he set out the trees that brought New Haven fame as the "Elm City," prove him to have been a Nature lover; but the class of readers now known by that title is, like the phrase itself, of very recent growth.

Entered as second-class matter March 10, 1913, at the post office at New York, N.Y., under the act of March 3, 1879. Copyright, 1919, by The Mentor Association, Inc.

Alexander Wilson

Photograph by courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History, New York
PORTRAIT OF JOHN JAMES AUDUBON
Painted by his son, John Woodhouse Audubon, about 1841

Photograph by courtesy of the American Museum of Natural
History, New York
PORTRAIT OF ALEXANDER WILSON
After a painting made by John Watson
Gordon from an original picture of Wilson
owned by his sister

In Philadelphia, under the inspiration of Franklin, American science first put forth its budding twigs in the peace that followed the Revolution. Hither tramped the Scottish weaver-poet, Alexander Wilson, who landed in New York from Paisley in 1794. After many vicissitudes, he became acquainted with William Bartram, whose botanical garden was the pride of the town, and who himself had written a book of travel and observation which may perhaps be regarded as the earliest production in the field we are to cover in this article. Through him and other local naturalists, such as Dr. Barton and the Peales, Wilson became fascinated with the study of birds. Poor as he was, and untrained in drawing, he formed a resolution to prepare a work describing all birds of North America known to him, illustrated by colored plates executed by himself. "I am entranced," he wrote in 1804 to Bartram, with quaint humor, "over the plumage of a lark, or gazing, like a despairing lover, on the lineaments of an owl."

There is hardly a greater marvel in literary history than the accomplishment of the task of publishing nine volumes of "The American Ornithology" between 1806 and 1814, the last one a year after Wilson's death. As ornithology (the science of birds) it stands surprisingly well the test of criticism, and otherwise it bears the same classic relation to our literature that Gilbert White's "Selborne" does to that of England. Wilson's style is clear and free from affectation of any sort, his diction simple and pure, illumined by that joy in his subject which was increased by every new discovery, and sweetened by poetic appreciation and genial humor. It is extremely fortunate that, at the beginning of our out-of-door literature, so excellent a model existed for young writers. Every bird lover will enjoy reading Wilson, and every would-be essayist ought to study his pages.

PORTRAIT BUST OF AUDUBON
By W.E. Couper, in the American Museum
of Natural History, New York

HOME OF AUDUBON BUILT IN 1842
Overlooking the Hudson. From a lithograph made in 1865

THE AUDUBON HOUSE
As it appears to-day, below Riverside Drive, near 155th Street,
New York

John J. Audubon

While Wilson was at work, chance brought John J. Audubon, a lively young fellow of eighteen, to reside in a village near Philadelphia. Audubon, the son of a French father and a French Creole mother of San Domingo, was born at Aux Cayes (owe kei), in that island, April 26, 1785. Well educated in France, and in easy financial circumstances, he was fond of gunning and of painting portraits of the game he shot. Though Audubon and Wilson met, the temperaments of the two were antagonistic, and no acquaintance followed. It was not until several years later that Audubon's own ambitious "Birds of America" began to see the light after a long period of wandering and misfortune, in which nothing but the faithful support of his talented wife saved the author from failure.

Audubon's monumental work, now brings, in the original edition with the folio-plates, $3,000 to $4,000 in the book market. It contains far more material and better plates than Wilson's work, and differs from it strikingly in a literary way, for Audubon's style is characteristically French in its liveliness, its interjection of personal incidents, and its imaginative exaggeration. Audubon's fame as an author is based on the magnificent plates rather than on the text of his book, which is rarely quoted by modern ornithologists, most of whose writings are, however, far less entertaining. Audubon, possessing pleasing social gifts and special opportunities, obtained a contemporary publicity such as Wilson never enjoyed.