SKETCH OF JOHN QUNDLACH. 695 



and river mollusks which he had already himself partly named 

 to Dr. Pfeiffer, of Hesse Cassel ; while he reserved the insects 

 for German and North American specialists. 



After other journeys to Vuelta Abajo, Gundlach decided to 

 gather all his collections under one roof. He furnished for that 

 purpose a room on the upper floor of the infirmary of the sugar 

 estate "Fermina" (Bemba), where the valuable Cuban Museum 

 of Natural History was installed during the holy week of 1864.* 

 There all the zoological species, especially birds, were represented 

 by specimens of both sexes, young and old, their eggs and nests, 

 with cases of albinism and melanism and anomalous features, 

 especially of the bill. In 1866 Gundlach prepared arranging and 

 packing the specimens for the Cuban exhibit in the Paris Expo- 

 sition of 1867. The exhibit included a collection of land and 

 river mollusks, a Cuban herbarium, and a collection, no less valu- 

 able, of woods and textile plants ; geological and mineralogical 

 collections ; sections of fossils ; and other specimens of the prod- 

 ucts of the island. In it the collection of the Academy of Sciences 

 of Havana was added to Gundlach's own. 



The breaking out of the Cuban insurrection in 1868 made the 

 continued exploration of the island impracticable, and Gundlach 

 turned his eyes to Porto Rico. He visited that island in 1873, and 

 traversed, investigated, and studied to great advantage the sur- 

 roundings of Mayagiiez, Aguadilla, Qaebradillas, Arecibo, Gua- 

 nica, Utuado, and Lares. The six months work done here did 

 not, however, satisfy him, and he returned in 1875, when he also 

 explored Jayuya, Vegabaja, and Bayamon. Receiving news of the 

 burning by the rebels of some estates near the " Fermina " sugar 

 plantation, he at once abandoned everything to go to the rescue 

 of the museum, his only treasure. 



In 1884 he started anew in the direction of Santiago de Cuba 

 and Guantanamo in search of certain birds and butterflies. Al- 

 though he did not find the immediate object of his quest, his 

 labor was rewarded by the acquisition of other specimens which 

 speedily found their way to the university, the Institute of 

 Havana, and other scientific centers. He returned in 1885, hav- 

 ing with him, among other trophies of his enterprise, several 

 good specimens of the ivory-billed woodpecker, a species which, 

 thanks to the careless destructiveness of hunters, is becoming 

 quite rare, and of the Papilio Gundlachianus. " Every trip to the 

 mouth of the Aguadores River," he wrote to the author of this 



* The Gundlach Cuban Museum is certainly worthy of special attention. A more detailed 

 account of the treasures it contains is in preparation. The collections are now deposited in 

 a private hall of the Institute de Segunda Ensenanza of Havana. In April, 1890, it held 

 4,135 species. 



