164? 



MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. Retrospective Criticism, 



Remarks in Defence of [Mr. Audubon'] the Authoi' of the 

 " \_Biography of the] Birds of America " [VII. 66.], hy the 

 Rev. John Bachman, Charleston, South Carolina, — Although, 

 from my profession and habits, I feel no disposition to enter 

 into controversy, yet, having had opportunities which few 

 others possess of becoming acquainted with the occupations 

 and literary acquirements of Mr. Audubon, and being 

 prompted, not alone by feelings of private friendship, but by 

 a desire that full justice should be awarded him for those ex- 

 penses, sacrifices, and privations which he has undergone, I 

 take the liberty of stating what I know on this subject ; and I 

 have reason to believe, from the characters of the writers who 

 have doubted his veracity and the authenticity of his works, 

 that, with the generosity of feeling so distinctive of those who 

 are engaged in liberal and kindred pursuits, they will be gra- 

 tified to assign him the meed of praise which he so undoubt- 

 edly merits. 



It appears that exception has been taken to two publica- 

 tions of Audubon's ; one on the habits of the rattlesnake, and 

 the other on the habits of the turkey buzzard (Cathartes Aura). 

 The latter publication is now lying before me ; the former I 

 have not had an opportunity of seeing; but, from what I 

 gather from some communications in [this] Journal, it appears 

 that he ascribed to the rattlesnake some of the habits of the 

 common black snake (Coluber constrictor Zm.), as ascending 

 trees in search of game, feeding on squirrels, &c. He also 

 mentioned the remarkable fact, of their living a considerable 

 length of time in confinement without food. 



[Here follows, in the manuscript, an extract of some length 

 from Featherstonehaugh's Monthly American Journal of Geo- 

 logy and the Natural Sciences, Nov. 1831, p. 221. (the commu- 

 nication to that work to which Mr. Audubon, jun., has, in our 

 VI. 551., referred), and a variety of evidence from Dr. Cooper, 

 Dr. Leitner, Dr. Randolph, and Mr. Hockley ; the amount 

 of which is, that " at least five well-defined species of rattle- 

 snake are now found in this extensive country;" that rattle- 

 snakes, of one or other species, climb and have been seen on 

 fences, and on trees, and on bushes, and that one has been 



