126 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



served at the beginning of this paper, the Peale Museum became the 

 depository of a very large number of the types of animals descrif^ed 

 by the Philadelphia naturalists. 



At length the venerable collection was given by the Boston Museum 

 to the Boston Society of Natural History. The bulk of it was trans- 

 ferred to the Society's rooms in Berkeley Street in 1893, the residue 

 in 1899, after the fire that damaged the upper part of the Boston 

 Museum building in May. After the collection came into the pos- 

 session of the Boston Society of Natural History some of the speci- 

 mens were destroyed, but most of them were sold in 1900 to Mr. 

 C. J. Maynard. The following notice appeared in the Boston Eveninci 

 7'm?2sm2>i newspaper of April 13, 1900: — 



"At the rooms of the Appalachian Mountain Club this afternoon and even- 

 ing, Walter R. Davis exhibits his collection of .... birds. . . . Two of the 

 most valuable birds in the collection are an English Skylark, from the old 

 Charles Willson Peale collection made in 1784 in Philadelphia, and a Golden 

 Pheasant presented to Mr. Peale by George Washington. These specimens 

 have recently been discovered by C. J. Maynard of Newtonville, after having 

 been lost for over fifty years. When the Peale Museum was sold, a portion was 

 bought by P. T. Barnum, much of the remainder was purchased by Moses 

 Kimball of the Boston Museum, and its identity became lost. When this 

 museum was broken up a few years since, the collection was given to the Boston 

 Natural History Society, who sold the birds to Mr. Maynard, not knowing 

 their origin. Many of Alexander Wilson's types are in the collection." 



What is said in the above-quoted passage about the Boston Society's 

 ignorance of the origin of the Boston Museum collection is not true: 

 in his report at the annual meeting of the Boston Society of Natural 

 History, May 2, 1894,^ the Curator, Alpheus Hyatt, narrated at some 

 length the history of this collection and its connection with the historic 

 Peale Museum. 



After Mr. Maynard bought the collection it was sent to his residence 

 in Newtonville, Mass., and stored for a while in his barn. It was 

 subsequently redeemed by the Boston Society, all of the specimens, 

 or nearly all of them, being recovered. Then the birds, with excep- 

 tion of a few of the larger kinds, were wi-enched from their stands and 

 packed into tin cases, to the great detriment of their legs and plumage. 

 This should have been done, if at all, only after the collection had been 

 submitted to a careful study. 



Mr. J. D. Sornborger was then employed by the Society to examine 



1 Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., 26, p. 275-276. 



