DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 3 



following notice of this meeting : " April 10, 1824, I was intro- 

 troduced to the son of Lucien Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon, 

 a great ornithologist, I was told. He remained two hours, 

 went out, and returned with two Italian gentlemen, and their 

 comments [upon the bird paintings] made me very contented." 

 A warm friendship sprang iijd from this meeting, and though 

 the two saw little of each other's society, many letters joassed 

 between them. We have a glimpse of Bonaparte from the pen 

 of Audubon, written in 1827, when the former was in London, 

 having just arrived from America. "His fine head was not 

 altered, his mustachios, his bearded chin, his keen eye, all was 

 the same." At Bonaparte's lodgings Audubon was surprised 

 to hear the servant address Bonajjarte as ' ' Your Roj'al High- 

 ness." ''I thought this ridiculous in the extreme," says 

 Audubon, " and I cannot conceive how good Charles can bear 

 it; though probably he does bear it because he is good Charles." 

 Again on December 4, 1827, Audubon writes: "A letter from 

 Charles Bonaparte tells me he has decided not to reside in 

 America, but in Florence; this I much regret." 



Another ornithologist with whom Bonaparte was in close 

 touch in his early years was Titian R. Peale, whom he sent to 

 Florida at his own expense to secure material for his American 

 Ornithology. 



While in Philadelphia Bonaparte was an active member of 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences, having been elected in 1824. 

 At this time we have an interesting sketch of him in a letter 

 written by Dr. Edmund Porter, of Frenchtown, N. J., to Dr. 

 Thomas Miner, of Haddam, Conn., dated October 25th, 1825.* 

 Among a number of worthies who were present at a meeting of 

 the Academy, Porter mentions Bonaparte in the following 

 words: " Bonaparte is the son of Lucien Bonaparte and nephew 

 to the Emperor Napoleon; he is a little, set, blackeyed fellow, 

 quite talkative, and withal an interesting and companionable 

 fellow. He devotes his attention to ornithology, and has pub- 

 lished a continuation of Wilson's work on the above subject. 

 - . . C. L. Bonaparte read a Memoir on the Golden Plover. 



* See article by Witmer Stone in The Auk for April, 1899. 



