74 ORIZABA GROUP 



but characteristic American scenery as well. The backgrounds of the 

 groups were painted by Bruce Horsfall, Charles J. Hittell, Hobart 

 Nichols, Carl Rungius, W. B. Cox and Louis A. Fuertes. The foliage 

 and flowers were reproduced in the Museum laboratories from material 

 collected in the localities represented. Each group is fully described 

 in the label attached to the case. [See Guide Leaflet No. 28.] Beginning 

 with the case at the right of the entrance and passing on to the right 

 around the hall, we find the groups arranged in the following sequence : 



The distribution of birds, notwithstanding their powers of flight, is 

 limited in great measure by climate. Thus in traveling from Panama 

 Orizaba north to Greenland there are zones of bird-life corre- 



Group sponding to the zones of temperature. This condition 



is illustrated on the mountain of Orizaba in Mexico, where in traveling 

 from the tropical jungle at its base to its snow-clad peak the naturalist 

 finds zones of life comparable with those to be found in traveling north 

 on the continent. Thus the Orizaba group so far as the distribution 

 of life is concerned is an epitome of all the groups in the hall. 



Among our most beautiful and graceful shore-birds are the terns and 

 gulls, which (because of their plumage) have been so ceaselessly hunted 

 Cobb's Island and slaughtered for millinery purposes that now in their 

 Group breeding-places there are only hundreds where formerly 



there were thousands. The group represents a section of an island off 

 the Virginia coast where the birds are now protected by law. 



The duck hawk may be found nesting on the Palisades of the Hudson 

 almost within the limits of New York City. It builds nests on the ledges 

 Duck Hawk of the towering cliffs. This hawk is a near relative of the 

 Group falcon which was so much used for hunting in the Middle 



Ages. It often comes into the City for pigeons. 



In August and September the meadows and marshlands in the 

 vicinity of Hackensack, New Jersey, are teeming with bird-life, but this 

 Hackensack is rapidly disappearing before the march of "improve- 

 Meadow ments." In the group showing these Hackensack meadows 



Group are swa ll ows preparing to migrate southward, bobolinks 



or "rice birds" in autumn plumage, red-winged blackbirds, rails, wood 

 ducks and long-billed marsh wrens. 



The wild turkey is a native of America and was once abundant in 

 the wooded regions of the eastern portion of the United States, but is 

 now very rare. It differs slightly in color from the Mexican bird, the an- 

 Wild Turkey cestor of our common barnyard turkey, which was intro- 

 Group duced from Mexico into Europe about 1530 and was 



brought by the colonists to America. (Reproduced from studies near 

 Slaty Forks, West Virginia.) 



