THE MUSEUM. 



me the choicest round bird skins, the 

 nicest, clean, neatly drilled and well 

 written data for birds eggs, fossils that 

 are neatly cleaned and ready for the 

 cabinet, shells that are always perfect 

 in every way and cleaned ready for the 

 draw, and so on. It is a real pleas- 

 ure to deal with them, and to such 

 collectors there is never any haggling 

 about prices. I am always ready to 

 send them anything I have in stock in 

 any line and let them send me what 

 they think is right. The fact, is they 

 want everyone to have equally as nice 

 specimens as they have, and are do- 

 ing what they can to lift the standard 

 of quality. Their work is a noble one 

 and their names will live among col- 

 lectors until the end of time. 



The Museum stands for a higher 

 quality of work among collectors. If 

 you are going to collect, do not take 

 more than you can prepare and do 

 well. It will be seven years next spring 

 since we began the active handling of 

 natural history specimens on a large 

 scale. As a collector and exchanger 

 of birds eggs we were known to a lim- 

 ited circle of collectors in that line for 

 many years previous. 



It would surprise you to learn the 

 quality of specimens we have received 

 from many so-called honest and well 

 known collectors. The young col- 

 lector who lives in the country away 

 from a large city or other collectors, 

 whose parents are against his collect- 

 ing, and think it foolish and all that, 

 we fully believe he is in a large meas- 

 ure excusable, for he has no books or 

 means of learning what other collect- 

 ors are doing or how they take care of 

 their specimens. But I refer particu- 

 larly to the collector who annually 

 makes a practice of covering up any 

 imperfection in an egg, skin or shell, 

 to render it at first glance all 

 right, and then deliberately sends it 

 out without mentioning its imperfec- 

 tions in advance. Many times we 

 have ed eggs with faint cracks 



ully com i aled by [dirt, a ragged 

 hole < oven d by court plaster, a mu- 



tilated bird skin with the imperfection 

 carefully covered with feathers, and 

 smoothed down, and packed in cotton, 

 thereby hoping the imperfection will 

 escape notice until some time after- 

 ward. Again we have received beau- 

 tifully made skins from collectors of 

 their own take, where actually the 

 bodies had simply been taken out and 

 no work had been done on the inside. 

 Of course in a few weeks or months 

 the specimen was worthless. 



For a long time we have thought 

 seriously of mentioning these things 

 through the columns of the Museum, 

 and calling attention to this fact, that 

 well to-do .collectors and those who 

 take pains with their specimens soon 

 er or later will draw off, so to speak, 

 by themselves and have no correspon- 

 dence with a man until he proves that 

 he can prepare specimens well. It has 

 in a large measure come to that now. 

 Often collectors visit me and in the 

 course of conversation I have repeat- 

 edly given them the names of corres- 

 pondents of mine who prepare their 

 material with care, and whose collec- 

 tions are a model of beauty. Lest 

 someone takes offense, let me add it 

 is not always the well-to-do that have 

 the choicest collections as to quality 

 They can very naturally afford the 

 rareties, but often'the poorest and most 

 humble of our patrons send us some 

 of the choicest prepared specimens. 



We shall always be pleased to hear 

 from collectors on any topic that in- 

 terests them. In commencing an- 

 other five year period, we assure col- 

 lectors this is their journal as much as 

 ours and we want them to always feel 

 free to use its columns, that the fra- 

 ternity may become better acquainted, 

 exchange views and thoughts more lib- 

 erally, that good may result. 



Ancient Cliff Dwellers' City Just 

 Explored. 



The Rev. Dr. George L. Cole, of 

 Los Angeles, who has just returned 

 from a careful exploration of the an- 

 cient cliff dwellings of the Southwest, 



