124 THE HERONKIES OF AMERICA. 
At first he attempted to gratify his love of birds by the 
purchase of those illustrated works which pretend to represent them. 
Clumsy caricatures, which convey but a ridiculous idea of their 
form, and none at all of their movement; and what is the bird 
deprived of grace and motion? These did not suffice. He took a 
decisive resolution: to abandon everything, his trade, his country. 
A new Robinson Crusoe, he was willing, by a voluntary ship- 
wreck, to exile himself to the solitudes of America; where he 
might see with his own eyes, observe, describe, and paint. He 
then remembered one little fact: that he neither knew how 
to draw, to paint, or to write. But this strong and patient man, 
whom no difficulties could discourage, soon learned to write, and 
to write an excellent style. A good writer, a minutely accurate 
artist, with a delicate and certain hand, he seemed, under the guid- 
ance of Nature, his mother and mistress, less to learn than to 
remember. 
Provided with these weapons, he plunges into the desert, the 
forest, and the pestiferous savannahs ; becomes the friends of buffaloes 
and the guest of bears; lives upon wild fruits, under the splendid 
ceiling of heaven. Wherever he chances to observe a rare bird, he 
halts, encamps, and is “at home.” What, indeed, is there to hurry him 
onward? He has no house to recall him, and neither wife nor child 
awaits him. He has a family, it is true: that great family which he 
observes and describes. And friends, he has them too: those which 
have not yet learned to mistrust man, and which perch upon his tree, 
and chatter with him. 
And, O birds, you are right ; you have there a truly loyal friend, 
who will secure you many others, who will teach men to understand 
you, being himself as a bird in thought and heart. One day, perhaps, 
the traveller, penetrating into your solitudes, and seeing some of you 
fluttering and sparkling in the sun, will be tempted with the hope of 
spoil, but will bethink himself of Wilson. Why kill the friends of 
Wilson? And when this name flashes on his memory, he will lower 
his gun. 
