58 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



but his sole object, the production of faithful bird portraits, he did 

 accomplish and in a style superior to any work published up to 

 that time and to many that came after. 



Some of his first efforts he sent to Bartram with the following 

 explanation: "The duties of my profession will not admit me to 

 apply to this study with the assiduity and perseverance I could 

 wish. Chief part of what I do is sketched by candle-light, and for 

 this I am obliged to sacrifice the pleasures of social life, and the 

 agreeable moments which I might enjoy in company with you and 

 your amiable friend. I shall be happy if what I have done merits 

 your approbation." To Lawson he writes about this time, "Six 

 days in one week I have no more time than just to swallow my 

 meals and return to my Sanctum Sanctorum. Five days of the 

 following week are occupied in the same routine of pedagoguing 

 matters; and the other two are sacrificed to that itch for drawing, 

 which I caught from your honorable self. I am most earnestly 

 bent on pursuing my plan of making a collection of all the birds 

 in this part of North America. Now I don't want you to throw 

 cold water, as Shakespeare says, on this notion, Quixotic as it 

 may appear. I have been so long accustomed to the building of 

 airy castles and brain windmills, that it has become one of my 

 earthly comforts, a sort of a rough bone, that amuses me when 

 sated with the dull drudgery of life." 



Quoting again from his letters as the best record we have of his 

 progress, we find him writing to Bartram in March, 1804: 



" I send for your amusement a few attempts at some of our in- 

 digenous birds, hoping that your good nature will excuse their de- 

 ficiencies, while you point them out to me. I am almost ashamed 

 to send you these drawings, but I know your generous disposition 

 will induce you to encourage one in whom you perceive a sincere 

 and eager wish to do well. They were chiefly colored by candle 

 light. 



"I have now got my collection of native birds considerably en- 

 larged; and shall endeavour, if possible, to obtain all the smaller 

 ones this summer. Be pleased to mark on the drawings, with a 

 pencil, the name of each bird, as, except three or four, I do not 

 know them. I shall be extremely obliged to you for every hint 



