Vol. XVI "I Ston - Ei Some Philadelphia Collections and Collectors. I^C 



the sum that I should draw for early the next morning. I kept 

 my appointment, the prince met me, declared the collection 

 agreed with the catalogue, on which I gave his highness a 

 cheque on Messrs. Green and he gave me a receipt and handed 

 me the keys of the cases, and I sealed them up, the affair being 

 settled in a few minutes. 



" Having finished my work sooner than I expected, and it still 

 being early, I went to call on my dear old friend Prof. 

 DeBlainville and had breakfast with him. He asked me what 

 brought me to Paris. I said, among other things, to purchase 

 the Prince Massena's Collection of Birds, which I had clone; on 

 which he became much excited and said that the French Gov- 

 ernment had intended to purchase it and that he must take 

 measures to prevent its leaving France. I said I was not aware 

 that the Government wanted it for I knew it had been for several 

 years in the market, and it was now too late, as I had paid for 

 the collection, which was now in my possession, and I showed 

 him the keys of the cases and the receipt for the money. At 

 length my good and kind friend became pacified." l 



This collection comprised some 12,500 specimens, and its 

 acquisition, as Thoreau - says, "by a Yankee, over all the 

 crowned heads of Europe," was greatly to the credit of American 

 energy and enterprise. 



Dr. Wilson followed this purchase with that of the Gould col- 

 lection of Australian Birds, and the Boys Indian collection, 

 besides securing many small collections, so that when the whole 

 was formally presented to the Academy it comprised about 26,000 

 specimens, including some 600 types of Gould, Cassin, Bonaparte, 

 Temminck, Lafresnay, Vieillot, Lesson, Smith, Sclater, Verreaux, 

 and Strickland. 



Such a collection as this, brought together at such an early 

 date, was indeed wonderful, and though John Cassin worked at 

 it until the time of his death, and described some 200 new species, 

 there remained probably several hundred doubtfully named birds 



Annals and Magazine of Nat. Hist., 1869, Vol. Ill, p. 317. 

 1 Journal, Nov. 21, 1854, after a visit to the Academy. 



