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244 



AUDUBON 



Parallel to this stream is a canal ; the adjacent country 

 is rolling, with a number of fine country-seats. I wish I 

 had some one to go to in the evenings like friend Lizars. 



May ly 189,7. This is the day on which last year I left 

 my Lucy and my boys with intention to sail for Europe. 

 How uncertain my hopes at that time were as to the final 

 results of my voyage, — about to leave a country where 

 most of my life had been spent devoted to the study of 

 Nature, to enter one wholly unknown to me, with'^nt a 

 friend, nay, not an acquaintance in it. Until I reacned 

 Edinburgh I despaired of success ; the publication of a 

 work of enormous expense, and the length of time it must 

 necessarily take ; to accomplish the whole has been suffi- 

 cient to keep my spirits low, I assure thee. Now I feel like 

 beginning a New Year. My work is about to be known, I 

 have made a number of valuable and kind friends, I have 

 been received by men of science on friendly terms, and 

 now I have a hope of success if I continue to be honest, 

 industrious, and consistent. My pecuniary means are 

 slender, but I hope to keep afloat, for my tastes are simple; 

 ifonlylcan succeed in rendering thee and our sons happy, 

 not a moment of sorrow or discomfort shall I regret. 



May 2. Mr. George called very early, and said that 

 his colleague, the Secretary of the Literary and Philosophi- 

 cal Society, would call and subscribe, and he has done so. 

 I think I must tell thee how every one stares when they 

 read on the first engraving that I present for their inspec- 

 tion this name : " The Bonaparte Fly-catcher," — the very 

 bird I was anxious to name the " Rathbone Fly-catcher," 

 in honor of my excellent friend " Lady " Rathbone, but 

 who refused to accept this little mark of my gratitude. I 

 afterwards meant to call it after thee, but did not, because 

 the world is so strangely composed just now that I feared 

 it would be thought childish; so I concluded to call it 

 after my friend Charles Bonaparte. Every one is struck 

 by the name, so explanations take place, and the good 



