THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OE NATURAL HISTORY 



various processes of shedding skin, the "spring peeper" 

 with its vocal sacs inflated, the poisonous bushmaster with 

 its eggs, and the Surinam toad which carries its eggs in the 

 soft tissues of its back where the young are hatched. The 

 perishable parts of many of these animals have been cast 

 in wax from life, thus utilizing in the model only the hard 

 or indestructible parts. This method brings out in detail 

 the principal features, thus doing away with the objection- 

 able and unsatisfactory exhibition of specimens in jars of 

 alcohol. 



Suspended from the ceiling is a skeleton of a North 

 Atlantic right whale. 



Lack of room has again made necessary the installation, 

 in the lobby adjoining on the south, of casts of certain pre- 

 historic sculptures from Mexico and Central America which 

 ordinarily would be found in the Mexican Hall in the sec- 

 tion devoted to the Maya and Nahua cultures. Enter the 



SOUTH CENTRAL WING 



Birds of the World 



"I hear from many a little throat, 

 A warble interrupted long." 

 Bryant. 



Beginning on the right, the first four cases contain repre- 

 sentatives of the 13,000 known species of birds in the prin- 

 cipal groups, arranged according to their natural relation- 



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