centuries.Nevertheless, Rasmussen preferred museum specimens to sight records because the birds themselves can actually be examined.The230,000 South Asian specimens in museums in the United States and the United Kingdom, however,were themselves collected not by academic ornithologists, but by wealthy amateurs.Thousands of specimens were credited to a single British collector,Colonel Richard Meinertzhagen(1878-1967), who was admired in his day both as a war hero and as an ornithological genius.In fact,Meinertzhagen's specimens constituted the sole evidence fori4 South Asian species.