lii                  LIFE OF WILSON.
you every comfort that the state of society you are in can af-
ford. With the great volume of Nature before you, you can
never, while in health, be without amusement Keep a diary
of every thing you meet with that is curious. Look out, now
and then, for natural curiosities as you traverse your farm; and
remember me as you wander through your woody solitudes."

                   FROM MR. JEFFERSON.

                                 Monticello, dpril 7, 1805.
" Sir,
  " I received here yesterday your favour of March 18, with
the elegant drawings of the new birds you found on your tour
to Niagara, for which I pray you to accept my thanks. The
Jay is quite unknown to me. From my observations while in
Europe, on the birds and quadrupeds of that quarter, I am of
opinion there is not in our continent a single bird or quadruped
which is not sufficiently unlike all the members of its family
there to be considered as specifically different; on this general
observation I conclude with confidence that your Jay is not a
European bird.
  "c The first bird on the same sheet I judge to be a Muscicapa
from its bill, as well as from the following circumstance. Two
or three days before my arrival here a neighbour killed a bird,
unknown to him, and never before seen here, as far as he could
learn; it was brought to me soon after I arrived; but in the dusk
of the evening, and so putrid that it could not be approached
but with disgust. But I retain a sufficiently exact idea of its
form and colours to be satisfied it is the same with yours. The
only difference I find in yours is that the white on the back is
not so pure, and that the one I saw had a little of a crest. Your
figure, compared with the white bellied Gobe-mouc/e, 8 Buff.
342. PI. enlum. 566, shows a near relation. Buffon's is dark
on the back.
  " As you are curious in birds, there is one well worthy your
attention, to be found, or rather heard, in every part of Ame-
rica, and yet scarcely ever to be seen; it is in all the forests,