"Detectives fear that almost 300 rare and "irreplaceable" tropical birds stolen from the Natural History Museum's ornithological collection could be ripped to shreds for use as fishing lures, dress adornments and costume jewellery.Curators at the museum's bird collection in Tring, Hertfordshire, noticed that dozens of specimens had gone missing following a break-in on 24 June.
Although the thieves left behind more than 8,000 "specimen types", including the finches collected by Charles Darwin in the Galápagos, they took 299 birds." Guardian article continues here.
