THE OSPREY. 



123 



sort mig-ht be retained in the service of the col- 

 lector, as the specimens are killed without the 

 least injury to their plumage and consequentU'^ 

 in the best state for preservation. The sexes of 

 every species should be industriously soug-ht 

 after, and no pains should be spared in watch- 

 ing' their manners and habits" (Taxidermy, p. 

 5, 6.) He soon learned, also, that in the tropical 

 lands "birds will not keep beyond a daj' without 

 some degree of putrefaction taking- place; this 

 shows itself by the feathers coming- off; first on 

 the belly, and after on the front; it is, there- 

 fore, advisible not to shoot more specimens than 

 can be prepared in twenty-four hours (Taxi- 

 dermy, p. 5.) 



He "alwaj's made it a point of conscience 

 never to throw away a bird after it had been 

 killed; considering that its life would then have 

 been taken wantonly, and without any benefit 

 either to science or to useful information." 

 (Birds, i, 250). 



His industry had been rewarded by what he 

 considered to be "immense collections in every 

 branch of natural history, particularly in the 

 ornithology of the interior." He specifies: "of 

 birds, there are 760 specimens [species not dis- 

 tinguished], among which are many entirely 

 new species, and others exceedingU' rare, par- 

 ticularly' in the genus Trochilus, of which 

 family," saj's Swainson, "I am now engaged in 

 making a general arrang-ement; two or three 

 new Toucans, a singular Goat-sucker, with a 

 tail doubly forked, etc." 



SWAINSOX AFTER HIS KKTUKX FROM BKAZII,. 



Swainson, then, was back in Eng-land again 

 flushed with the consciousness of what he con- 

 sidered g-reat success. The "multiplicitj-" of 

 his collections made him "uncertain what to do 

 first". One of the first things he did was to 

 respond to a "request" of Professor Jameson, 

 the editor of the "Edinburgh Philosophical 

 Journal," and prepare for that journal "a short 

 abstract" of his "travels"; this was published 

 "without any comment, or one word of praise." 

 An unprejudiced reader would not wonder at 

 the reticence of the editor and would not think 

 that comments or praise should be expected for 

 such an account; it was indefinite and the 

 summary itself did not record remarkable 

 results. Nevertheless Swainson felt much ag- 

 grieved because no special notice was taken of 

 it, and long cherished the silence as a griev- 

 ance. He was so affected even that he aban- 

 doned all intention of publishing his results "in 

 a separate work" and was "discouraged by the 

 idea that the unpatronized researches of an 

 unknown individual might probably be thought 

 insignificant, when compared to those of natu- 

 ralists sent out b}' governments and which the 

 editor lavishly praised in the very same number 

 of his Journal" which contained Swainson's 

 account. He contrasted what he knew about 

 his own collections with what he conjectured 



about the results of his German fellow laborers 

 whom he met in Rio de Janeiro. He thought 

 that "never perhaps, was so little done bj' such 

 a party. Out of five or six naturalists, sent 

 from Vienna to investigate the botany and 

 zoology, the onl)' one who remained sufficiently 

 long to reap the harvest before him," was his 

 "friend M. Natterer; the rest, after wasting 

 their time at Rio, and making little excursions 

 in the provinces, returned to Europe.":}: What- 

 ever may be the truth with respect to the 

 German naturalists Swainson met in Brazil, 

 two then exploring in that country certainly 

 did not deserve censure. 



SPIX .\ND NATTEKEK. 



Johann Baptist von Spix, then about 26 years 

 old, was in Brazil at the same time, and, as 

 Swainson records, "the banks of the great 

 river Marinham or the Oronokoo" (so he spells 

 them?;) were visited by him. Swainson had been 

 informed even "that this naturalist was at 

 length so overwhelmed with the new objects 

 that crowded upon him in every department, 

 that he was absolutely wearied to satiety, and 

 determined on returning home to Europe, 

 justly considering that, had he still continued to 

 collect, he could never hope to make known even 

 one entire portion of his discoveries."! He 

 might have added that death supervened (1826) 

 not long after his return to Europe, and that his 

 collections were mostly worked up and published 

 by others. 



Johann Natterer, whom Swainson (Taxidermy, 

 p. 296) designates as "an acute and most zealous 

 ornithologist," was the greatest bird-hunter or 

 field ornithologist of all time. Swainson re- 

 cords his success with amazement. "His 

 Brazilian collections must be immense", he sa^'s 

 "as he assured me he had found more than 

 KMIO species in that region I" In a previous work 

 (Birds i, 1836) he had been more precise. In a note 

 to a page (260) he tells us that very recently he 

 "had the pleasure of a personal visit from Dr. 

 Natterer, whom [he] left in Brazil in 1817. 

 [Natterer had] only just returned to Europe, 

 having procured the astonishing number of 

 1070 species of birds in that vast empire." Even 

 this, however, proved to be verj' far within the 

 truth. Many 3'ears afterwards (1868-71) Nat- 

 terer's collections were submitted to a systematic 

 survey by August von Pelzeln, and the results 

 summarized in a special volume ("Zur Ornitho- 

 logie Brasiliens") completed in 1871. An "Iti- 

 nerarium" of Natterer's Travels in Brazil ex- 

 tending from 1817 to 1835 was given as an in- 

 troduction, and the mere list of places at which 

 he collected during his ten journej-s (Reise) fills 

 20 pages. Of the characteristic American 

 families of the Tyrant Flycatchers ( Tyrannidcp) 

 and Ant Thrushes (fo}-}iiicariidce) alone von 

 Penzeln records 331 species — 167 of the former 

 and 164 of the latter! 



[To be Continued.) 



tSwainson's Taxidermy, etc.. p. 345. 



§Sv\ainson of course did not forget his geography and confound the Amazon (Maranham) and Orinoco into one river although 

 his language is ambiguous. It was in the Amazon (or Maranon) basin that Spix explored with von Martius. 

 llSwainson's Natural History of Birds, i, p. 260. 



