CHAPTER XXIX 



SIDELIGHTS ON AUDUBON AND HIS 

 CONTEMPORARIES 



What was a Quinarian? — Controversy over the authorship of the 

 Ornithological Biography — Audubon's quaint proposal — Swalnson's 

 reply — Friendship suffers a check — Species-mongers — Hitting at one 

 over the shoulders of another — Swainson as a biographer — His career — 

 Bonaparte's grievance — A fortune in ornithology — Labors of John 

 Gould and his relations with Audubon — The freemasonry of naturalists. 



Few, probably, ever attain marked success in their 

 chosen field without exciting jealous rivalry or misrep- 

 resentation on the part of some of their contemporaries. 

 Audubon was no exception to the rule, but in this respect 

 he has been subject to so much misunderstanding that 

 the reader is entitled to know the truth, whenever it can 

 be ascertained. An instance of this sort was furnished 

 by the English naturalist, William Swainson, whose 

 relations with Audubon have been touched upon in 

 earlier chapters. 



In April, 1828, Swainson published an eulogistic ac- 

 count of some of Audubon's plates, and shortly after 

 they became good friends, as their familiar letters al- 

 ready reproduced amply testify ; ^ in the autumn of that 

 year, as we have related, they visited Paris together, 

 and they kept up a correspondence for a number of 

 years. At this time Swainson was known as a systematic 

 zoologist of merit and an excellent draughtsman, hav- 



>See Chapter XXIII. 



