-260 Sage, Ah Hisioric Letter. [^ q^j 



particularly the 2d Vol. — as to the plates — that I cannot omit 

 giving you the trouble of hearing how much pleasure you have 

 given a plain farmer — in publishing your works, — which as to 

 its execution of every kind has not been exceeded in America — 

 A work of so much celebrity cannot fail of handing your name 

 down to posterity with eclat. Before I had even seen the first 

 volume I had become a subscriber and am particularly agreeably 

 disappointed as to the manner of your description of the birds — 

 their manners & customs. If it will not be deemed impertinent I 

 will suggest to you how pleasing it will be to me »S: others that 

 you add specimens of the eggs of the birds as far as you can & 

 your manner of stringing them in plate 13th of 2d Volume is 

 agreeable to the eye of your readers. Where you omit the eggs 

 a plate or two in the 6th or loth volumes of them arranged judi- 

 ciously and fancifully will suit the taste of many. Explanations 

 of them may easily be made by figures to refer to. Instead of 

 small parts of dry limbs of trees sometimes perhaps you could 

 place the birds on living trees or shrubs or bushes, which would 

 have a tendency of making the birds themselves look more lively 

 & natural — or at least my fancy suggests this on comparing your 

 plates already executed with one another. Where the male & 

 female can be placed near each other it seems more pleasing at 

 least to the courting or married pair. The manners of some 

 birds may prevent their being placed on trees, but where they 

 can be so placed they look more natural & by fixing the artificial 

 birds on real limbs or shrubs, they can at length be placed so as 

 to have the most pleasing effect to ones view. 



" I live on an Island of 3000 acres of land at the eastern 

 extremity of Long Island from which I am separated by Gardi- 

 ner's Bay one league wide where I usually pass it. The common 

 birds are not here interrupted by school boys & are plenty. 

 Geese & Ducks of all kinds abound in my ponds and if you 

 would take an excursion this way, shall be very happy to accom- 

 modate you in my house here & it is not impossible but you may 

 find here or on the shores of Long Island some kind of water- 

 fowl that are nondescripts. I am not sufficiently acquainted with 

 birds to mention any that have not been described. My friend 

 Dr. .Samuel Latham Mitchell of Queens County on Long Island 



