Vol. XXVI 

 1909 



] Allen, Habitat Groups of North American Birds. 167 



represent widely diversified types of country, since they include the 

 famous Bird Rocks in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, several bird keys 

 in the Bahamas, a cactus desert in Arizona, plains and badlands 

 in the Middle West, alpine scenes in the Rocky Mountains, the 

 Palisades and the Hackensack marshes near New York City, and 

 other localities of special interest. 



In connection with the recent formal opening of the Gallery of 

 the Bird Hall, the Museum has issued a 'guide leaflet' to this 

 series of 'habitat groups,' 1 containing a full-page half-tone illus- 

 tration of each, from photographs, and a transcript of the de- 

 scriptive group labels. On this brochure is largely based the 

 following account of these notable groups, which form a striking 

 feature of the Museum's recent remarkable progress in placing 

 before the public attractive and instructive exhibits in many lines 

 of research. They are here given in the order of sequence in the 

 hall, beginning at the right (southeast corner of the gallery). 



Summer Bird-life of Cobb's Island, Virginia. Background by 

 Walter Cox. Birds by H. C. Denslow. — Cobb's Island, off the 

 coast of Virginia, is a shell-strewn sand-bar, seven miles long and 

 about the same distance from the mainland, and thus affords ideal 

 conditions as a breeding resort for certain kinds of water birds, 

 as Terns of different species, Black Skimmers, Oyster-catchers 

 and Plovers, while the adjoining marshes on its western border are 

 the favorite nesting places of the Clapper Rail. 



This group contains 63 birds, representing seven species. The 

 scene is a sandy beach, with oyster and other sea shells, interspersed 

 with tufts of the coarse grass characteristic of such beaches. The 

 background is a view looking seaward, the whole forming a well- 

 blended shore scene. The Least Terns, which formerly bred here 

 in thousands, and are introduced into the group, were practically 

 exterminated some years since, when 1200 were killed in a single 

 day for millinery purposes, and the island was nearly depopulated 

 of bird life. 



1 The Habitat Groups of North American Birds in the American Museuum of 

 Natural History. By Frank M. Chapman, Curator of Ornithology. No. 26 of 

 the Guide leaflets of the American Museum of Natural History. Edmund Otis 

 Hovey, Editor. New York. Published by the Museum, February, 1909. — 8vo, 

 pp. 48, with colored frontispiece (Wild Turkey), and a half-tone illustration of 

 each group, from photographs. 



