Abstract
AT last the limit of the nature-group method of exhibiting museum specimens seems to have been reached, for Science Service announces that Prof. A. A. Alien, of Cornell University, has constructed two life-groups of birds, in which by a combination of sound films and ingeniously contrived electrically driven mechanisms, the birds sing and go through natural, life-like movements. For example, in the group showing a nesting site of ruffed grouse, the turning of a switch causes the male to move his head and utter his characteristic hissing note, while the female moves to her nest and covers her eggs, and at the same time thrushes and song-spar rows in the trees and bushes sing, an owl hoots, a woodpecker calls and dives into its nesting hole, and a wedge of wild-geese honks as it flies away. These exhibits must be a revelation to the person who has not the opportunity or the flair for field observation, and, with Prof. Alien's assistance, the arm-chair naturalist will soon be able to record his impressions of life in the wilds from a museum exhibit.
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Museum Exhibits de luxe. Nature 139, 22–23 (1937). https://doi.org/10.1038/139022e0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/139022e0