Burns — On Alexander Wilson. 173 



bruskly said : "I would not give a hundred dollars for all the 

 birds you intend to describe, even had I them alive." An ex- 

 position of stolid ignorance masquerading as good solid "horse- 

 sense" that deeply offended Wilson. In De Witt Clinton he 

 found an efificient public man better able to appreciate the 

 service be was doing the country. 



Almost immediately after returning to the Quaker city, he 

 prooeded southward on horseback. At Havre de Grace and 

 other points on the Chesapeake, he gathered additional infor- 

 mation on the habits of the Ducks, particularly the Canvas- 

 back, in early December. Baltimore, where he spent almost 

 a week, yielded him sixteen subscribers ; Annapolis none. 

 Nowise discouraged, he proceeded thirty-eight miles through 

 tobacco fields, sloughs, and swamps to the National Capital, 

 dismounting in the mud fifty-five times to open as many gates 

 enroute. He was received and encouraged by I'resident Jeffer- 

 son and others in a most substantial manner. Georgetown and 

 Alexandria were canvassed about Christmas, and the southern 

 peregrination continued. At Fredericksburg he found the 

 Mockingbird as a permanent resident. Richmond, Petersburgh, 

 Williamsburgh, Hampton, Norfolk and Suffolk, all increased 

 his subscription list. Crossing over the flooded Nottoway near 

 Jerusalem in a flat boat, he proceeded through solitary pine 

 woods, perpetually interrupted by flooded swamps, which were 

 often covered with a thin sheet of ice from half an inch to an 

 inch thick, cutting his horse's legs and breast. Sometimes 

 wading, sometimes swimming bridge approaches, the Roanoke 

 river balked him at three different ferries, thirty-five miles 

 apart ; at last he succeeded in crossing at a place fifteen miles be- 

 low Halifax about January 20th, 1809. A violent snow storm 

 made the roads still more execrable. The Tar river was crossed 

 near Washington and New Berne approached. From here on 

 the 5th of February he noted the disappearance of frost and the 

 opening of the shad season, and met with the Swamp Sparrow, 

 in considerable numbers on the banks of the Trent. He had- 

 already discovered the Red-cockaded Woodpecker and Pine 

 Warbler, in the immense, solitary, pine savannas ; and on his 



