WCP4672

[1]

Broadstone, Wimborne

Nov[embe]^r. 11th. 1905

Dear Mr. Hartert¹

I sent Mr. Birch² a copy of your letter a fortnight back, and am sure that he will be glad to accept Mr. Rothschild's³ offer for the Lepidoptera, and will send him a consignment direct as soon as he is able to make a small collection; but he has not yet left Trinidad as he is waiting for the Company's boat to take him, with the Manager, to Santa Catalina.

Will you please inform ^me exactly how Mr. Rothschild wishes the [2] Lepidoptera to be sent. The butterflies I suppose in papers. But does he wish the moths also to be sent in papers, as I understand some collectors now prefer them; or if the smaller ones are to be pinned does he wish them set or left in their natural attitudes.

Mr. Birch has collected no birds yet ^{as those of Trinidad were not worth collecting} but he will I am sure now send you a few skins as a sample of his work.

Has the rare humming^bird you mentioned, Hylonymplia macrocerca, been figured or described in the Ibis, & if so in what number. [3] If not, can you send me a rough outline, or Col[ore]^d. sketch, which Birch can show to some of the native hunters who may then be able to obtain it, if it is really found in that district. You may be sure Birch will go to the mountains some time, but he must ^first collect hard around Santa Catalina itself, which will probably be much better for insects, as there is much wood-cutting Ec. going on, road making &c.

Believe me | Yours very truly | Alfred R. Wallace [signature]