The Vernay deer group

Partly filmed during the AMNH Faunthorpe-Vernay Indian Expedition, 1922-1923. The scenes at the opening of The Vernay Deer Group were edited from footage taken by filmmaker George M. Dyott during the AMNH Faunthorpe-Vernay Indian Expedition to create Jungle Life in India. However, several of the opening shots, including those of does, a stag, gazelles, a cheetah, and a muntjac appear only in this film, and not in Jungle Life in India. In the swamps of the Oudh plains, howdah and pad elephants are seen; the collected swamp deer stags are seen being hoisted onto a pad elephant. George Herbert Sherwood, AMNH curator of education, requested this footage from Arthur Stannard Vernay in 1927 for the purpose of using it in the film Mounting the Indian Elephant. It is through this correspondence that the date of the film was verified. The AMNH technique of preparing animal groups is filmed in detail, from the first step, the making of a small model of an animal (called a sketch) through the life-size model and pṕier-macȟ molds, the modeling and fitting of the skin, to the final details of painting the face on the animal. Close-ups of the preparation of the Indian rhinoceros, thamin, black buck, and sambar deer are seen. Some shots from this film were also used in Jungle Life in India.