LIFE OF WILSON. 
cxv 
TO MR. WILLIAM BARTRAM 
Savannah, March 5, 1809 . 
“ Three months, my dear friend, are passed since I parted 
from you in Kingsess, I have been travelling ever since ; and 
one half of my journey is yet to be performed — but that half is 
homewards, and through old Neptune’s dominions, where I trust 
I shall not be long detained. This has been the most arduous, 
expensive, and fatiguing, expedition I ever undertook. I have, 
however, gained my point in procuring two hundred and fifty 
subscribers, in all, for my Ornithology; and a great mass of in- 
formation respecting the birds that winter in the southern states, 
and some that never visit the middle states; and this information 
I have derived personally, and can therefore the more certainly 
depend upon it. I have, also, found several new birds, of which 
I can find no account in Linneus. All these things we will talk 
over when we meet. 
^ 
“ I visited a great number of the rich planters on the rivers 
Santee and Pedee, and was much struck with the miserable 
swarms of negroes around them. In these rice plantations, there 
are great numbers of birds, never supposed to winter so far 
north, and their tameness surprised me. There are also many 
here that never visit Pennsylvania. Round Georgetown I also 
visited several rich planters, all of whom entertained me hos- 
pitably. I spent ten days in Charleston, still, in every place 
where I stopped a day or two, making excursions with my gun. 
“ On the commons, near Charleston, I presided at a singular 
feast. The company consisted of two hundred and thirty-seven 
Carrion Crows, ( Vultur atratus) five or six dogs, and myself, 
though I only kept order, and left the eating part entirely to 
the others. I sat so near to the dead horse, that my feet touch- 
ed his, and yet at one time I counted thirty-eight vultures on 
and within him, so that hardly an inch of his flesh could be seen 
for them. Linneus and others have confounded this Vultur with 
the Turkey Buzzard, but they are two very distinct species. 
