ex LIFE OF WILSON. 



that the specimens, from which the figures were taken, were the only ones that 

 he was ever enabled to obtain. This expensive collection of birds was the 

 result of many months of unwearied research, amongst forests, swamps and 

 morasses, exposed to all the dangers, privations and fatigues, incident to such 

 an undertaking. What but a remarkable passion for the pursuit, joined with 

 the desire of fame, could have supported a solitary individual, in labors of 

 body and mind, compared to which the bustling avocations of common life are 

 mere holiday activity or recreation ! 



Independent on that part of his work which was Wilson's particular province, 

 viz. the drawing and describing of his subjects, he was necessitated to occupy 

 much of his time in coloring the plates ; his sole resource for support being in 

 this employment, as he had been compelled to relinquish the superintendence of 

 the Cyclopaedia. This drudgery of coloring the plates is a circumstance much 

 to be regretted, as the work would have proceeded more rapidly if he could 

 have avoided it. One of his principal difficulties, in effect, and that which 

 caused him no small uneasiness, was the process of coloring. If this could 

 have been done solely by himself; or, as he was obliged to seek assistance 

 therein, if it could have been performed immediately under his eye, he would 

 have been relieved of much anxiety; and would have better maintained a due 

 equanimity ; his mind being daily ruffled by the negligence of his assistants, 

 who too often, through a deplorable want of skill and taste, made disgusting 

 caricatures of what were intended to be modest imitations of simple nature.* 

 Hence much of his precious time was spent in the irksome employment of in- 

 specting and correcting the imperfections of others. This waste of his stated 

 periods of labor, he felt himself constrained to compensate, by encroachments 

 on those hours which Nature, tenacious of her rights, claims as her own : 

 hours which she consecrates to rest — which she will not forego without a strug- 

 gle ; and which all those, who would preserve unimpaired the vigor of their 

 mind and body, must respect. Of this intense and destructive application his 

 friends failed not to admonish him; but to their kind remonstrances he would 

 reply, that " life is short, and without exertion nothing can be performed." 



* In the preface to the third volume, Wilson states the anxiety which he had suffered on 

 account of the coloring of the plates ; and of his having made an arrangement, whereby 

 his difficulties on that score had been surmounted. This arrangement proved in the end 

 of greater injury than benefit. 



The art of printing in colors is but little known in our country, and seldom practised ; 

 and the few attempts that have been made have only partially succeeded. An experiment 

 of this nature was undertaken upon several plates of this work, but with a success by no 

 means satisfactory. When Wilson commenced his labors, everything relating to them 

 was new to him ■ and the difficulty of fixing the proper tints, upon an uniform black 

 ground, was the greater, inasmuch as he had to experiment himself, unaided by the coun- 

 sel or example of those to whom the process was familiar. 



The writer of this narrative .has thought it his duty to state some of the embarrassments 

 under which Wilson labored, in the department of coloring the plates, in order to obviate 

 criticisms, which too many are disposed to make, on supposed faults ; but if all the diffi- 

 culties were made known, there would be no fear for the result, aihong readers of cando' 

 and understanding. ' 



