eggs, curious lichens, flowers of all 

 sorts, and even pebbles gathered along 

 the shore of some rivulet. Neverthe- 

 less, he did study drawing and music, 

 for which he had some talent. His sub- 

 sequent study of drawing under the 

 celebrated David, richly equipped him 

 for a work which he did not know 

 was ever to be his, and enabled him to 

 commence a series of drawings of birds 

 of France, which he continued until 

 he had upwards of two hundred com- 

 pleted. "All bad enough," he says, 

 "yet they were representations of birds, 

 and I felt pleased with them." Before 

 sailing for France, he had begun a 

 series of drawings of the birds of 

 America, and had also begun a study 

 of their habits. His efforts-were com- 

 mended by one of his friends, who 

 assured him the time might come 

 when he should be a great American 

 naturalist, which had such weight 

 with him that he felt a certain degree 

 of pride in the words, even then, when 

 he was about eighteen years of age. 



" The store at Louisville went on 

 prosperously, when I attended to it ; 

 but birds were birds then as now, and 

 my thoughts were ever and anon 

 turning toward them as the objects of 

 my greatest delight. I shot, I drew, I 

 looked on nature only ; my days were 

 happy beyond human conception, and 

 beyond this I really cared not" [How 

 like Agassiz, who said he had not time 

 to make money.] As he could not bear 

 to give the attention required by his 

 business, his business abandoned him. 

 " Indeed, I never thought of business 

 beyond the ever-engaging journeys 

 which I was in the habit of taking to 

 Philadelphia or New York, to purchase 

 goods; those journeys I greatly enjoyed, 

 as they afforded me ample means to 

 study birds and their habits as I 

 traveled through the beautiful, the 

 darling forests of Ohio, Kentucky, and 

 Pennsylvania." Poor fellow, how many 

 ups and downs he had ! He lost every- 



thing and became burdened with 

 debt. But he did not despair for 

 had he not a talent for drawing ? 

 He at once undertook to take portraits 

 of the human head divine in black 

 chalk, and thanks to his master, David, 

 succeeded admirably. - He established 

 a large drawing school at Cincinnati, 

 and formed an engagement to stuff 

 birds for the museum there at a large 

 salary. 



" One of the most- extraordinary 

 things among all these adverse circum- 

 stances" he adds, "was, that I never for 

 a day give up listening to the songs of 

 our birds, or watching their peculiar 

 habits, or delineating them in the best 

 way I could ; nay, during my deepest 

 troubles, I frequently would wrench 

 myself from the persons around me 

 and retire to some secluded part of our 

 noble forests ; and many a time, at the 

 sound of the wood-thrushes' melodies, 

 have I fallen on my knees and there 

 prayed earnestly to our God. This 

 never failed to bring me the most 

 valuable of thoughts, and always com- 

 fort, and it was often necessary for me 

 to exert my will and compel myself to 

 return to my fellow-beings." 



Do you not fancy that Audubon 

 was himself a rara avis and worthy of 

 admiration and study ? 



Such a man, in the language of a 

 contemporary, should have a mon- 

 ument in the old Creole country in 

 which he was born, and whose birds 

 inspired his childish visions. It should 

 be the most beautiful work possible to 

 the sculptor's art, portraying Audubon 

 in the garb he wore when he was 

 proud and happy to be called the 

 " American Woodman, " and at his 

 feet should stand the Eagle which he 

 named the " Bird of Washington," and 

 near should perch the Mocking Bird, 

 as once, in his description, it flew 

 and fluttered and sang to the mind's 

 eye and ear from the pages of the old 

 reading book. C. C. Marble. 



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