Y. 



As a youth Audubon was an unwill- 

 ing student of books ; as a merchant and 

 mill owner in Kentucky he was an un- 

 willing man of business, but during his 

 whole career, at all times and in all 

 places, he was more than a willing 

 student of ornithology he was an 

 eager and enthusiastic one. He brought 

 to the pursuit of the birds, and to the 

 study of open air life generally, the 

 keen delight of the sportsman, united 

 to the ardour of the artist moved by 

 beautiful forms. 



He was not in the first instance a man 

 of science, like Cuvier, or Agassiz, or 

 Darwin a man seeking exact knowl- 

 edge ; but he was an artist and a back- 

 woodsman, seeking adventure, seeking 

 the gratification of his tastes, and to put 

 on record his love of the birds. He was 

 the artist of the birds before he was their 

 historian ; the writing of their biogra- 



