54 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



For a number of years Audubon's snake stories had 

 subjected him to no little ridicule in certain quarters, 

 and this notice of a climbing rattlesnake pleased him 

 so much that he asked the venerable president to put 

 his statement in writing; he willingly complied, and his 

 interesting letter on the subject will be given in a later 

 chapter. 25 



When Audubon and his wife reached the Bachman 

 home on October 24, he was prepared to push on to the 

 South, but changed his plans, on account, he said, "of 

 the removal of my good friend Captain Robert Day 

 from his former station to New York, and I did not 

 like to launch on the Florida reefs in the care of a young 

 officer unknown to me." The winter of 1833-4 was 

 passed under the hospitable rooftree of his friend, in the 

 usual occupations of painting, writing and hunting 

 birds. At this time an attachment sprang up between 

 his younger son, John Woodhouse Audubon, and Maria 

 Rebecca, the eldest daughter of the Bachman household. 

 Here Audubon wrote the first drafts of many of the 

 bird biographies contained in the second volume of his 

 letterpress, and with Bachman conducted a series of 

 careful experiments on the power of smell in vultures, 

 in order to settle a question which had then become acute 

 among naturalists. 26 This subject is referred to in the 

 following intimate letter, 27 which reveals the confidence 

 which Audubon felt in his sons and in their united abil- 

 ity to bring his great undertaking to a successful issue, 

 as well as the infinite pains which he bestowed upon 

 every part of it. Audubon, who was now in his forty- 

 ninth year, felt that he was aging very fast, and de- 



"See Chapter XXVIII, p. 78. 

 26 See ibid., p. 81. 



27 Which I am able to reproduce through the kindness of Miss Maria R. 

 Audubon. 



