INTRODUCTION. xxiii 



the south, and therefore I determined to set out immediately, 

 I have frequently thought that my success in this vast under- 

 taking was in part owing to my prompt decision in every thing 

 relating to it. This decision I owe partly to my father, and 

 partly to Benjamin Franklin. We arrived at Charles- 

 ton in October 1833. At Columbia I formed an acquaintance 

 with Thomas Cooper, the learned President of the College 

 there. Circumstances rendered impracticable my projected trip 

 to the Floridas, and along the shores of the Gulf of Mexico, 

 for which reason, after spending the winter in keen research, 

 aided by my friend Bachman, I retraced my steps in March, 

 in company with my wife and son, to New York. At Balti- 

 more, where we spent a week, my friends Messrs Morris, 

 GiLMORE, Skinner, and Drs Potter, Edmonston, Ged- 

 DiNGS, and DucATELL, greatly aided me in augmenting my 

 list of subscribers, as did also my friend Colonel Theodore 

 Anderson. IMy best acknowledgments are offered to these 

 gentlemen for their polite and kind attentions. 



Taking a hurried leave of my friends JMessrs Prime, King, 

 Stuveysant, Harris, Lang, Ray, Van Ransselaer, 

 Low, Joseph, Kruger, Buckner, Carman, Peal, 

 Cooper, and the Reverend W. A. Duer, President of the 

 College, we embarked on board the packet ship the North Ame- 

 rica, commanded by that excellent man and experienced seaman 

 Captain Charles Dixey, with an accession of sixty-two sub- 

 scribers, and the collections made during nearly three years of 

 travel and research. 



In the course of that period, I believe, I have acquired much 

 information relative to the Ornithology of the United States. 

 and in consequence of observations from naturalists on both con- 



