CHAPTER XXIX

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