The Moore Laboratory of Zoology is located at Occidental College. The bird collection houses over 64,000 ornithological specimens. It is the largest Mexican bird collection in the world. The vast majority of the specimens are study skins (60,677), but the MLZ also contains 1,364 skeletons and 536 sets of nests and eggs. Robert T. Moore and his wife Margaret founded the MLZ in 1950, moving Moore’s personal collection from his Pasadena home to the building at Occidental College. Prominent collectors aside from Moore include Chester C. Lamb (who worked as Moore’s primary collector for decades and collected over 40,000 of the MLZ’s specimens), the Olalla Brothers and Sons, Mario del Toro Aviles, C.F. Underwood, J.T. Wright, and W.W. Brown. The collection continues its growth today with the addition of species from the western U.S. and Mexico.
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