Retrospective Criticism. 4<65 



father's absence ? and immediately step forward to assure the 

 Americans that his father, on his return to his own country, 

 " would be quite able to prove the correctness of all that he 

 has said on the natural history of America?" 



When I deem it imperative on me to make comments on a 

 printed work, I never stop to enquire about the author's resi- 

 dence ; and I take this opportunity to inform the public, 

 that, whenever I may find any passage in an author which 

 tends to invalidate the correctness of statements in the Wan- 

 <derings, I shall buckle on my armour without loss of time. 



In 1832, I learned, for the first time, that Mr. Audubon 

 had given, in Jameson's Philosophical Journal, a new theory 

 concerning the faculty by which the vulture traces its food. 

 Finding that new theory diametrically opposed to what I had 

 written of the vulture in the Wanderings, I forwarded to Mr. 

 Loudon's Magazine [Vol. V. p. 233 — 241.] a minute account 

 -of my observations on that bird ; being fully aware that, if 

 Mr. Audubon's new theory were allowed to stand, my state- 

 ment in the Wanderings must necessarily fall to the ground. 



Sometime after this, Mr. P. Hunter, a gentleman who, it 

 seems, is a most fervent admirer of Mr. Audubon, sent a 

 very copious extract from the new theory, which had appeared 

 in -Jameson's Journal, to be inserted in [Vol. VI. p. 83 — 8&. of] 

 this Magazine ; requesting, at the same time, that the works 

 of Audubon " might be allowed to speak for themselves." 

 This was quite as it ought to be. But, pray, are those works 

 to have the privilege of speaking for themselves, evidently to 

 my utter condemnation as a correct ornithologist ; and / be 

 supposed to hold my tongue, because, forsooth, Mr. Audubon 

 4i has returned to the forests of America, and is unable to 

 answer for himself? " 



If Mr. Audubon, junior, feels alarmed for his father's 

 reputation as a naturalist, at the menacing attitude I have 

 assumed in defence of my own book (bless the banding I), I 

 would recommend to him either to refute my arguments, or 

 send over an express to his father to come back from Ame- 

 rica without loss of time, and mount guard over his own 

 Biography of Birds ; which shall feel the weight of my arm 

 in earnest, if the son returns me sarcastic thanks a second 

 time. He might add in the express, that a person who 

 signs himself R. B., in Mr. Loudon's last Magazine [p. 372.], 

 is doing that which will make his father, on his return, ex- 

 claim, " Oh, save me from my friends !" — - Charles JVatertotu 

 Walton Hall, July 6. 1833. 



Mr, Audubon again 

 Vol. VI. — No. 35. 



. — A person who signs himself R. B. 

 I lo ah H a Jon Lib °.uui ? nodubu A .u/3 



