V °i899 VI ] Stone > Some Philadelphia Collections and Collectors. I 73 



Harris, 1 an arrangement was made whereby Audubon and 

 Nuttall jointly were to prepare diagnoses of the new species for 

 publication in the ' Journal ' of the Academy under Townsend's 

 name as author, after which Audubon (or Edw. Harris for him) 

 was allowed to purchase the duplicates for use in making the 

 plates for the ' Birds of America.' 



This plan was carried out and Townsend was honored by 

 having one of the new birds named after him, but being himself 

 the ostensible author of the paper, he is placed in the embarrass- 

 ing position of having named the bird after himself. 



Most of the birds subsequently collected by Townsend seem 

 to have gone direct to Audubon and were published by him in 

 the ' Birds of America,' the manuscript notes of both Townsend 

 and Nuttall furnishing most of the text. 



That the treatment of these birds by Audubon was not alto- 

 gether to Townsend's liking is evinced by a paper of his in the 

 Academy's 'Journal' after his return, as well as by MS. notes 

 in the Academy's copy of Audubon's work, wherein it appears 

 that certain of Townsend's notes were mixed and published under 

 the wrong birds. Matters of nomenclature also worried him, 

 since he claims that Agelaius tricolor was Nuttall's MS. name and 

 should have been credited to him, and that Audubon appropriated 

 it to himself. By our present rulings on MS. names, however, I 

 fear Nuttall would have been no better off to-day than if Audubon 

 had acted as Townsend thought just. 



The ultimate history of these types of Townsend and Audu- 

 bon is interesting. The former nearly all remain at the Phila- 

 delphia Academy, while the Audubon specimens were divided, 

 part being given to Edw. Harris and part to Prof. Baird. Sub- 

 sequently these were presented, respectively, to the Philadel- 

 phia Academy and the National Museum. 



This collection was the first notable contribution to the Acad- 

 emy's cabinet. By 1837, however, it contained about 1000 

 specimens, and in the succeeding ten years about 550 more were 

 added. The ornithologists who appeared on the field during 

 this period were John Cassin, S. F. Baird, A. L. Heermann, 

 William Gambel, and S. W. Woodhouse. 



1 Preface to the fourth volume of the ' Ornithologicial Biography.' 



