93 The Wilson Bulletin — No. Tl. 



ceptable to the general reader, more would have been pro- 

 duced, though science and poetry are scarcely in accord. 

 Cones is responsible for the following : " The tradition runs, 

 that Wilson asked Alajor L — , (a distinguished naturalist) 

 how he liked the work ; the latter replied that he liked it. ' all 

 but the poetry ;' and Wilson seems to have taken the hint." 

 His poetry lack.s imagination, expression, smoothness and 

 finish. Science and poetry are scarcely accordant and Wil- 

 son's faculties were eminently fitted for exactness rather than 

 fancy. Someone has writen that his poetry is remarkable for 

 its dreary prosaism, and his prose for its poetry ; a remark 

 more witty than true perhaps ; but after all, Ord's estimate of 

 the comparatively small value of his friend's poetical attempts, 

 and Dr. Wilson's recent scholarly criticisms and his final 

 opinion that only the claims that the few good poems can es- 

 tablish for him, give us any right to call him a poet at all, are 

 more in accord with the general verdict, than Grosart's un- 

 stinted praise ; and it is a pleasure to know that a great poet 

 was not lost in the ornithologist, and that the minor poet 

 found expression in prose and his great scientific services 

 dwarfed all else. Seldom has opportunity been grasped with 

 the strength and energy of Alexander Wilson. 



ADDENDA 



Through the kindness of ^Ir. W. Lee Chambers I am en- 

 abled to cite the title of another Jardine edition of \\'ilson — 

 the one referred to by Grosart : 



American Ornithology jor] The Natural History |of the| 

 Birds of the United States |by| Alexander Wjlson |and| 

 Prince Charles Lucian Bonaparte] The Illustrative Notes and 

 Life of Wilson j by Sir William Jardine, Bart., F.R.S.E., 

 F.L.S. ! [Woodcut] I In three volumes— A'ol. I. [—III]. 

 iLondonj Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly | 18TG. 



This edition printed by Ballantyne & Company — Ediu. & London 

 — on large paper, SVo by 11 inches; otherwise the same as the Cas- 

 sell, Petter & (ialpin edition (h), exc-e])tin£: the phites, which are 

 hand-colored instead of printed in colors. The coloring is almost 

 as good as the original edition. 



