138 
of excellent preservation, and containing 
the principal types of both the mammals 
and birds which the Prince had de- 
scribed. He therefore made the pur- 
chase and had the collection sent to the 
Museum. 
Another purchase was selected from 
the Verreaux Collection in Paris. The 
Messrs. Verreaux in the Place Royale in 
Paris had for many years been recog- 
nized as the largest dealers in natural 
history objects then in Europe and their 
collection of mammals and birds, shells 
and other material represented speci- 
mens from all over the world. Dr. 
Elliot spent several months studying 
the collections and as rapidly as he 
selected birds or mammals, they were 
mounted by Verreaux and shipped to 
New York until several thousand speci- 
mens had been obtained. 
Still a third collection which though 
very much smaller than the Manxi- 
milian or Verreaux, yet afforded some 
very valuable specimens, was that of 
Mme. Verdray. From her he got many 
rare specimens, as the collection was not 
a general one but consisted more particu- 
larly of species which were rare and 
difficult to procure. 
He also obtained valuable specimens 
from Frank of Amsterdam, a dealer on a 
considerable scale who obtained material 
from the Eastern Archipelago, his Dutch 
connections giving him greater facilities 
for such enterprise than had any other 
person in the trade. 
It was in the Museum of Messrs. 
Verreaux in Paris that a group! com- 
frank personage, arrived in Neuwied, and I with 
the many others was a guest at the grand dinner 
given in his honor at the Palace in the wood. 
It was during that visit that he became engaged 
to Princess Elizabeth. 
1The group was done fairly well and had re- 
ceived the gold medal at one of the great exposi- 
tions. The animals and the man’s face too were 
strikingly well done — for the time. This group 
stood in the hall of the Arsenal and afterward in 
less and less conspicuous positions in the new 
THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
posed of an Arab on a camel attacked 
by two lions was purchased — not by 
Dr. Elliot however who preferred to put 
the 20,000 francs to a purpose more 
valuable to technical science, but by 
one of the trustees from New York who 
was visiting him. 
Besides these larger collections Dr. 
Elliot was able to pick up valuable 
single specimens from time to time 
during his stay in Europe. He one day 
chanced to find in a_ taxidermist’s 
window in London a specimen of a 
great auk in winter plumage, which he 
purchased for one hundred and _ five 
pounds.’ 
It was on one of the rare visits that 
Dr. Elliot made to New York during his 
stay in Europe that he succeeded in 
obtaining still further valuable bird ma- 
terial for the Museum. This had be- 
longed to his friend, Dr. A. L. Heerman, 
had been collected in the western and 
southwestern portions of the United 
States, and kept in unusually perfect 
condition. The collection was bought 
by Dr. Elliot and presented by him to the 
Museum. Added to his own one thou- 
sand birds which the Museum had gained 
possession of several years before, it 
brought the American Museum’s col- 
lections as regards the birds of North 
America to a state unsurpassed in num- 
bers and importance by any other col- 
lection of the time, unless perhaps by 
that of the National Museum at Wash- 
ington. 
On his final return in the early eighties 
building in Manhattan Square but has consider- 
able value to-day from the historical standpoint. 
It is now in the possession of the Carnegie Mu- 
seum, Pittsburg. 
2 This specimen has a prominent place to-day 
in the bird collection on the second floor of the 
Museum. The label announces that it is the gift 
of Robert L. Stuart, which reminds us of the fact 
that when the great auk shipped by Dr. Elliot 
arrived in New York, it was paid for by the per- 
sonal check of Mr. Stuart, then president of the 
Museum. 
