290 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 166. 



sumptuous Quadrupeds of North America, 

 the text of which was published under joint 

 authorship with Dr. John Bachman of 

 Charleston (1846-1854), was apparently not 

 begun until the bird books had been com- 

 pleted. 



Audubon's fame as a painter of birds is 

 world wide and his Birds of America is 

 described by an eminent ornithologist as 

 * by far the most sumptuous ornithological 

 work ever published.' His genius and 

 power as a painter of mammals was even 

 greater though less widely known, owing 

 to the rarity of his magnificent folio plates 

 of * Quadrupeds.' He naust have been 

 nearly seventy when he began these draw- 

 ings and it is no wonder he was not able to 

 finish all of them himself. Happily, his 

 sons Victor and John Woodhouse inherited 

 his talent and were able to complete the 

 series, thus perfecting a work the equal of 

 which no other man or country has yet pro- 

 duced. 



One is surprised at the misgivings with 

 which Audubon undertook the preparation 

 of the Ornithological Biography, as shown 

 by an entry in his journal for October 16, 

 1830, where he writes depreciatingly : "I 

 know that I am a poor writer, that I 

 scarcely can manage to scribble a tolerable 

 English letter, and not a much better one 

 in French, though that is easier to me. I 

 know I am not a scholar, but meantime 1 

 am aware that no living man knows better 

 than I do the habits of our birds ; no man 

 living has studied them as much as I have 

 done, and with the assistance of my old 

 journals and memorandum-books which 

 were written on the spot, I can at least put 

 down plain truths, which may be useful and 

 perhaps interesting, so I shall set to at 

 once. I cannot, however, give scientific 

 descriptions, and here must have assist- 



text, entitled Ornithological Biography, was not be- 

 gun until 1830, and the original five volumes ap- 

 peared at intervals from 1831 to 1839. 



ance." This technical assistance was 

 rendered by the well-known ornithologist, 

 William MacGillivray. And many years 

 later, when Audubon joined forces with 

 John Bachman in the preparation of their 

 great work on Mammals, the latter author 

 looked after the technicalities. It must not 

 be inferred from this that Audubon lacked 

 a scientific knowledge of the distinctive 

 characters of species ; on the contrary he 

 had a keen appreciation of these matters as 

 every one knows who is familiar with his 

 writings, but the drudgery of preparing 

 technical diagnoses was so distasteful to 

 him, and he was kept so busy with his 

 paintings and biographies, that he preferred 

 to let others do this part of the work. 



The absence of a trustworthy biography 

 of Aububon has been a matter of such 

 general regret that the recent appearance 

 of two handsome volumes entitled Audubon 

 and his Journals* is hailed with wide- 

 spread satisfaction. The author. Miss Maria 

 E. Audubon, a daughter of John Wood- 

 house Audubon and granddaughter of the 

 celebrated naturalist, had the rare advan- 

 tage of familiarity with the family tradi- 

 tions and the possession of unpublished 

 manuscripts. She has supplied not only a 

 reliable and entertaining account of Audu- 

 bon's life, but also the full text of his most 

 important journals — those of his trips to 

 Europe, Labrador, and the Missouri and 

 Yellowstone Bivers. Many of his journals 

 and manuscripts were early destroyed by 

 fire, and others lost, but happily those of 

 greatest value have been discovered and 

 are now for the first time made public. 

 From these we learn so much of interest 

 that only the merest outline can be given 

 here. 



*Audubon and His Journals. By Maria E. Audu- 

 bon, -with Zoological and other Notes by Elliott 

 Coues. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons. Decem- 

 ber, 1897. Large 8vo. Vol.1., pp. xiv+532, pis- 

 22; Vol. II., pp. viii+654, pis. 15. $7.50. 



