77% JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 



America, and consequently in 1839 returned to the United States and be- 

 came the purchaser of a country-seat in the immediate vicinity of New 

 York, on the banks of the Hudson, in the upper portion of the island on 

 which the city is situated. To bring the results of his great v/ork within the 

 reach of a larger number of the public, he employed himself upon its reduc- 

 tion. This was published in New York in seven octavo volumes, between 

 1840 and 1844. Nor had the author meantime relinquished his active habits 

 of exploration. In company with his sons Victor Gifford and John Wood- 

 house he traversed the remoter regions of the country, collecting materials 

 for a new work on which he now became engaged, on the " Viviparous 

 Quadrupeds of North America." Besides the aid of his sons, he had the 

 assistance in this work of his friend, the accomplished naturalist, the Rev. John 

 Bachman, of South Carolina. It was in size similar to the " Ornithology," 

 and was completed in three volumes in 1848. This was the last publishing 

 enterprise which the author lived to see completed, a smaller edition of the 

 work having appeared since his death. 



With his fame established, in the society of his wife, who had so ably 

 aided him, and of his sons, who grew up to work with him, Audubon spent 

 his declining years in his rural home. Some time before his death his mind 

 gave way till he peacefully passed from earth on the 27th January, 185 1. 



Rufus W. Griswold, who visited Audubon in 1846, gives us the following 

 picture of his home : " Several graceful fawns, and a noble elk, were stalking 

 in the shade of the trees, apparently unconscious of the presence of a few 

 dogs, and not caring for the numerous turkeys, geese, and other domestic 

 animals that gobbled and screamed around them. Nor did my own approach 

 startle the wild, beautiful creatures, that seemed as docile as any of their 

 tame companions." His house became the dwelling of animals of various 

 kinds, some very far from attractive. At one time he aroused the household 

 in the night to aid him to catch a number of white mice which had escaped 

 from their cage ; at another time a polecat was a resident of his painting- 

 room ; at another a California buzzard in the last stages of decomposition 

 lay for days on the piazza. Whenever he could do so, he drew from life ; bears, 

 wolves, foxes, deer, moose, elk, and many smaller quadrupeds were kept in 

 inclosures near the house, and sketched as they moved about. Animals that 

 could not be sketched from life were painted as soon after death as possible 

 before the muscles had relaxed or the coloring had lost the gloss and bril- 

 liancy of life. Every motion and attitude in each creature's native home 

 had been carefully studied. 



Another friend writes : 



" The unconscious greatness of the man seemed only equalled by his 



