400 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
stories had produced." On April 6 the persistent Mr. 
Loudon called again and offered Audubon eight 
guineas for an article, only to be again refused. Still 
unwilling to admit defeat, the editor proposed to en- 
gage William Swainson to prepare an extended review 
of the naturalist’s work, and in this he succeeded so well 
that Audubon immediately relented and sent him a 
paper.’* Swainson offered to write the review for a 
copy of the work at its cost price, and Audubon replied 
in the following letter: *° 
Audubon to William Swainson 
Lonpon, April 9th 1828. 
My pear Sir, 
Mr. Loudon called on me yesterday and showed me a letter 
from you to him, in which many very flattering expressions re- 
specting myself and my works you are so kind as to offer to 
4 See Chapter XXVIII. 
“The seventh which he had contributed to the scientific press of 
Europe, entitled “Notes on the Bird of Washington (Falco Washing- 
toniana), or Great Sea Eagle,” now believed to have been mistaken by 
him for an immature stage of the true “bird of freedom,” the White- 
headed Eagle. It was dated “London, April, 1828,” and was published 
in Loudon’s Magazine for July of that year. See Bibliography, No. 23. 
** From the originals in possession of the Linnean Society of London. 
Swainson’s scientific correspondence was taken with him to New Zealand, 
where it remained fifty years, until returned by his daughter, who sent 
it to Sir Joseph Hooker; it was finally purchased by a number of Fellows 
of the Society, and presented to its historical collections. It consists of 
934 letters written by 236 correspondents, from 1806 to 1840. Of the 
24 letters written by Audubon, and dated 9 April, 1829, to 11 January, 
1838, none has been previously published. Dr. Albert Giinther, who has 
given a summary of their contents (Proceedings of the Linnean Society, 
112th Session, 1900; Bibliography, No. 204) found them rather disappoint- 
ing, since they dealt mainly with personal and domestic matters, and 
were written in a style characterized as “fantastic and unnatural.” 
Through the kindness of my esteemed friend, George E. Bullen, Esq., 
of the Hertfordshire County Museum, St. Albans, and through the 
courtesy of the Council of the Linnean Society and its secretary, Dr. 
Daydon Jackson, I am able to reproduce transcripts of the most inter- 
esting of these letters, which readers in America will, I believe, find 
interesting because of their personal details. I am indebted also for 
their good offices to John Hopkinson, F.L.S., and to William Rowan, Esq. 
