22 PEOCBEDIKGS OF TKB 



Lesson), which a few years afterwards led him to break a lance 

 for his foreign friends in an article entitled " Vindication of cer- 

 tain French Naturalists." Audubon soon conceived the idea of 

 publishing some letterpress to his collection of pictures, but as he 

 himself did not possess the requisite leisure or qualifications, he 

 was searching for assistance. At that time he does not seem to 

 have been acquainted with Macgillivray ; at least his name does 

 not appear in any of his letters. So he placed a plan of the 

 intended work before Swainson, who declined the proposal. This^ 

 as well as Audubon's return to America in 1831, led to the discon- 

 tinuance of the correspondence, which afterwards was resumed for 

 a short period only. 



Prince Bonaparte's letters to Swainson are of a very diiferent 

 chai'acter, and entirely devoted to a variety of ornithological sub- 

 jects. He also was anxious to secure Swainson's co-operation in 

 a joint work, having previously made his personal acquaintance 

 during a visit to England. In 1838 he proposed to Swainson to 

 take up his residence with him at Rome for the object of preparing 

 a Catalogue of all the species of Birds known, then estimated to be 

 7000-8000 in number. Sv^ainson entered into this proposal ; but 

 the conditions which he attached to his share of the woi'k (the 

 immediate purchase of his private collectioa for =£500 being one of 

 them) did not appear to be acceptable to Bonaparte. Probably 

 it was fortunate for both parties that the scheme proved abortive, 

 for Swainson could never have carried out his part of such a 

 gigantic undertaking. He had worked now at high pressure 

 for years without interruption. His encyclopsedic contributions 

 covered a wide field, indeed, and they alone might have occupied 

 the energies and time of an indefatigable writer. But beside 

 these engagements he continued other scientific work, such as the 

 Birds in the ' Pauna Boreali- Americana,' the ' Birds of Brazil and 

 Mexico,' the second series of his ' Zoological Illustrations.' For 

 many of these volumes he himself prepared the illustrations. 

 We cannot wonder that Swainson fell hopelessly into arrears ; and 

 the letters of Sir J. Richardson and various publishers are full of 

 reminders of the dangerous delays in his works, no doubt engender- 

 ing a growing desire for a total change of his surroundings and 

 occupation. 



Also the building of Quinarism, in the erection of which 

 Swainson had taken so much pride, began to totter ; and the 

 rapidity of its collapse shows that besides W. McLeay, Vigors, 

 and Swainson, it had but few sincere supporters. Among Swain- 

 son's correspondents, J. McClelland, the Indian naturalist, appears 

 to be the only one who unreservedly adopted quinarian views ; he 

 considers himself to be a victim of persecution on account of 

 them. Kirby declines to oiFer an opinion on Swainson's arrange- 

 ments of Lepidoptera ; and Selby, who elsewhere gave a modified 

 assent to a quinarian system of Birds, never alludes to the matter 

 in his letters. In fact, the few correspondents who entered into 

 a discussion of the subject, did so in response to Swainson's 



