68 LEADING AMERICAN MEN OF SCIENCE 



absolutely no reason to doubt his statement that he secured the 

 small-headed Flycatcher as he described, inasmuch as Ord im- 

 mediately published the fact that he was with Wilson when he 

 shot the bird and Lawson stated that he had the specimen before 

 him when engraving Wilson's plates. Audubon's memory seems 

 to have been at fault in this instance, and his hostility to Ord 

 doubtless inspired this and other reflections on Wilson, as else- 

 where he speaks of him with great kindness. 



Wilson entered upon the production of his Ornithology with 

 no motive other than the desire to benefit science, and he expressed 

 no expectations of great financial profit or sensational notoriety. 

 He expended upon the work all the money that he had and was 

 eventually compelled to resign his position as editor of the Encyclo- 

 pedia so engrossing were the demands of his own publication. 

 At the time the second volume was about ready for the press he 

 wrote to Bartram: "I assure you my dear friend that this under- 

 taking has involved me in many difficulties and expenses which I 

 never dreamed of and I have never yet received one cent from it. I 

 am therefore a volunteer in the cause of Natural History impelled 

 by nobler views than those of money." In the preface to the 

 fifth volume, too, he says: "The publication of an original work of 

 this kind in this country has been attended with difficulties, great, 

 and it must be confessed sometimes discouraging to the author 

 whose only reward hitherto has been the favorable opinion of 

 his fellow citizens and the pleasure of the pursuit." There is no 

 evidence that circumstances had altered at the time of his death, 

 and though he speaks with satisfaction of the approval of his 

 friends, his reward even in this line had scarcely begun to reach 

 him when his labors were so suddenly terminated. 



In forming our estimate of the value to science of Wilson's 

 work we naturally compare it with that of other ornithologists. 

 Compared with his predecessors, his chief merit is originality. He 

 had no model upon which to build his Ornithology and was indeed 

 familiar with only the works of CatfisJ^y, Latham, TurtonJEj 

 j,ndj^tf^am, and the obvious errors which pervaHemost of these 

 drove him to rely only upon Nature herself for his facts. He broke 



