“ American ornithology by m( ^~ r) Wilson, begs leave to become a subscriber to it, satisfied it will give us valuable new matter as well as correct the errors of what we possessed before. ”

The books were supplied through Milligan, who on June 8, 1810, wrote to report that he had that day sent by way of Fredericksburg the first and second volumes. His bill, paid on March 15, 1812, includes “1811. May 14. To 3 Volumes American Ornithology. $ 36.00[.]” The other volumes followed, the last two, vol. VII and VIII, were sent by Milligan on October 12, 1814.

Milligan’s bill (presented August 1815), includes “1813. June 30. To 6 vols. Ornithology $ 72.00 / 1814. April 18. To 7 ^th. & 8 ^th. do. $ 24.00” and is endorsed by Jefferson Aug. 11 by draught on Gibson & Jefferson, 92 ^D ”

Jefferson wrote to Milligan on October 5 concerning this bill: “ . . . I knew there had been other books furnished me of which I had no account; but it runs much in my mind that I have paid for the early vols of Wilson which makes the principal mass of this balance. I think I paid for some of them either at Washington or very soon after, however I have no strength of confidence in my memory, and the less as it does not suggest thro’ what channel I paid. I will search into it the moment the letters accumulated during my absence will permit . . . ”

On October 27, he wrote: “ The answers to letters which had accumulated during a seven weeks absence in Bedford, and the daily calls of my affairs here have delayed longer than I expected the examination promised in my letter of the 5 ^th. into the paiment I beleived I had made for the early volumes of Wilson’s ornithology. I was led astray too in my researches by an idea that that paiment had been made while I lived at Wash ⁿ. or soon after, and I bewildered myself in the old accounts of Dufief, Conrad, Duane, Rapine &c. and at length finding it in none of these I recurred to yours where I at length found it. in an account rendered by you embracing from 1809. June 17. to 1811. May 14. you will find the last article to be ‘To 3. vol ( ^~ s) American Ornithology 36.D’ th[ e] amount of the acc ^t including that is 65. ^D 12 ^C ½. and in my letter of Mar. 16. 12. to you you will find it stated that I had desired Gibson & Jefferson to remit a sum to m ( ^~ r) Barnes, out of which I had requested m( ^~ r) Barnes to pay you 65. ^D 12 ^C ½. which you will certainly find to have been done . . . ”

Several references to Jefferson occur in the text of the work:

Vol. I, page 32, contains an extract of a letter from a distinguished American gentleman to whom I had sent some drawings, and whose name, were I at liberty to give it, would do honour to my humble performance, and render any further observations on the subject from me unnecessary.

The distinguished American gentleman was Thomas Jefferson, and the quoted letter, now in the Library of Congress, was written from Monticello on April 7, 1805. It describes a bird which “ abounds in all the neighbourhood of Philadelphia,” and ends: “ I have for 20 years interested the young sportsmen of my neighbourhood to shoot me one: but as yet without success.”

Vol. IV, page 75, in the description of the Magpie, Wilson states: The drawing was taken from a very beautiful specimen, sent from the Mandan nation, on the Missouri, to Mr. Jefferson, and by that gentleman to Mr. Peale of this city, in whose Museum it lived for several months . . .

In Volume IX, in the life of Alexander Wilson, by George Ord, the latter quotes the letter written by Wilson on February 6, 1806, to His Excellency Thomas Jefferson, President of the United States, in which he requested to be sent as a naturalist with Pike’s expedition to the Mississippi. Jefferson failed to answer this letter and this neglect drew a bitter diatribe from Ord who points out [with truth, as the Library of Congress collections show] that Mr. Jefferson had in his port-folio decisive proofs of Mr. Wilson’s talents as an ornithologist, the latter having some time before [i.e. in 1805] transmitted to his Excellency some splendid drawings of nondescript birds, accompanied with scientific descriptions, yet he did not even deign to reply to his respectful overture.

In this regard Jefferson wrote on June 25, 1818, to General James Wilkinson: “ A life so much employed in public as yours has been, must subject you often to be appealed to for facts by those whom they concern. an occasion occurs to myself of asking this kind of aid from your memory & documents. the posthumous volume of Wilson’s Ornithology altho’ ”