I6O LIVING CREATURES. 



37. AUBUBON. 



AUDUBON (O'du bon) was a great friend of birds 

 you may have* learned that. But do you know that 

 he was one of the great toilers who endured hardship 

 and danger to find out, and to put into convenient 

 form our knowledge of birds ? One little incident in 

 his life will show how much such knowledge costs. 



In the forests of Florida, Audubon discovered a 

 small gray bird, in color so nearly like the trees upon 

 which it was busy that it was almost impossible to see 

 it distinctly. He could not rest until he had found 

 out about it. He, therefore, procured a field-glass or 

 telescope, made a bed of moss in a concealed place, 

 and there lay most of the time for three weeks, watch- 

 ing the movements and ways of a pair of these little 

 gray birds. By this painstaking he was able to write 

 their history. 



For fifteen years he roamed through the forests and 

 over the wild plains of America, with gun, knapsack, 

 and dog. He visited the homes of wild birds from 

 Florida to Labrador, and from the Atlantic to the 

 wilds of the Missouri River. He was exposed to all 

 weathers and climates ; to heat, cold, and storm. He 

 not only studied the habits of birds, but with his 

 pencil he drew their forms, and with his brush he 

 painted their natural colors. Then he published to the 

 world two volumes, of elephant folio size (twenty- 

 three by fourteen inches) containing the written his- 

 tory and the colored portraits of over a thousand 

 birds of America. 



