Ixviii LIFEOF WILSON. 



cold melancholy reserve of the females, of the best families, in South Carolini 

 and Georgia. Old and young, single and married, all have that dull frigid in- 

 sipidity, and reserve, which is attributed to solitary old maids. Even in their 

 own houses they scarce utter anything to a stranger but yes or no, and one is 

 perpetually puzzled to know whether it proceeds from awkwardness or dislike. 

 Those who have been at some of their balls say that the ladies hardly ever 

 speak or smile, but dance with as much gravity as if they were performing 

 some ceremony of devotion. On the contrary, the negro wenches are all 

 sprightliness and gayety ; and if report be not a defamer — {here there is a 

 hiatus in the manuscript) which render the men callous to all the finer sensa- 

 tions of love, and female excellence. 



" I will not detain you by a recital of my journey from Charleston to Savan- 

 nah. In crossing the Savannah river, at a place called the Two Sisters' Ferry, 

 my horse threw himself into the torrent, and had I not, at the risk of my own 

 life, rescued him, would have been drowned." 



Of the first volume of the Ornithology, only two hundred copies had been 

 printed. But it was now thought expedient to strike off a new edition of three 

 hundred more ; as the increasing approbation of the public warranted the 

 expectation of corresponding support. 



To Mr. Wm. Bartram. 



''Philadelphia, August 4th, 1809. 



" The second volume of ' American Ornithology' being now nearly ready to 



go to press, and the plates in considerable forwardness, you will permit me to 



trespass on your time, for 'a few moments, by inquiring if you have anything 



interesting to add to the history of the following birds, the figures of which 



will be found in this volume. 



****** 



" I have myself already said everything of the foregoing that my own ob- 

 servations suggested, or that I have been enabled to collect from those on 

 whom I could rely. As it has fallen to my lot to be the biographer of the 

 feathered tribes of the United States, I am solicitous to do full justice to every 

 species ; and I would not conceal one good quality that any one of them pos- 

 sesses. I have paid particular attention to the mocking-bird, humming-bird, 

 king-bird and cat-bird; all the principal traits in their character I have deli- 

 neated at full. If you have anything to add on either of them, I wish you 

 would communicate it in the form of a letter, addressed particularly to me. 

 Your favorable opinion of my work (if such you have) would, if publicly 

 known, be of infinite service to me, and procure me many friends.* 



* This instance of Wilson's diffidence of his own talents and acquirements is too re- 

 markable to be passed over without a note. He seemed to fear lest the intrinsic merit of 

 his work should not be sufficient, of itself, to get it into notice ; and therefore he solicited 

 the favorable opinion of one, to whose judgment in these matters, he felt assured, the 

 public paid a deference. Contrasted with this modest deportment, how contemptible is the 

 vanity, and self-conceit, of those writers, who, whether they compose a superficial essay, 



