To B.H. Hodgson
Lord Derby wrote to me that you have written to him shall I send off his box of Specimens? The list of Drawings only refer to The Mammalia
My Dear Sir
The list sent are correct in the numbers but the names as I am aware are ludicrously wrong but this arrived from the ignorance of the copyer but I thought you would be able to recognise them when you send them back the names shall be corrected. It was quite impossible to describe the new species until the whole collection was [sorted?] that the new and old might be compared and you appeared so fearfull that we should keep all that I concluded the sooner we could get the duplicates out of the Museum the better you would be please. The Mammalia their Heads and Horns exclusive of the of the more or less imperfect skeletons which are not yet unpacked have been sorted as follows
Skins Head and Horns
British Museum 170 195
Skins Skull and Horns
Collection n. 1 102 Ind. H
n. 2 78 ? [Leiden]
n. 3 48 Paris
n.4 37 Berlin
Collection Skull etc for Col. Surg 50 [58]
Horns for India House 45
Collection 5 - 7 For Mus. Frankf
6 - 1 [?] taken by Mr. Ogilby
Horns [Promican?] to Mus. Canterbury 2-
Bird Skins
British Museum 1753
No 1. Leyden M 655
2 Paris Leyden 536
4 Berlin 411
5 Frankfurt 352
6 321
7 290
8 259
No 9 237
No 10 213
11 205
12 169
The birds names are nearly finished I much fear that there are many errors in the numbering of them two very differing kind[s] having the same number and the Bills shew they evidently do not belong to the genus of the [?]
We have seen no more of Mr. Howard. Have you written to Mr Rees of the Zool. Soc. about the Drawing? I believe they have no or very few Birds [Bones] at the Zool. Soc. The anatomical museum I mentioned was Haslar near Gosport under the care of Dr. John Richardson the arctic traveller.
Yours ever
J.E. Gray
Belgrave Mansions S[outh?]
My dear Hodgson
I had a talk with G. Marshall today about your portfolios from wh[ich] he seems to have already abstracted such memoranda as [?] on the [Capitonida?] wh[ich] is the [work?] he has in hand. The rest of the contents of y[ou]r collection he wishes to catalogue for Hume's benefit and such a catalogue is a [?] for the [?] of naturalists generally. He hopes to find time for clarifying and cataloguing all y[ou]r drawings before he leaves England and in the interval will get Hume's reply to the letter wh[ich] he has written [explaining?] all that he has seen at Alderley. We both think that [regard?] being had to his own available space you had better send me portfolio at a time. He will write to you himself on this subject. I don't think from the tenor of our conversation that Hume's [?] book presents itself to him in a more definite shape than it does to me. But there appear to be some printed sheets of the work on their way to Engl[and] and these will show us something of the plan and if you approve of this and Hume expresses a wish to profit by your notes for the rest of his book you can hereafter supply him with the materials he requires. This methinks w[oul]d be preferable to sending out all yr portfolios indiscriminately. Marshall is evidently incorrect and may be relied on for [?] that he undertakes. He expects to publish his first [no?] of the Barbets on the 1st prox[imity]. I shall not be able to visit you for another fortnight or 3 weeks - My daughter Mrs [Strepwell?] will have I find to leave London to seek a milder climate in the I. of Wight. I have been looking at the so called Maracus Pelops in the Zoo, the animal is quite different from that I believe you to have described. I s[houl]d like to see from figures and notes of all the monkees your collection may contain. You might put these with the first portfolio wh[ich] you send up to us.
With Kind Regards to
Mrs. H.
Ever Y[our]s S[incerel]y
A. Grote