600 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL APPENDIX. 18 8 [34 



1808-14. WILSON, A. Continued. 



cepkalus, ref. to pi. 36 ; Mergus merganser, ref. to pi. 68, f. 1.) " General Index " and 

 "List of Subscribers" conclude the volume and the work. It is not necessary, 

 though often done, to call this work Wilson's Ornithology " with Ord's Con- 

 tinuation ". Wilson's work was simply completed under Ord's editorship, hut the 

 latter did not " continue " it. Some of the text in vol. VIII, and IX, are by Ord, 

 but the editor himself would have been the last person to claim joint-authorship. 



No other work on American ornithology has been so much talked and vr. itten 

 about as this; and the time for comment on its character is long gone by. The 

 " melancholy poet-naturalist " occupies a place as changeless as the hills, and 

 wholly peculiar. He stands toward American ornithologists in a position corre- 

 sponding somewhat to that which is occupied in England by White of Selbourne, 

 in Germany by Bechstein, and, I will add, among anglers by Iziak Walton. 

 Perhaps no other work on ornithology of equal extent is equally free from error ; 

 and its truthfulness is illumined by a spark of the " fire divine ". This means 

 immortality. Among the disproportionately large number of new species de- 

 scribed by Wilson, there are but two (Sylvia montana and Muscicapa ininuta) 

 remaining unidentified. Being no scholar, in fact a very unlearned man, he 

 labored under the usual disadvantage of insufficient knowledge of his predeces- 

 sors' labors ; consequently he renamed many species as new which were not 

 such, and wrongly referred many that were new to previously described ones. 

 Science would lose little, but, on the contrary, would gain much, if every scrap 

 of pre-Wilsoniiin writing about United States birds could be annihilated. 



What is, or at least long was, the most valuable commentary on " Wilson ", is 

 Bonaparte's "Observations on the Nomenclature of Wilson's Ornithology" 

 (1824-25 and 1826, q. v.). The total number of species described and figured by 

 Wilson is said to be 278. 



There are said to be, and there doubtless are, a " Supplement" by Ord, "Phila. 

 1825", and a "2d ed., Phila. 1824-28, 3 vols. 4to" ; neither of which have I seen. 



The editions and continuations of " Wilson " which have come to my knowl- 

 edge are as follows : 



1808-14. WILSON : editio princeps, as given above. 9 vols. 4to. Philadelphia. 



1825-33. BONAPARTE -.American Ornithology. 4 vols. 4to. New York. An en- 

 tirely different work, but in similar style, and incorporated by subsequent 

 editors with " Wilson". 



1828-29. ORU'S ed. 3 vols. 8vo. 1 folio atlas. New York and Philadelphia. 

 Does not contain " Bonaparte ". There are later issues of this. 



1831. JAMESON'S ed., forming part of Constable's Miscellany. 4 vols. 18mo. 

 Edinburgh. Contains "Bonaparte", and much irrelevant matter. 



1832. JARDINE'S ed. 3 vols. 8vo. London and Edinburgh. Contains " Bona- 

 parte". 



1840. BREWER'S ed. 1 vol. 12mo. Boston. Contains "Bonaparte", and an 

 original synopsis by the editor. There are later issues of this. 



(date unknown). EDITOR unknown. An edition published in London, by 



W. Spooner. 16mo? 18mo? No. 1, containing 8 plates. (.1840 or later?) 



18 . WILSON, A. American Ornithology. | Illustrations | of ] American Or- 

 nithology ; | reduced from the | original work of Alexander Wil- 

 son. | London : | published by William Spooner, 259, Regent Street, 

 | Oxford Street; | Hurst, Chance, and Co., 65 St. Paul's Church- 

 Yard; | and Constable and Co., Edinburgh. | [No date.] 16mo? 

 18mo ? (say 4x6 inches). No. 1, containing 8 plates. 



I am favored, through the attentions of my friend Prof. A. Newton, of Cam- 

 bridge, England, with the above title of an edition of Wilson I never otherwise 

 heard of. Prof. N. has no further information to convey respecting it. It would 

 seem to indicate an undertaking, which may not have been carried out to com- 

 pletion, of an edition of the work (but this is only a guess of mine, quite in the 

 dark). Will any bibliomaniac or sane person resolve the uncertainty 3 



