48 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 

 months later, he pathetically recounts 

 what befell them : " A pair of Norway 

 rats had taken possession of the whole, 

 and reared a young family among 

 gnawed bits of paper, which but a 

 month previous, represented nearly one 

 thousand inhabitants of the air ! " 



This discovery resulted in insomnia, 

 and a fearful heat in the head ; for 

 several days he seemed like one 

 stunned, but his youth and health 

 stood him in hand, he rallied, and, un- 

 daunted, again sallied forth to the 

 woods with dog and gun. In three 

 years' time his portfolio was again 

 filled. 



The third catastrophe to some of his 

 drawings was caused by a fire in a New 

 York building in which his treasures 

 were kept during his sojourn in 

 Europe. 



Audubon had an eye for the pictur- 

 esque in his fellow-men as well as for the 

 picturesque in Nature. On the Levee 



