RETURN TO LOUISIANA. 83 



to procure him other sitters, if his own portrait 

 were satisfactory. As it proved perfectly so, 

 the artist's room was soon filled with the aristoc- 

 racy of the place. After a few days sojourn, 

 the itinerant portrait painter, attired in his gray 

 coat, his long hair flowing loosely over his 

 shoulders, was enabled, with a light heart and a 

 well replenished purse, to pursue his journey. 

 After a lapse of eighteen months, spent in varied 

 adventure, Audubon returned to Louisiana, 

 where his family then were. Again he dili- 

 gently applied himself to his vocation, and in- 

 vestigated now every nook of the vast extent 

 of woodland around that fertile and beautiful 

 State. In this, his favourite resting-place, Au- 

 dubon loved to loiter. Here, magnificent abun- 

 dance in verdure, fruits and flowers, tells the 

 richness of the soil. Huge cypresses interlace 

 their broad tops, till no sunbeam can penetrate 

 their shade ; in the swamps of matted grass and 

 lichens, turtle-doves coo in hundreds on branches 

 of trees — alligators plunge into the pools, and 

 the scream of the heron, and hoarse cry of the 

 anhinga, contrast with the soft melodious love 

 notes of a thousand forest warblers. 



Amidst the enchantments of such scenes, Au- 

 dubon added many a treasure to his discoveries. 

 He pronounces the rich notes, powerful, mellow, 

 and varied of the Louisiana water thrush, a 



