194 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 



that time I painted all day, and sold my work dur- 

 ing the dusky hours of evening, as I walked 

 through the Strand and other streets where the 

 Jews reigned ; popping in and out of Jew shops or 

 any others, and never refusing the offers made me 

 for the pictures I carried fresh from the easel- 

 Startling and surprising as this may seem, it is 

 nevertheless true, and one of the curious events of 

 my most extraordinary life. Let me add here, 

 that I sold seven copies of the -Entrapped Otter,' 

 in London, Manchester, and Liverpool, besides one 

 copy presented to my friend Mr. Richard Bath- 

 bone. In other pictures, also, I have sold from 

 seven to ten copies, merely by changing the course 

 of my rambles ; and strange to say, that when, in 

 after years and better times, I called on the differ- 

 ent owners to whom I had sold the copies, I never 

 found a single one in their hands." 



Painting all day, and selling his pictures at 

 night along the streets of London, all to bring out 

 the " Birds of America " ! What a life history is 

 between the leaves of that great work ! 



Sometimes, in his wanderings, he met poverty 

 that made him " sick of London ; " an artist making 

 caricatures, while his wife and six little children 

 begged ; but he always gave part of what he had, 

 and went back to his work, more than ever deter- 

 mined to win. 



September 1, 1828, Audubon went to Paris, 

 going first to Baron Cuvier. He was busy who 

 is not that accomplishes anything ? and, while he 



