The moment Pamela Rasmussen saw the article, she froze in fear.

Rasmussen was an ornithologist at the Smithsonian Institution.

It was 1996, and she was putting together a field guide on the birds of India.

She had tens of thousands of specimens and field reports from across the subcontinent to examine.

It was overwhelming.

Thankfully, she had a few guiding lights, ornithologists she could draw on who had done reliable

work there. Without them, she would flound her, which is why the article disturbed her. It was about

Richard Minertzhaagen, one of those trusted sources. Before his death in 1967,

he was considered the great ornithologist of his generation. He did fundamental work in India,

collecting 14 species that no one else had seen there. But the article was accusing Minerzhaigen

of fraud. The accusation centered around red poles,

brown and white finches with what looked like a smear of strawberry jelly on their chests.

Miner Tigen had collected some in France once before donating them to a museum in London.

At least that's what he'd claimed. According to the article, Minor Tuygen had not collected the

specimens. He had stolen them from another museum in England. He had then changed the labels to make

it look like he had found them in France, all to prove a pet theory of his. Rasmussen did not believe

the article at first, didn't want to, but the evidence it laid out

was damning.

She finished it with a sinking feeling.

To be sure, the accusations involved only birds in England.

Maybe his work in India was still sound, and Minardt's Hagen had a reputation as tireless,

someone willing to tramp farther and search more

...