286 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



he concluded from his appearance that the stranger 

 must be "an original," a term which had been applied 

 also to himself. A meeting followed, and the stranger, 

 who had inquired for Mr. Audubon's house, explained 

 that he was a naturalist, and had come to see Audubon's 

 drawings of birds and plants; he bore also a letter from 

 a friend, introducing "an odd fish" which might "prove 

 to be undescribed." The visitor was made welcome in 

 Audubon's Henderson home, where, to quote the 

 naturalist, 



at table his agreeable conversation made us all forget his singu- 

 lar appearance. ... A long loose coat of yellow nankeen, 

 much the worse of the many rubs it had got in its time, and 

 stained all over with the juice of plants, hung loosely about 

 him like a sac. A waistcoat of the same, with enormous pockets, 

 and buttoned up to the chin, reached below over a pair of tight 

 pantaloons, the lower parts of which were buttoned down to 

 the ankles. His beard was as long as I have known mine to be 

 during some of my peregrinations, and his lank black hair hung 

 loosely over his shoulders. His forehead was so broad and 

 prominent that any tyro in phrenology would instantly have 

 pronounced it to be the residence of a mind of strong powers. 

 His words impressed an assurance of rigid truth, and as he 

 directed the conversation to the study of the natural sciences, 

 I listened to him with as much delight as Telemachus could have 

 listened to Mentor. 



All had retired for the night when of a sudden a 

 great uproar was heard in the visitor's room. To his great 

 astonishment, Audubon found his guest running about 

 the apartment naked, holding the "handle" of his host's 

 favorite violin, the body of which had been battered 

 to pieces against the walls in the attempt to secure a 

 number of fluttering bats which had entered by an open 

 window. "I stood amazed," said Audubon, "but he 



