Burns — On Alexander Wilson. 133 



which he could obtain ready access The American Museum, 

 which had been well fitted up, was however, his most gratify- 

 in.j>- resort. Scudder, the founder of this institute, was indeed 

 a rough diamond, but few could surpass his enthusiasm in 

 studying- the volumes of nature, as he termed every ol)je,ct in 

 natural history. Scudder remarked " I have many curiosities 

 here, 'Sir. \\'ilson, but I myself am the greatest one in the 

 collection." ^ 



In this manner, \A'ilson obtained the slender book knowl- 

 edge of birds he ])ossessed. At the time of his death, accord- 

 ing to a statement of his executor, his shelves contained but 

 one ornithological work, Thomas Berwick's History of British 

 Birds ! He was no closet naturalist . He, was eager for the 

 exact trutii direct from nature. Orrl, with some justice, com- 

 plains : " In his s])ecific definitions he is loose and unsystem- 

 atic. He does not ajjpear to have been convinced of the 

 necessity of i)recision on this head; his essential and natural 

 characters are not discriminated ; and in some instances, he 

 confounds generic and specific characters, which the laws of 

 methodical science do not authorize. . . . That he was not 

 ambitious of the honor of forming new genera, appears from 

 the circumstance, that, although he found the system of 

 'Latham's needed reformation, yet he ventured to propose 

 but one genus, the Curvirostva, the characters of which are 

 so obvious, that one is astonished that so le.arned an ornithol- 

 ogist as Latham, should have contented himself with arrang- 

 ing the species appertaining to it with others, the conforma- 

 tion, of whose liills is so dissimilar. It may be necessary to 

 state that Crossbills have been erected into a separate genus, 

 under the denomination of Cntcirosfra, by an author whose 

 works Wilson had no knowledge of ; and I have reason to 

 believe that even the generic appelation of Curvirostra had 

 been anticipated, by a writer on the ornithology of the north- 

 ern ])arts of [un-o])e. Brisson limited his genus Loxia to the 

 Crossbills, and this judicious restriction appears to be now 

 sanctioned l)y all nattu'alists of authority." 



■ Oliitunry Notice of .Mcx.indev Wilson. The T'ort Folio, New Se- 

 ries, Vol. II. Sept. LSI.;. 



