JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. I 6 I 



enterprise was going on, by painting. He visited Paris in 

 1828, canvassing for subscribers, and experienced an admira- 

 tion from illustrious men parallel with that which had greeted 

 him in England. But he does not appear to have appreciated 

 the money value of this admiration as highly as what he found 

 in England, for he wrote : " France is poor, indeed ! This day 

 I have attended the Royal Academy of Sciences, and had my 

 plates examined by about one hundred persons. * Fine, very 

 fine,' issued from many mouths; but they said, also, 'What a 

 work ! what a price ! who can pay it ? ' I recollected that I 

 had thirty subscribers at Manchester, and mentioned it. They 

 stared and seemed surprised ; but acknowledged that England, 

 the little island of England, alone was able to support poor 

 Audubon. . . . Now it is that I plainly see how happy, or 

 lucky, it was in me not to have come to France first ; for if I 

 had, my work now would not have had even a beginning. It 

 would have perished like a flower in October ; and I should 

 have returned to my woods, without the hope of leaving be- 

 hind that eternal fame which my ambition, industry, and per- 

 severance long to enjoy." Baron Cuvier was requested by the 

 Academy of Sciences to make a verbal report on Audubon's 

 Birds, and he responded, describing the work " as the most 

 magnificent monument which has yet been erected to ornithol- 

 ogy." The author, having returned to his own country after 

 his schooling in France, " thought he could not make a better 

 use of his talents than by representing the most brilliant pro- 

 ductions of that hemisphere. The accurate observation neces- 

 sary for such representation as he wished to make soon ren- 

 dered him a naturalist. . . . Formerly the European natural- 

 ists were obliged to make known to America the riches she 

 possessed; but now Mitchell, Harlan, and Bonaparte give 

 back with interest to Europe what America had received. 

 Wilson's history of the Birds of the United States equals in 

 elegance our most beautiful works on ornithology. If that of 

 Mr. Audubon should be completed, we shall be obliged to 

 acknowledge that America, in magnificence of execution, has 

 surpassed the Old World." 



After spending the winter in London, Audubon returned 

 to the United States in April, 1829, and made his way to his 

 home in Louisiana, which he reached in November, his journey 

 having been interrupted by excursions in quest of birds to 



