AUDUBON AND MACGILLIVRAY MEET 69 
tions, and here I must have help.” So it was then 
arranged, through the medium of Mr James Wilson, 
the well-known ornithologist, that the necessary 
help should be given by MacGillivray. 
The two naturalists then met for the first time, 
and although no two men could in some respects 
be more unlike each other, yet no two men could 
have been better fitted, notwithstanding radical 
differences in mind, character, and habits of life, for 
friendly co-operation in the joint work about to be 
undertaken by them. Their general tastes and 
devotion to ornithology were alike, and they were 
alike in the perseverance and endurance with which 
each had in his own sphere for years pursued the 
object to which he was consecrating his life, 
counting no sacrifice too great for the acquisition of 
the necessary knowledge for its accomplishment. 
Again and again the pinch of poverty had pressed 
hard on both of them. They had each married 
young, and family as well as individual needs were 
at times met with difficulty. Audubon, however, 
with his early acquired accomplishments, his 
gracious manner, and the versatility and readiness 
by which he could, as if by magic, turn his accom¬ 
plishments from time to time to account in 
procuring the needed funds at will, was much in 
contrast to MacGillivray’s reticent, self-contained, 
self-reliant manner, and quiet plodding at such 
literary and scientific work as came to his hand. 
In 1830, when he began his work for Audubon, 
he had not yet obtained the position of Conservator 
e 2 
