1893. | NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 53 
acter of the race, which at times influenced his judgment, and 
led him into wild and unprofitable pursuits. But his many 
severe and oft recurring pecuniary embarrassments in time 
sobered him, and in his maturer years he exhibited little of the 
fanciful vagaries of his earlier life. As an artist, and a pupil of 
David, we must judge him, and the master’s influence is fre- 
quently seen in the composition of his plates. While the group- 
ing is well considered and the figures spirited, they often partake 
of the theatrical in their attitudes and occasionally are anatomi- 
cally impossible. Yet the effect is almost always pleasing and 
apt to evoke admiration. 
Asa naturalist, we must not judge him by the standard of 
to-day, achieved in the severe and exacting curriculum of 
modern scientific teaching. The ornithologist of the close of 
the nineteenth century is altogether another savant from the 
one Audubon understood by the term, nor does he quite answer 
to the description I once heard given by a lady, as one who was 
“always fussing over little fluffy birds.” He must not only 
know the habits and economy of birds as Audubon did, but 
also very much more. And first, he must be thoroughly versed 
in the bibliography of his subject, a mighty task, in which few 
are thoroughly proficient ; he must be conversant with at least 
five languages, French, English, German, Italian and Latin, for 
in all of these and more, are the memoirs of his science pub- 
lished throughout the world. He must be acquainted with 
anatomy and osteology to understand not only the comparative 
relationship of the animals, comprised in the orders and families 
of his own especial branch, but also their affinity to those in 
other departments of zodlogy; he must understand pterylo- 
graphy, the growth and structure of feathers, and the distribu- 
tion of feather tracts,and be able to see the significance of these, 
and what they imply; he must be skilled in the theory and facts 
of geographical distribution, and be able to give a probable 
reason for the cause of the various habitats and dispersion of 
the animals on our globe; he must have knowledge of geology 
and paleontology, so as to be able to study intelligently the 
fossil remains of extinct forms, and read aright the lessons that 
they teach; in fact, because the various sciences are so intimately 
connected, to be fully equipped for his .work, he must be not 
only an ornithologist, but alsoa zodlogist and if possible a 
biologist as well. 
It is no small thing to bea graduate in such a school, and 
few, indeed, are they who by their works have proved them- 
selves fitted to take a place in the front rank of the science. 
One must begin early in life, work hard all the time, passing 
