LIFE OF WILSON. 
CXCl 
But, notwithstanding these defects, there is a spirit in some of 
his drawings which is admirable. Having been taught drawing 
from natural models, he of course became familiar with natural 
attitudes : hence his superiority, in this respect, to all authors ex- 
tant. Among his figures, as most worthy of notice, I would par- 
ticularize the Shore Lark, Brown Creeper, House and Winter 
Wrens, Mocking-bird, Cardinal Grosbeak, Cow Buntings, Mottled 
Owl, Meadow Lark, Barn Swallows, Snipe and Partridge, Rail and 
Woodcock, and the Ruflfed Grous. 
The introduction of appropriate scenery into a work of this 
kind can have no good effect, unless it be made to harmonize, both 
as to design and execution, with the leading subjects; hence Wil- 
son’s landscapes, in the eye of taste, must always be viewed as a 
blemish, as he was not skilful in this branch of the art of delinea- 
tion ; and, even if he had been dexterous, he was not authorized to 
increase the expenditures of a work which, long before its termi- 
nation, its publisher discovered to be inconveniently burdensome. 
'I he principal objections which I have heard urged against 
the Ornithology, relate to the colouring; but as the difficulties to 
which its author was subjected, on this score, have been already 
detailed, I will merely observe that he found them too great to be 
surmounted. Hence a generous critic will not impute to him as a 
fault, what, in truth, ought to be viewed in the light of a misfor- 
tune. 
In his specific definitions he is loose and unsystematic. He 
does not appear to have been convinced of the necessity of pre- 
cision on this head; his essential and natural characters arc not 
discriminated; and in some instances he confounds generic and 
specific characters, which the laws of methodical science do not 
authorize. 
There is a peculiarity in his orthography which it is proper 
that I should take notice of, for the purpose of explaining his mo- 
tive for an anomaly at once inelegant and injudicious. I have his 
