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Wilson (ALEXANDER a Scotch- American)

ALEXANDER, a Scotch- American ornithologist; born in Paisley, Scotland, July 6, 1766. In early life he was a weaver and teacher. He published a volume of poems in 1790, but being sentenced for a lampoon in 1793, emi- WILSON grated to America. He was employed as editor of the American edition of Rees's "Cyclopædia"; but in his wanderings as peddler, he learned to love birds, and set about writing an ornithology. At his death seven volumes of this work had been published; the eighth and ninth volumes were edited by George Ord, and a continuation by Charles Lucien Bonaparte (4 vols. 1825-1833). Volumes of his poems were published at Paisley in 1816, and at Belfast in 1857. He died in Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 23, 1813.