of remarkable pictures must be attributed in no small part to his rare 
physical strength, for do not intellectual and physical vigor usually go 
hand-in-hand and beget power of achievement? Audubon was noted 
for these qualities. As a worker he was rapid, absorbed and ardent; 
he began at daylight and labored continuously till night, averaging 
fourteen hours a day, allowing, it is said, only four hours for sleep. 
In American ornithology, in which he holds so illustrious a place, it was 
not his privilege to be in the strict sense a pioneer, for before him were 
Vieillot, Wilson and Bonaparte; and contemporaneous with him were Rich- 
ardson, Nuttall, Maximilian Prince of Wied and a score of lesser and 
younger lights some of whom were destined to shine in the near future. 
Audubon was no closet naturalist — the technicalities of the pro- 
fession he left to others — but as a field naturalist he was at his best 
and had few equals. He was a born woodsman, a lover of wild nature 
in the fullest sense, a keen observer and an accurate recorder. In addi- 
tion he possessed the rare gift of instilling into his writings the fresh- 
ness of nature and the vivacity and enthusiasm of his own personality. 
His influence was not confined to devotees of the natural sciences, 
for in his writings and paintings, and in his personal contact with men 
of affairs both in this country and abroad, he exhaled the freshness, the 
vigor, the spirit of freedom and progress of America, and who shall 
attempt to measure the value of this influence to our young republic? 
Audubon’s preéminence is due not alone to his skill as a painter 
of birds and mammals, or to the magnitude of his contributions to science, 
but also to the charm and genius of his personality, a personality that 
profoundly impressed his contemporaries, and which, by means of his 
biographies and journals, it is still our privilege to enjoy. His was a 
type now rarely met, combining the grace and culture of the Frenchman 
with the candor, patience and earnestness of purpose of the American. 
There was about him a certain poetic picturesqueness and a rare charm 
of manner that drew people to him and enlisted them in his work. His 
friend, Dr. Bachman of Charleston, tells us that it was considered a 
privilege to give to Audubon what no one else could buy. His personal 
qualities and characteristics appear in some of his minor papers, notably 
the essays entitled “Episodes.” ‘These serve to reveal, perhaps better 
than his more formal writings, the keenness of his insight, the kindness 
of his heart, the poetry of his nature, the power of his imagination and 
the vigor and versatility of his intellect. 
13 
