IG The Wilsox Bui.i.ktix — No. G2. 



land, who in turn received it from Dr. Bachman : "AudulDon 

 showed him gravely some ten grotesque drawings of im- 

 possible fishes which he had observed 'down the river,' with 

 notes on their habits, and a list of the names by which they 

 were known by the French and luiglish settlers. These, 

 Rafinesque duly copied into his notebooks and later he pub- 

 lished descriptions of them as representatives of new genera, 

 such as Pagostoina, Aphcentnis, Lifholcpis, Pilodiciis, Poma- 

 campcs, and the like. I am informed by Dr. J. A. Allen that 

 there are also some unidentified genera of Herons, similarly 

 described by Rafinesque from drawings kindly shown him by 

 Mr. Audubon. Apparently these also date from the same 

 unlucky practical joke."^ 



Audubon's description of the Small-headed Warbler, ac- 

 cording to his own confession, appears to have been taken 

 thirty-two years after the drawing was made I "In those 

 happy days, I thought not of the minute difiference Ijy which 

 one species may be distinguished from another in words or 

 the necessity of comparing tarsi, toes, claws and quills." It 

 would seem, too, that he must have been somewhat at fault 

 as to either the locality or the date of capture, unless it was 

 made on a visit immediately preceding his permanent re- 

 moval from Mill Grove, an event extremely improbable, since 

 there is so much to urge against it in the absence of exact 

 information as to the dates of his earlier trips. He has told 

 us that he was married at Fatland Ford (near Philadelphia), 

 April 8th, 1808, and left on the day following for Louisville, 

 Kentucky. The overland trip to Pittsburgh, on which Mrs. 

 Audubon met with a painful accident incident to the up- 

 setting of the coach on the mountains, must have required a 

 week at least. There was the usual delav incident to the load- 

 ing of a flatboat with their many goods, and its passage down 

 the Ohio almost wholly dependent on the current which 

 Wilson gave at two and a half miles an hour, so that it was 

 quite probably already late in April wdien the mouth of the 

 Big Sandy was reached, beyond which lies the nearest Ken- 

 tucky soil, with Louisville several hundred miles further 

 ' Youman's Life of Rafiiies(]iie. 



