Retrospective Criticism. 551 



be palmed upon the credulity of mankind ; and it is a pity 

 that anything like countenance should be given to it, by re- 

 publishing it in a respectable journal. The romances of 

 Audubon rival those of Munchausen, Mandeville, or even of 

 Mendez de Pinto, in the total want of truth, however short 

 they may fall of them in the amusement they afford ! ! ! " 

 Will Mr. Waterton say how such an article can be answered ? 



As, however, some persons may credit Mr. Waterton and 

 this anonymous calumniator, the following corroboration of 

 the fact that rattlesnakes feed on squirrels confirms all that 

 my father has said on this subject : — 



" When Lieut. Swift, of our army, was engaged on a survey 

 in Florida, in 1826, his attention was suddenly called to a 

 group of his men, within about 100 ft. from where he stood. 

 They had just killed a snake, which the men assured him 

 they had seen seize a grey squirrel on the limb of a tree, about 

 15 ft. from the ground, and fall to the earth with it. When 

 Lieut. Swift had arrived at the place, the snake was already 

 killed, and much mangled. He did not examine it for the 

 rattle ; but his Florida hunters, who are as familiar with the 

 appearance of the rattlesnake as we are with that of the chicken, 

 told him that it was a rattlesnake. " ( Feather stonehaugh's 

 Journal, Philadelphia, Nov. 1831.) 



We will now see the reason why Mr. Audubon's first sci- 

 entific honours were received in Liverpool rather than in 

 America. 



" Some of the friends of Wilson did not view with the most 

 cordial spirit those evidences of transcendent merit which 

 others willingly accorded to Audubon's drawings. Then arose 

 the spirit of party, and with it malevolence. A few small 

 minds, who knew little or nothing of nature, and who had 

 officiously intruded themselves into this matter, endeavoured 

 to make up for their want of knowledge on the subject, by 

 excess of bad zeal. Opinions were industriously circulated, 

 that Audubon had, in many instances, attempted to impose 

 upon the credulity of the world, by inventing stories which 

 had no foundation in truth, because they were contrary to the 

 known habits of the animals they concerned ; as if the habits of 

 the animals of this vast continent could possibly be known to 

 any other class of men, but that adventurous one, which, like 

 Audubon, had passed their whole lives in observing them." 

 (Featherstonehaug/is Journal, April, 1832.) 



This bad feeling, like all others, whether on this or on the 

 other side of the Atlantic, triumphed but a short time ; for 

 "The American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, at a full 

 meeting of its most respectable members, disregarding the 



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