THE OOLOGIST. 



11 



In the short period of five years, this 

 obscure man, was lifted from his ob- 

 scurity into fame immortal." When he 

 returned to America, he brought his 

 wonderful portfolio of paintings of 

 British birds in natural colors. Assist- 

 ed by the secretar.y, Dr. Coues lifted the 

 massive portfolio, (measuring 24 by 3i 

 feet) upon the table. It had originally 

 been very handsome, of leather and 

 brass bound; although now it is very 

 dilapidated, having lost three of its 

 corners and being torn and scratched. 

 .'But portfolios of Audubon's ai'e not 

 always brought empty even to an A. O. 

 U. conyention in the Museum of Nat- 

 ural History." said Dr. Coues, and 

 ■ every one anticipated a pleasant sur- 

 prise, nor were they dissapointed. Pain- 

 fully slow the eminent ornithologist 

 •opened the covers and tantalizingly he 

 'Cut the string which bound the con- 

 rtents, then held up one of the original 

 drawings of John James Audubon. In 

 his latter years Audubon had a very 

 original way of drawing his bird pict- 

 ures. If one had chanced to look at 

 the drawing of one of his sons, they 

 would have seen a funny vacant space 

 in the middle, and it was into this 

 space that Audubon pasted his bird 

 picture, having cut it out around the 

 edges, the boys drawings forming the 

 background. But the question arose as 

 to the descriptive matter for his many 

 plates, and Dr. Coues held up the origi- 

 nal manuscript of Audubon's Life his- 

 tories. "Miss Audubon has a habit of 

 giving a sheet of this manuscript some 

 times, to her clo.se friends and insisted 

 upon my taking two" said the scientist. 

 Dr. Coues then pi'oceeded to give 

 some interesting inside facts concern- 

 ing Audubon's efforts to obtain a scien- 

 tific man who could give satisfactory 

 technical names to the birds which he 

 had discovered and given an English 

 nomenclature. His first efforts were to 

 secure William Swainson who although 

 very learned had a "w'eel in his head." 



In Swainson's reply to Audubon s letter 

 he said that many times before he had 

 offered to give technical names, but 

 had met with solid refusals, and now 

 that Audubon wished to use the knowl- 

 edge which had taken twenty long 

 years to acquire without giving proper 

 credit even on the title page, he felt 

 obliged to refuse. Thus it was that 

 William Macgillivray was given the 

 task of applying scientific names. This 

 said Dr. Coues averted a terrible crises 

 which would have taken place if either 

 Swainson or Audubon had undertook. 



Recently Messi's. Charles Scribner's 

 Sons have consented to publish Audu- 

 bon's European Journal of 1833 and the 

 Missouri Journal of 1843. Dr. Coues 

 said that he had read the proofs, and so 

 one can see that it is well under way. 

 Audubonian societies are springing into 

 popular favor and through their efforts 

 an immense amount of good is being 

 done both in protecting bird life and 

 popularizing ornithology. At last the 

 people are beginning to realize the im- 

 portance of Audubon's woi'k, and have 

 erected monuments in New York and 

 New Orleans and others will follow. 



As the Doctor spoke he distributed 

 a number of Audubon's original pict. 

 ures of birds together with some of his 

 son's, John Woodhouse, through the au- 

 dience. A photo of Audubon's oil paint- 

 ing as it hangs in the dining room of 

 the family in Salem, N. Y., showed the 

 naturalist as he appeared in his earlier 

 life. Dr. Coues then summed up by 

 saying that "when Audubon was good 

 he was very good in his way, and when 

 Audubon was bad he was very bad in 

 his way" that is, in regard to his bird 

 pictures. He then compared the rising 

 young painter, Louis Agassiz Fuertes, 

 with Audubon in this way and then criti- 

 cized some of his pictures in a friend- 

 ly way. After the Doctor had finished 

 and retired Mr. Fuertes arose and 

 walking up to Dr. Coues shook his 

 hand, and although one could not hear 



