JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 165 



faction never before attempted. In all our climates in the 

 clear atmosphere, by the dashing waters, amid the grand old 

 forests, with their peculiar and many-tinted foliage, by him 

 first made known to art he has represented our feathered 

 tribes, building their nests and fostering their young; poised 

 on the tip of the spray and hovering over the sedgy margin of 

 the lake; flying in the clouds in quest of prey, or from pur- 

 suit; in love, enraged, indeed, in all the varieties of their mo- 

 tion and repose, and modes of life so perfectly, that all other 

 works of the kind are to his as stuffed skins to the living 

 birds. But he has also indisputable claims to a respectable 

 rank as a man of letters. Some of his written pictures of 

 birds, so graceful, clearly denned, and brilliantly coloured, are 

 scarcely inferior to the productions of his pencil. . . . From 

 the beginning he surrendered himself entirely to his favour- 

 ite pursuit, and has been intent to learn everything from the 

 prime teacher Nature. His style as well as his knowledge is 

 a fruit of his experience." His personal appearance, as a ref- 

 erence to his portrait will show must have been the case, was 

 calculated to impress a visitor. He is described as having 

 been tall and commanding in person, with a countenance 

 which, from the sharp glance of his eye and the outline of his 

 features, "suggested a resemblance to the eagle." He is be- 

 lieved, from his own account, to have been somewhat of a 

 dandy while living at Mill Grove. " It was one of my fancies," 

 he says, "to be ridiculously fond of dress; to hunt in black 

 satin breeches, wear pumps when shooting, and dress in the 

 finest ruffled shirts I could obtain from France." When on 

 his hunting tours, as he records in the relation of a visit to 

 Niagara, he would allow himself to get into the plight of the 

 poorer class of Indians, and worse, from not having, like them, 

 plucked his beard or trimmed his hair in any way. " Had 

 Hogarth been living, and there, when I arrived, he could not 

 have found a fitter subject for a Robinson Crusoe. My beard 

 covered my neck in front, my hair fell much lower at my back ; 

 the leather dress which I wore had for months stood in need 

 of repair; a large knife hung at my side; a rusty tin box, con- 

 taining my drawings and colours, and wrapped up in a worn- 

 out blanket that had served me for a bed, was buckled to my 

 shoulders. To every one I must bave seemed immersed in 

 the depths of poverty, perhaps of despair." Some explanation 



