viii IN THE DAYS OF AUDUBON 



The forest tales of Audubon furnish also one of the 

 most realistic pictures of the early history of pioneer life in 

 our country. Folk-lore is sometimes the truest history. 

 The stories in the Ornithological Biographies of Audubon 

 picture what America was in the times of the foresters. 



But, above all, Audubon was a true man, and his char- 

 acter was formed on the right models, and for the reason 

 that he made his birds immortal in perfect art, he himself 

 became immortal. 



This is the impression I have sought to make in this 

 interpretation of the life of the American Woodman. 



I have added an Appendix on how to form Audubon 

 societies, how to study the beneficent habits of birds, and 

 how to tame birds without cages by making them the 

 dwellers of dooryard trees, after the manner of old English 

 cottagers and the New England farmers, in whose door- 

 yards and gardens bird-boxes filled the gables and trees. 



The story of Wilson, the Scottish poet-schoolmaster, is 

 almost as beautiful and instructive as that of Audubon's 

 forest life, and I have included some of his thoughts in 

 this volume. 



It has seemed best to me to aid this interpretation of 

 Audubon by the story of Victor Audubon, the son of 

 the ornithologist, who was his faithful companion in the 



HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH. 



BOSTON, MASS., June 1, 1901. 



