YOUNG AUDUBON'S CAVE 29 



fancied I had mounted a step on the high pinnacle before 

 me. I continued for months together simply outlining 

 birds as I observed them, either alighted or on the wing, 

 but could finish none of my sketches. I procured many 

 individuals of different species, and laying them on the 

 table or on the ground, tried to place them in such atti- 

 tudes as I had sketched. But alas! they were dead, to all 

 intents and purposes, and neither wing, leg, nor tail could 

 I place according to my wishes. A second thought came to 

 my assistance. By means of threads I raised or lowered a 

 head, wing or tail, and by fastening the threads securely 

 I had something like life before me; yet much was want- 

 ing. When I saw the living birds I felt the blood rush 

 to my temples, and almost in despair spent about a month 

 without drawing, but in deep thought, and daily in the 

 company of the feathered inhabitants of dear Mill Grove. 



" I had drawn from the manikin while under David, 

 and had obtained tolerable figures of our species through 

 this means, so I cogitated how far a manikin of a bird would 

 answer. I labored with mud, cork, and wires, and formed 

 a grotesque figure, which I can not describe in any other 

 words than by saying that when set up it was a tolerable- 

 looking dodo. A friend roused my ire by laughing at it 

 immoderately, and assuring me that if I wished to repre- 

 sent a tame gander it might do. I gave it a kick, broke it 

 to atoms, walked off, and thought again. 



" Young as I was, my impatience to obtain my desire 



