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APPENDIX. 



boil's bitten our wise men of London and of modern 

 Athens ! 



I have always been of opinion that it was your hand 

 (see Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, vol. vi. 

 p. 550) which guided young Audubon's pen against me 

 in the affair of the vulture's nose ; and I have purposely 

 introduced your unfortunate encounter with his father's 

 rattle-snake by way of balancing the account. 



Believe me, Sir, you have a vast deal to learn before 

 you become an adept in ornithology. Fidelity and sim- 

 plicity are all that is wanted to render this pleasing 

 study attainable to every one. But you seem to think 

 otherwise. However, let me tell you frankly that the 

 admeasurement of ten thousand dried bird-skins with 

 a subsequent and vastly complicated theory on what you 

 conceive you have drawn from the scientific operation of 

 your compasses will never raise your name to any per- 

 manent altitude. You seem, formerly, to have had & 

 foresight of what I have just announced to you; for, in 

 speaking of Wilson and Audubon, you exclaim, " Their 

 writings will be consulted when our favourite theories 

 shall have passed into oblivion." See your own review 

 of Audubon, which he has appended to his first volume 

 of the Biography of Birds. 



But it is now full time to draw to a close, and to leave 

 other errors for another day. 



We are told that Nature is the best of guides. I be- 

 lieve it. 



Climb then, with me, the loftiest trees ; range the 

 dreary swamp; pursue the wild beasts over hill and 

 dale ; repair to alluvial mud-flats ; follow the wind- 

 ings of creeks, and of the sea-shore ; and get yourself 

 let down the tremendous precipice in quest of zoological 

 knowledge. Worst come to the worst, — this will at 



