WII.SON AND CONTEMPORARY AMERICANS 83 



find to contain a Bird of the same Species with 

 one of those sent but unnoticed by me before. 

 Allow me Sir as an atonement for this mistake to 

 beg your acceptance of another sheet of Drawings 

 being my poor efforts to represent faithfully 4 

 of our most capital Songsters among which is (I 

 believe) the Bird* so particularly and accurately 

 described in your Excellency's letter to me. This 

 being the only bird I can find among all our 

 Songsters corresponding in every respect with 

 the description there given. The clearness and 

 plaintive sweetness of its notes, its solitary dis- 

 position — continually serenading us from the tops 

 of the tallest trees — its colour, size and resem- 

 blance to the Moucherelle de la Martinique of 

 Buffon, as observed by your Excellency, desig- 

 nate this, (and my friend Mr. Bartram is of the 

 same opinion) to be the Bird so justly esteemed 

 by your Excellency. 



^'Finding, as I do, an innocent and delightful 

 retreat from the sometimes harassing business of 

 Life in our Rural Solitudes I have employed some 

 of my leisure hours in Drawing many of these 

 charming Songsters of the Grove with a view at 

 some future day of publishing in a more finished 

 manner all the Birds resident in or which Emi- 

 grate to the United States from the South & 

 North. May I hope that your Excellency will 

 not think meanly of my feeble attempts or of the 

 motives which have induced me to intrude at this 

 time on your precious hours devoted to the In- 



* A reference is given here to the numbering of the figures on the 

 plate. 



