A Bird Study. 199 



saw were shreds and patches left by Audubon some years 

 previously at his house. 



" Further inquiry developed the interesting fact that 

 the great naturalist occupied a room for months together 

 in the house I then occupied ; in fact, it was his headquar- 

 ters, when he was in the vicinity, engaged in making up 

 his collection of Southern birds. Among many illustra- 

 tive incidents we learned, we recall two or three as the 

 best proof that can be given that Audubon's was too 

 great a mind to be marred by excessive vanity. 



" My host informed me that Audubon, among other 

 things, became interested in a little bird, not as large as 

 the wren, that was of such peculiar gray plumage, that it 

 so entirely harmonized with the bark of the trees it in- 

 habited, that it was impossible to see the bird except by 

 the most careful observation. In fact, the bird existed in 

 numbers in localities where its existence was never sus- 

 pected. 



" Audubon expressed his determination to learn the 

 history and habits of this bird, and bent all his energies 

 with absorbing interest to the pursuit. One night he 

 came home greatly excited, saying that he had found a 

 pair that was evidently preparing to make a nest. The 

 next morning he went into the woods, taking with him a 

 telescopic microscope. This scientific instrument he erec- 

 ted under the tree that gave shelter to the literally invis- 

 ible inhabitants he was searching for, and, making a 

 pillow of some moss, he laid upon his back, and looking 

 through the telescope, day after day, noted the progress 

 of the little birds, and, after three weeks of such patient 

 labor, felt that he had been amply rewarded for the toil 

 and sacrifice by the results he had obtained. It was 

 while engaged in these quiet speculations that he witness- 

 ed so many things, the record of which have prompted 

 superficial thinkers to conclude that Audubon drew upon 



