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 Rath- 

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

 seven to ten copies, merely by changing the cpurse 

 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 



