THE OS PREY. 



29 



THE OSPREY. 



An Illustrated Magazine of Popular Ornithology. 

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November and D< ■ 



Comments. 



SWAINSON CORRESPONDENCE. 



In the last number of the Ospkev (p. 13) the 

 announcement was made that the Linnean 

 Society of London had recently secured a large 

 collection of letters from various writers to 

 Swainson covering a number of years, and that 

 the president of the society, Dr. Albert Giinther, 

 would use them as the basis for his next annual 

 address. The number of the "Proceedings of 

 the Linnean Society of London" during its 

 "112th session", containing that address, has 

 now been received in Washington. The address 

 was delivered at the "anniversary meeting" held 

 ".May 24. 1911!)." and is entitled "The unpub- 

 lished correspondence of William Swainson with 

 contemporary naturalists (1806-18+0)." The cor- 

 respondence is really of contemporaries with 

 Swainson rather than Swainson's own letters. 

 The address covers eleven pages (14-24) and is 

 followed by a "Catalogue of the Swainson cor- 

 respondence in the possession of the Linnean 

 Society" extending over 36 pages (25-61). 



The accumulation of letters in question, it 

 seems, was offered to the society some time in 

 1899, and "the council, after much deliberation, 

 decided to secure documents which throw much 

 light upon the life, character, and work of the 

 men to whom we are indebted for the progress 

 made by natural science in [Great Britain] dur- 

 ing the first forty years of the present century." 

 The sum of ,£50 i a bout 250 dollars) was agreed 

 upon as the price of the manuscripts and three 

 of the fellows of the society contributed that 

 sum and a fourth "promised to defray the cost 

 of the binding so that the correspondence will 

 be on the sheh es of the [society's] library free 

 of charge to its exchequer. " It appears, then, 

 that the correspondence is now accessible and in 

 good shape for reference. We are certainly 

 much indebted to Dr. Giinther for thus arrang- 

 ing it, and for his valuable commentary on it. 

 It is replete with interest to ornithologists 

 generally, and especially to American ornitho- 

 logists. 



Dr. Giinther remarksof this correspondence: — 



"The letters are generally in a good state of 

 preservation, considering that they accompanied 

 Swainson to New Zealand, where they were 

 kept for half a century lief.. re they were return- 

 ed by one of his daughters to England, to the 

 care of Sir Joseph Hooker. The writing- has 

 faded and, in a few letters, has become illegible- 

 There are 934 of them, written by 2.s<> correspon- 

 dents, only 15 being drafts of letters from 

 Swainson. They are dated from the year 1806 

 to 1840, thus extending over the entire period ..I 

 his scientific activity. The numerical propor- 

 tions in which they are distributed over the 

 several years show that the collection before us 

 must lie a fairly complete representation of 

 Swainson's scientific c irrespondence. There is, 

 however, one year. viz.. 1>o2. in which the col- 

 lection is evidently mutilated; only four letters 

 bear that date, and they are from writers whose 

 names commence with B. so that there can be 

 no doubt that the greater portion of the corres- 

 pondence of that year is lost. Also for the years 

 1835 and 1836 only a few letters are in existence: 

 but this can be accounted for by the death of 

 Swainson's first wife, whose loss was a sad blow 

 to him. greatly impairing his powers of applica- 

 tion to original work. The thought of emigrat- 

 ing and freeing himself from the ceaseless toil 

 of his numerous literary engagements origi- 

 nated at that period." 



Dr. Giinther has misnamed two of the men 

 indexed in the Swainson correspondence — 

 Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and L'Herminier, both 



