Cambridge,December 28th, 1900. 
My dear Hyatt, 
Thinking over the matter of those supposed Wilson "types" 
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which the Society inadvertently sold to Mr.Maynard and which I after¬ 
wards purchased of him, I have cone to the following conclusions:- (1) 
That while I have an undoubted technical or legal right to these birds, 
the moral right to their possession lies with the Society. (2) Feeling 
thus, I stand ready to restore them to the Society on this condition; 
viz.,that I first receive your official and formal assurance that as 
soon as may be the specimens will be put in good order, placed in a 
suitable moth-proof case or cabinet and plainly and definitely labeled 
as supposed types of Wilson's plates and descriptions with a condensed 
statement of the evidence on which this assumption is based. Inasmuch 
as a large part of the interest and value attaching to them depends on 
the preservation of their characteristic attitudes and style of mount¬ 
ing, the process of renovation should not go beyond the mending or 
otherwise restoring broken necks, wings, legs,etc., and a careful clean¬ 
ing of plumage. The specimens should then be either replaced on wooden 
stands or wired to the branches of an artificial tree. They should be 
kept in a case apart by themselves with any birds which there are equal¬ 
ly good reasons to regard as Wilson "types" and which may be found among 
the P ea-ie birds still in the Society's possession or recovered from 
those sold to Mr.Maynard. I hove in all sixteen of these Wilson-Pe- It. 
birds. One - a Glossy Ibis - I wish to retain - at least for the pres¬ 
ent - as an example of Peale's interesting handiwork in taxidermy. The 
other fifteen specimens will be delivered by my assistant Mr.Deane to 
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any person authorized by the Society to pack and remove them to its 
rooms os soon as the Society has given us its assurance that the condi- 
