674 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 
he offered 
“his services in collecting whatever in the several departments of zoolo¬ 
gy was desired, such as birds, small mammals, reptiles, Crustacea, and in¬ 
sects, especially insects from Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota.” 
J. E. Gray of the British Museum obtained specimens of mam¬ 
mals, birds, freshwater fish, reptiles, shells, and insects. Dr. 
Brewer writes, March 25, 1855, that Dr. Baird wanted bird skins 
for himself and the Philadelphia Academy of Science. W. Peters 
of the Zoological Museum of Berlin, Germany, ordered, on No¬ 
vember 4, 1852, and February 20, 1864, from Kumlien, snakes, 
cotton rat, harvest mouse, soft-tailed mouse, gopher, prairie dog, 
kangaroo rat, tortoise, 500 insects, reptiles, and squirrel. 
F. M. von der Walp, The Hague, on June 5, 1867, wrote Thure 
Kumlien in part: 
“In the government’s museum of natural history at Leyden were 
received, one or two years ago, North American diptera, which were sent 
there by you. Having applied myself since several years on the study of 
that order of insects, the conservator of the entomological part of the 
museum, Mr. Snellen van Vollenhoven, has brought these diptera under 
my eyes, and I have helped him in determining them. As I was occupied 
with this work, I found among them several very interesting species. 
Since the last time also the North American diptera have attracted much 
the attention of European entomologists, and this has excited my desire 
to become acquainted with these insects. It is with this purpose that I 
take the liberty to write you the present letter.’” 
Kumlien was asked by Prof. E. Fries, prefect for the Royal 
Botanical Garden at the University of Upsala, Sweden, to collect 
plants, seeds, and specimens of natural history. He furnished a 
cabinet of natural history “birds and animals, mounted by him, 
to the Albion Academy (19).” In his earlier days, before enough 
land was cleared and the wild-cat money became reliable, he sought 
to exchange eggs, skins, and other natural history specimens for 
books on ornithology. 
Mr. William Brewster, in 1880, assistant in charge of the col¬ 
lection of birds and animals for the Boston Society of Natural 
History, and in 18855 curator of ornithology at the Museum of 
Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, obtained a collection of bird 
skins labeled with dates, locality, and sex, as was the usual prac¬ 
tice. Kumlien collected for and sent to Mr. Edward August 
Samuels, Boston, in 1864, many wild bird skins, eggs, and nests. 
