Vol.^XX-j Recent Literature. 85 



Burroughs's 'John James Audubon.' ' — Of the twenty-five ' Beacon Biog- 

 raphies ' thus far issued, only two relate to naturalists — Louis Agassiz and 

 John James Audubon. 



The first was very happily treated bj Alice Bache Gould, ^ and a more 

 fitting author for the second could hardly have been found than John 

 Burroughs, himself an ornithologist and a poet-naturalist, able to weigh 

 Audubon's work, and to sympathize with his tastes and ambitions. In 

 the brief preface the author very fairly compares Audubon and Wilson, 

 their temperaments, opportunities, methods of work and their achieve- 

 ments. Then follows a ' chronology ' of the important events in Audu- 

 bon's life, and a just and very readable resum^ of his history, character, 

 and works, based of course on previously published sources of informa- 

 tion. He recounts the meeting of Audubon and Wilson at Louisville, 

 Kentucky, in March, iSio, as told by Audubon himself, and also as briefly 

 noted by Wilson. There are appropriate and very interesting extracts 

 from Audubon's journals and other writings, but mainly the biography is 

 an admirably condensed account of Audubon's life and character. In 

 comparing Audubon with Wilson he says (preface, p. x) : "Both men 

 went directly to nature and underwent incredible hardships in exploring 

 the woods and marshes in quest of their material. Audubon's rambles 

 were much wider, and extended over a much longer period of time. 

 Wilson, too, contemplated a work upon our quadrupeds, but did not live 

 to begin it. Audubon was blessed with good health, length of years, a 

 devoted and self-sacrificing wife, and a buoyant, sanguine, and elastic 

 disposition. He had the heavenly gift of enthusiasm — a passionate love 

 for the work he set out to do. He was a natural hunter, roamer, woods- 

 man ; as imworldly as a child, and as simple and transparent. We have 

 had better trained and more scientific ornithologists since his day, but 

 none with his abandon and poetic fervor in the study of our birds." 

 Again (p. 33): "Wilson was of a nature far less open and generous than 

 was Audubon. It is evident that he looked upon the latter as his rival, 

 and was jealous of his superior talents ; for superior they were in many 

 ways. His drawings have far more spirit and artistic excellence, and his 

 text shows far more enthusiasm and hearty affiliation with Nature. In 

 accuracy of observation, Wilson is fully his equal, if not his superior." 



Mr. Burroughs does not hesitate to openly question the accuracy of 

 some of Audubon's tales of adventure during his early wanderings, some 

 of which "sound a good deal like an episode in a dime novel, and may 

 well be taken with a grain of allowance." Of his bird paintings, he says : 

 "His bird pictures reflect his own temperanjent, not to say his nationality; 



' John James Audubon. By John Burroughs. The Beacon Biographies of 

 Eminent Americans. Edited by M. A. DeWolfe Howe. Boston: Small, 

 Maynard and Company, 1902. i2mo, pp. xxii -}- 144. 



2 See Auk, Vol. XVIII, 1901, p. 285. 



