26 Life of Audubon, 



form, plumage, attitude, and characteristic marks of his 

 feathered favourites. In working towards this end, he 

 labored to produce life-like pictures, and frequently with 

 wonderful success. Strongly impressed with the difficul- 

 ties of representing in any perfect degree the living image 

 of the birds he drew, he labored arduously at what we 

 may call forcible photographs in colours, his first aim 

 being fidelity, and his next, artistic beauty. How much 

 chagrin his failures cost him may be gleaned from the 

 lamentations he makes over his unsuccessful efforts in the 

 introductory address referred to above. Regarding the 

 means he adopted to secure a faultless representation of 

 the animals he desired to transcribe, he writes : — " Pa- 

 tiently and with industry did I apply myself to study, foi 

 although I felt the impossibility of giving life to my pro- 

 ductions, I did not abandon the idea of representing 

 nature. Many plans were successively adopted, many 

 masters guided my hand. At the age of seventeen, when 

 I returned from France, whither I had gone to receive the 

 rudiments of my education, my drawings had assumed a 

 form. David had guided my hand in tracing objects of 

 large size : eyes and noses belonging to giants and heads 

 of horses, represented in ancient sculpture, were my mod- 

 els. These, although fit subjects for men intent on pur- 

 suing the higher branches of art, were immediately laid 

 aside by me. I returned to the woods of the n3w world 

 with fresh ardour, and commenced a collection of draw- 

 ings, which I henceforth continued, and which is now 

 publishing under the title of ' The Birds of America.' " 

 To resume the narrative of Audubon's journey back 

 to Mill Grove. Da Costa was dismissed from his situa- 

 tion, and Audubon remained his own master. Mr. 

 William Bakewell, the brother of Lucy, has recorded some 

 interesting particulars of a visit to Mill Grove at this 

 period. He says : — " Audubon took me to his house. 



