JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 



1780-1851. 



WHEN Audubon's fame was just beginning, " Christopher 

 North " (Prof. Wilson, of the University of Edinburgh, and 

 editor of Blackwood's Magazine) wrote, under the form of a 

 dialogue between himself and the Ettrick Shepherd (James 

 Hogg, the poet), as follows : * 



"North. What a pity, James, that you were not in Edin- 

 burgh in time to see my friend Audubon's exhibition ! 



" Shepherd. An exhibition o' what ? 



"North. Of birds painted to the life. Almost the whole 

 American ornithology, true to Nature as if the creatures were 

 in their native haunts in the forests, or on the seashores. Not 

 stiff and staring like stuffed specimens, but in every imagina- 

 ble characteristic attitude, perched, wading, or a-wing not a 

 feather, smooth or ruffled, out of its place every song, chirp, 

 chatter, or cry made audible by the power of genius. 



" Shepherd. Where got he sae weel acquaint wi' a' the 

 tribes for do they not herd in swamps and woods where man's 

 foot intrudes not and the wilderness is guarded by the rat- 

 tlesnake, fearsome watchman, wi' nae ither bouets than his 

 ain fiery eyne ? 



"North. For upward of twenty years the enthusiastic Au- 

 dubon lived in the remotest woods, journeying to and fro on 

 foot thousands of miles or sailing on great rivers, great as 

 any seas with his unerring rifle, slaughtering only to embalm 

 his prey by an art of his own, in form and hue unchanged, un- 

 changeable and now, for the sum of one shilling, may anybody 

 that chooses it behold the images of all the splendid and gor- 

 geous birds of that continent. 



* Noctes Ambrosianse (Blackwood's Magazine), No. XXX, January, 1827. 



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