Note 267 — Chapter XIX · AUDUBON AND RAFINESQUE

See David Starr Jordon (Bibl. No. 183), Popular Science Monthly, vol. xxix (1886). "The true story of this practical joke was told me by the venerable Dr. Kirtland, who in turn received it from Dr. Bachman;" the latter, I might add, was the friend and correspondent of the "Sage of Rockport" after a visit at his home near Cleveland in the summer of 1852. In the private notebooks of Rafinesque copies of Audubon's drawings are still to be seen, and "a glance at these," said Dr. Jordon, "is sufficient to show the extent to which science through him has been victimized."

Audubon was also responsible for a number of extraordinary "new species" of birds, the most notorious of which was the Scarlet-headed Swallow, of which Rafinesque published the following account in 1820: "Hirundo phenicephala. Head scarlet, back gray, belly white, bill and feet black. A fine and rare swallow seen only once by Mr. Audubon near Henderson, Kentucky...." See Samuel N. Rhoads, "Constantine S. Rafinesque as an Ornithologist," Cassinia, No. XV (Philadelphia, 1911).