Rural School Leaflet 1247 



AUDUBON 



The Editors 



Boys and girls in rural districts should know something of the famous 

 naturalists and the contributions that they have made to out-of-door 

 literature. During the past two years the life and works of Henry D. 

 Thoreau and of John Burroughs have been of interest to many young 

 persons in New York State. This year some profitable hours may be 

 spent in considering the life of John James Audubon and his valuable work. 

 Nearly every child in the State has heard of the Audubon Society ; but how 

 many know very definitely who Audubon was and what he did? 



A most charming presentation in brief of Audubon's life is given in 

 a volume entitled " John James Audubon," edited by M. A. De Wolfe 

 Howe,, with introduction by John Burroughs. This is published by Small, 

 Maynard & Co., Boston, and costs 50 cents net; by mail, 55 cents. The 

 older boys and girls will be much interested in the book and it will make 

 a valuable addition to the school library. 



In this leaflet we have space for only a few words concerning the great 

 naturalist, chief of American ornithologists. He was born in May, 1780, 

 in Mandeville, Louisiana, and died in January, 1851, in New York. 

 He spent the greater part of his long life in search of a knowledge of birds 

 and in preparing drawings and gathering information concerning bird life 

 and other animal life for publication. Mr. Howe speaks of him as follows : 



"As a youth Audubon was an unwilling student of books; as a mer- 

 chant and mill owner in Kentucky he was an unwilling man of business, 

 but during his whole career, at all times and in all places, he was more 

 than a willing student of ornithology — he was an eager and enthusiastic 

 one. He brought to the study of birds and of open-air life generally, 

 the keen delight of the sportsman, united to the ardour of the artist moved 

 by beautiful forms. 



" He was not in the first instance a man of science, like Cuvier, or 

 Agassiz, or Darwin — a man seeking exact knowledge; but he was an 

 artist and a backwoodsman, seeking adventure, seeking the gratification 

 of his tastes, and to put on record his love of the birds. He was the 

 artist of the birds before he was their historian; the writing of their biog- 

 raphies seems to have been only secondary with him." 



In the introduction to Mr. Howe's work on " John James Audubon, " 

 John Burroughs gives the following information in regard to the great 

 ornithologist : 



" Audubon was blessed with good health, length of years, a devoted 

 and self-sacrificing wife, and a buoyant, sanguine, and elastic disposi- 

 tion. He had the heavenly gift of enthusiasm — a passionate love for 

 the work he set out to do. He was a natural hunter, roamer, woodsman ; 



