CHAPTER XIV 



A MEETING OF RIVALS, AND A SKETCH OF ANOTHER 



PIONEER 



Alexander Wilson and his American Ornithology — His canvassing tour of 

 1810 — His retort to a Solomon of the Bench— Descriptions of Pitts- 

 burgh, Cincinnati and Louisville— Meeting with Audubon — Journey to 

 New Orleans — Youth in Scotland— Weaver, itinerant peddler, poet 

 and socialist — Sent to jail for libel — Emigrates to the United States — 

 Finally settles as a school teacher near Philadelphia — His friendships 

 with Bartram and Lawson — Disappointments in love — Early studies of 

 American birds — His drawings, thrift, talents and genius — Publication 

 of his Ornithology — His travels, discouragements and success — His pre- 

 mature death — Conflicting accounts of the visit to Audubon given by 

 the two naturalists — Rivalry between the friends of Wilson, dead, and 

 those of Audubon, living— The controversy which followed — An evasive 

 "Flycatcher" — Singular history of the Mississippi Kite plate. 



On January 30, 1810, a man of rather coarse fea- 

 tures, with a head of sandy hair, and possessed of man- 

 ners that could be winning or aggressive according to 

 his mood, might have been seen leaving Philadelphia 

 afoot, for he had planned to keep his expenses down 

 to a dollar a day and traveling by coach or on horseback 

 suited neither his purse nor the objects of his mission. 

 His clothing was coarse ; his luggage, with the exception 

 of a fowling-piece and two red-backed volumes of quarto 

 size, was of the lightest description. But, could we have 

 peered between the covers of those books, our curiosity 

 would have been whetted, for they were filled with col- 

 ored plates of American birds, the first-fruits of their 

 bearer's untrained eye and hand; the text, moreover, 

 was printed in a style which would have done honor to 

 anv country. 



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