AN ECCENTEIC PAINTER. 73 



" March 16. Paid all my bills in New Orleans, and having 

 put my baggage on board of the steamer, Eclat, obtained 

 a passage to Natchez in the steamer, in return for a crayon 

 portrait of the captain and his wife, 



"March 19. Opened a chest with two himdred of my bird 

 portraits in it, and found them sorely damaged by the break- 

 ing of a bottle containing a quantity of gunpowder. I had 

 several portraits to draw during the passage. 



" Ma/rch 24. One of the passengers accused Alexander 

 Wilson, the ornithologist, of intemperate habits, but I had the 

 satisfaction of defending his character from aspersion. I had 

 hope of success in Natchez, and soon expected to be followed 

 by my wife and family. My wife in the meaiitime remained at 

 New Orleans, in the femily of Mr. Brand." 



In closing his recollections of New Odeans, Audubon relates 

 an amusing history of a painter, whose eccentricities fascinated 

 the naturalist. The genius was first observed by the natu- 

 ralist on the Levee at New Orleans, and his odd costume and 

 appearance are thus described : — 



" His head was covered by a straw hat, the brim of which 

 might cope with those worn by the fair sex in 1830 ; his neck 

 was exposed to the weather ; the broad frill of a shirt, then 

 fashionable, flopped about his breast, whilst an extraordinary 

 collar, carefully arranged, fell over the top of his coat. The 

 latter was of a light-green colour, harmonizing well with a pair 

 of flowing yellow nankeen trousers and a pink waistcoat, from 

 the bosom of which, amidst a large bunch of the splendid 

 flowers of the magnolia, protruded part of a young alligator, 

 which seemed more anxious to glide through the muddy waters 

 of a swamp than to spend its life swinging to and fro amongst 

 folds of the finest lawn. The gentleman held in one hand a 

 cage full of richly-plumed nonpareils, whilst in the other he 

 sported a silk umbrella, on which I could plainly read ' Stolen 

 from I,' these words being painted in large white characters. 

 He walked as if conscious of his own importance; that is, 

 with a good deal of pomposity, singing, ' My love is but a lassie 

 yet j' and that with such thorough imitation of the Scotch em- 

 phasis, that had not his physiognomy suggested another paren- 

 tage, I should have believed him to be a genuine Scot. A 



