New-York tribune., 1910-12-18
BIRDS FROM LONG ISLAND
Brooklyn Museum Has Display OF
MANY Extinct Species.

Both the Brooklyn Museum, in the East
ern Parkway, and its branch. the Chli-
dren's Museum in Bedford Park, are pay
ing particular attention to displaying
exhibits that will especially interest Long
islanders At the big museum section
OF the building is set aside Tor the Long
island display. An interesting part of the
display is the ornithoogical collection. The
birds ara arranged in cases that line the
walls of large sized room, A special oack-
ground OF a natural color has been used
IA brine, them ont more clearly, their
plumage is rarely gaudy, at least In the
sense in which some of the feathered tfipe
from tropical countries are gaudy- All TO-
gether. Long Island has 365 varieties or
birds. The museum is aiming to get at
least ore representative of each variety
for its exhibit
Among the birds that appear on Long
Island are twentv-seven kinds OF gulls and
rorty-two of ducks. geese ana swans.
Eagles of several varieties once made their
home here, but they have mostly uls-
appeared. But there are grebes, looms,
hawks. crossbIIls, owls. robins, sparroWs,
woodpeckers. kinghshers. wrens, thrushes,
rails swallows, blackbirds and crows and
a host of others that every child knows by
sight or has heard of.
There are seven kinds OF rails. five OF
wrens and forty kinds of oven birds on the
island. and the museum has secured rep
raseptatiyes of many of the varieties. One
Of The hest of the exhibits shows sea gulls
ON th., sand with the as back
ground The birds of Long Island are not
by auy means so numerous as they once
were The growth of population is driving
them out-some ike the eagles and the
cardinals have practically gone already
This gives an added interest to the exhibit
Plants thrive and develop under the hand
Of man. but the birds find it to their
interest to go away before they are Killed
4 couple of generations hence the museum
exhibit OF the birds that once iiVed on
Long Island will probably cause wonder
among the visitors
AT the Children's Museum the authorities
have installed ii collection of the shells of
Long Island. These join with the speci-
mems of various forms Of life gathered on
the island and already placed on exhibition
in what is known the Type Room. or
the fifty thousand more species Of mol
lusks something like two hundred species
have been discovered on Long Island. Most
of these are found In salt water. The big
sast of the shells are the trumpet shells,
pear shaped coils five or SIX lncheS long
The animals which live in the shells prey
upon other mollusks by boring neat little
holes In the shells, through which they
stick ribbon-lke tongues. covered with
teeth and eat their victims alive. Once the
Indians used the shells for the manufacture
OF white wampum Another mollusk, with
similar habits is the oysterdrill. Its shell
is about inch long. but can be used 10
great advantage. The large number OF
young oyster and clam shells with holes
drilled through them always TO be seen on
the beaches bear evidence OF the destruc-
tiveness OF these small creatures.
The most abundant snail OF Long Island
Sound, examples OF which are to be found
in The museums collection. is the peri
Wrinkle said to be al emigrant from the
northern shores of Europe. Periwinkies are
d staple food ia Great Britain.