180 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



mained in his family unbroken and unimpaired until 

 1892. 9 



This beautiful and unique collection, which repre- 

 sents The Birds of America in the bud, illustrates the 

 development of Audubon's art from about 1800 or a 

 little later to 182 1, 10 and clearly shows that the fuller 

 mastery which he attained after the latter date was 

 manifested in no small degree at a much earlier period. 

 His drawings of the Wood Thrush (1806), the Whip- 

 poorwill and Kingfisher (1810), the Carolina Parrot 

 (1811), and the Nighthawk (1812), though detached 

 and less ambitious as pictures, for truth of line and deli- 

 cacy of finish would compare favorably with the best of 

 his later work. After 1820 his ability had so far out- 

 stripped his ambition that there was needed only the 

 stimulus of a powerful motive and a well defined plan 

 to bring his powers into full fruition at once. A little 

 later, when he began to revise, enrich and standardize 

 all of his previous work, he used the brush and water 

 colors more freely than ever before. Hundreds of his 

 earlier studies were cast aside; many, to be sure, were 



9 When it passed into the equally worthy hands of Mr. Joseph Y. 

 Jeanes, of Philadelphia. Mr. Jeanes purchased from the estate of Mr. 

 Edward Harris, 2d, directly or indirectly, and at different times, about 

 110 of these early originals; others were dispersed, four of early date 

 being in the Museum of Harvard University. Mr. Jeanes also possesses 

 a large section of the Audubon-H arris correspondence, which extended 

 over nearly a quarter of a century, and of which little has been pub- 

 lished; to his kindness I am indebted for the privilege of reproducing 

 some of the drawings, as well as numerous extracts from the letters, 

 in the present work. 



10 Audubon said that some of the originals of The Birds of America were 

 "made as long ago as 1805," which may well have been the case, but 

 the earliest date which has been preserved on the drawings is that of 

 July 1, 1808, for "Rathbone's Warbler," later recognized as an imma- 

 ture form of the Summer Warbler. The Carbonated Warbler was drawn 

 May 7, 1811. Seven bear the date of 1812, namely: Yellow-rumped 

 Warbler, April 22; Le petit Caporal, April 23; Wood Pewee, April 28; 

 Blackburnian and Bay-breasted Warblers, May 12; Chestnut-sided Warbler, 

 May 17; and Cuvier's Wren, June 8. 



