DELAWARE VALLEY ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 6 



is not apparent, but it probably began in youth, and was no 

 doubt stimulated by association with the coterie of more ad- 

 vanced naturalists who finally organized the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences in 1812. He was elected a member and a 

 curator of that body in 1815, and made their vice-president in 

 1816, a sufhcient indication that the worth of his editorial 

 labors on Wilson's Ornithology was being recognized. That 

 his education and literary attainments were already of a high 

 order is not only attested by M^aterton's letter of introduction, 

 quoted later, but is further shown by his being appointed one 

 of the original members of the Publication Committee of the 

 Philadelphia Academy in 1817. 



How gladly would we know the history of his earlier ac- 

 quaintance with and growing friendship for Alexander Wilson. 

 We fondly hope there may be old letters yet preserved which 

 will shed more light upon that sacred chapter in American 

 ornithology. Ord was Wilson's junior by fifteen years, and at 

 the time the latter seriously began the preparation of his 

 Ornithology was only twenty-four years old. He accompanied 

 Wilson on many of his bird excursions, and was with him on 

 his last visit to Great Egg Harbor, N. J., in the spring of 1813. 

 It is safe to say that to no single person did the author of the 

 "American Ornithology" owe more byway of personal and 

 financial encouragement than to George Ord. If Wilson had 

 not enjoyed this loyal jjatronage during his life, or had been de- 

 prived of BO talented and yet so modest a biographer to finish 

 his uncompleted labors, we can hardly estimate the resultant 

 loss to both the student and the lover of birds in the present 

 generation. The history of Ord's editorial labors in Wilson's 

 behalf are better known to-day than perhaps any other of his 

 literary efforts. For a history of the additional volumes and 

 editions of the " American Ornithology " which he edited, the 

 reader is referred to Dr. Walter Faxon's article in the eighteenth 

 volume of " The Auk," 1901, pages 216-218. 



In all these Ord strove to put himself into the background, 

 and for that reason did not receive the credit due him until after 

 his death. His "Life of Wilson," however, appeared under 

 his fuU name, and it is as the author of that work more than 



