2G A LOVE OF SCIENCE. 



and French it is said well, though his writings are 

 alleged by critics to want the idiomatic precision 

 of a native. In 1777 he went to Paris, where the 

 rich collections of birds, and the writings and con- 

 versation of naturalists, at first attracted and then 

 disappointed him. He was delighted with the 

 varied wealth of collections from all quarters of 

 the world which were opened to his inspection. 

 But, accustomed to pry into the habits and eco- 

 nomy of the living bird, the mere cataloguing and 

 classifying of skins and skeletons soon became 

 repulsive to him ; and the inaccuracies of mere 

 closet speculators nourished a perhaps overweening 

 estimate of his own more living knowledge. This 

 feeling, his sportsman's habits, the pleasant recol- 

 lections of his boyhood in the forests of Guiana, all 

 contributed to make him dwell with pleasure on 

 the project of ransacking some yet unexplored 

 regions of the earth, in order to search for their 

 feathered inhabitants. With this object he quitted 

 Paris, unknown to his friends, in July 1780. Like 

 Audubon, he exclaims " Neither the ties of love 

 nor friendship (and he was now a married man) 

 were able to shake my purpose. I communicated my 

 projects to none, but, inexorable and blind to every 

 obstacle, yielded to the passion that impelled me." 

 He accordingly repaired to Amsterdam, where 

 he formed an intimate acquaintance with the cele- 



