28 The Life and Writings of 



make the hero of the episode as ridiculous as possible. 

 The story never found its way into print until Rafinesque 

 had for some years ceased to be a resident of the State, 

 and even then, in its original form, dared not name him 

 as the real hero ! But this failure to name Rafinesque 

 makes the turpitude of Audubon the greater. And add 

 to this another episode in itself far less harmful than 

 the bat story, but infinitely more disreputable in its 

 nature and results, and the reader of Rafinesque has just 

 cause of complaint. Audubon played upon the credulity 

 of his guest, who had implicit confidence in him as a 

 brother naturalist. The host simply lied to Rafiuesque, 

 and seeing him eagerly accept the proffered bait still 

 further abused his confidence and did a most unmanly 

 act, one which has caused great annoyance and loss of 

 time to succeeding naturalists. Audubon drew figures 

 of some impossible fish, giving them gaudy coloration 

 and glowing descriptions, and supplied Rafinesque with 

 what purported to be notes of fact ; all of these Rafinesque 

 duly copied into his own note-book. Furthermore, the 

 host described to his guest impossible limpet-like shells, 

 said to live in the Ohio, and these were likewise carefully 

 noted. Later, Rafinesque used these so-called facts as the 

 bases of new genera and species ; then Audubon employed 

 the data known only to himself to make Rafinesque ridic- 



