LIFE OF WILSON. clxxix 



tion to publish as fast as the materials accumulated; and he being 

 in some measure compelled, by motives of economy, to appor- 

 tion his figures to the space they would occupy in the plates, 

 he thereby brings to our view, birds not only of different genera, 

 but of different habits, associated in a manner not wholly unnat- 

 ural, but abhorrent from the views of those systematists, who 

 account every deviation from method an inexcusable fault. 



With the art of perspective, it would appear, he was imper- 

 fectly acquainted; hence there are errors in his drawings, which 

 the rigid critic cannot overlook. These errors occur most fre- 

 quently in the feet and the tails of his birds, the latter of which, 

 with the view of being characteristically displayed, are frequent- 

 ly distorted in a manner, which no expediency can justify. One 

 can hardly forbear smiling at the want of correspondence be- 

 tween the figure of the Sharp-shinned Hawk, and the fence 

 upon which it is mounted, the former, instead of appearing of 

 the size of nature, for which the author intended it, absolutely 

 assuming the bulk of an elephant. 



But notwithstanding these defects, there is a spirit in some 

 of his drawings which is admirable. Having been taught draw- 

 ing from natural models, he of course became familiar with na- 

 tural attitudes: hence his superiority, in this respect, to all au- 

 thors extant. Among his figures most worthy of notice, I 

 would particularize the Shore Lark, Brown Creeper, House 

 and Winter Wrens, Mocking-Bird, Cardinal Grosbeak, Cow 

 Buntings, Mottled Owl, Meadow Lark, Barn Swallows, Snipe 

 and Partridge, Rail and Woodcock, and the Ruffed Grous. 



The introduction of appropriate scenery, into a work of this 

 kind, can have no good effect, unless it be made to harmonize, 

 both as to design and execution, with the leading subjects; hence 

 Wilson's landscapes, in the eye of taste, must always be viewed 

 as a blemish, as he was not skilful in this branch of the art of 

 delineation; and, even if he had been dexterous, he was not au- 

 thorized to increase the expenditures of a work, which, long 

 before its termination, its publisher discovered to be inconve 

 niently burdensome. 



