2 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 



odour mingle their loveliness with the stuartia^s 

 snowy pnrity, the majestic form of the magnolia, 

 or richly scented clustering orange, irradiating 

 with golden light the dark verdure of gardens 

 and groves. 



Birds of splendid plumage and graceful flight 

 congregate in multitudes, telling their aerial pas- 

 sage by the wondrous melody of their song. 



Tempting fruits and berries, ripened by genial 

 warmth and brushed by gentlest breeze — all 

 these are elements of many a sunny scene, which 

 breaks like a gladdening land of promise on the 

 gaze of a loiterer, midst the western woods. 



Alternating with the pathless intricacies of the 

 wilderness are vast untrodden prairies. Over 

 these some hermit wanderer might roam, follow- 

 ing only the track of the Indian, undisturbed 

 for miles by human sight or sound, greeted now 

 and then but by the buzzing wings of the beetle 

 — a prey for the night hawk, whose skimming 

 undulations are seen around, or by the more 

 unwelcome howling of distant wolves. 



To those delighting in the freedom of the 

 waters, hoAV inviting the waves of the imperial 

 Mississippi and Ohio ! Parsuing the gracefully 

 winding course of these rivers, from which ver- 

 durous islands rise, glistening in the light, like 

 emeralds gemming a breast of snow, some Cru- 

 soe-minded mariner too, might contentedly once 



