AUDUBON'S ^ENEID 315 



about this point; in the parish of West Feliciana the 

 alluvial lowlands of the river valley give place to beau- 

 tiful highlands, which still harbor as rich and distinctive 

 a flora and fauna as in Audubon's day. Following 

 Audubon's course in June, 1916, or ninety-five years 

 later, Mr. Arthur found the region about St. Francis- 

 ville wonderfully rich in birds, and there noted seventy- 

 eight resident kinds which were seen on the same day, 

 from shortly before noon to seven o'clock in the evening. 



Upon reaching the plantation house, Audubon and 

 his companion were kindly received by the Scotchman, 

 James Pirrie, who introduced to them his daughter, 

 Eliza, then a beautiful and talented girl of seventeen — 

 "my lovely Miss Pirrie, of Oakley," as Audubon once 

 characterized her in his journal — who was to become his 

 pupil in drawing, and who, as after events proved, was 

 destined to a romantic and checkered career. 



The "Oakley" house, which by a strange turn of 

 fortune's wheel thus became the naturalist's home in the 

 summer of 1821, has changed but little since that time, 

 but the century that has nearly sped its course has added 

 strength and beauty to the moss-hung oaks which now 

 encompass it and temper the heat of the southern sun 

 in the double-decked galleries which adorn its whole 

 front. Built of the enduring cypress, as my correspond- 

 ent remarks, the house stands as firm and sound as the 

 gaunt but living sentinels of that order which tower 

 from the brake not far away. 



Audubon spent nearly five months at the Pirrie 

 estate. He worked with great ardor at his Ornithology 

 and produced the originals of many of his plates that 

 were afterwards published, while his assistant, Joseph 

 Mason, who had followed him from Cincinnati, labored 

 with equal diligence at the plants that were chosen as a 



