Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen was an ornithologist of high repute. In 1954, he donated his entire collection of 20,000 bird skins to the museum. What seemed to be one of the museum's most valuable acquisitions is now under investigation by curator Robert Prys-Jones. Robert, show me some of what you've found in some of these birds here. These are specimens of redpulls, which are a quite common small bird in Europe. These three specimens are Meinertzhagen specimens, supposedly collected in France in the 1950s. However, it is clear from external appearance that they have been prepared in two very different styles. These are quite well stuffed compared with this one. This one's head is tilted further back. The third has clearly been prepared by a different hand. Everyone who prepares bird skins, leaves their own personal trace in the little idiosyncrasies of how they go about it.


理查德·迈纳茨哈根上校是位颇具威望的鸟类学家。1954年他将所有收藏都捐给了博物馆，一共有2万份鸟类标本。这些博物馆最有价值的藏品，正在接受管理员罗伯特·普瑞琼斯的检查。 罗伯特，说说你的发现吧。 这些是朱顶雀的标本，它是欧洲一种很普遍的小鸟。这三个是迈纳茨哈根的标本，应该是收集于上世纪50年代的法国。但从外观能够明显看出，这是由两种不同方式制成的，这两只中填充物要比这只的多，这只的头更加后仰。第三个标本的制作者显然另有其人，鸟类标本的制作者，都会在标本上留下手法特征。