CHAPTER XIV 
A MEETING OF RIVALS, AND A SKETCH OF ANOTHER 
PIONEER 
Alexander Wilson and his American Ornithology—His canvassing tour of 
1810—His retort to a Solomon of the Bench—Descriptions of Pitts- 
burgh, Cincinnati and Louisville—Meeting with Audubon—Journey to 
New Orleans—Youth in Scotland—Weaver, itinerant peddler, poet 
and socialist—Sent to jail for libel—Emigrates to the United States— 
Finally settles as a school teacher near Philadelphia—His friendships 
with Bartram and Lawson—Disappointments in love—Early studies of 
American birds—His drawings, thrift, talents and genius—Publication 
of his Ornithology—His travels, discouragements and success—His pre- 
mature death—Conflicting accounts of the visit to Audubon given by 
the two naturalists—Rivalry between the friends of Wilson, dead, and 
those of Audubon, living—The controversy which followed—An evasive 
“Flycatcher”—Singular history of the Mississippi Kite plate. 
On January 30, 1810, a man of rather coarse fea- 
tures, with a head of sandy hair, and possessed of man- 
ners that could be winning or aggressive according to 
his mood, might have been seen leaving Philadelphia 
afoot, for he had planned to keep his expenses down 
to a dollar a day and traveling by coach or on horseback 
suited neither his purse nor the objects of his mission. 
His clothing was coarse; his luggage, with the exception 
of a fowling-piece and two red-backed volumes of quarto 
size, was of the lightest description. But, could we have 
peered between the covers of those books, our curiosity 
would have been whetted, for they were filled with col- 
ored plates of American birds, the first-fruits of their 
bearer’s untrained eye and hand; the text, moreover, 
was printed in a style which would have done honor to 
anv country. 
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