Audubon the Naturalist: A History of His Life and Time. Vol. 1 (of 2)Herrick, Francis Hobart
History
Audubon the Naturalist: A History of His Life and Time. Vol. 1 (of 2)
Herrick, Francis Hobart
Audubon, John James, 1785-1851
What has become of this mysterious phantom that has been a wandering
and disturbing voice among ornithologists for over a century? It has
given rise to no end of conflicting and sharp discussions between the
partisans of the two naturalists chiefly concerned, the only thing
certain being that if this supposititious species ever existed, it
has forsaken its old haunts, if not the earth itself, and has never
returned. No doubt it was simply a case of mistaken identity, and both
Wilson and Audubon were wrong, each having had in hand and mind an
immature representative of one of our numerous Warblers, which are now
so much better known.[196] If Wilson copied Audubon's drawing of the
bird, he must have replaced it with one of his own, for the figures of
the two naturalists are very unlike. Certainly Audubon should not have
made so serious a charge without offering more substantial evidence
in proof; perhaps what he had intended to convey was that Wilson had
obtained from him his first knowledge of the bird, and he was nettled
to find that he had been studiously ignored.[197]
Among the originals of Audubon's _Birds of America_ in possession of
the Historical Society of New York, there is an early drawing of a
Warbler which bears in pencil, in the naturalist's hand, the following
note: "This bird was copied by Mr. Willson at Louisville."[198] The
misspelling of Wilson's name, which was common with Audubon as late as
1820, would indicate that the note was not added after that time, but
if Wilson copied this drawing, there is no evidence that he ever used
it.
Ord made another charge in which Audubon does not appear to such good
advantage; though it refers to a later day, it is best to consider it
now. This critic thought that a complaint of misappropriation came with
ill grace from one who had been guilty of it himself, and maintained
that Audubon had copied Wilson's figures of the female Red-wing
Blackbird (_The Birds of America_, Plate LXVII), and had also stolen his
drawing of the Mississippi Kite (Plate CXVII). Ord was probably mistaken
in regard to the blackbird, but without a doubt the lower bird in the
Kite plate was taken from Wilson (_American Ornithology_, Plate 25),
though the copyist has reversed the outlines, left out one of the toes,
added minor details, and misnamed the sex, which in the Wilson original
represents a male. Without a doubt also the odium in this case must
fall upon Audubon, but we are not at all certain that he was directly
responsible for the theft. Audubon's plate of this species, which is
finished in elaborate detail, was probably published towards the close
of 1831, when he was in America. He furnished his engraver, we believe,
with the drawing of the upper bird only, which he designated as a male,
and the original still exists, with clearly written notes showing that
it was executed in Louisiana in 1821.[199]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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