Burns — On Alexander Wilson. 185 



the minds of every one whose assistance was necessary, simiHar 

 ideas of neatness and accuracy, have been a constant source of 

 anxiety to the Author, and of much loss and delay. These 

 difficulties have at length been surmounted, by procuring the 

 services of two able assistants." April 21st, 1813, he informs 

 Bartram : "I have been extremely busy these several months, 

 my colorists having all left me ; so I have been obliged to do 

 extra duty this last winter." His one fault, irritability, which 

 was said to have counteracted in some measure the good effect 

 his high moral character produced, no doubt contributed 

 largely to his loss of help at this most critical period. Never 

 of the most robust health, he continued to draw on the appar- 

 ently superabundance of nervous energy ; but he had disre- 

 garded the laws of health so often, he could not forever remain 

 immune. 



Weighed down by care, ill health and incessant toil ; he one 

 day conversed at the house of a friend, when he observed a 

 bird for which he had long been in search; but before he 

 obtained the object of his eager pursuit, he had to swim across 

 a stream ; a cold resulted, bringing on his old complaint, dysen- 

 tery ; and debilitated as he was, ii resulted in death ten days 

 later, August 23rd, 1813, in his forty-eighth year. His brother 

 David said : "The moment that I heard of his sickness, I went 

 to the city, and found him speechless ; I caught his hand, he 

 seemed to know me, and that was all. He died the next morn- 

 ing at 9 o'clock." Ord states that "while in the enjoyment of 

 health, he had conversed with a friend on the subject of his 

 death, and expressed a wish to be buried in some rural spot, 

 sacred to peace and solitude, whether the charms of nature 

 might invite the steps of the votary of the Muses, and the lover 

 of science, and where the birds might sing over his grave." 

 But his wish was not made known at the time or it would have 

 been piously observed. They laid his remains in the little yard 

 of Gloria Dei, the Old Swedish Church, at Swanson, near 

 Front Street ; and placed over it a plain slab of marble. No 

 costly monument is required to perpetuate his memory as the 

 Father of American Ornithology. 



