Scattershooting a little here . . .

Three comments
1) First on museums -- should include the Brazosport Museum of Natural
History in Lake Jackson, SW of Houston, Texas which, while being broad in
overall scope, was founded on a private shell collection. They advertise now
that 13,000 shells are on public display in various halls. The website is
amateurish, and poorly linked so it's easy to get lost, but you can get a
feel for the situation here:
http://bcfas.org/museum/Exhibits/Shells/MalacologyIndex.html

2) Ross Mayhew brought up an excellent point I have been screaming about for
some time -- label changing/replacement. I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir
here, but replacing labels just begs for errors. I have been hounding
collectors and dealers to please, please, please leave original labels
attached to specimens. Even if they feel they need to add one of their own
(which I do myself), the old labels should remain attached. Some of my
older, better specimens have four and five labels attached in what becomes,
literally, a pedigree or paper trail of ownership. I consider it as
important with my Nucella as with my Pleurotomaria. In addition to the
problems noted by Ross, I'd point out the times that data is ADDED to the
label, not out of malicious intent, but out of assumptions made by
subsequent owners. Which brings up point three:

3) In response to Andy Rindsberg's note about tracing down further
information, which has many merits, especially in cases of research where
location can be critical, AND because it's just plain fun in the quest, some
cautions have to be applied. It is obvious, I hope, that having "tracked
down" an origin that this is not applied to the original tag as though the
location was noted by the collector (another example for keeping ALL the
tags). It is critical that any such "deductive" pinpointing of a location or
date be so noted in unequivocal terms on any written material specifically
ascribed to a specific specimen. The museum and zoogeographical world is
replete with errors made from labelling assumptions -- among my specialty
Holospira yucatanensis, which actually occurs only on a single limestone
outcrop in Texas. No need to cite others, everyone here is familiar with
them. I just beg that labelling ex post facto be so noted (and once again i
think I'm preaching to the choir, Andy included, but i had to get it off my
chest).

sincerely,
blue
austin, texas

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