and river mollusks—which he had already himself partly named to—Dr. Pfeiffer, of Hesse Cassel; while he reserved the insects for German and North American specialists.
After other journeys to Vuelta Abajo, Gundlach decided to gather all his collections under one roof. He furnished for that purpose a room on the upper floor of the infirmary of the sugar estate "Fermina" (Bemba), where the valuable Cuban Museum of Natural History was installed during the holy week of 1864.[1] There all the zoölogical species, especially birds, were represented by specimens of both sexes, young and old, their eggs and nests, with cases of albinism and melanism and anomalous features, especially of the bill. In 1866 Gundlach prepared—arranging and packing—the specimens for the Cuban exhibit in the Paris Exposition of 1867. The exhibit included a collection of land and river mollusks, a Cuban herbarium, and a collection, no less valuable, of woods and textile plants; geological and mineralogical collections; sections of fossils; and other specimens of the products of the island. In it the collection of the Academy of Sciences of Havana was added to Gundlach's own.
The breaking out of the Cuban insurrection in 1868 made the continued exploration of the island impracticable, and Gundlach turned his eyes to Porto Rico. He visited that island in 1873, and traversed, investigated, and studied to great advantage the surroundings of Mayagüez, Aguadilla, Quebradillas, Arecibo, Guanica, Utuado, and Lares. The six months work done here did not, however, satisfy him, and he returned in 1875, when he also explored Jayuya, Vegabaja, and Bayamon. Receiving news of the burning by the rebels of some estates near the "Fermina" sugar plantation, he at once abandoned everything to go to the rescue of the museum, his only treasure.
In 1884 he started anew in the direction of Santiago de Cuba and Guantanamo in search of certain birds and butterflies. Although he did not find the immediate object of his quest, his labor was rewarded by the acquisition of other specimens which speedily found their way to the university, the Institute of Havana, and other scientific centers. He returned in 1885, having with him, among other trophies of his enterprise, several good specimens of the ivory-billed woodpecker, a species which, thanks to the careless destructiveness of hunters, is becoming quite rare, and of the Papilio Gundlachianus. "Every trip to the mouth of the Aguadores River," he wrote to the author of this
- ↑ The Gundlach Cuban Museum is certainly worthy of special attention. A more detailed account of the treasures it contains is in preparation. The collections are now deposited in a private hall of the Institute de Segunda Enscüanza of Havana. In April, 1890, it held 4,135 species.
