CHAPTER XXIX. Sidelights on Audubon and His Contemporaries

SIDELIGHTS ON AUDUBON AND HIS CONTEMPORARIES

What was a Quinarian?—Controversy over the authorship of the Ornithological Biography—Audubon's quaint proposal—Swainson'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 93