136 OrnUhological Biography. 



ORNITHOLCGICAL BIOGRAPHY. 



By John James Audubon, F. R. S. &c. &c. — Published by Judah Dobson, 



and H. H. Porter, Literary Rooms, Philadelphia. 



To say that this is one of the handsomest books ever reprinted 

 in America, is to assert one of its slightest merits. The great 

 reputation which Mr. Audubon had acquired as an artist, by the 

 publication of that most magnificent of all works, " The Birds of 

 America," has been very much increased, by the work we are 

 now about to notice, which, whilst it is a companion and key to 

 the first, is, itself, an acquisition to any library. The " Intro- 

 ductory Address" at once reveals the history and character of the 

 author. 



" In Pennsylvania, a beautiful State, almost central on the line of 

 our Atlantic shores, my father, in his desire of proving my friend 

 through life, gave me what Americans call a beautiful ' plantation,' 

 refreshed during the summer heats by the waters of the Schuylkill 

 river, and traversed by a creek named Perkioniing. Its fine wood- 

 lands, its extensive fields, its hills crowned with evergreens, offered 

 many subjects to my pencil. It was there that I commenced my simple 

 and agreeable studies, with as little concern about the future as if the 

 world had been made for me. My rambles invariably commenced 

 at break of day, and to return Avet with dew, and bearing a feathered 

 prize, was, and ever will be, the highest enjoyment for which I have 

 been fitted. 



" Yet think not, reader, that the enthusiasm which I felt for my 

 favourite pursuits, was a barrier opposed to the admission of gentler 

 sentiments. Nature, which had turned my young mind towards the 

 bird and flower, soon proved her influence upon my heart." 



He married, passed twenty years in varied and in infructuous 

 attempts to acquire riches, " after the ways of men ;" and at 

 length, worn out and irritated by ill fortune, and the remarks of 

 his friends, he broke " through all bonds," and abandoned him- 

 self to nature, in "the woods, the lakes, the prairies, and the 

 shores of the Atlantic" — thus cutting himself off, for ever, from the 

 hope of rising to the dignity of justice of the peace in his own 

 county, or from the advantages of keeping " the best liquors of 

 any store-keeper of the village." These, in the face of the re- 

 monstrances of his friends, were abandoned for nature, cultiva- 

 tion of heart and mind, and that approbation of the wise and 

 good, which no adverse circumstances can now deprive him of. 



In the report majle to the Royal Academy of Sciences, by- 

 Baron Cavier, is the following passage : 



