184 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



to dried and mounted skins, but such ability is not easy 

 to acquire or impart. Method is always subordinate to 

 power, and Audubon at his best, when not hampered by 

 lack of time, was able to represent the living, moving 

 bird in a hundred attitudes never attempted before, 

 which surprised the world of his day by the remarkable 

 skill, freshness and fidelity they displayed. 



Some have complained that Audubon, in striving 

 for effect, too often exaggerated the action of his sub- 

 jects; his birds, like the Frenchman he was, gesticulate 

 too much, while Wilson's were more cautious or sedate, 

 as became a canny Scot. The complaint may be well 

 founded, but the explanation is too trivial for serious 

 consideration. Wilson, like his predecessors, regardless 

 of nationality, merely followed custom, which led by 

 the path of least resistance. Barraband and all the best 

 French artists before him in depicting bird and animal 

 life had done the same, and in their hands the perch, 

 were the subject a bird, became stereotyped to the last 

 degree, as if inserted, with a rubber stamp. Audubon 

 followed the same course until he became imbued with 

 the desire of endowing his animals with all the moving 

 energy of which they were capable, whether in seizing 

 their prey, feeding their young, or fighting their ene- 

 mies. It is well known that many an animal, though 

 ordinarily cautious or even timid, can be roused to vig- 

 orous action under the spur of emotion, as when its 

 young are suddenly threatened, and be it warbler, blue- 

 bird, or cuckoo, may become a contortionist at a mo- 

 ment's notice. Very few of the 1,065 life-size drawings of 

 birds which appear in his large plates could be truly 

 described as fantastic or unnatural. 



Audubon's problem was rendered more difficult by 

 the fact that all of his animals were drawn to the size 



