Burns — On Alexander Wilson. 11 



in his pocket, and it finally flew overboard and perished in the 

 Gulf of Mexico ; a better interpretation would read : "Having 

 parted with the gentlemen of the tavern with great regret, I 

 with my paroquet bade adieu to Louisville." In this con- 

 nection it will be well to remember that Audubon dwelt under 

 the same roof and was of the company referred to. Wilson's 

 statement that he received not one new bird, appears to have 

 been equally true, Audubon's several statements notwith- 

 standing. The Whooping Crane, Grits aiihcricaiiiis^ as already 

 mentioned, had been met with previously in South Carolina 

 and probably on the New Jersey coast ; the Solitary Sand- 

 piper, Hclodranas solifarius, is a regular transient through 

 Southeastern Pennsylvania and doubtless was first met with 

 near home, though he appears to have also met with it in 

 Kentucky ; Wilson's Snipe, Gallinago dclicata, he mentions 

 especially as having found extremely numerous on the borders 

 of the ponds near Louisville, March 20th, as well as abound- 

 ing in the meadows bordering the Schuylkill and Delaware, 

 rivers. Two new species, the Kentucky Warbler, GcotJiIypis 

 formosa, and the Prairie Warbler, D<e'iidroica discolor, are 

 the only ones he appears to have accredited to that state, 

 and the early date on which he departed from Louisville 

 would prove that they were not taken until after he had 

 traveled south some distance, meeting the vernal migration. 

 The tender of the work of another, no matter how valuable 

 and artistic, could not be other than embarrassing to Wilson, 

 who was placed under the most extreme difficulties in bring- 

 ing out his own production ; and his apparent unresponsive- 

 ness to the doubtful generosity of Audubon, probably partook 

 of abashment rather than the churlishness attributed to him. 

 At that time the great bird-painter could scarcely have un- 

 loaded to the most wealthy publisher on earth, and it after- 

 wards cost him $100,000 to bring out his own work. 



Note the gentle sarcasm Audubon employs in the faintest 

 echo of that ever-to-be-regretted visit : "Wilson's Plover ! 

 I love the name because of the respect I bear to him to whose 

 memory the bird has been dedicated. How pleasing it would 

 have been to me, to have met him on such an excursion, and. 



