1893. ] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 47 
took place. One morning a man with two volumes under his 
arm entered his counting room. Audubon describes him as 
having a long, rather hooked nose, keen eyes and prominent 
cheek-bones, stamping his countenance with a peculiar character. 
He was dressed in a short coat, waistcoat and trousers, of grey 
cloth. This man was Alexander Wilson, the pioneer in the 
field Audubon was destined to enter, the Father of American 
Ornithology. He walked up to the table at which Audubon 
was working, opened his books, explained his occupation, and 
requested his subscription, thus illustrating in a measure the 
method which in after years Audubon himself was obliged to 
adopt in order to bring his own work before the world and ac- 
complish its publication. Surprised and pleased at the sight of 
the plates, Audubon took his pen to write his name among those 
of the subscribers, when his partner said to him in French, ‘* My 
dear Audubon what induces you to subscribe to this work; 
Your drawings are certainly far better,and again you must 
know as much of the habits of American birds as this gentle- 
man.” ‘‘ Vanity and the ecomiums of my friend prevented me 
from subscribing,” is his frank, though sad statement. Wilson 
probably understood French, for he asked Audubon if he had 
many drawings of birds. Taking down a large portfolio, its 
contents were exhibited much to the surprise of Wilson, who 
said he had no idea that anyone besides himself was engaged in 
making such a collection, but was still more astonished when 
asking if it was Audubon’s intentions to publish, he was 
answered in the negative. They met but once again during one 
of Audubon’s visits to Philadelphia, when he called on Wilson 
and found him engaged in drawing the white headed Eagle. 
Audubon says he was received with civility and taken to the ex- 
hibition rooms of Rembrandt Peale, but they spoke not of birds, 
and shortly afterwards the two men whose names are more 
closely interwoven with American ornithology than any others 
ever can be, and whose tastes and pursuits should have proved 
the magnet to draw them most closely together, parted never to 
meet again. The melancholy reserve of the quiet, shrinking 
Scotchman could not be conquered even by the vivacity of the 
enthusiastic Franco-American, and their brief acquaintance 
brought no profit to either. Business at Louisville did not 
prosper, and Audubon sold his interest to his partners and went 
to Henderson. While traversing the country between these 
places, and also during his residence in them, most of his time 
was given to roaming the woods, hunting with the Indians, 
studying wild animals and drawing their portraits. He now 
entered into a partnership with his brother-in-law,under the firm 
