1 88 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



of which had been battered to pieces in attempting to kill the 

 bats which had entered the open window ! I stood amazed ; 

 but he continued jumping and running around and around 

 until he was fairly exhausted, when he begged me to procure 

 one of the animals for him, as he felt convinced that they be- 

 longed to a new species. Although I was convinced of the 

 contrary, I took up the bow of my demolished violin, and, giv- 

 ing a smart tip to each bat as it came up, we soon had speci- 

 mens enough." 



A part of the story of this visit, which Audubon does not 

 tell, may be briefly related here : Audubon was a great artist, 

 and his paintings of birds and flowers excited the wonder and 

 admiration of Rafinesque, as they have that of generations 

 since his time. But Audubon was something of a wag withal, 

 and some spirit of mischief led him to revenge the loss of his 

 violin on the too ready credulity of his guest. He showed him 

 gravely some ten grotesque drawings of impossible 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 English settlers. These Rafinesque duly copied 

 into his notebooks, and later he published descriptions of them 

 as representatives of new genera, such as Pogostoma, Aplocen- 

 trus, Litholepis, Pilodictis, Pomacampis, and the like. 



These singular genera, so like and yet so unlike anything 

 yet known, have been a standing puzzle to students of fishes. 

 Various attempts at identification of them have been made, but 

 in no case have satisfactory results been reached. Many of 

 the hard things which have been said of Rafinesque's work rest 

 on these unlucky genera,* " communicated to me by Mr. Au- 

 dubon." The true story of this practical joke was told me by 

 the venerable Dr. Kirtland, who in turn received it from Dr. 

 Bachman, the brother-in-law and scientific associate of Audu- 

 bon. In the private notebooks of Rafinesque I have since 

 found his copies of these drawings, and a glance at these is 

 sufficient to show the extent to which science through him has 

 been victimized. 



* 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 un- 

 lucky practical joke. 



