20. The Wilson Bulletin— No. 66. 



Some show the nibbing process by which they were trans- 

 ferred. They are in all stages of completeness, from the 

 rudest outlines to the finished painting. Some are left half- 

 dressed, with penciled instructions to the engraver to fill in red 

 ochre here, and yellow ochre there, etc. Wilson sometimes 

 finished the bills and feet in full detail and coloring, leaving 

 much of the plumage blank." ^ 



Wilson composed a charming preface for his initial volume, 

 writing in a lighter and happier vein than in those following. 

 It is worth repeating. Few have read it, because the original 

 prefaces have not appeared in the various popular editions : 

 " The whole use of a preface seems to be either to elucidate the 

 nature and origin of the work or to invoke the clemency of the 

 reader. Such observations as have been thought necessary for 

 the former, will be found in the Introduction ; extremely solic- 

 itous to obtain the latter, I beg leave to relate the following 

 anecdote : In one of my visits to a friend's in the country, I 

 found their youngest son, a fine boy of eight or nine years of 

 age, who usually resides in town for his education, just re- 

 turning from a ramble through the neighboring woods and 

 fields, where he had collected a large and handsome bunch of 

 wild flowers of a great many different colors ; and presenting 

 them to his mother, said, with much animation in his counte- 

 nance, ' Look, my dear ma, what beautiful flowers I have 

 found growing on our place ! Why, all the woods are full of 

 them! red, orange, blue, and 'most every color. O, I can 

 gather you a whole parcel of them, much handsomer than 

 these, all growing in our own woods! Shall I, ma? Shall I 

 go and bring more?' The good woman received the bunch of 

 flowers with a smile of afifectionate complacency ; and. after 

 admiring for some time the beautiful simplicity of Nature, 

 gave her willing consent ; and the little fellow went off, on the 

 wings of ecstasy, to execute his delightful commission. 



" The similitude of this little boy's enthusiasm to my own, 

 struck me ; and the reader will need no explanations of mine to 

 make the application. Should my country receive with the 



^Coues, "Behind the Vail." B. N. O. C, Vol. V, 1880, pp. 197- 

 198. i»JI 



