ALEXANDER WILSON 



ALEXANDER WILSON has some- 

 times been styled the father of 

 American ornithology, but it was not until 

 the year 1804 that he thought seriously of 

 studying for the task of describing and 

 illustrating the birds of North America. 

 Audubon, who was some fourteen years his 

 junior, was then already dreaming of achiev- 

 ing distinction in the same field, and had 

 long been devoting himself to it in amateur 

 fashion. But in the order of publication, 

 Wilson took precedence, bringing out his 

 first volume in 1808, while the first five parts 

 of Audubon's more elaborate work were not 

 given to the public until nearly twenty years 

 later. 



Wilson was an enthusiast, and perhaps in 

 his way as much of a dreamer as Audubon, 

 but he was not like Audubon contented 

 with dreaming. His was a clear practical 

 nature, that prompted him to set about the 

 immediate realization of his dreams, and the 

 adoption of all necessary means to the de- 

 sired end. 



Audubon may be said to have been born 

 to the work, Wilson to have drifted into it, 

 and to have succeeded not so much by any 

 special aptitude, as by virtue of an earnest- 

 ness of character, and an energy of pursuit, 

 which would equally have enabled him to 

 achieve success in almost any other depart- 

 ment. 



Both Wilson and Audubon were essen- 

 tially pioneer naturalists, men who went to 

 nature direct, studied the birds in their 

 haunts, drew from the life, and described 

 from personal observation; but while Wil- 

 son was equally with Audubon undeterred 

 by distance, danger, or fear of privation, we 

 think it may be safely said that the woods- 

 man's life, in and for itself, had no especial 



charm for him, as it had for Audubon. He 

 pursued it only as a means to an end. 



The little manufacturing town of Paisley, 

 near Glasgow, in Scotland, in which Wilson 

 first saw the light, has claimed him for 

 her own, but America cannot be unmind- 

 ful of one who devoted the best years of his 

 life to her service, and achieved results in 

 his chosen field, which bear comparison 

 with anything accomplished by the chil- 

 dren of the soil; and now that we have com- 

 pleted our sketch of Audubon, our readers 

 will be glad to have his place taken by an- 

 other great laborer in the same field. 



Alexander Wilson was born in Paisley, 

 the principal manufacturing town of Scot- 

 land, on the 6th of July, 1766. His father 

 was a gauze weaver in Paisley, Avhere he 

 spent the greater part of his life, but sub- 

 sequently to the birth of Alexander he re- 

 moved to Auchin Bathie Tower, near the 

 village of Lochwinnoch, thinking by more 

 extended and varied employment to im- 

 prove the condition of his family. There 

 he rented a piece of ground, which he cul- 

 tivated himself, ran several looms, and did 

 a trade in distilling and smuggling. He 

 bore the character of a shrewd, upright, and 

 independent man, and was generally re- 

 spected among his neighbors, who were 

 disposed to look on distilling and smug- 

 gling with a very lenient eye. 



A century ago, when Alexander Wilson 

 was in his youth, the Paisley weavers 

 were as intelligent, well informed, and in- 

 dependent a body of men as was to be 

 found in the United Kingdom. W^orking 

 by piecework at fairly remunerative rates, 

 they were not constrained to work long 

 hours for a living, and, while a certain por- 

 tion of them spent their leisure at their clubs 



