DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 5 



During his residence in Italy, Bonaparte published the Fauna 

 Italira, 3 vols., which appeared between the years 1833 and 1841. 

 He also published two smaller works — the Comparison of the 

 Birds of Rome and Philadelphia, and of Europe and North 

 America, while he was a frequent contributor to many scientific 

 journals. 



Bonaparte, as shown by letters that are still preserved, was a 

 liberal patron of the Philadelphia Academy in those early days 

 when it was a struggle indeed to keep such institutions in ex- 

 istence. His letters show also a decided appreciation of humor, 

 for on one occasion he writes from New York commenting on 

 the grand opera that he had attended, and states that owing to 

 the prevailing influenza the audience was constantly coughing 

 and sneezing, "which supplied in a pretty awkward manner 

 the deficiency of instruments in the orchestra." This letter 

 ends with a plea to his friend Dr. Hays of the Academy, "For 

 God sake," he says, "don't throw a feather away of those East 

 Indies birds before I have examined them. Some may prove 

 interesting. ' ' 



No direct issue in the male line survive to perpetuate the 

 name of the ornithologist, though he had a number of children 

 — one Cardinal Bonaparte, of Italy, died in 1895, and another, 

 Charles, died in 1899. A brother of the ornithologist, Louis 

 Lucien Bonaparte, was celebrated as a philologist, especially for 

 his work on the Basque language and on various European 

 dialects. 



Alexander Wilson will always hold a distinctive place as the 

 pioneer worker in American ornithology. Audubon was the 

 artist, the gifted painter of our bird life. Both of these men 

 were poet and artist rather than scientist. It was Charles 

 Lucien Bonaparte who first placed American ornithology on the 

 firm basis of science. 



