THE OSPREY. 



"I shall always be as thankful to you as for- 

 merly for any information on the habits, econo- 

 my, and manners of birds; but, as to species, I 

 want not, nor do I ever ask, the opinions of any 

 one. that is quite a different matter, and enter- 

 taining peculiar ideas on that subject, you must 

 not feel surprised at my differing from you in 

 almost ever}' instance. My reasons will always 

 be laid before the public. In the present case, 

 we totally differ about species of Woodpeckers. 

 I shall not, however propitiate a favourable 

 opinion from you. or any one, by a compliment 

 and therefore I will wait for some species which 

 you yourself will admit, which I shall then give 

 your name to. lam rather glad you did not accepl 

 my offer, for I am now assisting in bringing out 

 an Octavo edition of Wilson, by SirWJardine 

 which will be arranged according to my nomen- 

 clature. 



Yours my dr Sir 



Very faitliy 



W Sw UN son" 



Dr. Cones adds that "though the proposed 

 literary partnership thus fell through, the two 

 men continued on the most friendly personal 

 terms. Audubon repeatedly speaks handsomely 

 of his friend Swainson in his Journals; they 

 were often together, both in England and in 

 France; each dedicated a new species to the 

 other; and one of the most complimentary re- 

 views Audubon's wovk ever received was from 

 Swainson's pen." 



These comments of Coues might leave a mis- 

 taken idea in the reader's mind if not explained. 

 As has been already indicated, the "most com- 

 plimentary" review referred to was written by 

 Swainson before he saw Audubon, the notices 

 in the Journal were entered during Audubon's 

 first visit to England, and then only was there 

 any intimate intercourse. Swainson. in his Pre- 

 liminary' Discourse, in his work on Birds, and in 

 his Taxidermy, animadverted on Audubon's work 

 and it is probable at least that he cherished a 

 grudge against his former intimate friend. At 

 least, there is no evidence that the two ever met 

 or had personal intercourse with each other or that 

 Audubon paid a visit of several days to Swain- 

 son after his letter. Swainson's vanity and 

 sensitiveness must have been sadly wounded by 

 the reflection that his name was not considered 

 an offset to any subtraction from Audubon's re- 

 putation, but both were too much men of the 

 world to cease communication entirely for such 

 a cause. 



As Coues has said, later Swainson dedicated 

 to Audubon a Woodpecker (Picus Audubonii,* 

 now known as Dryobates villosus audubonii) in 

 1831, and Audubon returned the compliment 

 with a Warbler (the Sylvia Swainsonii\ now 

 called Helinaia or Helmitheros% Swainsonii) in 

 1834. 



Audubon was not long in securing the services 

 of an associate less punctilious than Swainson, 

 and he made arrangements with Dr. William 

 MacGillivray, then of Edinburgh, so that he 

 might consider the want of fruition of his in- 

 tercourse with Swainson a "fortunate failure." 



The "Picus audubonii," however, was a con- 

 ditional species in the opinion of Swainson. It 

 was based on a specimen of "Picus (Dendro- 

 copusi villosus" from Georgia "intermediate be- 

 tween the Pennsylvania specimens of villosus 

 and the Picus querula [sic!] of Wilson" [— -Dry- 

 obates borealis\. Swainson had "seen but one 

 specimen." He dedicates it in these terms: 

 "Should it eventually prove a distinct species, 

 we wish to record it by the name of our friend, 

 M. Audubon, whose exquisite Illustrations of 

 Birds of his native country justly entitles him 

 to this tribute of our admiration; and we trust 

 our friend will be able to procure a sufficient 

 number of specimens from his native province 

 (Louisiana), to establish the Pints Audubonii as 

 a species in his great work."§ 



Note that Swainson ex-anglicizes Audubon 

 by the prefix M. ! Like some other Englishmen 

 he divided civilized mankind into two great 

 sections, the English-speaking to whom the 

 prefix Mr. was restricted, and the non-English 

 on whom was forced the denomination of M., 

 whether French, German, Spanish, or other. 



Audubon repudiated this species. In 1839 in 

 the fifth volume of his his < Ornithological Biog- 

 raphy, (p. l'l-l.l he has "Audubon's Woodpecker, 

 Picus Auduboni, Trudeau," and at the end of 

 preliminary remarks, adds: "My friend Mr. 

 Swainson has also named after me a wood- 

 pecker, procured in Louisiana, || but which I be- 

 lieve to be only an immature specimen of Picus 

 pubescens." All recent ornithologists, however, 

 concur in considering the Pirns audubonii of 

 Swainson and that of Trudean as conspecific. 



This adoption by Audubon of a name which 

 he well knew had been previously used for a 

 species of the same genus is a remarkable in- 

 stance of his want of appreciation of usage 

 among naturalists. Indeed, the entire history 

 is remarkable. Trudeau. in his "Description of 

 a New Species of Woodpecker" in the Journal 

 of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 

 delphia, (vii, 404-406,) describes the "Picus Au- 

 duboni" as a new species without any reference 

 to Swainson. He claimed that "this species 

 resembles the Hairy and Downy Woodpeckers in 

 plumage, but is very distinct, and is interme- 

 diate in size between them. It seems in fact to 

 form a passage from the Hairy to the Downy 

 Woodpecker." It was based on a single bird 

 killed by Trudeau near New Orleans. 



The descriptions of both Swainson and Tru- 

 deau have been read with specimens of the 

 southern Hairy Woodpecker (Dryobates villosus 



*Fauna Bor.-Am.. ii, 306. 



fOrn. Bioi:., ii, 563. 



XHelmithi TOh has been transformed into UelmilUhotherus by Salvin and Godman and so adopted by Sharpe fCat. Birds B. 

 M., X, 229). But. as Prof Augustus C, Merriam has shown. HetmUheros is correctly formed and in accordance "with a large 

 number of models, as lexitheros". There is "a stem, hetmi, used by Aristotle, which, with the addition of -thtrus [or -theron] 

 from ther, would give the word of Rafinesque exactly and legitimately." 



§Swainson in Fauna Bor. Am.. II. 306. 



flSwainson, it should be recalled, claimed Georgia as the provenance. 



