AlS SilUFELDT o/i an Old Portrait of Audubon. [October 



really dreamed, as he worked away over these crude productions, 

 of the man he was to be some day. And we wonder, too, as we 

 examine them, at the rapidity of his artistic development and im- 

 provement. 



The}^ are each and all drawn by a combination of crayon and 

 water-colors upon a thin and not expensive kind of drawing- 

 paper, now brittle and soiled by age. Audubon had evidently 

 numbered these drawings of his, and these numbers are 44, 77» 

 and 96, a European Magpie, a Coot, and a Green Woodpecker, 

 respectively. Sometime ago I had them all reduced by photog- 

 raphy, with the view of publishing them, but although I have 

 been temporarily disappointed in this, I ma}' yet have an oppor- 

 tunit}' to bring them out in some other connection. 



As I have said, the earliest of these drawings is the one of the 

 Magpie — and let us look at it for a moment. It is life size, as they 

 all three are, and the bird is represented standing on the ground, 

 being drawn lengthwise on the paper. The execution is quite 

 crude, though the naturalist 'sticks out' in it, for notwithstanding 

 the somewhat awkward position the bird is in, there is life in it. 

 Tiie ground is simply a wash of pale green and brown, while 

 over on one side of the paper he has 'tried his brush,' having 

 made some rough concentric circles with paint dabs about them. 

 Beneath this drawing we find written in lead-pencil in two lines^ 

 "La Pie, Bufibn," "Pye, Piot Magpye, Pianet, english," and 

 over to the left-hand corner, "No. 44." 



The second picture is that of a Coot, and is a marked improve- 

 ment upon the Magpie. Far more pains have been taken with 

 the feet, legs, bill, and eye, though little has been gained in the 

 natural attitude of the bird. It is also represented standing up 

 on the dry ground, which is here of a pale violet wash, unbroken 

 by anything in the shape of stones or vegetation. Except very 

 faintly in the wing, no attempt has been made to individualize 

 the feathers, the entire bqdy being of a dead black, worked in 

 either by burnt cork or crayon. Beneath this figure has been writ- 

 ten in lead-pencil, but gone over again by the same hand in ink, 

 "La foulque on La Morelle — Buftbn, Riviere Loire Joselle — '* 

 "English — the Coot, — " 



As is usually the case among juvenile artists, both this bird and 

 the Magpie are represented upon direct lateral view, and no evi- 

 dence has yet appeared to hint to us of the wonderful power 



