1909 ] Allen, Habitat Groups of North American Birds. 173 



and in the laboratory. The large degree of success that has at- 

 tended the enterprise is due to the foresight, good judgment and 

 enthusiasm of Mr. Frank M. Chapman, who during the last ten 

 years has spent much of his time in gathering this unique material 

 and superintending its preparation. Each group has been the 

 product of a special expedition, the aggregate amount of travel 

 entailed being estimated at about 65,000 miles. On all of the later 

 expeditions Mr. Chapman took with him an artist and a preparator, 

 and on all occasions the camera has played an essential part. 1 It 

 has thus been possible to pose the birds in the groups after photo- 

 graphs of the living bird, unconscious of observation, taken from 

 points of concealment devised to meet the occasion. The back- 

 grounds have been painted, in nearly every case, by artists who 

 have accompanied Mr. Chapman on these expeditions and have 

 thus been able to paint the actual scene from nature which the 

 groups illustrate. 



In the foregoing list of the groups credit is given, in most instances, 

 to both artist and preparator for their respective shares in the 

 production of the groups, — the backgrounds and the mounted 

 birds. The vegetation, however, forms an important element in 

 their effectiveness, it having been reproduced in facsimile in wax, 

 either from plaster casts of the parts represented or direct from the 

 parts themselves. This feature of the work has been done under 

 the direction of Mr. J. D. Figgins, Chief of the Department of 

 Preparation at the Museum, and who has often accompanied the 

 expeditions and taken charge of the plants and other field materials 

 necessary to the perfection of the groups. 



Difficulties were also encountered in the installation of the groups, 

 in order to secure proper lighting and effectiveness of exhibition. 

 In large plate glass case fronts, everything directly in range is 

 reflected in the glass, to the more or less obscuration of the contents 

 of the case. Experiments to overcome this effect were instituted by 

 the Director of the Museum, Dr. Hermon C. Bumpus, and largely 

 through his resourcefulness this difficulty, and others in the way of 

 lighting the groups, have been effectively overcome. To quote 



1 See Mr. Chapman's recent book, ' Camps and Cruises of an Ornithologist,' 

 where his field work during these expeditions is recounted, and where hundreds of 

 his photographs are reproduced. 



