only to Mrs. 

 Mogridge and her brother, Mr. Mintern, who was her personal 

 assistant in the work, but later she taught her methods to others, 

 forming classes for this purpose, not only in New York but in other 

 cities, where she was employed by different museums for the con- 

 struction of similar groups. In this way the preparation of such 

 exhibits was undertaken elsewhere, notably in Washington, Pitts- 

 burgh, Chicago, and Springfield (Mass.). 



During the following ten or twelve years the number of bird 

 groups at the American Museum increased to fifty or more. The 



1 Cf. Auk, IV, 1887, p. 271. 



