1899.] NATURAL SflEXCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 13 



to have obtained were Agelaiiis tricolor and Pica nuttallil. That he 

 did not collect more was partly due to the fact that he was mainly 

 engaged in collecting plants and partly, as Audubon states, to the 

 fact that "he was not in the habit of carrying a gun on his 

 rambles." 



Townsend made the main ornithological collection, and appar- 

 ently sent home by Nuttall all the specimens he had obtained up 

 to the date of his departure, as the collection was in Philadelphia 

 in 1836. Audubon, hearing of this, hastened to Philadelphia, 

 and was much disgusted because Townsend' s friends would not let 

 him describe the new species. An arrangement was, however, 

 effected by which the new birds were to be published by Nuttall 

 and Audubon in a paper in the Journal of the Academy under 

 Townsend' s name, and then to be figured in the Birds of America. 



And as a part of the same arrangement, Audubon (or Edward 

 Harris for him) purchased the duplicate specimens.^' 



The types of the species described by Townsend are most of 

 them still preserved in the Academy's collection. The " dupli- 

 caies ' ' purchased by Audubon were afterwards given by him to 

 Edward Harris and Spencer F. Baird, and were eventually depos- 

 ited respectively in the Academy and in the U. S. National 

 Museum. 



In some cases there are specimens in the U. S National ^Museum 

 of species which are not now contained m the Academy's series, in 

 which case the former must be regarded as the tyjies, otherwise the 

 Academy specimens seem to have the best claim to be so considered. 



The specimens collected by Townsend after Nuttall's departure 

 fall into another category. They were apparently (with a few 

 exceptions) sent direct to Audubon,'^ and were published by him 

 in his Ornithological Biography, Vol. v, the types being subse- 

 quently given to Harris and Baird along with the others. Most 

 of these are now in the Academy and National Museum, and the 

 question as to which should be considered the types naturally arises. 

 Fortunately there is only one species of which specimens are in both 

 institutions, i. e., Dryohates villosus harrisii, and of this there is 

 , little difficulty in fixing the type. 



'-Ornith. Biog., iv, Preface, p. xi. 



'^Not, however, those obtained iu the S. Pacific and Chile which are in 

 the Academy collection. 



