2l6 Correspondence. \ t^\ 



L April 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Early Editions of Wilson's Ornithology. 



Editors of 'The Auk.' 



Dear Sirs-. — The following notes concerning the early editions of Wil- 

 son's 'American Ornithologj' may interest some of the readers of vour 

 journal. The original edition, as is well known, was published in nine 

 folio volumes at Philadelphia, during the years iSoS to 1814. Wilson 

 died on the 23d of August, 1813, while the eighth volume was in the press- 

 The eighth and ninth volumes were published in 1814, under the superin- 

 tendence of George Ord, who furnished the text that accompanies the few 

 plates Wilson had drawn for the ninth volume. 



Two hundred copies of Vol. I were published in September, 1808. 

 On the 2ist of that month Wilson started on a tour through the New 

 England States to exhibit his book and solicit subscribers, and soon 

 afterward he travelled south on the same mission as far as Savannah, Ga. 

 On his return to Philadelphia, in 1809, the subscription list was large 

 enough to warrant the publication of three hundred additional copies of 

 the first volume. 



The second edition of \o\. I bears the original date 1S08, although it 

 was not published till 1809, and there is nothing on its face to distinguish 

 it from the original issue, until the two are collated. It then appears 

 that the second issue is truly a new edition ; that the text was all reset, 

 and that the author seized the opportunity thus offered to make certain 

 additions to the text and to correct some errors and carelessly written 

 passages. As an example : an alteration of the text that occurs on page 

 33, in the biography of the Wood Thrush, is the result of knowledge 

 acquired by Wilson during his trip to South Carolina and Georgia in the 

 winter of 1808-09, after the first edition had been published. In the first 

 edition the passage in question reads thus : " Tho' it is believed that some 

 of our birds of passage, and among them the present species, winter in 

 the Carolinas, yet they rarelv breed there ; and when thev do, thev are 

 certainly vocal." In the second edition this is replaced by the following : 

 "I have myself searched the woods of Carolina and Georgia, in winter, 

 for this bird, in vain, nor do I believe that it ever winters in these states." 

 Again, on page 34, referring to the Hermit Thrush, Wilson adds to the 

 text in the second edition the statement that he has found this bird 

 numerous in the myrtle swamps of Carolina in the depth of winter. 



With regard to the text of subsequent editions of Wilson : Ord's " re- 

 print " of 1S24 (bearing date of 180S) of course follows the amended text 

 of Wilson's second issue of the first volume, so do Harrison Hall's edition 



