62 THIRD FLOOR, SOUTH CENTRAL WING 



their bills and packing it down by means of bills and feet. 

 G The nests are raised to a height of twelve or fourteen inches; 



this protects eggs and young from disasters due to high water. 

 Only one egg is laid in the nest, and the young is born covered with down 

 like a young duck and is fed by the mother on predigested food. The bril- 

 liant plumage of the adult is not acquired until the fifth or sixth month. 

 (Reproduced from studies in the Bahama Islands.) 



In this group is shown a portion of a coral islet on which 



■»i > ° y * «t three thousand boobies and four hundred man-of-war birds 



Man-of-War 



Group were nesting, the former on the ground, the latter in the sea 



grape bushes. (Reproduced from studies in the Bahama 



Islands.) 



The abundance of bird life in one of these rookeries is quite astounding. 



In this group are roseate spoonbills, snowy egrets, Ameri- 



_ or , can egrets, little blue herons, Louisiana herons, ibises, cormor- 



Rookery 



Group an ^ s an ^ wat er turkeys. Because of the great inaccessibility 



of this island it has been one of the last places to escape the 

 depredations of the plume-hunter. (Reproduced from studies in the 

 Everglades of Florida.) 



The golden eagle is one of the most widely distributed of birds. 

 In North America it is now most common in the region from the Rockies 



to the Pacific coast, although it is found as far east as 

 Groun Maine. Stories to the contrary notwithstanding, the eagle 



never attacks man even though the nest is approached. 

 Its food consists of rabbits, squirrels, woodchucks and occasionally sheep. 

 (Reproduced from studies near Bates Hole, Wyoming.) 



The abundance of bird life in this western lake beneath Mt. Shasta, 

 which is seen in the center of the background, is astonishing. Here is an 



example of how the normal nesting habits of a bird may be 

 Lake Group cnan & e d by its being driven into a different locality. In the 



group are white pelicans which usually make a nest of pebbles, 

 Caspian terns which commonly build their nests on sand, and cormorants 

 that nest on rocks, all nesting together here on the tule or rush islets of 

 the lake. (Reproduced from studies at Klamath Lake, Oregon.) 



The scene represented in this group is above timber line on the crest 



of the Canadian Rockies — 8,000 feet above the sea. Al- 

 B' d L'f though these mountains are in the temperate region the 



Group altitude gives climatic conditions that would be found in 



the far north, and the bird life is arctic in character. Here 

 are nesting the white- tailed ptarmigan, rosy snow finches and pipits. 

 (Reproduced from studies in the Canadian Rockies.) 



