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Catalogue number: WP1/8/57
Letter from Ernst Hartert, bird curator at the Tring Zoological Museum, to Wallace describing numbers of particular bird species identified, dated January 1910.
Ernst Hartert, the bird curator of the Zoological Museum at Tring (now called The Natural History Museum at Tring), sent greetings and answered questions posed by Wallace. Wallace wanted to know how many bird species, of particular regions, had been recognised. Hartert's reply: approximately 950 in Papua New Guinea, 883 in Australia (including Tasmania and New Zealand), and approximately 700 in the Philippines. Hartert ends the letter reporting the death of Dr Sharpe, Vertebrate Zoology Keeper at the British Museum.
At almost 87 years old, Wallace still maintained an interest in advances in natural history. Wallace also made enquiries to the museum about butterfly species and insect colouring.
For enquiries about the Wallace Collection please email the library
View high resolution scans and transcripts of Alfred Russel Wallace's correspondence, including all surviving letters between him and Charles Darwin.
