1?0 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 69. 



write a biography that would do justice to his subject when- 

 ever he could have more leisure for study. The transfer never 

 took place, as Mr. Minot was killed in a collision on the Penn- 

 sylvania railroad at New Florence, Pa., less than a fortnight 

 later. The collection, formerly hoarded with the jealous care 

 of a bibliomania, remained unexamined for twelve or fourteen 

 years, now more than ever exposed to the danger of damage 

 and obliteration. Mr. Wade informed me in 1898 that the 

 matter had passed out of his life and was no longer fresh in 

 his mind. Any one might have purchased these priceless relics 

 at about this period ; the owner suggested that the collection 

 could be broken up and sold piecemeal at an advantage to the 

 purchaser — a chance of a lifetime, but an eventuality not at 

 all pleasing. Harvard University would have secured it for 

 the nominal sum of $1,000 but for the fact of its desire for an 

 inventory, which the one-time enthusiast now found too ex- 

 acting in the midst of a very busy life and fullness of years to 

 give. Mr. W'ade passed away at a ripe old age about five 

 years ago, and the bulk of the Wilsonia is temporarily in the 

 hands of a young ornithological friend, who thoroughly ap- 

 preciates the trust ; and the most of the Audubonia, of which 

 he claimed to have more perhaps than any decendant of John 

 James Audubon, is held by his executor. I am informed that 

 the estate may not be settled for years to come. It is the earn- 

 est wish of some of the late Joseph M. Wade's friends that the 

 entire collection should finally rest in the museum at Cam- 

 bridge, and that the unpublished matter, so long buried, be 

 given to the public, if it proves of sufficient interest or merit. 



Henry Coyle's "Alexander Wilson, the Great Naturalist," 

 appeared in the "Chautauquan," 1803, but contained nothing 

 new. 



In a series of papers published in the Oologist for 1893- 

 1894, entitled "Scenes from the Life of Alexander Wilson," 

 G. Vrooman Smith has given an excellent resume of his life 

 and work. William Jay Youman's "Pioneers of Science in 

 America," 1896, is a reprint from the Popular Science Month- 

 ly of 1890, and Witmer Stone's "Some Early American Or- 



