182 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



a drawing as that of the Wood Thrush (1806) is in 

 marked contrast to the more ambitious "Fish Hawk or 

 Osprey, A. Willson, Perkioming Creek, 1809," in which 

 the bird holds a white sucker in its talons but is less 

 happily rendered. Nine large pastels of waterfowl and 

 two smaller pieces, representing a Robin and Brown 

 Thrush, in the same style, are good examples of Audu- 

 bon's cruder efforts of that time ; they were merely hur- 

 ried sketches or practice work, with no attempt to finish 

 with all the perfection of detail of which he was then 

 capable. 



In a full-size pastel of the Black Surf or Velvet 

 Duck, drawn on December 28, 1806, and signed "J. J. 

 L. Audubon," the note is added: "the only specimen of 

 the kind I have ever seen." He became well acquainted 

 with the Velvet Ducks, now better known as the White- 

 winged Scoters, and in his account of the species says: 

 "As we approached the shores of Labrador, we found 

 the waters covered with dense flocks of these birds, and 

 yet they continued to arrive there from the St. Law- 

 rence for several days in succession. We were all as- 

 tonished at their numbers which were such that we 

 could not help imagining that all the Velvet Ducks in 

 the world were passing before us." 13 



Several of these drawings are credited to "The Falls 

 of the Ohio," as the rapids of this river at Louisville 

 were then generally called; a number to "Red Banks," 

 the old name of Henderson, Kentucky; while five were 

 done in Pennsylvania, probably when Audubon was at 

 the home of his father-in-law, William Bakewell, in the 

 spring of 1812. An excellent drawing of the Chuck 

 Wills Widow was probably made on the Red River, 14 in 



n Ornithological Biography (Bibl. No. 2), vol. i, p. 354. 

 14 See Appendix II. 



