292 Notes on Belies of Alex. Wilson, by Robert Gray. 



other small islands, and landed at Burntisland after a pleasant 

 passage of six hours." 



"Wilson was then a Pedlar from Paisley, in very humble circumstances, and 

 gave but little indication of possessing such talents as distinguished him in 

 after life. We all, I daresay, know his subsequent history as given by 

 various biographers ; how he was compelled to leave his native town and pro- 

 ceed to America, in which country he landed without a shilling and without 

 a friend ; how he resumed his business as a pedlar, and how, after many 

 vicissitudes, he ultimately betook himself to the study of American Birds, and 

 produced a work which has rendered his name famous throughout the world. 

 The descriptive power shewn in this book has never been surpassed ; and 

 when it is remembered that but few works on the Birds of America had pre- 

 viously been written, "Wilson's extraordinary courage in carrying out the task 

 he had chosen for himself seems, even at this distance of time to be one of the 

 most wonderful instances of enthusiasm on record. The years of solitude he 

 spent in the woods and wastes of his adopted country, the many thousands of 

 miles he travelled by river and by land in quest of birds, and the triumphant 

 results of his wanderings in the publication of his great work, of which 

 America is so justly proud, are incidents in the life of "Wilson, which throw 

 an air of romance over his scientific career, and invest with a peculiar interest 

 all that belonged to him. Impressed with the truth of this, I have the 

 pleasure of submitting for the inspection of the members of the Club on the 

 occasion of our meeting at Dunbar, one or two memorials of this remarkable 

 man. These are mainly a few proof plates of his " American Ornithology, or 

 the Natural History of the Birds of the "United States," and an original 

 drawing of the Solitary Thrush (Tu7'dus soUtariusJ which he had cut so as to 

 replace one of the figures in another of his plates. The relics formed part of 

 the contents of a trunk left by his will to Miss Sarah Miller — a lady to whom 

 "Wilson would in due time have been married. This trunk contained among 

 other things his deed of settlement, pistols, saddle bags, paint box, brushes, 

 and colours, books, impressions of the plates for his work on American Birds, 

 original drawings, &c. Many of these articles which were left by "Wilson 

 himself I have seen along with other relics that had subsequently been placed 

 in the trunk by Miss MiUer, who afterwards became Mrs Eittenhouse, and 

 who preserved the whole with jealous care until her death. Of these, I have 

 brought to the meeting his portrait with autograph and a letter written by 

 him to the lady in question, during one of his long excursions in search of 

 material for his great work. They were given to me by the late Dr "W. P. 

 TurubuU of Philadelphia, who purchased the trunk and the whole of its con- 

 tents from the widow of a son of Mrs Eittenhouse, in 1869. I remember ex- 

 amining with much interest a presentation copy of his Poems, which was 

 found among Mrs Eittenhouse's effects, and which was fuU of annotations ia 

 "Wilson's handwriting. I observed that the author, with a sensitive regard 

 to his former occupation, had erased with his knife every reference to his 

 tramps as a pedlar. His evident desire was that he should be looked upon as 

 a lover of birds, and not long afterwards when the hand of death was upon 

 him, this desire was even more apparent in his oft expressed wish that he 

 might be laid where the birds might sing over his grave. 



