CASSINIA 



n- ^ ?, \^^ 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE DELAWARE VALLEY 

 ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



No. IX. PHILADELPHIA, PA. 1905. 



Charles Lucien Bonaparte 



BY SPENCER TROTTER 



In one of his essays Emerson speaks of the interest that we 

 take in a man who has some pursuit in life otlier than that 

 which appears upon the surface of his daily affairs. The most 

 common-place fellow is seen in a new light when we find that 

 behind the business or professional face there lurks a knowledge 

 of birds, or botany, or butterflies. This view of the personality 

 of a man becomes still more interesting when his name is asso- 

 ciated with that of deeds vastly different from the quiet pursuit 

 of a science. 



Here is one whose name conjures up the thought of empire 

 and the pageant of war, but whose joy in life was far removed 

 from such vainglories. To most minds there is but one Bona- 

 parte. As a young ornithologist I used to connect the name of 

 BonaiMrte's Gull with that of Le Petit Caporal and it was some- 

 what of a surprise, one of those agreeable surprises, to find that 

 a near kinsman of the emperor was an ornithologist. 



The subject of this sketch was the eldest son of Lucien Bona- 

 parte, brother of Napoleon, and Charles was therefore a nephew 

 of the emperor. He was born in Paris on the 24th of May, 



