ALEXANDER WILSON. 



1766-1813. 



A PECULIAR interest attaches to the lives and labours of 

 pioneers. The circumstances which led to the discovery of a 

 new continent, the first application of one of the forces of Na- 

 ture to the services of man, the making of the first instrument 

 for viewing the stars, and the first description of the animals, 

 plants, or physical features of a country, always have eager 

 readers. Then, too, the personality of a man who has the 

 courage and originality to set forth into an untrodden field is 

 generally picturesque and inspiring. All these claims to atten- 

 tion are possessed by the pioneer American ornithologist. 



Alexander Wilson was born on the 6th of July, 1766, at 

 Paisley, in Renfrewshire, which lies just south of the river 

 Clyde. His father, Alexander Wilson, was a weaver, and 

 reached the age of eighty-eight years, dying in 1816. During 

 the latter part of his life, at any rate, the father was rated as a 

 most exemplary citizen, but there is a glamour of "moon- 

 shine " about his early manhood, in the sense that, when not 

 occupied with tending the loom, he operated a "wee still," 

 from which trickled good Scotch whisky that was consumed 

 without paying tribute to the tax-collector. This has natu- 

 rally been denied, but not with entire success. His wife was a 

 Mary McNab, of a strictly pious character, and with the beauty 

 that frequently accompanies a tendency to consumption. Of 

 this disease she died when young Alexander, who was one of 

 three children, was ten years old. 



Like many devout Scottish folk, the parents of "Alick," 

 especially his mother, cherished the ambition that their boy 

 should "wag his head i' the puppit yet," but his genius did not 

 lie in the direction of the ministerial office. He attended the 

 Grammar School of Paisley, but his schooling must have been 

 interrupted and of no great amount, for much of his boyhood 

 was otherwise occupied, and his deficiencies in grammar, spell- 



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