JOHN JAMES AUDTJBON 7 

 the tragedy awakened in him a lasting 

 love for his feathered friends. 



Audubon's father seems to have been 

 the first to direct his attention to the study 

 of birds, and to the observance of Nature 

 generally. Through him he learned to 

 notice the beautiful colourings and mark- 

 ings of the birds, to know their haunts, 

 and to observe their change of plumage 

 with the changing seasons ; what he 

 learned of their mysterious migrations 

 fired his imagination. 



He speaks of this early intimacy with 

 Nature as a feeling which bordered on 

 frenzy. Watching the growth of a bird 

 from the egg he compares to the unfold- 

 ing of a flower from the bud. 



The pain which he felt in seeing the 

 birds die and decay was very acute, but, 

 fortunately, about this time some one 

 showed him a book of illustrations, and 

 henceforth 1 1 a new life ran in my veins, ' ' 

 he says. To copy Nature was thereafter 

 his one engrossing aim. 



