552 Retrospective Criticism* 



calumnies yet assiduously circulated by a few, elected him 

 (Mr. Audubon) an associate, and subscribed for a copy of his 

 magnificent work; and the society from which he had for- 

 merly been rejected paid him the same tribute of respect." 

 (Featherstonehaugtt s Journal, p. 461.) 



Mr. Waterton will understand whether or not my father 

 enjoys " fair fame" in America, by the following fact : — The 

 government of the United States furnished Mr. Audubon with 

 a vessel, in which, and with the boats and crew to assist him, 

 he explored the Floridas, the Keys and Tortugas Islands, in 

 the winter and spring of 1832. Mr. Waterton may further 

 expand his mind on this subject, if he likes, by looking at 

 American papers. 



I think every one of your readers will join me in believing 

 that my father is much better employed for the interests of 

 science, in exploring Labrador, than in bestowing a thought 

 upon his envious detractors. 



Allow me a few words more, after returning my thanks to 

 R. B. for his interest [p. 369 — 372.] in my father's good name. 



Who was really the scientific assistant of my father, he has 

 himself declared in his first volume: — M I feel pleasure in 

 here acknowledging the assistance which I have received from 

 a friend, Mr. William Macgillivray, who, being possessed of a 

 liberal education, and a strong taste for the study of the na- 

 tural sciences, has aided me, not in drawing the figures of my 

 illustrations, nor in writing the book now in your hand, 

 although fully competent for both tasks, but in completing 

 the scientific details, and smoothing down the asperities of my 

 ornithological biographies." {Introduction, p. 18.) 



Ignorant of the science of natural history myself, I have 

 enquired among the eminent scientific naturalists of the me- 

 tropolis what Mr. Waterton has done to entitle him to assume 

 the office of censor general ; but the answers I have received 

 are somewhat unsatisfactory. He has written, it seems, an 

 amusing book; but whether of facts, or of fables, is differently 

 believed. In this book he calls the American birds by their 

 Indian names, being obviously unacquainted with those they 

 have received from Buflfon and Linnaeus, so that what little 

 information he gives of their manners is positively useless, 

 until he publishes an Indian vocabulary. Finally, Mr. Wa- 

 terton, professing to be learned in the ornithology of America, 

 very complacently tells us (p. 163.) that "Azara is totally 

 unknown" to him I 



This, for an American ornithologist, is like an astronomer 

 asking who was Sir Isaac Newton ? Mr. Waterton, by this 

 single admission, proclaims his own degree of intelligence : 

 even I can inform this " learned Theban," that Azara, for 



