438 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



Audubon was now ready to begin the text of his 

 Birds of America, to be called Ornithological Biogra- 

 phy, which is often referred to as his "Biography of 

 Birds." This work, which was eventually extended to 

 five large volumes of over three thousand pages, was 

 published at Edinburgh from 1831 to 1839. He had 

 made crude beginnings with this in view as early as 

 1821, and on October 16, 1830, he wrote: "I know 

 that I am not a scholar . . ." but, "with the assistance 

 of my old journals and memorandum-books, which were 

 written on the spot, I can at least put down plain truths, 

 which may be useful, and perhaps interesting, so I shall 

 set to at once. I cannot, however, give scientific de- 

 scriptions, and here must have assistance." To supply 

 this need, as we have seen already, he had earlier applied 

 to William Swainson, but the negotiations with that 

 naturalist were soon broken off, and led to a sharp and 

 acrid discussion upon the authorship of the work 



itself. 2 



By a rare stroke of genius or good fortune, Audubon 

 chose for his assistant a young Scotch naturalist, Wil- 

 liam MacGillivray, who had been introduced to him by 

 another naturalist, James Wilson, soon after he reached 

 the Scottish capital. MacGillivray agreed "to revise 

 and correct" his manuscript at the rate of two guineas 

 per sheet of sixteen pages, and in the latter part of 

 October, 1830, they set to work. We shall soon have 

 occasion to speak more fully of his debt to this esti- 

 mable Scotchman, 3 and will only add here that a better 

 trained or more competent helper than MacGillivray 

 could hardly have been found in Great Britain or else- 

 where. 



a See Chapter XXVIII, p. 87. 

 3 See Chapter XXX. 



