Transcribe Hornaday, W. T. Letter to McBride, T. H. (1886-03-22)

will yield it by the time you are ready for it. I want this animal to be the crowning piece of the whole collection, to stand in the center of the hall, without a case (unless you prefer to have it in one), to be the center of attraction. This specimen when in place will be my especial representative, and so far as I can control the circumstances, it shall be the finest of all. At my request, Prof. Ward has gone over all these specimens and named the cost of mounting in each case, which to save time I have ^had^ entered in the list opposite the name of the object. Knowing as I do the cost of doing good work in taxidermy on dry skins, I must say that I think his prices are about right all the way through. In a few instances, where certain skins promise to be extremely difficult to mount, owing to the state of their preservation, he has marked them higher than his published rates for "average" specimens--which is about as I expected.