600 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX. ^^^^ [34 



1808-14. Wilson, A.— Continued. 



cephahis, ref. to pi. 36 ; Mergus merganser, ref. to pi. 68, f. 1.) " General Index " and 

 "List of Subscribers" conclude the volume and the work. It is »u»( necessary, 

 though often done, to call this work Wilson's Ornithology "with Ord's Con- 

 tinuation". Wilson's work was simply completed under Ord's editorship, but the 

 latter did not " continue " it. Some of the text in vol. VIII, and IX, are by Ord, 

 but the editor himself would have been the last person to claim joint-authorship. 



No other work on American ornithologj- has been so much talked and ts. itten 

 about as this ; and the time for comment on its char.Tcter Is long gone by. The 

 "melancholy poet-naturalist " occupies a place as changeless as the hills, and 

 wholly peculiar. He stands toward American ornithologists in a position corre- 

 sponding somewhat to that which is occupied in Engl.and by White of Selbourne, 

 in Germany by Bechstein, aud, I will add, among angleis by Iziak Walton. 

 Perhaps no other work on ornithology of equal extent is equally free from error ; 

 and its truthfulness is illumined by a spark of the " fire divine ". This means 

 immortality. Among the disproportionately large number of new species de- 

 scribed by Wilson, there .ire but two (Sylvia montana and Muscicapa rninuta) 

 remaining unidentified. Being no scholar, in fact a very unlearned man, he 

 labored under the usual disadvantage of insufficient knowledge of his predeces- 

 sors' labors; consequently he renamed many species as new which were not 

 such, and wrongly referred many th.at were new to previously described ones. 

 Science would lose little, but, on the contrary, would gain much, if every scrap 

 of pre-Wilsonian writing about United States birds could bo annihilated. 



What is, or at least long was, the most valuable commentary on " Wilson", is 

 Bonaparte's "Observations on the Nomenclature of Wilson's Ornithology" 

 (1824-25 and 1826, q. v.). The total number of species described and figured by. 

 Wilson is said to be 278. 



There are said to be, and there doubtless are, a " Supplement " by Ord, "Phila. 

 1825 ", and a " 2d ed., Phila. 1824-28, 3 vols. 4to " ; neither of which have I seen. 



The editions and continuations of "Wilson" which h.ave come to my knowl- 

 edge are as follows ; — 



1608-14. Wilson : ediHo ^rincQps, as given above. 9vols. 4to. Philadelphia. 



18^^33. Bo^AVAWiK: American Ornithology. 4 vols. 4to. New York. An en- 

 tirely diiferent work, but in similar style, and incorporated by subsequent 

 editors with " Wilson ". 



1828-29. Ord's ed. 3 vols. 8vo. 1 folio atlas. New York and Philadelphia.. 

 Does not contain "Bonaparte". There arc later issues of this. 



1831. Jameson's ed., forming part of Constable's Miscellany. 4 vols. 18mo. 

 Edinburgh. Contains "Bonaparte", and much irrelevant matter. 



1832. Jardine's ed. 3 vols. 8vo. London and Edinburgh. Contains " Bona- 

 parte". 



1840. Brewer's ed. 1 vol. 12mo. Boston. Contains "Bonaparte", and an 

 original synopsis by the editor. There are later issues of this. 



(diite unknown). Editor unknown. An edition published io London, by 



W. Spooner. 16mo? 18mo? No. 1, containing 8 plates. ^1840 or later?) 



18 — . Wilson, A. American Ornithology. | lUastrations | of | American Or- 

 nithology ; I reduced from the ] original work of Alexander Wil- 

 son. I London : | published by William Spooner, 259, Eegent Street, 

 I Oxford Street; | Hurst, Chance, and Co., 65 Sr. Paul's Church- 

 Yard; I and Coustable and Co., Edinburgh. | [No date.] 16mo? 

 18mo ? (say 4x6 inches). No. 1, containing 8 i)lates. 



I am favored, through the attentions of my friend Prof. A. Newton, of Cam- 

 bridge, England, with the above title of an edition of Wilson I never otherwise 

 heard of. Prof. N. has no further information to convey respecting it. It would 

 seem to indicate an undertaking, which may not have been carried out to com- 

 pletion, of an edition of the work (but this is only a guess of mine, quite in the 

 dark). Will any bibliom.aniac or sane person resolve the uncertainty ? 



