Stuffed birds stolen from British museum

TRING, England, Aug. 13 (UPI) -- Three hundred rare stuffed tropical birds stolen from the Natural History Museum at Tring near London may have been used for fishing lures, investigators say.

The collection, described as "irreplaceable," was stolen from a room at the museum not open to the public, the Daily Mail reported. The birds were in three cabinets.

Bright bird feathers are prized as lures for fly-fishing.

The break-in was discovered July 24, police say. At the time, museum officials thought nothing had been taken because the most valuable items, including stuffed finches collected by Charles Darwin in the Galapagos Islands, were untouched.

A few days later, a researcher found empty drawers. When museum staff took an inventory, they found 299 birds, all members of brightly colored species such as the bird of paradise from New Guinea and quetzals and cotingas from South America.

Detectives say the thief must have had some inside knowledge of the private collections. Most specimens not on public display are kept in drawers labeled only with the scientific name of the species.