THE OSPREY. 



99 



solicitation, he remarks, "I laughed, and he laughed, 

 and my hair is yet as God made it." The importun- 

 ity was urgent, however, and finally yielding to it, he 

 thus noted the event in a black bordered page of his 

 journal : 



"March ig, 1S2J. — This day my hair was sacri- 

 ficed. ... As the barber clipped my locks 

 rapidly, it reminded me of the horrible French 

 Revolution, when the same operation was performed 

 upon all the victims murdered at the guillotine; my 

 heart sank low. .1 knew I was acting weakly, 

 but, rather than render my good friend miserable 

 about it, I suffered the loss patiently." 



Audubon had been fond of dress and of luxurious 

 belongings in his youth, but all that was far in the 

 past. It had been crowded out of his thought by 

 more noble and absorbing aspirations ; and to renew 

 the lost interest was not now possible. " No dash, 

 no glimmer or shine about him," was the comment 

 of Sir Walter Scott, "but great simplicity of man- 

 ners and behavior, slight in person and plainly 

 dressed." 



The returns from the Birds of America,' and later 

 publications of a similar nature, ensured Audubon a 

 competence for his remaining years. He purchased 

 a tract of twenty-four acres on the banks of the Hud- 

 son, now known as Audubon Park, within the present 

 limits of New York City. Here, with wife, children, 

 and grandchildren, in one happy household, his old 

 age was supremely blessed. His industry continued 

 undiminished, — his study of the birds, to which were 



now added the quadrupeds, his rambles in the 

 forests, his delightful companionship with Nature. 

 In 1853 three months were consumed in a trip to 

 Labrador, and in 1843 he gave eight months to an 

 investigation of the wild life in the forests bordering 

 the Missouri .\ venerable man at this latter date, 

 he was still in possession of astonishing physical pow- 

 ers. In his prime he had once said that, in a walking 

 match, •• I think I could kill any horse in England in 

 twenty days, taking the travel over rough and level 

 ground." Until the last, his form was erect, his step 

 like that of a deer, and his eye as keen as an Indian's. 

 It is said by his sole surviving comrade of the tour to 

 Labrador : 



"You had only to meet him to love him, and 

 when you had conversed with him for a moment, 

 you looked upon him as an old friend, rather than a 

 stranger. To this day I can see him, a 



magnificent gray-haired man, child-like in his sim- 

 plicity, kind-hearted, noble-souled, lover of nature 

 and lover of youth, friend of humanity, and one 

 whose religion was the golden rule." 



A monument in old Trinity churchyard, New 

 York, marks the spot where Audubon was buried. 

 These two generous volumes of his journals, enriched 

 by ten portraits of himself, with others of his wife 

 and sons, and various miscellaneous engravings, give 

 him back to us as he was in life, an honor to his 

 country and his race. Dr. Elliott Coues has added 

 to the scientific value of the present book by an 

 abundance of painstaking and scholarly notes. 



LIFE HISTORY OF THE PROTHONOTARY WARBLER. 



VV. E. LOUCKS. 

 Arranged for publication by the Author from a report made to the Illinois State Labratory of Natural History. 



Part One. 



A MOST attractive and abundant bird in certain topography of the country in relation to the bird's 



portions of the Mississippi Valley is that geographical range, will reveal the cause of the 



beautiful feathered gem, the I'rothonotary irregularity. Rivers, lakes, or ponds bordered with 



Warbler. Its biography, prior to the last few years, willow swamps, are essential to its presence; hence 



has been somewhat erroneous and fragmentary, the it is not surprising that in great tracts of Illinois the 



bird being to many only a dried skin in the cabinet bird is wanting, while in adjoining portions it may 



drawer. be present in great numbers. 



The subject of the present sketch is a difficult one Formerly Illinois was a typical prairie state, but 

 to treat ; and notwithstanding the copious notes so the rapid advance of civilization has converted the 

 generously furnished me by my correspondents, and rolling prairies into cultivated farms, has dotted the 

 my own careful observation, it is with considerable land with villages and cities of wondrous growth, 

 hesitation that I begin this paper. This Warbler is and has utterly eliminated the characteristics of the 

 so at home in the prevailing river bottoms of Illinois, western prairies. The original timber is restricted 

 that ample opportunity is offered for a thorough study chiefly to the river courses and to precarious growths 

 of its habits ; and yet the most versatile pen could along the smaller streams. The river bottoms, lying 

 never portray the natural elegance, the charming as they do in many places between high and shelter- 

 grace, and the exquisite beauty of this fascinating ing bluffs, and well watered by inundations and the 

 swamp warbler, as it appears in the willow swamps numerous tributary streams, prove the richest por- 

 of Illinois. I feel the impossibility of doing my sub- tions of the State in vegetation. Their elevation 

 ject justice, and this bit of biographical sketch is varies from one hundred to one thousand feet above 

 presented, not as a complete and final result, but the sea, gradually increasing northward, the country 

 merely as material for future elaboration. also assuming a more rugged character, until, finally, 

 To one unacquainted with Protonotarin ,itrea its the southern type is lost altogether. As I have 

 distribution might seem peculiar ; but a study of the stated, these bottoms are exceeding rich in vegetation. 



