258 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



his power of vision must have been singularly acute, to have dis- 

 tinguished that it was a Fox Squirrel ; for only one other per- 

 son detected the creature at all. 



The second Mrs. Victor G. Audubon 7 said that on 

 the day the naturalist returned, "the whole family, with 

 his old friend, Captain Cummings, were on the piazza 

 waiting for the carriage to come from Harlem . . . He 

 had on a green blanket coat with fur collar and cuffs; 

 his hair and beard were very long, and he made a fine 

 striking appearance. In this dress his son John painted 

 his portrait." 8 This interesting portrait, which is still 

 in possession of the family, and which is reproduced by 

 his granddaughter in the work from which we have just 

 quoted, shows a man whose apparent age, as suggested 

 by his flowing white hair and grayish white beard, over- 

 shoots the clearer testimony of his smooth face and 

 bright eye; as already noticed, Audubon had not then 

 attained his sixtieth year. 



Upon his return at this time Audubon is said to 

 have been mistaken for a Dunker, or member of a sect 

 of Quakers noted for their ample beards. On Novem- 

 ber 29 Bachman wrote: "I am glad to hear that your 

 great beard is now cut off. I pictured you to myself, as 

 I saw you in my home, when you came from Florida, via 

 Savannah. You jumped down from the top of the 

 stage. Your beard, two months old, was as gray as a 

 Badger's. I think a grizzly-bear, forty-seven years old, 

 would have claimed you as 'par nobile fratrum.' Bach- 

 man was apparently disturbed about Audubon's per- 

 sonal habits at this time, for he added in the letter just 

 quoted: "I am a teatotaler. I drink no wine, and do not 



-' ^-^ 



7 See Vol. II, p. 294. 



8 See Maria R. Audubon, op. cit., vol. ii, Note on pp. 175-6. 



