296 



Correspondejice. [J"'y 



A certain museum in this State, wisliing to increase its local collection 

 of birds, engaged the services of a professional taxidermist and collector, 

 whose reputation for honesty was supposed to be above suspicion. He 

 was furnished with lists of desiderata, and instructed to supply the species 

 as soon as they could be obtained; it being distinctly understood, how- 

 ever, that only birds actually taken within the limits of a certain county 

 would be accepted by the institution. For a time everything worked to 

 the satisfaction of all concerned. Birds fairly poured into the museum, 

 the cases were filling fast, and the collector's zeal and energy were not less 

 evident than gratifying. His success in obtaining rarities was remarkable, 

 for in less than two ^-ears he supplied specimens of nearly every spe- 

 cies which has ever occurred in Massachusetts. This of itself should 

 have early caused suspicion; but, fortunately for him, none of the officers 

 of the institution were ornithologists ; so such birds as Rough-winged 

 Swallows, Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Wilson's Plover, etc., continued to 

 be received with perfect confidence in the carefull}' recorded data which 

 accompanied them. 



At length, however, a gentleman familiar with Massachusetts birds 

 visited the museum, and upon examining its local collection became con- 

 vinced — from evidences which need not be mentioned here — that all was 

 not as it should be. The curator, at first unwilling to believe ill of his 

 trusted ally, was finally induced to put a watch on his movements, and as 

 a result discovered that he was ordering bird-skins in numbers from 

 various dealers; and, furthermore, that there was little doubt that many 

 of these skins were afterwards mounted for the museum and, supplied 

 with imaginary data to suit the requirements of each particular case, were 



sent in as veritable County specimens. Through the kind cooperation 



of one of these dealers (who, it should be said, had been hitherto ig- 

 norant of the use to which his birds had been put), positive proof of this 

 was speedily obtained, marked skins (whose labels were carefully re- 

 corded) being furnished by him to the collector, who at once fell into the 

 trap, and after mounting and relabelling them sent them to the institution. 



When directly charged with this and similar practices, the hardened 

 wretch denied his guilt with the utmost eftVontery, nor was it until he had 

 been confronted by the proofs that he finally broke down. It is satis- 

 factory to add that he was forced to disgorge his ill-gotten gains, and 

 that the officers of the museum recovered nearly, if not quite, the whole 

 of the money which had been paid him. 



In the present connection it is not necessary — while it would be, for 

 certain reasons, ungracious — to mention the name of the institution 

 above referred to, especially since it has purged its cases of all specimens 

 to which the slightest suspicion can attach ; but no considerations, whether 

 of mercy or personal delicacy, can warrant the witholding of the col- 

 lector's name. His off'ence is not simply that of wilfully defrauding a 

 trusted employer; it reaches — or at least might have reached — very 

 much further. For had his falsely labeled specimens passed unchal- 

 lenged, dozens of erroneous records would have been inevitably published 



