FARMERS' REGISTER— THE COLD WEATHER IN MAY, &o. 



79 



for two days. To the woods I could not betake dom, and he will instantly and unhcsitatinfjly pro 



myself; for there were none near. But how soon 

 did all around me.assume a ditierent aspect! How 

 fresh is tlie recollection of the chansre! The very 

 first letter which I tendered procured me a world 

 of friends. JMy drawings were publicly exhibited 

 and publicly praised. Joy swelled my heart: the 

 first difficulty was suhriounted. Honors which, on 

 application being made through my friends, Phi- 

 ladelphia had refused to grant, Liverpool freely 

 accorded,"' 



It is unnecessary to follow Mr. Audubon in his 

 progress through England. Suffice it to say, that 

 m Edinburgh, he commenced the publication of 

 his "Birds of America." Alter a few plates had 

 been presented to the world, difficulties occurred. 

 The engrayer, Mr. W. H. Lizars, exjiressed his 

 satisfaction at beinfr relieyed of the work, which 

 was transferred to Mr. R. Hayell, jun., a London 

 artist, who has continued the engravings. The 

 work commenced in 1S27, and already the first 

 volume, consisting of" 100 plates, is completed. It 

 will be followed by at least three of equal size. 



On inspecting the plates in succession, one can- 

 not fail to be struck by the peculiarities which 

 they present. The most unj^ractised eye must in- 

 stantly discover something in the aspect and atti- 

 tudes of the birds, which he has never seen in art, 

 and to obtain which recourse must be had to na- 

 ture. The cause of this is to be found in the cir- 

 cumstance of the author's having borrowed from 

 living nature. Others draw not from birds but 

 from dried skins. Their representations are as 

 BtifT and distorted as it has pleased the bird-stuffer 

 to make the originals. Mr. Audubon's method of 

 representing birds is as follows. Finding in the 

 woods, the jirairies, or the fields, a bird which he 

 is desirous of figuring, he i"ollows it, steals upon it 

 unperceived, as the Indian steals upon the White 

 man in his encampment, observes its motions and 

 attitudes, studies its j)eculiarities, and then shoots 

 it. He restores it to its favorite or characteristic 

 attitude, by a method Avhich, some j-ears ago, he 

 exhibited to the Wernerian Natural History Socie- 

 ty of Edinburgh, and while it j'et retains unim- 

 paired the rapidly evanescent hues of its ej^es, bill 

 and feet, he transfers its semb lance to his paper. 

 The bin, the claws, the scales of the tarsi and toes, 

 the feathers, and every other part of its exterior, 

 are carefully measured, and the drawing becomes 

 a fac-simile. Even this method, precise as it is 

 beyond any other, will not necessarily lead to 

 perfection. We know persons, who, although 

 they are acquainted with it, blunder on as they 

 have been wont to do, producing birds with three 

 joints in their hind toes; legs, the origin of which 

 is any where but in the right place; necks like a 

 distaff enveloped in tow, and feathers formed of 

 hogs' bristles. There must be an intimate know- 

 ledge of the habits and peculiarities, of the whole 

 family history of the different species, together 

 with a proper acquaintance, not merely with the 

 rules, but with the resouixes of art, before perfect 

 representations of birds can be produced. As no 

 mere naturalist can represent a bird, so can no 

 mere painter; we have witnessed the attempts of 

 both, and the results were wretched caricatures. 

 He who woidd figure animals must be indeed a 

 "painter-naturalist." 



Let any man conversant with birda lay before 

 him any number of these plates selected at ran- 



nounce them true representations of nature. " The 

 characteristics of the species are present, the forms 

 and attitudes are copies, the occupations are dis- 

 closed, the imagination of a poet has presided over 

 the arrangement. From these j)lates, there is 

 more to be learned by the student than he may at 

 first imagine. 



Observing nature with the eye t f an enthusias- 

 tic admirer, Mr. Audubon has traversed the dark 

 forest of America, following the track of the dis- 

 comfited and disconsolate Indian, has penetrated 

 her cane-brakes and cypress-swamps, teeming 

 with the loathsome and dangerous forms of reptile 

 life, visited her ocean-lakes, wandered by the ver- 

 dant margins of her magnificent rivers, and pad- 

 dled his solitary canoe over the floods that have 

 sjn'cad consternation and terror among the inhab- 

 itants of the alluvial plains of her mictland regions. 

 This, then, is the man, and not he who, seated in 

 comfort by his table, fancies how things should be, 

 from whom might be expected the completion of 

 the descriptions of others who have pursued the 

 same method. — Jamesoii's Journal. 



MONGRELS BETWEEN A DOG AND A SHE WOLF. 



Dr. A. F. Wiegmann, Jun. relates the fol- 

 lowing circumstance as occurring at the Isle of 

 Peacocks, near Potsdam. A setter dog copulated 

 with a she wolf; and she aftenvards gave birth to 

 three female pups, differing very nuich from each 

 other. One, which die J, resembled a wolf more 

 than the two others, particularly in the hair, hav- 

 ing, on the anterior parts of the legs, the black 

 line which characterizes that animal. The se- 

 cond also resembled the mother, excepting in the 

 position of the eyes, which was the same as in 

 the dog. The third was, properly speaking, a 

 setter dog, but imperfect in some respects; its cha- 

 racter was gentle, whilst the others had a fero- 

 cious appearance. The father was white, Avith 

 brown spots; of the little ones, on the contrar\'y 

 the first had the hair and color of the wolf] the 

 second was white on the throat, cheeks, and oit 

 the sides of the neck, and black on the back; and 

 the third had a white band on the fore part of' the 

 neck, and between the legs, the back of the same- 

 color as the second, and the ears rounded, pendent, 

 and of moderate length. The tail was not erect- 

 ed in any of the three. — his. 



THE COLD "WEATHER IN MAY. 



From the Petersburg Intelligencer. 



The remarkable state of the weather during the 

 past month is the subject of frequent notice in our 

 exchange papers. The Philadelphia Gazette of 

 the 29th ultimo, says: "The weather to-day, in 

 this vicinity is exceedingly disagreeable — cold and 

 unpleasant, with a smart gale from the north east. 

 Overcoats and parlor fires are again in requisition." 

 In Pittsburg, about the middle of the month, the 

 mercury in Farenheit's thermometer fell to 25 de- 

 grees, and the ground was frozen to a considerable 

 depth. A paper published in Armstrong county, 

 (Penn.) gives the following ficcount of a singular 

 phenomenon which occurred in that section on the 

 13th IMay: 



"From the intense coldness of the atmosphere 

 all the insects were frozen, so that nearly all kinds 

 of small birds, that subssist on eruch fare, were pe- 



