122 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



published in 1831, and also to his Birds of Europe 

 (1832-37). In the preface to the latter work, "J. J. 

 Audubon, Esq.," and twenty others are thanked "for 

 the warm interest which they have at all times taken in 

 the present work"; it was also said that the greater part 

 of the plates of this series, those of his Century of Birds 

 from the Himalaya Mountains and his Monograph on 

 the Trogons, as well as three-quarters of those of the 

 Monograph on the Toucans, "have been drawn and lith- 

 ographed by Mrs. Gould, from sketches and designs by 

 myself always taken from nature." It should be no- 

 ticed also that Gould appeared as a subscriber to The 

 Birds of America in 1838, but his name was soon 

 dropped. 



Gould was preeminently a museum naturalist, of 

 strong commercial instincts, and spent but little time in 

 the field. His books were mainly composed of illustra- 

 tions made by artists from stuffed specimens, with a 

 text of so thin a quality as to possess little scientific 

 value ; but, as Alfred Newton has remarked, a scientific 

 character was so adroitly assumed that scientific men 

 have often been deceived. In his best work, that on 

 the Humming Birds, 29 the plates are enlivened by nu- 

 merous specimens of tropical flowers and fruits, an ac- 

 cessory not so noticeable in his early productions. It 

 has been said that Gould sought and received Audubon's 

 aid in the composition of some of his plates, and that 

 thereafter his figures began to show more vitality. The 

 over-zealous writer quoted above 30 made the charge that 

 Gould not only received much unacknowledged aid from 

 Audubon, but copied his drawings; he mentioned five 



29 A Monograph of the Trochilidce, or Family of the Humming -Birds; 

 5 vols., fol., with Supplement by Bowlder Sharpe, London, 1861. 



30 Charles Winterfield, see Bibliography, No. 148. 



