LIFE OF WILSON, XCV 



TO MR. WILLIAM BARTRAM. 



Savannah, March 5, 1809. 



" Three months, my dear friend, are passed since I parted 

 from you in Kingsess. I have been travelling ever since ; and 

 one half of my journey is yet to be performed but that half is 

 homewards, and through old Neptune's dominions, where I trust 

 I shall not be long detained. This has been the most arduous, 

 expensive, and fatiguing, expedition I ever undertook. I have, 

 however, gained my point in procuring two hundred and fifty 

 subscribers, in all, for my Ornithology ; and a great mass of in- 

 formation respecting the birds that winter in the southern states, 

 and some that never visit the middle states; and this information 

 I have derived personally, and can therefore the more certainly 

 depend upon it. I have, also, found several new birds, of which 

 I can find no account in Linneus. All these things we will talk 



over when we meet. 



* * * * 



" I visited a great number of the rich planters on the rivers 

 Santee and Pedee, and was much struck with the miserable 

 swarms of negroes around them. In these rice plantations, there 

 are great numbers of birds, never supposed to winter so far 

 north, and their tameness surprised me. There are also many 

 here that never visit Pennsylvania. Round Georgetown I also 

 visited several rich planters, all of whom entertained me hos- 

 pitably. I spent ten days in Charleston, still, in every place 

 where I stopped a day or two, making excursions with my gun. 



" On the commons, near Charleston, I presided at a singular 

 feast. The company consisted of two hundred and thirty-seven 

 Carrion Crows, ( Vultur atratus] five or six dogs, and myself, 

 though I only kept order, and left the eating part entirely to 

 the others. I sat so near to the dead horse, that my feet touch- 

 ed his, and yet at one time I counted thirty-eight vultures on 

 and within him, so that hardly an inch of his flesh could be seen 

 for them. Linneus and others have confounded this Vultur with 

 the Turkey Buzzard, but they are two very distinct species. 



