A room of the Museum's Mexican Restaurant, an accurate restoration of temple ruins at Mitla. 



down the middle of the room a series of groups of local breeding birds 

 with their nests. These, the forerunners of our "Habitat Groups," 

 were the first of their kind made for the Museum. [See Guide Leaflet 

 No. 22.] 



SOUTHWEST WING 



Ancient Monuments of Mexico and Central America 



Continuing west, past the collection of local birds we enter the 

 Southwest Wing, devoted to ancient monuments of Mexico and Central 

 America. The reproductions illustrate chiefly the sculptures of the 

 Maya and Xahna Indians made before the time of Columbus and are 

 the gift of the Duke of Loubat. 



At the left of the entrance are cases of pottery, jade and heavy stone 

 work from Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. For skill in free hand 

 modeling and painting the pottery ranks high. 



Opposite this exhibit are examples of original stone sculptures of the 

 Maya, mostly excavated at Copan in Western Honduras. 

 Beautiful pottery and finely wrought jades are also shown 

 from other sites. The Maya were perhaps the most highly civilized 

 people in the New World. They built many cities of stone and erected 

 many fine pillar-like sculptures which are called stelae. The subject- 



47 



Maya Art 



