x PBEFACE 



but he did not begin the publication of it till 

 fourteen years after Wilson's death. Both 

 men went directly to Nature and underwent 

 incredible hardships in exploring the woods 

 and marshes in quest of their material. 

 Auduborfs 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 -sacrific- 

 ing 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, woodsman ; as un- 

 worldly as a child, and as simple and trans- 

 parent. We have had better trained and 

 more scientific ornithologists since his day, 

 but none with his abandon and poetic fervour 

 in the study of our birds. 



Both men were famous pedestrians and 

 often walked hundreds of miles at a stretch. 

 They were natural explorers and voyagers. 



