lii 
LIFE OF WILSON. 
you every comfort that the state of society you are in can af- 
ford. With the great volume of Nature before you, you can 
never, while in health, be without amusement. Keep a diary 
of every thing you meet with that is curious. Look out, now 
and then, for natural curiosities as you traverse your farm; and 
remember me as you wander through your woody solitudes. ” 
FROM MR. JEFFERSON. 
Monticello, Jipril 7, 1805. 
“ Sir, 
“ I received here yesterday your favour of March 18, with 
the elegant drawings of the new birds you found on your tour 
to Niagara, for which I pray you to accept my thanks. The 
Jay is quite unknown to me. From my observations while in 
Europe, on the birds and quadrupeds of that quarter, I am of 
opinion there is not in our continent a single bird or quadruped 
which is not sufficiently unlike all the members of its family 
there to be considered as specifically diflferent; on this general 
observation I conclude with confidence that your Jay is not a 
European bird. 
“ The first bird on the same sheet I judge to be a Muscicapa 
from its bill, as well as from the following circumstance. Two 
or three days before my arrival here a neighbour killed a bird, 
unknown to him, and never before seen here, as far as he could 
learn; it was brought to me soon after I arrived; but in the dusk 
of the evening, and so putrid that it could not be approached 
but with disgust. But I retain a sufficiently exact idea of its 
form and colours to be satisfied it is the same with yours. The 
only difference I find in yours is that the white on the back is 
not so pure, and that the one I saw had a little of a crest. Your 
figure, compared with the white bellied Gobe-moiiche, 8 Buff. 
342. PI. enlum. 566, shows a near relation. Buffon’s is dark 
on the back. 
“ As you are curious in birds, there is one well w’orthy your 
attention, to be found, or rather heard, in every part of Ame- 
rica, and yet scarcely ever to be seen; it is in all the forests. 
