THE 



WILSON BULLETIN 



NO. 62. 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ORNITHOLOGY 



VOL. XX. MARCH, 1908. NO. 1. 



ALEXANDER WILSON. 



I. THE AUDUBON CONTROVERSY. 

 ]?Y FRANK L. BURNS. 



The brief, almost accidental, meeting of Alexander Wilson 

 and John James Audubon in the latter's counling-room, Louis- 

 ville, Kentucky, IMarch 9th, 1810, and the ill-considered if not 

 brutal accusations and recriminations following, proved the 

 fruitful source of subsequent contentions not at all creditable 

 to those involved. On Alexander Wilson, who had left unsaid 

 a single unkind word of his rival ; long after death had 

 claimed him for his own and personal vindication was out of 

 the question; the offense was onerously placed. On the very 

 last day's journey to that most disappointing town of Louis- 

 ville, he was exposed to a storm from which he could not 

 protect- himself, because his greatcoat was in request to 

 cover his precious bird skins ! ^ 



The exposure and privations of that western trip resulted 

 in the contraction of dysentery, fatal to him in a few brief 

 years. In his poem descriptive of the journey, we have at 

 least a pitiful truth in these lines : 



"Through western forests, deep and drear, 

 Far from the haunts of science thrown. 

 My long laborious course I steer, 

 Alone, unguided, and unknown." 



— The Pilgrim. 

 ^ Peabody's Life of Wilson. 



