RETURN TO LOUISIANA. 83 
to procure him other sitters, if his own portrait 
were satisfactory. As it proved perfectly so, 
the artist’s room was soon filled with the aristoc- 
racy of the place. After a few days sojourn, 
the itinerant portrait painter, attired in his gray 
coat, his long hair flowing loosely over his 
shoulders, was enabled, with a light heart and a 
well replenished purse, to pursue his journey. 
After a lapse of eighteen months, spent in varied 
adventure, Audubon returned to Louisiana, 
where his family then were. Again he dili- 
gently applied himself to his vocation, and in- 
vestigated now every nook of the vast extent 
of woodland around that fertile and beautiful 
State. In this, his favourite resting-place, Au- 
dubon loved to loiter. Here, magnificent abun- 
dance in verdure, fruits and flowers, tells the 
richness of the soil. Huge cypresses interlace 
their broad tops, till no sunbeam can penetrate 
their shade ; in the swamps of matted grass and 
lichens, turtle-doves coo in hundreds on branches 
of trees—alligators plunge into the pools, and 
the scream of the heron, and hoarse cry of the 
anhinga, contrast with the soft melodious love 
notes of a thousand forest warblers. 
Amidst the enchantments of such scenes, Au- 
dubon added many a treasure to his discoveries. 
He pronounces the rich notes, powerful, mellow, 
and varied of the Louisiana water thrush, a 
