Audubon's most persistent heckler was Charles Waterton,[78] who during two of his most prolific years, 1833 and 1834, published no less than fourteen lucubrations against the "foreigner," and "stranger" as the American was called; all were characterized by quizzing interrogatories, shallow criticism and personal vituperation, for the most part unworthy of serious consideration. Long noted for his eccentricities, Waterton had little or no standing among English zoölogists, against many of whom, from time to time, he issued broadsides or breezy polemics, whenever their statements cast a shadow on his _Wanderings_. Some of these accusing articles were answered by Victor Audubon and other friends of the naturalist, but they never drew his own fire; probably they benefited him in the end, for when it appeared that the charges brought against him were in large measure the work of envious calumniators, a strong current set in his favor on both sides of the Atlantic. When Audubon's name was first proposed for membership in the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia, it was rejected, according to report, through the influence of George Ord and a few of his partisans, while Waterton, who was Mr. Ord's close friend and correspondent, affirmed that Audubon was rejected by the Society on the strength of Alexander Wilson's personal diary,[79] a statement which appears to be utterly incredible.[80] In 1833, two years after the first volume of Audubon's "Biography of Birds" had made its appearance, Waterton raised another controversy, in this instance with ammunition supplied by his friend, George Ord of Philadelphia. He boldly proclaimed[81] that Audubon was not the author of the work which bore his name, a charge similar to that which had been brought to the door of the French ornithologist, Le Vaillant, whose history resembled Audubon's in many ways. "I request the English reader," said Waterton, "to weigh well in his own mind what I have stated, and I flatter myself that he will agree with me, when I affirm that the correct and elegant style of composition which appears through the _whole of the Biography of Birds_ cannot possibly be that of him whose name it bears." Waterton maintained that, while Audubon's earlier papers were the work of an illiterate person, his _Biography_ betrayed the hand of a finished scholar from beginning to end. In a reply to Victor Audubon, written July 6, 1833,[82] Waterton declared, upon the authority of George Ord, whom he quoted, that William Swainson had been importuned to write Audubon's work for him, but declined when Audubon insisted upon his own name being given to the world as author. This direct accusation called forth an immediate explanation from Swainson, who said:[83]