LIFE OF WILSON. 
cix 
by appearances j and marvellous narratives, in that science which he had so 
much at heart, were the objects of his decided disapprobation. The ridicule 
and scorn with which he treated the hypothesis of the annual torpidity of 
swallows arc well known ; and he regarded with equal contempt those tales 
of the fascinating faculty attributed to serpents, which are yet but too well 
adapted to the taste of the multitude to be eft'cctively discredited. 
Having been " something of a traveller," it would be reasonable to conclude 
that Wilson had been familiar with " novel sights;" but we nowhere find that 
he ever beheld a toad leaping into day from its rocky doniicil of five thousand 
years, or a mermaid " sleeking her soft alluring locks'' in the sun. That won- 
der of the " vasty deep," the Sea /Serpent of Gloucester, had not attracted the 
attention of the public in his time; but if it had, there is little doubt that he 
would liave promptly exerted himself to expose one of the grossest fictions that 
was ever palmed upon the credulity of mankind. 
That the industry of Wilson was great, bis work will for ever testify. And 
our admiration is excited, that so much should have been performed in so short 
a time. When we take into consideration the state of our country, as respects 
the cultivation of the physical sciences; and that in the walk of Ornithology, 
particularly, no one, deserving ilie title of a Nafuralixt, had yet presumed to 
tread; when we view the labors of foreigners, who had interested themselves 
in our natural productions, and find how incompetent they were, through a defi- 
ciencj' of correct information, to instruct; and then when we reflect that a 
single individual, '■^without pa/ron, fortune, or recompense," accomplished, in 
the space of seven years, as much as the combined body of European natural- 
ists took a eentnrij to achieve, we feel almost inclined to doubt the evidence 
upon which this conclusion is founded. But it is a fact, which we feel a pride 
in asserting, that we have as faitbfid, coniplete, and interesting, an account of 
our birds, in the volumes of the American Ornithology, as the Europeans can 
at this moment boast of possessing of theirs. Let those who question the cor- 
rectness of this opinion examine for themselves, and determine according to 
the dictates of an unbiassed judgment. 
We need no other evidence of the unparalleled industry of our author, than 
the fact, 0^ two hnnJred and scveiitij-eiijlit species, have been figured 
and described in his Ornithology,* yz/Zy-.s^'x had not been taken notice of by 
any former naturalist ;"j' and several of tlie latter number are so extremely rare. 
* Tlic whole number of birds fignroil is tlireo hundred and twevity. 
f In this statement of llie nninbor of new speeies, I followed Wilson's own catalogue, 
wherein they are iudicntcil. But it is proper to observe, that Vieillot's " Oixraiix ck 
L'Amrriqiie iSepteiilrinnrilr.^'' was never seen l)y our author; otherwise he would have 
taken notice that some of his supposed nondescripts were fi,i;nri'd and desfrihcil in the 
above-mentioned costly work, wliieh was published in Paris in the year 1807. Vieillot 
travelleil in tlie United States, with the view of giving an account of our binls ; he pub- 
lished only two folio volumes, with colored plates ; his publisher iVilri] ; and the copper- 
plates of tlie work, including those intended for the third V(dunie, were sohl at public sale 
for oh! copper : and are now (182.'j) in Pliiladelpbia, and the property of AVilliam Ma- 
clure, Esq., the President of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Pliiladelpbia. 
