278 AUDUBON 



on studying their habits, and grew more homesick than 

 ever. 



January 21. Notwithstanding this constant darkness of 

 mood, my business must be attended to ; therefore soon 

 after dawn I joined Havell and for many hours superin- 

 tended his coloring of the plates for Congress. While I 

 am not a colorist, and Havell is a very superior one, I 

 know the birds ; would to God I was among them. From 

 here I went to find a bookseller named Wright, but I 

 passed the place twice because I looked too high for his 

 sign; the same occurs to young hunters, who, when first 

 they tread the woods in search of a Deer, keep looking 

 high, and far in the distance, and so pass many a one of 

 these cunning animals, that, squatted in a parcel of dry 

 brush-wood, sees his enemy quite well, and suffers him to 

 pass without bouncing from his couch. The same instinct 

 that leads me through woods struck me in the Haymar- 

 ket, and now I found Mr. Wright. Our interview over, I 

 made for Piccadilly, the weather as mild as summer, and 

 the crowd innumerable. Piccadilly was filled with car- 

 riages of all sorts, men on horseback, and people every- 

 where ; what a bustle ! 



January %%. I was so comfortless last night that I 

 scarcely closed my eyes, and at last dressed and walked 

 off in the dark to Regent's Park, led there because there 

 are some objects in the shape of trees, the grass is green, 

 and from time to time the sweet notes of a Blackbird strike 

 my ear and revive my poor heart, as it carries my mind 

 to the woods around thee, my Lucy. As daylight came a 

 flock of Starlings swept over my head, and I watched their 

 motions on the green turf where they had alighted, until 

 I thought it time to return to breakfast, and I entered my 

 lodgings quite ready for my usual bowl of bread and milk, 

 which I still keep to for my morning meal; how often 

 have I partaken of it in simple cabins, much more to my 

 taste than all the pomp of London. Drawing all day long. 



