duly ratified, and it was published in The Courier on August 

 21 and for several weeks thereafter, and on Monday, No- 

 vember 25, at the meeting of the Trustees of the College, 

 Mr. F. S. Holmes was elected Curator of the Museum. On 

 December 28 he was ' 'appointed Professor of Geology and 

 Palaeontology in the College of Charleston," and on May 6, 

 1853 he was also ''appointed and elected Professor of 

 Natural History." 



ONE OF AUDUBON'S BIRDS? 



Among a number of old and more or less damaged specimens 

 which have been stored for many years in one of the galler- 

 ies, a bird was recently discovered which may prove of great 

 interest and value. It is a representative of the Black- 

 headed Grosbeak, Zamelodia melanocephala (Swainson), a 

 western form ranging from Mexico to British Columbia; and 

 there seems to be excellent reason to believe that it is one of 

 Audubon's original specimens from which he made the 

 drawings for his great work on American birds. A slip of 

 paper, tightly folded and tied to the bird's leg, bears the 

 inscription "Black Hills, Male, June 3, 34, J. K. Townsend." 

 Audubon is known to have received several western birds 

 from Townsend, who made a journey to the Columbia River 

 in 1834. The female Evening Grosbeak, for example, from 

 which Audubon made his drawing, was taken by Townsend 

 in the Black Hills on June 3, 1834— the same day on which 

 our Black-headed Grosbeak was taken. It is a well-known 

 fact that some of Audubon's specimens were at one time in 

 the Museum. It is stated in the old accession book of the 

 Museum that ' 'At this time [1850] large and valuable con- 

 tributions, of skins of birds and quadrupeds, of fossils, shells, 

 reptiles, fish and insects, were made by Rev'd Dr. Bachman, 



Mr. John Audubon, Professor M. Tuomey and Prof. 



Holmes the Curator." Most of the birds must have been 

 destroyed, since no trace of them could be found up to the 



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