Bl'rns — On Alexander Wilson. 19 



greater uniformity, but would have conferred greater honors 

 upon the artist and reHeved 4iim of much vexation. George 

 Murry contributed plates 3, 7, 9, 15, and 26; his connection 

 ceased after the third volume. B. Tanner was responsible for 

 plate 32 of the following" volume ; and another engraver signed 

 himself variously as Warnicke, J- Warnicke, or J. G. War- 

 nicke, on twenty plates in the last five volumes, and occasion- 

 ally raised his work above mediocrity: his figure of the Rufifed 

 Grouse being his best. 



After examining the original drawings of Wilson, Dr. 

 Coues has declared : " One thing is shown very clearly by this 

 set of pictures, and the public does not know it yet. This is 

 the decided superiority of the- originals in comparison with the 

 published engravings. It has always been supposed, and ap- 

 parently vouched for by Wilson's own declarations, that the ex- 

 cellence of his plates was largely due to the skill and care of 

 his engraver. This is not so. Without wishing to detract in 

 the least from Mr. Lawson's merit and well-earned fame, I 

 should say Wilson might thank him for nothing remarkable. 

 The plates, in some cases, are ' loud ' and garish in comparison 

 with the delicacy of tone and excellence of perspective that the 

 originals show. This is specially notable in the cases of one 

 or two of the plates that represent scenery and grouping, as 

 those of the Ducks. . . . One other thing came forcibly to my 

 mind as I turned these sheets of paper nervously. Very few 

 of them' — I remember but one- — are dated or signed, or 

 bear MS. witness of what they are. This man, of eager, half- 

 desponding, half-exulting ambition as he was, seemed to have 

 felt some shrinking in modesty from affixing his name to his 

 pictures." Coues further comments: "I was fairly. oppressed 

 with the sad story of poverty, even destitution, which these 

 raw sheets of coarse paper told. Some of Wilson's originals 

 are on the fly-leaves of old books, showing binder's marks 

 along one edge. One of the best portraits, that of the Duck 

 Hawk, is on two pieces of paper pasted together. The man 

 was actually too poor to buy paper ! Some of the drawings 

 are on both sides of the paper ; some show a full picture on 

 one side, and part of a mutilated finished painting on the other. 



