INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS. xiii 



the vicinity of which the birds were found, and are not, as some 

 persons have thought, the trees or plants upon which they al- 

 ways feed or perch. 



An accident which happened to two hundred of my original 

 drawings, nearly put a stop to my researches in ornithology. 

 I shall relate it, merely to show you how far enthusiasm — ^for 

 by no other name can I call the persevering zeal with which I 

 laboured — ^may enable the observer of nature to surmount the 

 most disheartening obstacles. I left the village of Henderson, 

 in Kentucky, situated on the bank of the Ohio, where I resided 

 for several years, to proceed to Philadelphia on business. I 

 looked to all my drawings before my departiu-e, placed them 

 carefully in a wooden box, and gave them in charge to a rela- 

 tive, with injunctions to see that no injury should happen to 

 them. My absence was of several months; and when I re- 

 turned, after having enjoyed the pleasures of home for a few 

 days, I inquired after my box, and what I was pleased to call 

 my treasure. The box was produced, and opened ; — but, 

 reader, feel for me — a pair of Norway rats had taken posses- 

 sion of the whole, and had reared a young family amongst the 

 gnawed bits of paper, which, but a few months before, repre- 

 sented nearly a thousand inhabitants of the air ! The bm-ning 

 heat which instantly rushed through my brain was too great to 

 be endured, without affecting the whole of my nervous system. 

 I slept not for several nights, and the days passed like days of 

 oblivion, — until the animal powers being recalled into action, 

 through the strength of my constitution, I took up my gun, 

 my note-book, and my pencils, and went forth to the woods as 

 gaily as if nothing had happened. I felt pleased that I might 

 now make much better drawings than before, and, ere a period 



