XXX, 
On the extinction of the Entomological Society of New South Wales, though 
Sir William laid aside descriptive work for a time, he still carried on his collecting 
operations more enthusiastically than ever, the best possible evidence that the spirit 
in which that Society had been originated and carried on remained undaunted. 
Indeed, it was at this time, and about a year before the inauguration of the Linnean 
Society of New South Wales, that he determined, and began to carry out his 
determination, of extending the Macleay Entomological Collection into a general 
zoological collection—the beginning of the present Macleay Museum. It is possible 
that for some time he may have had such an idea in his mind, but the circumstance, 
trivial in itself, which settled this determination was apparently a very simple one. 
In January, 1874, Mr. Masters, afterwards and still Curator of the Macleay 
Museum, accompanied Sir William on a collecting visit in search of insects to the 
neighbourhood of Wagga, and on arrival he called on a local collector with whom 
he was in treaty for the purchase of some skins of birds frequenting the district, 
and took delivery of the same. The skins were in first rate condition, and when Sir 
William saw them he was much taken with them, and while the inspection was 
proceeding he said that he thought it would be a good thing to commence a general 
collection, and he offered to take the bird skins off Mr. Masters’ hands. The result 
was that he became the possessor of them, and he made them the first addition to 
the entomological specimens to the acquisition of which he had previously exclusively 
confined his attention. 
The correctness of this information, supplied by Mr. Masters in reply to an 
inquiry on the part of the writer of this article as to whether he could remember 
any circumstances which led to Sir William’s extension of the entomological 
collection into a general collection, was amply corroborated by subsequent reference 
to a note-book of Sir William’s in which during the years 1874-76 he kept a 
detailed account of the additions to his collections both by purchase and donation, 
and of the collections sent to his scientific correspondents in other countries, for it 
was then found that under the head of “ Macleay Museum” the first entry was : 
“A, Bird skins purchased at Wagga on 8th January, 1874,” with a list of the 
twenty-nine species represented. Succeeding this one, records of other purchases, 
at first chiefly of birds, follow rapidly. In the same book also were found two letters, 
unaddressed and undated, relating to the purchase of specimens on a large scale, from 
internal evidence evidently copies of the originals sent to European dealers, in one of 
which he says, “I have hitherto confined my attention entirely to the Articulata, but 
it is now my intention to make my collection as perfect as possible in all branches of 
the Animal Kingdom. It is therefore very likely that I may become a very large 
purchaser from you.” 
