140 The Wilson Bulletin — No. Gi. 



your fair pupil; and beg you would assure her fcr me that any 

 of the birds I have are heartily at her service. Surely nature is 

 preferable to copy after than the works of the best masters, 

 though perhaps more difficult, for I declare that the face of an 

 owl and the back of a lark have put me to a non plus ; and if Miss 

 Nancy will be so obliging as to try her hand on the last mention- 

 ed, I will furnish her with one in good order, and will copy her 

 drawing with the greatest pleasure, having spent almost a week 

 on two different ones, and afterward destroyed them both and 

 got nearly in the slough of despond." That he does not exag- 

 gerate the difficulty experienced in delineating the features of 

 an owl is evident frcm the description Dr. Coues has given : 

 "... from the backs and corners of various pieces of paper 

 peer various faces of owls in all stages of incompleteness, show- 

 ing how he practiced drawing these difficult subjects." Nor 

 did he altogether overcome this fault is evident upon inspection 

 of his drawings of the various species of the owls. Two days 

 later he writes : ' I sometimes smile to think that while others 

 are immersed in deep schemes of speculation and aggrandize- 

 ment — the building of towns and purchasing plantations, I am 

 entranced in contemplation over the plumage of a lark, or gaz- 

 ing like a despairing lover on the lineaments of an owl. ... I 

 have live crows, hawks, and owls, opossums, squirrels, snakes, 

 lizards, etc., so that my room has sometimes reminded me of 

 Noah's ark ; but Noah had a wife in one corner of it, and in 

 this particular our parallel does not altogether tally." If Miss 

 Bartram taught him the secret of the portrayal of his meadow 

 lark, he proved an apt pupil, for it is beyond reproach. In the 

 same letter he goes on to say : " . . . My dear friend, you see I 

 take the liberty of an old acquaintance with you, in thus trifling 

 with your time. You have already raised me out of the slough 

 of despond, by the hopes of your agreeable conversation, and 

 that of your amiable pupil. Niobody, I am sure, rejoices more 

 in the acquisition of the beautiful accomplishment of drawing 

 than myself. I hope she may persevere. I am persuaded that 

 any pains }-ou bestow on her will be rewarded beyond your ex- 

 .pectations. Besides it will be a new link in that chain of 

 friendship and consanguinity by which you are already united ; 



