clxxiv 
life of WILSON. 
which have been figured and described in his Ornithology,'^ fiftij- 
six had not been taken notice of by any former naturalist ;f and 
several of the latter number are so extremely rare, that the speci- 
mens, 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 for- 
ests, swamps and morasses, exposed to all the dangers, privations 
and fatigues, incident to such an undertaking. What but a lemaik- 
able passion for the pursuit, joined with the desire of fame, could 
have supported a solitary individual in labours of body and mind, 
compared to which the bustling avocations of common life aie 
mere holyday activity or recreation ! 
Independent on that part of his work which was Wilson’s par- 
ticular province, viz. the drawing and describing of his subjects, 
he was necessitated to occupy much of his time in colouring 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 colouring the plates is a circum- 
stance 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 uneasi- 
ness, was the process of colouring. If this could have been done 
solely by himself; or, as he was obliged to seek assistance therein, 
* The whole number of birds figured is three hundred and twenty. 
■\ In this statement of the number of new species, I followed Wilson’s own catalogue, 
wherein they are indicated. But it is proper to observe that Vieillot’s “ Oiseaux de VAme- 
rique Septentrzonale'^ were never seen by our author ; otherwise he would have taken notice 
that some of his supposed non-descripts were figured and described in the above-mentioned 
costly work, which was published in Paris in the year 1807. Vieillot travelled in the United 
States with the view of giving an account of our birds ; he published only two folio volumes, 
with coloured plates; his publisher failed; and the copper-plates of the work, including those 
intended for the third volume, were sold at public sale for old copper; and are now (1825) m 
Philadelphia, and the property of William Maclure, Esq., the President of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 
