DUCK HAWK ON PALISADES OF THE HUDSON 



Realism and artistic effect have been achieved in the "Habitat Bird Groups- 

 present vividly many stories of adaptation to environment 



and they 



The fruit bats, often known as flying foxes, the largest members of the 



^ . „ order and found only in the warmer parts of the Old World, 



Fruit Bats 



are represented by a small portion of a colony from Calapan, 



Philippine Islands. Such a colony may number several thousands, and 



be very destructive to bananas and other fruits. 



Suspended from the ceiling in the center of the hall is the skeleton of 



a medium sized North Atlantic right whale, a species once common on 



our coast, but now all but exterminated in the Xorth Atlantic. 



SOUTH CENTRAL WING 



Bird Groups 



Here are the "Habitat Groups" of North American Birds. This 

 unique series of groups shows the habits of some typical American birds 

 in their natural haunts. The groups have been prepared under the immedi- 

 ate direction of Frank IVI. Chapman, Curator of Ornithology, who collected 

 most of the specimens and made practically all of the field studies necessary 

 for their reproduction. In the course of this collecting, he traveled more 

 than ()0,()00 miles. The backgrounds are reproductions of specific localities, 

 painted from sketches made by the artist who usually accompanied the 

 naturalists when the field studies for the groups were made. Practically all 

 72 



