438 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
Audubon was now ready to begin the text of his 
Birds of America, to be called Ornithological Biogra- 
phy, which is often referred to as his “Biography of 
Birds.” This work, which was eventually extended to 
five large volumes of over three thousand pages, was 
published at Edinburgh from 1831 to 1839. He had 
made crude beginnings with this in view as early as 
1821, and on October 16, 1830, he wrote: “I know 
that I am not a scholar .. .” but, “with the assistance 
of my old journals and memorandum-books, which were 
written on the spot, I can at least put down plain truths, 
which may be useful, and perhaps interesting, so I shall 
set to at once. I cannot, however, give scientific de- 
scriptions, and here must have assistance.” 'To supply 
this need, as we have seen already, he had earlier applied 
to William Swainson, but the negotiations with that 
naturalist were soon broken off, and led to a sharp and 
acrid discussion upon the authorship of the work 
itself.” 
By arare stroke of genius or good fortune, Audubon 
chose for his assistant a young Scotch naturalist, Wil- 
liam MacGillivray, who had been introduced to him by 
another naturalist, James Wilson, soon after he reached 
the Scottish capital. MacGillivray agreed “to revise 
and correct” his manuscript at the rate of two guineas 
per sheet of sixteen pages, and in the latter part of 
October, 1830, they set to work. We shall soon have 
occasion to speak more fully of his debt to this esti- 
mable Scotchman,* and will only add here that a better 
trained or more competent helper than MacGillivray 
could hardly have been found in Great Britain or else- 
where. 
?See Chapter XXVIII, p. 87. 
®=See Chapter XXX. 
