Audubon was now ready to begin the text of his _Birds of America_, to be called _Ornithological Biography_, which is often referred to as his "Biography of Birds." This work, which was eventually extended to five large volumes of over three thousand pages, was published at Edinburgh from 1831 to 1839. He had made crude beginnings with this in view as early as 1821, and on October 16, 1830, he wrote: "I know that I am not a scholar ..." but, "with the assistance of my old journals and memorandum-books, which were written on the spot, I can at least put down plain truths, which may be useful, and perhaps interesting, so I shall set to at once. I cannot, however, give scientific descriptions, and here must have assistance." To supply this need, as we have seen already, he had earlier applied to William Swainson, but the negotiations with that naturalist were soon broken off, and led to a sharp and acrid discussion upon the authorship of the work itself.[382] By a rare stroke of genius or good fortune, Audubon chose for his assistant a young Scotch naturalist, William MacGillivray, who had been introduced to him by another naturalist, James Wilson, soon after he reached the Scottish capital. MacGillivray agreed "to revise and correct" his manuscript at the rate of two guineas per sheet of sixteen pages, and in the latter part of October, 1830, they set to work. We shall soon have occasion to speak more fully of his debt to this estimable Scotchman,[383] and will only add here that a better trained or more competent helper than MacGillivray could hardly have been found in Great Britain or elsewhere. [Illustration: MRS. DICKIE'S "BOARDING RESIDENCE," 26 GEORGE STREET, EDINBURGH, WHERE AUDUBON OCCUPIED APARTMENTS AND PAINTED AND WROTE IN 1826-27 AND 1830-31. A LARGE PUBLIC BUILDING NOW OCCUPIES THE SITE. After a photograph in possession of Mr. Ruthven Deane.] [Illustration: THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. After an old print; reproduced from _Cassinia_ for 1910.]