1893.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 53 



acter of the race, which at times influenced his judgment, and 

 led him into wild and unprofitable pursuits. But his many 

 severe and oft recurring pecuniary embarrassments in time 

 sobered him, and in his maturer years he exhibited little of the 

 fanciful vagaries of his earlier life. As an artist, and a pupil of 

 David, we must judge him, and the master's influence is fre- 

 quently seen in the composition of his plates. While the group- 

 ing is well considered and the figures spirited, they often partake 

 of the theatrical in their attitudes and occasionallj- are anatomi- 

 cally impossible. Yet the effect is almost always pleasing and 

 apt to evoke admiration. 



As a naturalist, we must not judge him by the standard of 

 to-day, achieved in the severe and exacting curriculum of 

 modern scientific teaching. The ornithologist of the close of 

 the nineteenth century is altogether another savant from the 

 one Audubon understood by the term, nor does he quite answer 

 to the desci'iption I once heard given by a lady, as one who was 

 "always fussing over little fluffy birds." He must not only 

 know the habits and economy of birds as Audubon did, but 

 also very much more. And first, he must be thoroughly versed 

 in the bibliography of his subject, a mighty task, in which few 

 are thoroughly proficient ; he must be conversant with at least 

 five languages, French, English, German, Italian and Latin, for 

 in all of these and more, are the memoirs of his science pub- 

 lished throughout the world. He must be acquainted with 

 anatomy and osteology to understand not only the comparative 

 relationship of the animals, comprised in the orders and families 

 of his own especial branch, but also their affinity to those in 

 other departments of zoology; he must understand jjterylo- 

 graphy, the growth and structure of feathers, and the distribu- 

 tion of feather tracts, and be able to see the significance of these, 

 and what they impl^^; he must be skilled in the theor}^ and facts 

 of geographical distribution, and be able to give a probable 

 reason for the cause of the various habitats and dispersion of 

 the animals on our globe; he must have knowledge of geology 

 and paleontology, so as to be able to study intelligently the 

 fossil remains of extinct forms, and read aright the lessons that 

 they teach; in fact, liecause the various sciences are so intimately 

 connected, to be fully equipped for his work, he must be not 

 only an ornithologist, but also a zoologist and if possible a 

 biologist as well. 



It is no small thing to be a graduate in such a school, and 

 few, indeed, are they who by their works have proved them- 

 selves fitted to take a place in the front rank of the science. 

 One must begin early in life, work hard all the time, })assing 



