MetJtod of Drawing Birds, 51 



their way^ by embellishing each of their descriptions of habits 

 without any farther object in view than that of entertaining 

 the better their hearers, has frequently deterred me from list- 

 ening at all to such accounts, and has brought my physical 

 system to a solitary state of habits and manners so different from 

 those that usually accompany men, that frequently I feel un- 

 easy, as well as awkward, if more than one or two companions 

 are about me. To the improvement of my observations I 

 have found this no detriment. On the contrary, I am per- 

 suaded that alone in the woods, or at my work, I can make 

 better use of the whole of myself than in any other situation, 

 and that thereby I have lost nothing in exchanging the plea- 

 sure of studying raen for that of admiring the feathered race. 



Pursuers of natural curiosities are extremely abundant in 

 our age. New, quite unknown subjects are those the most 

 sought for. The dried skin of an exotic specimen, of which 

 the colour has not been described minutely, draws all attention, 

 whilst the habits of that same specimen are scarcely inquired 

 after, and those of individuals more interesting, being nearer 

 and more easily obtained, are abandoned, and the pleasure, as 

 well as the profit that might be derived from a complete study of 

 their manners, and faculties, and worth, are set aside. I must 

 acknowledge to you that that kind of curiosity has not ani- 

 mated me half so much as the desire of first knowing well all 

 those commonly about me, — a task that in itself I discovered to 

 be extremely difficult, but through which I found the means 

 of at least drawing valuable deductions. 



I have never drawn from a stuffed specimen. My reason 

 for this has been, that I discovered when in museums, where 

 large collections of that kind are to be met with, that the per- 

 sons generally employed for the purpose of mounting them 

 possessed no further talents than that of filling the skins, un- 

 til ylum'ply formed^ and adorning them with eyes and legs ge- 

 nerally from their own fancy. Those persons, on inquiry, knew 

 nothing of the anatomy of the subject before them ; seldom the 

 true length of the whole, or the junction either of the wings and 

 legs with the body ; nothing of their gaits and allurements ; and 

 not once in a hundred times was the bird in a natural position. 



I would not from this have you conclude that museums and 



