124 THE HERONRIES OF AMERICA. 



At first he attempted to gratify his love of birds by the 

 purchase of those illustrated works which pretend to represent them. 

 Clumsy caricatures, which convey but a ridiculous idea of their 

 form, and none at all of their movement ; and what is the bird 

 deprived of grace and motion ? These did not suffice. He took a 

 decisive resolution : to abandon everything, his trade, his countiy. 

 A new Robinson Crusoe, he was willing, by a voluntary ship- 

 wreck, to exile himself to the solitudes of America ; where he 

 might see with his own eyes, observe, describe, and paint. He 

 then remembered one little fact : that he neither knew how 

 to draw, to paint, or to write. But this strong and patient man, 

 whom no difficulties could discourage, soon learned to write, and 

 to write an excellent style. A good writer, a minutely accurate 

 artist, with a delicate and certain hand, he seemed, under the guid- 

 ance of Nature, his mother and mistress, less to learn than to 

 remember. 



Provided with these weapons, he plunges into the desert, the 

 forest, and the pestiferous savannahs ; becomes the friends of buffaloes 

 and the guest of bears ; lives upon wild fruits, under the splendid 

 ceiling of heaven. Wherever he chances to observe a rare bird, he 

 halts, encamps, and is " at home." "What, indeed, is to there hurry him 

 onward ? He has no house to recall him, and neither wife nor child 

 awaits him. He has a family, it is true : that great family which he 

 observes and describes. And friends, he has them too : those which 

 have not yet learned to mistrust man, and which perch upon his tree, 

 and chatter with him. 



And, O birds, you are right ; you have there a truly loyal friend, 

 who will secure you many others, who will teach men to understand 

 you, being himself as a bird in thought and heart. One day, perhaps, 

 the traveller, penetrating into your solitudes, and seeing some of you 

 fluttering and sparkling in the sun, will be tempted with the hope of 

 spoil, but will bethink himself of Wilson. Why kill the friends of 

 Wilson ? And when this name flashes on his memory, he will lower 

 his gun. 



