clxiv LIFE OF WILSON. 



former naturalist;* and several of the latter number are so ex- 

 tremely rare, that the specimens, from which the figures were 

 taken, were the only ones that he was ever enabled to obtain. 

 This expensive collection of birds was the result of many 

 months of unwearied research, amongst forests, swamps and 

 morasses, exposed to all the dangers, privations and fatigues, 

 incident to such an undertaking. What but a remarkable pas- 

 sion for the pursuit, joined with the desire of fame, could have 

 supported a solitary individual, in labours of body and mind, 

 compared to which the bustling avocations of common life are 

 mere holy-day activity or recreation! 



Independent on that part of his work which was Wilson's 

 particular province, viz. the drawing and describing of his sub- 

 jects, he was necessitated to occupy much of his time in colour- 

 ing the plates; his sole resource for support being in this em- 

 ployment, as he had been compelled to relinquish the superin- 

 tendence of the Cyclopaedia. This drudgery of colouring the 

 plates, is a circumstance much to be regretted, as the work 

 would have proceeded more rapidly if he could have avoided 

 it. One of his principal difficulties, in effect, and that which 

 caused him no small uneasiness, was the process of colouring. 

 If this could have been done solely by himself; or, as he was 

 obliged to seek assistance therein, if it could have been per- 

 formed immediately under his eye, he would have been re- 

 lieved of much anxiety; and would have better maintained a 



* In this statement of the number of new species, I followed Wilson's own 

 catalogue, wherein they are indicated. But it is proper to observe, that 

 Vieillot's " Oiseaux de UAmtriqut Septentrionale" were never seen by our 

 author; otherwise he would have taken notice that some of his supposed non- 

 descripts were figured and described in the above-mentioned costly work, 

 which was published in Paris in the year 1807. Vieillot travelled in the Uni- 

 ted States, with the view of giving an account of our birds? he published 

 only two folio volumes, with coloured plates; his publisher failed; and the 

 copper-plates of the work, including those intended for the third volume, 

 were sold at public sale for old copper; and are now (1825) in Philadelphia, 

 and the property of William Maclure, Esq., the President of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 



