ORIZABA GROUP 79 



collected most of the specimens and made j^ractically all of the field 

 studies necessary for their reproduction. In the course of this collecting, 

 he traveled more than 60,000 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 sections of the country are represented, 

 thus the series not only depicts characteristic bird life of North America, 

 but characteristic American scenery as well. The backgrounds of the 

 groups were painted by Bruce Horsfall, Charles J. Hittell, J. 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 follo\Aang sequence: 

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

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

 north to Greenland there are zones of bird life correspond- 

 ing to the zones of temperature. This condition is illus- 

 trated in 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 travel- 

 ing north on the continent. Thus the Orizaba group so far as the dis- 

 tribution 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 cease- 

 lessly hunted and slaughtered for millinery purposes that 

 now in their 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 of the towering cliffs. This hawk is a near relative 

 _ of the falcon which was so much used for hunting in the 



Middle Ages. 

 In August and September the meadows and marshlands in the 

 vicinity of Hackensack, New Jersey, are teeming with bird life. In the 

 group showing these Hackensack meadows are swallows 

 prepanng to migrate southward, bobolinks or rice birds 

 Group "^ ^^^^ plumage, red-winged blackbirds, rails and the 



wood duck. 

 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 



