THE OSPREY. 



105 



brate animals than all other naturalists of this 

 country [Britain] put together", and that "out 

 of between one and two hundred which [he] 

 thought it necessary to name, not one has been 

 admitted which did not bear upon (his] primary 

 object, that is, of distinguishing one type of 

 form from another." 



Materials for a knowledge of his character 

 and career exist in an autobiographical memoir 

 in his "Taxidermy, with the Biography of Zool- 

 ogists", and in an obituary notice in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Linniean Society of Londcjn. 

 These have been drawn on for a notice by (i. 

 S. R. (Boulger) in the "Dictionary of National 

 Biography (vol. 55, p. 192, 103). 



Swainson, unconsciously paraphrasing a ver- 

 dict of the great English biographer of the last 

 century,* apologizes that while it "cannot be 

 otherwise than egotistical," autobiograph}' is 

 "the most authentic of all records" for informa- 

 tion of one's life. His own autobiography is in- 

 teresting and lets in light on his character. He 

 wished, too, to have it widely known.] Never- 

 theless, another treatment of the subject matter 

 may be more useful and such we venture here 

 to give. 



The biographical sketch given in the "Dic- 

 tionary of National Biography" is reproduced 

 becatise the data given by Swainson are well 

 condensed and because it may interest as a 

 sample of the method pursued in the compila- 

 tion of the great British work. 



But materials for understanding and ap- 

 preciating Swainson appear in a quarter not 

 hitherto exploited. Audubon made the acquaint- 

 ance of Swainson not long after his first arrival 

 in England, and soon became intimate with him. 

 In his journals published nearly three years ago 

 (1897) by his talented grand-daughter, Miss 

 Maria R. Audubon, some interesting entries 

 record various episodes of the intercourse of the 

 two. These, throwing light on both of our nat- 

 uralists, are herein reproduced in part. 



Besides these sources of information sundry 

 details have been found in various works of 

 Swainson referred to in their proper places, cer- 

 tain controversial articles, and the life and 

 travels of Rafinesque. 



The very words of Swainson and Audubon for 

 their various statements are repeated when such 

 could be done without detriment to the con- 

 tinuity of the narrative. The advantages of 

 such a course are too obvious to need defence or 

 apology. 



BIOGKAPHICAI, SYNOPSIS. |: 



William Swainson (1789-1855), naturalist, was 

 born on the 8th of October, 1789, at Liverpool, 

 where his father, who died in 1826, was collector 

 of customs. His family had originalh^ been 

 "statesmen" at Hawkhead in Westmoreland; 

 but his grandfather had also been in the Liver- 

 pool custom-house. His mother, whose maiden 



name was Stanway, died soon after his birth. 

 At fourteen he was appointed junior clerk in the 

 Liverpool customs; but to gratify his longing 

 for travel, his father obtained him a post in the 

 commissariat, and in the spring of 1807 he was 

 sent to Malta, and shortly afterwards to SiciU', 

 where he was mainl}' stationed during the eight 

 following years. Before going abroad, he drew 

 up, at the request of the authorities of the Liver- 

 pool museum, the "Instructions for Collecting 

 and Preserving Subjects of Natural History" 

 (privately printed, Liverpool, 1808), which was 

 afterwards expanded in 1822 in his "Naturalist's 

 (iuide" (London, 8vo.; 2nd edit. 1824). While 

 in Sicily he made large collections of plants, 

 insects, fish, and drawings of natural history 

 objects, visiting the Morea, Naples, Tuscany 

 and Genoa. On the conclusion of peace in 1815, 

 he brought his collections to England, and re- 

 tired on half-pay as Assistant Ouartermaster 

 General. In the autumn of 1816 he started for 

 Brazil with Henry Koster. A revolution pre- 

 vented their penetrating far into the interior, 

 and Swainson devoted himself mainly to collect- 

 ing birds in the neighborhood of Olinda, the 

 Rio San Francisco and Rio de Janeiro. Return- 

 ing to Liverpool in 1818, he published a sketch 

 of his journey in the "Edinburgh Philosophical 

 Journal", and devoted himself to working out 

 his zoological materials. At the suggestion of 

 his friend William Elford Leach of the British 

 Museum, he learnt lithography, so as to make 

 drawings of animals suitable for colouring, and 

 in 1820 began the publication of "Zoological 

 Illustrations" in which the plates are by himself 

 (3 vols. 1820-3, with 182 coloured plates:' 2nd sen 

 3 vols. 1832-3). After five years' residence in 

 London, Swainson went, on his marriage in 

 1825, to live with his father-in-law at Warwick, 

 and, not receiving as large an access of fortune 

 as he had expected on the death of his own 

 father in 1826, he adopted authorship as a pro- 

 fession. He partly revised the entomology in 

 Loudon's "Encyclopaedia of Agriculture and 

 Gardening", and arranged a companion Ency- 

 clopaedia of Zoology. This plan was, however, 

 merged in Lardner's "Cabinet Cyclopa-dia", to 

 which Swainson contributed eleven volumes 

 from his own pen, published between 1834 and 

 1840, besides one on "The History and Natural 

 Arrangement of Insects" (1840), written in con- 

 junction with William Edward Shuckard. In 

 preparation for this series of works he visited 

 the museums of Paris in 1828 under the guidance 

 of Cuvier and Geoifroy St. Hilaire, and, to be 

 within reach of London, settled at Tittenhanger 

 Green, near St. Albans. From the first he 

 adopted a quinary system based on the circular 

 system of William Sharp Macleay, and several 

 volumes in the "Cabinet CAxlopaedia" series 

 are devoted to elaborate expositions of these 

 extremely artificial but professedly natural 

 systems "of classification in various groups of 



*Johnson in the Idler quoted by Boswell in the introductory chapter of his first volume. 



tin the Literarj' Gazette for Au.^ust 8, 1S40, in a notice of Swainson 's Taxidermy, we are told that "perhaps the amusnis: and 

 frequent illustration of his character is to he found in the autobiographical sketch of himself, which he has not only included in 

 this portion of his volume, but induced his publishers to forward on a separate sheet with the sujoined note: 



"Messrs. Longman, Orme, and Co., will feel particularly obliged if the Editor of the [blank] will permit the 



above Autobiography to appear in his columns at the first suitable opportunity. 



"39 Paternostfr Roir, July 29, 1S40." 



iJExtract from Dictionary of National [English] Biography, vol. 55, p. 192, '193. 



