Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1903-10-03
NEW GROUPS OF BIRDS
Pacific Coast Specimens Col
lected BY an Expert.
VARIOUS SECTIONS REPRESENTED.

ments of the Birds Closely Studied
Frank NJ. Chapman, the bird man al
the American Museum Of Natural His
tory in New York. has returned from
his summer vacation with material for
five new bird groups of the Pacific
coast. Mr.. Chapman had all sorts of
interesting experiences in gathering
this material, says the New York
landscape artist to make studies Of
the environment; preparation, with
wax and plaster molds, to make casts
of such vegetation as could not be
bodily removed and preserved by
means of the fluid used for the pur-
pose, and a bird artist to paint freshly
killed birds and retain the brilliant
coloring, which fades in the dead speci-
men. This artist was Louis AgassiZ
Fuertes. Mr.. Chapman collected the
material and photographed the birds,
with their nests and immediate en-
vironment.
One of the groups in contemplation
|
group ever yet constructed anywhere.
1t will show the bird life Of the irri-
! gated regions of California, which is
an example Of the changes wrought by
man among the little people of woods
and fields. The districts, formerly
arid were destitute of bird life. Water
has been turned in in great quantities,
changing the arid valleys into pasture
lands covered with great herds of cat
tie. The water is allowed to stand on
certain sections to fertiliZe them and
| then drawn off to Others In it's wake
have come enormous numbers of water
birds. They follow the water as it is
moved and live and breed along the
irrigating bitches until these valleys,
once almost desert, are alive with wa
ter birds.
The group will show various species
of wild ducks, the glossy ibis (not the
sacred bird of Egypt. herons, coots,
black terms, Forster's terms, avocets,
stills, yellow headed blackbirds and
killdeer These names sound familiar;
but, with the exception of the black
birds and black terms, none Of the
birds is found in the east, the Pacific
coast species all differing. The black
bird is not water bird, but it stays so
persistently among the weeds at the
waters edge that it is characteristic Of
the scene.
These birds are very shy, for they
have vast areas of solitude in which to
live The particular company on
whose ranch Mr.. Chapman collected
this material controls 100000 acres
in California.
This group will be twenty feet long
and eight feet high. larger than the
splendid Virginia coast group, which
was the banner group of last year.
The ranch, located in the San Joaquin
valley, afforded a background Of the
coast range piled majestically against
the horizon. This background with
the green, level, water laced irrigated
lands in the foreground, is now being
painted in San Francisco by a local
artist familiar with the color effects of
the region and the means of reproduc
ing them.
The second fine group will show cor
mOrants on a rock as they swarm at
the Cliff House in San Francisco or on
the rocks off Cyprus point, at Monte
reg. Rather than try to- reproduce
these great rocks in miniature, it has
been thought best to show a section Of
one, with the painting showing the
great sea girt rock in the background.
The cormorant is very much like a
large duck. A life size cormorant
head, painted by Mr.. Fuertes, shows
the value Of the bird artists work in
such case. The bird puffs out bag
on it's throat. evidently for purposes Of
display. This bag. brilliant blue in
color, dries away in the dead speci- |
men, leaving the painting the only
model
Material for a group of mountain
quail and sooty grouse was gathered |
in the Sierras amid surroundings of
the most beautiful mountain scenery,
and then the party went up to Pyra-
mid lake, in Nevada. An island in the |
lake is metropolis of the pelican race, |
one of the last great Businesses of the |
bird world. Mr.. Chapman counted
1000 young pelicans upon it. They
are white pelicans differing from their
famous cousins of Pelican island. on
the Florida coast. The old birds meas
ure eight feet from tip to tip. When
America was discovered this bird was
found on the Atlantic coast. 1t is
now confined to few inaccessible To- |
Oalities in the west.
Another coast region group will be
one of the yellow billed maybe This
Is exactly like the maybe Of the old
world, except that it's bill is yellow
1t has never been found outside of GER
tain regions of California, and it is
rapidly becoming extinct in those ow-
ing to the poison the ranchmen put out
for gophers The magpie eats either
the poison or the poisoned ground
squirrel and dies forthwith. Although
a small bird. it builds of twigs an enor-