310 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



relieved him of the little he possessed, and he was obliged 

 to pass several nights on the boat while looking for work. 

 Undismayed by his financial straits, his first visit at day- 

 break on Monday was to the famous markets of the 

 southern city, where he found dead birds exposed for 

 sale in great numbers — mallard, teal, American wid- 

 geon, Canada and snow geese, mergansers, tell-tale god- 

 wits, and even robins, bluebirds and red-wing black- 

 birds ; he added that the prices were very dear. 



Upon leaving Cincinnati Audubon had resolved 

 upon making one hundred drawings of birds; this was 

 actually accomplished, but only after repeatedly modi- 

 fying his plans and working in more humble capacities 

 than he was at first inclined to consider. On the 12th 

 of January he wrote in his diary of meeting an Italian 

 painter at the theater, and of showing him his drawing 

 of the White-headed Eagle 8 at the rooms of Mr. Ber- 

 thoud; "he was much pleased," and took him "to his 

 painting apartment at the theater, then to the directors, 

 who very roughly offered me one hundred dollars per 

 month to paint with Monsieur l'ltalien. I believe really 

 now that my talents must be poor," said Audubon. His 

 refusal of this offer in view of his straitened circum- 

 stances, and the entry which followed, were character- 

 istic: "Jan. 13th, 1821. I rose up early, tormented by 

 many disagreeable thoughts, again nearly without a 

 cent, in a bustling city where no one cares a fig for a 

 man in my situation." The following day Audubon 

 applied to a self-taught portrait painter, John W. 



8 The original of this admirable drawing had been shot at New Madrid, 

 on the Ohio, on November 23, and Audubon, who immediately began to 

 work on it, recorded his conviction that the White-headed or Bald Eagle 

 and the "Brown Eagle," which he later called "The Bird of Washington," 

 were two d'fferent species; he thought that the young of the former, which 

 was also brown, was much smaller in size. See Vol. I, p. 241. 



