128 NATURAL HISTORY. 



The * American Ornithology,' by which the name of 

 Alexander Wilson will be ever remembered, consisted of 

 eight volumes quarto, to which a ninth volume was subse- 

 quently added by Prince Charles Lucien Bonaparte, 

 Prince of Musignano. The best English edition is that 

 by Sir William Jardine, in three volumes octavo, published 

 in 1832. From the purely zoological point of view, this 

 great work stands in an almost unique position. Wilson 

 was no trained naturalist, and naturally cared little for 

 zoological systems, for synonymy the bugbear of working 

 naturalists or for comparative anatomy. On the other 

 hand he was a wonderfully acute and accurate observer, 

 with a keen sense of what constituted the really essential 

 characters of a species, and thoroughly able to set down 

 these characters in clear and well-chosen language. 

 Above all, he was an outdoor naturalist. He did not 

 describe the birds of America from skins or stuffed 

 specimens, but from close personal observation of the 

 creatures themselves in their native haunts. Hence, as 

 Swainson has remarked, 'his descriptions are, in fact, 

 biographies.' 



In illustration of the above remarks, we may quote some 

 portions of the description which Wilson gives of the 

 fish-hawk or osprey. * This formidable, vigorous-winged, 

 and well-known bird,' writes Wilson, ' subsists altogether on 

 the finny tribes that swarm in our bays, creeks, and rivers ; 

 procuring his prey by his own active skill and industry ; 

 and seeming no further dependent on the land than as a 

 mere resting-place, or, in the usual season, a spot of 

 deposit for his nest, eggs, and young. The figure here 

 given is reduced to one-third of the size of life, to 



