EARLY DRAWINGS 181 



hastily drawn in pastel, crayon and pencil, and had not 

 time failed him at the end, nothing of his earlier Ameri- 

 can period would have remained in the final product. 



Nearly all of these rejected drawings bear serial 

 numbers, which from the lack of sequence now observed, 

 show that they were subject to constant change and 

 that their total number must have been great. All bear 

 the scientific and common names in French or English 

 or both, and many are signed with the artist's initials 

 or name; besides giving the place and date, in some 

 cases the weights and measurements of his subjects are 

 added, with detailed sketches of foot, bill, or eggs. 11 



A large crayon sketch of a groundhog, in excellent 

 drawing, is labeled "Marmotte de sauvage, No. 159, le 

 6 juin, 1805." The Redstart, executed in August of 

 the same year, is a good example of Audubon's more 

 delicate early w r ork; it shows also the attention which 

 he was then beginning to pay to accessories, his bird 

 being perched on a spray of ripening blackberries. The 

 Wagtail, on the other hand, was a rough crayon sketch, 

 dashed off on December 22 of the same year. A pencil 

 and crayon drawing of the Mountain Titmouse, which 

 is a European bird, was probably made from a captive, 

 and at sea, since it bears the date of January 22, 1805, 

 when Audubon was, I believe, aboard the Hope. 12 The 

 latest of these French pieces, designated "No. 94. 

 Woodpecker, le 8 mars, 1806. pres Nantes; 12 

 to the tail," was executed about a month before the 

 naturalist finally left France with Rozier to settle per- 

 manently in the United States. The excellence of such 



11 For a list of Audubon's early dated drawings see Appendix II. 

 Through the courtesy of Mr. Jeanes, I am able to reproduce a fuller series 

 of Audubon's early drawings of French and American birds than has hith- 

 erto been published, and have chosen the subjects to illustrate the develop- 

 ment of his style. 



12 See Vol. I, p. 125. 



