SIDELIGHTS ON CONTEMPORARIES 107 



intended that I should give all the scientific information I 

 have laboured to acquire during twenty years on ornithology — 

 conceal my name, — and transfer my fame to your pages & 

 to your reputation. 



Few have enjoyed the opportunity of benefiting by the ad- 

 vice and assistance of a scientific friend so much as yourself; 

 and no one, I must be allowed to say, has evinced so little in- 

 clination to profit by it. When I call to mind the repeated 

 offers I have made you to correct the nomenclature of your 

 birds, from the first time of our acquaintance, and recollect 

 the dislike you appeared to have to receiving any such infor- 

 mation or correction, I cannot but feel perfect surprize at 

 you now wishing to profit by that aid, you have hitherto been 

 so indifferent about. 



Let me however urge upon you one advise which, for your 

 own sake, I should be sorry you despised. It is to characterize 

 yourself, or get some friend to do so for you, all your new 

 species. The specimens, you tell me, are now in England, & the 

 task will be comparatively easy. I urge this, because you may 

 not be aware that a new species, deposited in a museum, is of no 

 authority whatsoever, until its name and its character are 

 published. I have repeatedly set my face against such authori- 

 ties, so has Mr. Vigors, so has Ch. Bonaparte, and on this head 

 we are all perfectly unanimous. Unless, therefore, this is done, 

 you will, I am fearful, loose the credit of discovering nearly 

 all the new species you possess, and this I again repeat, for 

 your own sake I should be sorry for. To me, individually, your 

 not doing so, would rather be advantageous. 



The more a book is quoted, the more is its merits admitted, 

 and its authority established, it was on this account I so 

 repeatedly requested the v^e only, of a copy of your book, 

 that it might have been cited in "Northern Zoology" ^^ not 

 having it — I could not therefore mention it 



I shall always be as thankful to you as formerly for any 

 information on the habits, economy, and manners of birds; 



"^See Note, Vol. II, p. 105. 



