172 Stone, Some Philadelphia Collections and Collectors. [ A ^ 



Some of the incidents connected with the history of this 

 collection are very entertaining. It seems that such specimens 

 as Townsend had secured up to the time of Nuttall's departure 

 were sent home, in his care, at any rate they were in Philadelphia 

 in 1836 — presumably at the Academy. 



Audubon learned of this and at once hastened thither, being 

 anxious to secure the novelties for publication in his great work 

 then well under way. 



He had already seen Nuttall in Boston and obtained specimens 

 of such new species as he had brought ; apparently only Agelaius 

 tricolor and Picus nuttalli. That Nuttall did not secure more 

 specimens is doubtless due, as Audubon states, to the fact that 

 " he was not in the habit of carrying a gun on his rambles " — 

 a custom which, though it apparently did not appeal very strongly 

 to Audubon, would win unbounded admiration from the societies 

 which bear his name to-day. 



When Audubon reached Philadelphia he was deeply dis- 

 gusted because Townsend's friends quite naturally would not 

 allow him to publish the new species which this energetic 

 explorer had secured, thinking that they had best remain 

 undescribed until their discoverer returned to take them in hand 

 personally. 



Notwithstanding that Audubon claimed to have very little care 

 for priority in the naming of species, his desire to publish these 

 birds was intense, and he says : " Having obtained access to the 

 collection I turned over and over the new and rare species but he 

 (Townsend) was absent at Fort Vancouver on the shores of the 

 Columbia River, Thomas Nuttall had not yet come from Boston 

 and loud murmurs were uttered by the soidisant friends of 

 science, who objected to my seeing, much less portraying and 

 describing, these valuable relics of birds, many of which had not 

 yet been introduced into our fauna. The traveller's apetite is 

 much increased by the knowledge of the distance which he has to 

 tramp before he can obtain a meal ; and with me the desire of 

 obtaining the specimens in question increased in proportion to 

 the difficulties that presented themselves." After summoning to 

 his aid Thos. Nuttall, who had then arrived in Philadelphia, 

 Drs. Pickering, Harlan, Morton, McMurtrie, Trudeau and Edw. 



