CHAPTER V. 



The Instincts of the Naturalist — Difficulties to be Overcome in 

 Depicting Birds — Artistic Anxieties — Knowledge of Botany — Goes 

 TO New York to Acquire a Knowledge of Business — Loses Money 

 AND dobs not Succeed in his Purpose — Portrait of Himself — 

 Eetuhns to Mill Grove — Expedition to the West. 



Feom the introductory address in the first volume of Audubon's 

 " Ornithological Biography," published at Edinburgh, in 1834, 

 many passages may be cited as an exposition of the high 

 aspirations which stimulated the young naturalist to his task. 

 These passages may be divided into scientific and artistic. Belong- 

 ing to the first category are constant references to that thirst for 

 accurate and complete knowledge regarding wild animals, and 

 especially birds, their habits, forms, nests, eggs, progeny, places 

 of breeding, and all that concerned them. But, after all, 

 Audubon was not at heart a man of science. He gathered 

 much, and speculated little, and was more a backwoodsman 

 than a philosopher. In his rough great way he did good 

 service, but his great physical energy, not his mental resources, 

 was the secret of his success. 



His crude artistic instincts inspired him with the desire to 

 represent, by the aid of pencil, crayon, or paint, the form, 

 plumage, attitude, and characteristic marks of his feathered 

 favourites. In working towards this end, he laboured to pro- 

 duce life-like pictures, and frequently with wonderful success. 

 Strongly impressed with the difBculties of representing in any 

 perfect degree the living image of the birds he drew, he laboured 



