ALEXANDER WILSON. 
lxi 
you at Kingsess. This is 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 information 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. 
“ 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 touched 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. 
“ As far north as Wilmington, in North Carolina, I met with the 
Ivory-billed Woodpecker. I killed two, and winged a male, who 
alarmed the whole town of Wilmington, screaming exactly like a 
young child crying violently, so that every body supposed I had a 
baby under the apron of my chair, till I took it out to prevent the 
people from stopping me. This bird I confined in the room I was 
to sleep in, and in less than half an hour he made his way through 
the plaster, the lath, and partly through the weather boards, and 
would have escaped if I had not accidentally come in.” 
This journey is more fully described in another letter to Mr 
Miller, the principal parts of which I shall insert, as too important 
to be omitted, and carrying us regularly on in the line of his various 
excursions. 
To Mr D. H. Miller. 
“ Charleston, February 22 , 1809 . 
“ Dear Sir, — I have passed through a considerable extent of 
country since I wrote you last, and have met with a variety of 
adventures, some of which may perhaps amuse you. Norfolk turned 
out better than I expected : I left that place on one of the coldest 
mornings I have experienced since I left Philadelphia. 
“ I passed through a flat pine-covered country from Norfolk to 
Suffolk, twenty-four miles distant, and lodged, on the way, in the 
