THORNS ON THE ROSE 87 



shadow on his Wanderings. Some of these accusing ar- 

 ticles were answered by Victor Audubon and other 

 friends of the naturalist, but they never drew his own 

 fire; probably they benefited him in the end, for when 

 it appeared that the charges brought against him were 

 in large measure the work of envious calumniators, a 

 strong current set in his favor on both sides of the 

 Atlantic. 



When Audubon's name was first proposed for mem- 

 bership in the Academy of Natural Sciences at Phila- 

 delphia, it was rejected, according to report, through 

 the influence of George Ord and a few of his partisans, 

 while Waterton, who was Mr. Ord's close friend and 

 correspondent, affirmed that Audubon was rejected by 

 the Society on the strength of Alexander Wilson's per- 

 sonal diary, 26 a statement which appears to be utterly 

 incredible. 27 



In 1833, two years after the first volume of Audu- 

 bon's "Biography of Birds" had made its appearance, 

 Waterton raised another controversy, in this instance 

 with ammunition supplied by his friend, George Ord 

 of Philadelphia. He boldly proclaimed 28 that Audu- 

 bon was not the author of the work which bore his name, 

 a charge similar to that which had been brought to 

 the door of the French ornithologist, Le Vaillant, whose 

 history resembled Audubon's in many ways. "I request 

 the English reader," said Waterton, "to weigh well in 

 his own mind what I have stated, and I flatter myself 

 that he will agree with me, when I affirm that the cor- 



26 See Vol. I, p. 224. 



27 "I myself, with mine own eyes, have seen Wilson's original diary, 

 written by him at Louisville, and I have just now on the table before me 

 the account of the Academy of Sciences indignantly rejecting Mr. Audu- 

 bon as a member, on that diary having been produced to their view." 

 See Bibliography, No. 119. 



28 See Bibliography, No. 119. 



