638 Letters, Extracts, and Notes, 



been a source of endless trouble, and the only scientific 

 course would have been to have rejected it entirely/' 



"With Mr. Cockerell I have nothing to do, I knew him 

 not, but of Mr. J, A. Tiiorpe, late taxidermist to this 

 Museum, I necessarily knew a good deal ; he was not only 

 a true and faithful servant of the Trustees for thirty-eight 

 years, but, so far as his history is known to a very wide 

 circle of friends here, was never at or near the Aru Islands. 

 As a matter of fact, Mr. Thorpe's collecting was, at the 

 period in question, confined to the Cape York Peninsula. 

 In the second place, a large portion of his collection was 

 purchased by the Australian Museum Trustees of the daj'^, 

 through the then Curator, Mr. Gerard Krefi't, and the skins 

 forming this collection are still in evidence here. 



Now, in Mr. Mathews's remarks there is, to put it 

 mildly, a distinct libel on the memory of a dead man, who, 

 I know, from my association with him, would have been 

 the last to perpetrate, or assist in perpetrating, what would 

 have been nothing more or less than a common swindle. 



It is not to be supposed for a moment that a keen 

 naturalist, like Mr. Krefft, v»ould have neglected the oppor- 

 tunity of acquiring, for his Trustees, such valuable material, 

 at that time, as bird-skins from the Aiu Islands. As a 

 matter of fact, all the skins purchased from Mr. Thorpe on 

 his return from Cape Yoik, and before he became officially 

 connected with this Institution, are true local species. 



For the honour of my late friend, and the good name o£ 

 the Australian Museum, I cannot allow Mr. Mathews's 

 statement to go fortli without uttering this protest. 



I am, Sir, 



Yours faithfully, 



E/. Etheridge, Jun. 



The Australian Museum, 



Sydney. 



March IG, 1915. 



