I^he Biography of Birds. 205 



containing nearly three thousand pages, and pubhshed 

 by Mr. Black of Edinburgh. 



" I applied to Mr. James Wilson, to ask if he knew of 

 any person who would undertake to correct my ungram- 

 matical manuscripts, and to assist me in arranging the 

 more scientific part of the ' Biography of the Birds.' He 

 gave me a card with the address of Mr. W. McGillivray, 

 spoke well of him and his talents, and away to Mr. Mc- 

 Gillivray I went. He had long known of me as a natu- 

 ralist. I made known my business, and a bargain was 

 soon struck. He agreed to assist me, and correct my 

 manuscripts for two guineas per sheet of sixteen pages, 

 and I that day began to write the first volume. 



" A few days after I began writing on the Biography, 

 it was known in Edinburgh that I had arrived, and Pro- 

 fessors Jameson, Graham, and others whom I had known, 

 called on me ; and I found at the ' fourteenth hour,' that 

 no less than three editions of ' Wilson's Ornithology " 

 were about to be published, one by Jameson, one by Sir 

 W. Jardine, and another by a Mr. Brown. Most persons 

 would probably have been discouraged by this informa- 

 tion, but it only had a good effect on me, because since I 

 have been in England I have studied the character of 

 Englishmen as carefully as I studied the birds in Ameri- 

 ca. And I know full well, that in England novelty is al- 

 ways in demand, and that if a thing is well known it will 

 not receive much support. Wilson has had his day, 

 thought I to myself, and now is my time. I will write, 

 and I will hope to be read ; and not only so, but I will 

 push my publication with such unremitting vigor, that my 

 book shall come before the public before Wilson's can 

 be got out. 



" Writing now became the order of the day. I sat 

 at it as soon as I awoke in the morning, and continued 

 the whole long day, and so full was my mind of birds 



