xlii LIFE OF WILSON. 



wliich will make iu all about three thousand.* The notes will swell it to a 

 tolerable size. 



" The * Rural Walk' which I published last summer in the Literary Maga- 

 zine, has been lately republished iu the Port Folio,j" with many commendations 

 on its beauties. The ' Solitary Tutor' met with much approbation. But I 

 reserve my best efforts for the remainder of the ' Foresters.' * * 



" I have not mentioned anything of the sale of the land, nor shall I until 

 the business is finally concluded. I shall expect to hear from you at least 

 twice yet before you arrive; and I hope you will make no unnecessary delay 

 in returning. As you cut a pretty ragged appearance at present, and want 

 something to laugh at, suppose you set your muse to work upon your tatterde- 

 malian dishabille. The former neatness of your garb, contrasted with its pre- 

 sent squalidness, would make a capital subject for a song, not forgetting the 

 causes. But you are in the dress of the people you live among ; you are 

 therefore in character. B. had a hat on when I was up in your quarter, the 

 rim of which had been eaten off, close to his head, by the rats, or, perhaps, cut 

 off to make soles to his shoes ; yet it was so common as to escape observation. 

 I saw another fellow, too, at the tavern, who had pieces cut out of his behind, 

 like a swallow's tail." 



The spring of the year 1805 gave to the enraptured view of our naturalist 

 his interesting feathered acquaintance. He listened to their artless songs; he 

 noticed their habitudes; he sketched their portraits. And, after having 

 passed a few months varied with this charming occupation, he again writes to 

 the respected inhabitant of the Botanic Garden : 



Union School, July 2d, 1805. 



" I dare say you will smile at my presumption, when I tell you that I have 

 seriously begun to make a collection of drawings of the birds to be found in 

 Pennsylvania, or that occasionally pass through it: twenty-eight, as a begin- 

 ning, I send for your opinion. They are, I hope, inferior to what I shall pro- 

 duce, though as close copies of the originals as I could make. One or two of 

 these I cannot find either in your nomenclature, or among the seven volumes 

 of Edwards. I have never been able to find the bird Mr. Jefferson speaks of, 

 and begin to think that it must be the Wood llobin, though it seems strange 

 that he should represent it as so hard to be seen. Any hint for promoting my 

 plan, or enabling me to execute better, I will receive from you with much 

 pleasure. I have resigned every other amusement, except reading and fiddling, 

 for this design, which I shall not give up without making a fair trial. 



" Criticise these, my dear friend, without fear of offending me — this will 

 instruct, but not discourage me. — For there is not among all our naturalists 

 one who knows so well what they are, and how they ought to be represented. 

 In the meantime accept of my best wishes for your happiness — wishes as sin- 

 cere as ever one human being breathed for another. To your advice and 



♦This poem, as published in the " Port Folio," contains two thousand two hundred and 

 eighteen lines. It is illustrated with four plates, two of which were engraved by George 

 Cooke of London. 



+ For April 27th, 1805. 



