BiiRNS — On Alexander Wilson. 27 



Long- Branch, and Bordentown, New Jersey, the latter being 

 the location of Joseph Bonaparte's estate, he devoted the most 

 of his time to literary research and the critical examination of 

 the preserved remains of birds. He was deficient in all that 

 made Wilson great, yet such was his marvelous gift of dis- 

 crimination and systematization, that h'' became one of the 

 most famous ornithologists of his time The work which had 

 been performed by Wilson's hands alone now gave employ- 

 ment to several individuals. Titian R., the fourth son of 

 Charles Wilson Peale, not only collected many of the birds 

 figured while on the Long expeditior. \vhich were credited to 

 Thomas Say, who originally described them in footnotes scat- 

 tered through the report : or in a subsequent private trip to 

 Florida during the winter and spring of 1825, under the pat- 

 ronage of Bonaparte ; but also drew the figures engraved for 

 the first, and two plates for the fourth and last volume. A 

 German emigrant by the name of Alexander Rider, of 

 whom little is known beyond that he was a miniature painter 

 in 1813, and a portrait and historical painter in 1818, was 

 responsible for the remainder of the drawings with the ex- 

 ception of the two figures of plate 4 of volume I, which 

 he doubtless reduced from Audubon's large drawing, to the 

 proper dimensions for the work. Bonaparte states plainly in 

 the text, that his representations of the Boat-tailed Crackle 

 were drawn by that zealous observer of nature and skillful art- 

 ist, John J. Audubon ; and Lawson has engraved on the plate, 

 " Drawn by John J. Audubon and A. Rider." Ord, however, 

 insisted that they were drawn by Rider from specimens 

 brought from East Florida by Peale and himself. Bonaparte 

 pronounced Rider's figure of the immature Red-headed Wood- 

 pecker the best representation of a bird ever published. It 

 does indeed show to advantage in comparison with the poorly- 

 colored figures of the Florida Jay and Northern Three-toed 

 Woodpecker, on the same plate. Rider was also the expert 

 colorist, not always up to the mark as evinced by a letter from 

 Florence, October 5, 1829, in which Bonaparte says to Law- 

 son : " That confounded Rider has enraged us to a pretty 

 considerable extent. Look at volume first, all the red and 



