JrSE-^1, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



683 



* were pirated by the Standard Xatiiral i/iV- 

 tonj,' I beg to say that it is incorrect -tind 

 libelous. The matter concerns me, as one 

 of the authors of the Standard Xatiiral History, 

 and also as the author of the Kcij to Xorth 

 American liirds, in several later editions of 

 ■which many of the same illustrations ^\■ere 

 used by my publishers, Messrs. Estes & 

 Lauriat, of Boston. As ' piracy,' like pla- 

 giarism, implies dishonest}-, the allegation 

 thus made by Dr. C. Hart Merriam, who 

 signs the article, is too serious to be over- 

 looked. 



Nevertheless, being ready to believe that 

 Dr. Merriam erred through inadvertence, 

 I am prepared to accept an apology, in so 

 far as I am personally concerned; but I am 

 not authorized to state that this will be con- 

 sidered satisfactory by the other parties 

 who have been thus libeled. 



Yerj^ truly yours. 



Elliott Coues. 



Washixgtox, D. C, Junes, 1895. 



[The word piracy ma}' be used in two 

 senses — moral and commercial. When I 

 wrote the article in which it was stated in- 

 cidentally that the Brehm plates in the 

 Standard Xatiiral Higtory were pirated, I be- 

 lieved that thej' were in both senses. Among 

 the reasons for this belief maj- be mentioned 

 the following : 



1. The book itself contains no statement 

 of the fact that the illustrations are taken 

 from Brehm. 



2. The anatomist P^iirbringer states that 

 he searched in vain for a copy of the Stand- 

 ard Xatural Uidory in Germany (Journal 

 fur Ornithdogie, Apr., 1892, 138). 



3. It is stated in the Xatura- Xoi-itates, 

 Berlin (Vol XV., No. 1, Jan., 1893, p. IS, 

 nr. 32(5), that the work 'may not be im- 

 ported into Europe on account of the re- 

 production of the Brehm woodcuts.' [• Darf 

 in Europa wegen Nachdruck der Brehmschen 

 Holzschnitte nicht eingefuhrt werden.'] 



4. The name of the artist, Miitzel, was 



era.sed from many of the copied plates. 

 When the attention of the editor was called 

 to this injustice, he replied : '• The cutting 

 out of Miitzel's name was a business ne- 

 cessity."! 



If, in spite of the above fiicts, the cuts in 

 question were sold to tlie publishers of the 

 Standard Xatural History by the publishers 

 of Brehm's Thierleben, I withdraw so much 

 of my original charge as may be inferred to 

 imply connnercial piracy ; but I by no 

 meams retract the charge of moral jjiracy — 

 the greater oflense of the two, because it 

 has no legal redress. 



Is the deliberate reproduction of another's 

 pictm-es without credit less censurable than 

 the reproduction of another's words or ideas? 

 And wliat shall one say when the sin of 

 plagiarism is darkened bj' the erasure of 

 the artist's name, so that neither artist nor 

 author may be known? 



Just why Dr. Coues mentioned his Key 

 to North American Birds, and his publishers, 

 Estes & Lauriat, who by the waj' were not 

 the publishers of the Standard Xatural His- 

 tory, is hard to understand, inasmuch as 

 neither were mentioned in the review to 

 which he takes exception. 



Since the above note wiis sent to Scienxe 

 I have received a letter from the publishers 

 of Brehm's Thierlehen in Leipsic. They 

 state that they sold to Estes & Lauriat cer- 

 tain electrotypes from Brehm, to be used by 

 Estes & Lauriat only, ' under an agreement 

 according to which it was forbidden to 

 Messrs. Estes & Lauriat to resell these elec- 

 trotypes.' They state further: " As we had 

 been informed that notwithstanding this 

 settlement our electrotypes had been resold, 

 we called ilessrs. Estes & Lauriat to ac- 

 count, and they were forced to confess that 

 thej- had resold the electrotypes " to three 

 diflerent firms! 



In reply to my question : " Were the 

 electrotypes sold by you to S. E. Cassiuo & 

 Co., and publislied in the Standard Natural 



