Ixvi LIFE OF WILSON. 



The streets are deep beds of heavy sand, without the accommodation of a foot 

 pavement. I most sincerely hope that I may be able to return home by water; 

 if not, I shall trouble you with one letter more.'' 



To Mr. William Bartkam. 



" Savannah, March 5th, 1809. 

 " Three months, my dear friend, are passed since I parted frorn you in 

 Kingsess. I have been travelling ever since; and one half of my journey is 

 yet to be performed — but that half is homewards, and through old Neptune's 

 dominions, where I trust I shall not be long detained. This has been the most 

 arduous, expensive, and fatiguing expedition I ever undertook. I have, how- 

 eyer, gained my point in procuring two hundred and fifty subscribers, in all, 

 for my Ornithology; and a great mass of information respecting the birds that 

 winter in the southern states, and some that never visit the middle states ; and 

 this information I have derived personally, and can therefore the more certainly 

 depend upon it. I have, also, found several new birds, of which I can find 

 no account in Linneus. All these things we will talk over when we meet. 

 * * * * 



"I visited a great number of the rich planters oil the rivers Santee and 

 Pedee, and was much struck with the miserable 'swarms of negroes around 

 them. In these rice plantations, there are great numbers of birds, never sup- 

 posed to winter so far north, and their tameness surprised me. There are also 

 many here that never visit Pennsylvania. Round Georgetown I also visited 

 several rich planters, all of whom entertained me hospitably. I spent ten 

 days in Charleston, still, in every place where I stopped a day or two, making 

 excursions with my gun. 



" On the commons, near Charlekon, I presided at a singular feast. The 

 company consisted of two hundred and thirty-seven Carrion Crows ( Vultvr 

 atratus), five or six dogs, and myself, though I only kept order, and left the 

 eating part entirely to the others. I sat so near to the dead horse, that my 

 feet touched his, and yet at one time 1 counted thirty-eight vultures on and 

 within him, so that hardly an inch of his flesh could be seen for them. Lin- 

 neus and others have confounded this Vulture with the Turkey Buzzard, but 

 they are two very distinct species. 



" As far north as Wilmington, in North Carolina, I met with the Ivory- 

 billed Woodpecker. I killed two, and winged a male, who alarmed the whole 

 town of Wilmington, screaming exactly like-a young child crying violently, 

 so that everybody supposed I had a baby under the apron of my chair, till I 

 took out the bird to prevent the people from stopping me. This bird I con- 

 fined in the room I was to sleep in, and in less than half an hour he made his 

 way through the plaster, the lath, and partly through the weather boards; 

 and would have escaped, if I had not accidentally come in. The common 

 people confound the P. prindpalis and P.pileatm together. 



* * Ht * 



" I am utterly at a loss in my wood rambles here, for there are so many 

 trees, shrubs, plants, and insects, that I know nothing of. There are immense 

 quantities of elegant butterflies, and other singular insects. I met with a 



