QUITE A NOCTES. 59 



the kindness by a remark on bold bright birds of 

 passage that find the seasons obedient to their will, 

 and wing their way through worlds, still rejoicing 

 in the perfect year. But too true friends were we 

 not to be sincere in all we seriously said ; ana 

 while Audubon confessed that he saw rather more 

 plainly than when we parted the crowfeet in the 

 corner of our eyes, we did not deny that we saw in 

 him an image of the Falco Leucocephalus ; for that, 

 looking on his ' carum caput,' it answered his own 

 description of that handsome and powerful bird 

 viz., ' The general colour of the plumage above is 

 dull hair-brown, the lower parts being deeply 

 brown, broadly margined with grayish white.' But 

 here he corrected us, for ' Surely, my dear friend,' 

 quoth he, ' you must admit that 1 am a living 

 specimen of the adult bird, and you remember my 

 description of him in my first volume.' And thus, 

 blending our gravities and our gaieties, we sat 

 facing each other. ... It was quite a Noctes. 

 Audubon told us, by snatches, all his travels, his- 

 tory, and many an anecdote interspersed, of the 

 dwellers among the woods birds, beasts, and man." 

 Another lively picture is drawn of him by some 

 travellers, who, during a journey by canal route 

 from Philadelphia, chanced through good fortune 

 to have Audubon for their companion. . . . 

 " He is actually in this very cabin," said one of 



