Ixii 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
« Mr. Jeflfersoii speaks of a very strange bird ; please let me 
know what it is ; I shall be on the look out, and he must be a sly 
fellow if he escape me. I shall watch his motions, and the sound 
of his serenade^ pretty closely, to be able to transmit to our worthy 
president a faithful sketch of a bird, which he has been so long cu- 
rious to possess.” 
To Mr. WM. DUNCAN. 
Gray^s Ferry ^ May 1805. 
“ I am glad to understand that the plantation is increasing so 
fast in value, but more so that it is not either sold or otherwise dis- 
posed of at the low rate at which we would have once thrown it 
away ; yet it is the perpetual cause of separating us, which I am 
very sorry for. I am living a mere hermit, not spending one far- 
thing, to see if I possibly can reimburse who I can see is not 
so courteous and affable as formerly. I hope to be able to pay 
him one hundred dollars, with interest, next October, and the I’e- 
mainder in the spring ; we shall then be clear of the world ; and I 
don^t care how many privations I suffer to effect that. I associate 
with nobody ; spend my leisure hours in drawing, wandering 
through the woods, or playing upon the violin. 
“ I informed you in my last of sending Mr. Jefferson drawings 
of the Falls, and some birds, which I found on the Mohawk, and 
which it seems have never been taken notice of by any naturalist. 
He returned me a very kind and agreeable letter, from Monticello, 
expressing many obligations for the drawings, which he was highly 
pleased with; and describing to me a bird, which he is very desir- 
ous of possessing, having interested the young sportsmen of his 
neighbourhood, he says, these twenty years, to shoot him one, with- 
out success. It is of the size and make of the Mocking-bird, lightly 
thrush-coloured on the back, and greyish-white on the breast; is 
