CHAP. viii. THE COLLECTION DESTROYED. 147 



fectly horrified. He tried the others. They were all 

 empty ! They contained nothing but the pins which 

 had held the insects, with here and there a head, a leg, 

 or a wing. A more complete work of destruction 

 had never been witnessed. It had probably been 

 perpetrated by rats or mice. 



His wife, on seeing the empty cases, asked him 

 what he was to do next. " Weal," said he, " it's an 

 awfu' disappointment, but I think the best thing 

 will be to set to work and fill them up again." To 

 accumulate these 916 insects had cost him four years' 

 labour ! And they had all been destroyed in a few 

 days, perhaps in a single night I 



It will be remembered that Audubon had once a 

 similar disappointment. On leaving Henderson in 

 Kentucky, where he then lived, he left his drawings, 

 representing nearly a thousand inhabitants of the 

 air, in the custody of a friend. On returning a few 

 months later, and opening his box, he found that a 

 pair of Norway rats had taken possession of the whole, 

 and gnawed up the drawings into little bits of paper. 

 Audubon did what Edward now determined to do. 

 He went out into the woods with his gun, his note- 

 book, and pencils, and in the course of about three 

 years he again filled his portfolio. 



Edward duly carried out his purpose. He went 

 moth-hunting as before ; he hunted the moors and 

 the woods, the old buildings and the graveyards, 

 until, in about four more years, he had made another 



