ALEXANDER, the American ornithologist, was born at Paisley, in Scotland, on the 6th of July 1766. His father was a hand-loom weaver, and he himself followed the same trade. His education was more liberal than that of many in similar circumstances. Some poems which he published, especially those written in the Scottish dialect, possess great merit. In 1794 he emigrated to the United States, where, after working for some time as a weaver, he took himself to the not less laborious but more refined employment of schoolmaster. For a series of years his life was occupied in that country with various studies, such as mathematics, the German language, music, drawing, and, above all, natural history. At length he resolved to devote himself entirely to ornithology, and, at whatever hazard, to form a collection of all the birds of the United States. For this he was eminently qualified. In the words of his American biographer, "he was not only an enthusiastic admirer of the works of creation, but he was consistent in research, and permitted no dangers or fatigues to abate his ardour or relax his exertions. He incurred himself to hardships by frequent and laborious exercise, and was never more happy than when employed in some enterprise which promised, from its difficulties, the novelties of discovery. Whatever was obtained with ease appeared to him comparatively uninteresting; the acquisitions of labour alone seemed worthy of his ambition. He was no closet philosopher; he was indebted for his ideas, not to books, but to nature.... His powers of observation were acute, and his judgment seldom erred. That his industry was great, his work will ever testify; and our astonishment may well be excited that so much should have been performed in so short a time. A single individual, without patron, fortune, or recompense, accomplished, in the short space of seven years, as much as the combined body of European naturalists have taken a century to achieve. The collection and discovery of these birds were the fruits of many months of unrewarded research amongst forests, swamps, and morasses, exposed to all the dangers, privations, and fatigues incident to such an undertaking. What but a remarkable passion for the pursuit, joined with an ardent desire of fame, could have supported a solitary individual in labours of body and mind, compared to which the bustling avocations of common life are mere holiday activity or recreation?" With regard to the literary merit of his "American Ornithology," passages occur in the prefaces and descriptions, which, for elegance of language, graceful ease, and graphic power, can scarcely be surpassed. In America he composed various poetical pieces. The longest of these, "The Foresters," a narrative in verse of a pedestrian journey performed by himself and two friends to the Falls of Niagara, is decidedly superior to any of a descriptive kind which he had written in Scotland, manifesting great improvement both in his taste and his power of composition. In personal appearance Wilson was tall, handsome, and vigorous; but adapted as his frame was for a life of activity, it gradually gave way under the accumulated and harassing toils to which he was subjected, and he died of dysentery at Philadelphia on the 23rd of August 1813, in the forty-eighth year of his age, when the publication of his great work, which appeared in volumes, was nearly completed. Strong good sense, high moral worth, and a lofty spirit of independence, were the characteristic features of his mind. With the feelings of a poet, he had few of the defects that often cling to the poetic character.