Alexander von Humboldt in Amazonia, Darwin on the Beagle voyage, and much else that is either very rare or historically important or both. 亚历山大·冯·洪堡在亚马孙河流域采集的标本，以及达尔文在乘“贝格尔”号船远航中采集的标本——还有其他大量标本，不是非常稀有的，就是具有重要历史意义的，或者二者兼之。

Many people would love to get their hands on these things. A few actually have. 许多人会喜欢伸出手去摸一摸，有的还真的这么做了。

In 1954 the museum acquired an outstanding ornithological collection from the estate of a devoted collector named Richard Meinertzhagen, l954年，博物馆从一位名叫理查德·迈纳茨哈根的热心的收藏家那里获得了一批出色的鸟类标本。

author of Birds of Arabia, among other scholarly works. 迈纳茨哈根是《阿拉伯半岛的鸟类》的作者，还写过许多别的学术著作。

Meinertzhagen had been a faithful attendee of the museum for years, 在许多年里，他一直是博物馆的一名忠实的参观者，

coming almost daily to take notes for the production of his books and monographs. 为了写自己的书和专著差不多每天都来做笔记。

When the crates arrived, the curators excitedly jimmied them open to see what they had been left 箱子到达以后，管理人员连忙撬开来看看里面是什么东西，

and were surprised, to put it mildly, to discover that a very large number of specimens bore the museum's own labels. 说得婉转点儿也是吃惊地发现，大批标本上贴着博物馆自己的标签。

Mr. Meinertzhagen, it turned out, had been helping himself to their collections for years. 原来，迈纳茨哈根多年来一直在为他们“收藏”标本。

It also explained his habit of wearing a large overcoat even during warm weather. 这就解释了为什么他有穿大衣的习惯，即使在暖和的夏天。

A few years later a charming old regular in the mollusks department—"quite a distinguished gentleman," I was told, 几年以后，软体动物部门的一位可爱的老常客——人家告诉我，他“还是一位挺杰出的绅士”

was caught inserting valued seashells into the hollow legs of his Zimmer frame. 正当他把价值连城的海贝壳塞进他的齐默助行架的空心腿里时，他被当场发现。

I don't suppose there's anything in here that somebody somewhere doesn't covet, “我认为，总是有人对这里的东西垂涎三尺。”

Richard Fortey said with a thoughtful air as he gave me a tour of the beguiling world that is the behind-the-scenes part of the museum. 理查德·福泰一面领着我参观博物馆的不对外开放部分，一面若有所思地说。