278 BRITISH BIRDS. 



and patriotism of some wealthy collector, which he could 

 press with irresistible force, or by interesting some 

 departing traveller or explorer in the birds of the regions 

 he proposed to visit, or by impressing on his chiefs the 

 absolute necessity of acquiring by purchase this or that 

 collection, he generally managed to have his way, and 

 thus gradually to absorb every bird that he considered 

 was a desirable acquisition for the national collection. 

 It was indeed a difficult thing for anyone to say no, 

 whether he happened to be the owner of some magnificent 

 collection which Sharpe coveted or some intrepid 

 explorer fresh from a remote region of the globe with 

 a series of specimens which he (the traveller) particularly 

 wished to keep as a memento of his journey, or the chiefs 

 of his Department from whom sanction to a purchase 

 had to be obtained, one and all were utterly unable 

 to resist the boundless enthusiasm, the fervour, the 

 intensity with which the Head of the Bird Room urged 

 his appeal for the enrichment of the national collection. 

 How successful were his efforts may be known when it 

 is stated that in 1872 the cabinets in the Department of 

 Zoology contained not more than 35,000 ornithological 

 specimens, whereas at the present time half-a-million 

 specimens would probably be under the mark — and this 

 increase has taken place notwithstanding the continual 

 weeding out of absolute duplicates. 



Among the private collections of birds and eggs 

 which, owing to the munificence of their owners, were 

 incorporated in the national collection during Dr. 

 Sharpe's curatorship, were those of Mr. Allan Hume 

 (Indian), Messrs. Salvin and Godman (General), Colonel 

 Wardlaw Ramsay (Tweeddale collection, Asiatic), Mr. 

 Henry Seebohm (General), Colonel Biddulph (Kashmir 

 and Turkestan), Mr. C. B. Rickett (Chinese), and Mr. 

 F. W. Styan (Chinese), while the acquisitions further 

 included the Wallace collection (Malayan), the Sclater 

 collection (American), the Shelley collection (African), 

 Sharpe's own collection (African), the Gould collection 



