166 Allen, Habitat Groups of North American Birds. [wil 



group method of exhibition was also extended to insects and to 

 mammals, of which latter a number of groups illustrating the 

 habits of species found near New York City were prepared. 



Prior to 1893, the construction of the groups was directed by the 

 late Jenness Richardson, Chief Taxidermist of the Museum, who 

 not only designed them, but collected and assembled the materials. 1 

 Later, for some years, the work was carried on by his successor, 

 Mr. John Rowley, whose skill as a preparator is widely recognized. 



The first fifty bird groups illustrate the nesting habits and loca- 

 tion of the nest of as many species of North American birds, mostly 

 the common species, from Grebes to Thrushes. They include a 

 few Hawks and Owls, and various water birds, among the latter a 

 Labrador Duck group, containing five specimens of this rare and 

 now extinct species. 



The special subject of the present article is the new series of so- 

 called 'Habitat Groups,' formally opened to the public on February 

 25, 1909, the occasion having been made a public function, under 

 the patronage of Professor Henry Fairfield Osborn, President of the 

 Museum, and Mr. John L. Cadwalader, one of the principal 

 contributors to the 'North American Ornithological Fund,' a 

 generous gift from a few members of the Museum which rendered 

 possible the gathering and preparation of the material for these 

 expensive groups. They number about twenty-five, and are 

 constructed on a much larger scale and with a much broader purpose 

 than the earlier groups mentioned above, they being intended to 

 illustrate not only the nesting habits of the species shown, but also 

 their haunts or 'habitats.' The area of these groups ranges from 

 60 to 160 square feet, to which is added a panoramic background, 

 which in most cases merges insensibly into the group itself. The 

 backgrounds are painted by skilful artists, generally from studies 

 made at the actual site represented. They are thus, like the 

 accessories among which the birds with their nests and eggs or 

 young are grouped, accurate and realistic representations of the 

 actual scenes in nature which the species had chosen as their nesting 

 haunts. They thus possess a scenic and geographic value in addi- 

 tion to their ornithological interest. These landscapes naturally 



1 CJ. A\ik, X, 1893, p. 307. 



