IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC 63 



with Audubon for months at a time, and who probably 

 knew him better than did any one in America outside of 

 the naturahsf^s own family, gave this account of his 

 habits in 1834, when, at the age of forty-nine, he was 

 stiU working at his best: 



He rises at the earliest dawn, and devotes the whole of 

 the day, in intense industry, to his favourite pursuit. The 

 specimens from which he makes his drawings are all from 

 nature; carefully noting the colors of the eye, bill, and legs; 

 measuring, with great accuracy, every part of the bird. When 

 differences exist, either in the sexes or young, several figures 

 are given on the same plate ; sparing no labour in retouching 

 old drawings or in making new ones, in all cases where he 

 conceives there may be a possibility of making an improve- 

 ment. In this way, he has already succeeded in figuring nearly 

 the whole of the birds necessary to complete his splendid and 

 important work. 



He keeps a journal, and regularly notes down every thing 

 connected with natural history. This journal is always kept 

 in English: a language which, it must be acknowledged he 

 writes very correctly, when it is taken into consideration that 

 he spent nearly the first seventeen years of his life in France. 

 Besides this, he keeps separate journals, in which he notes 

 every thing that he learns each day on the habits of every bird. 

 In all his travels, he carries these journals with him; and he 

 never suff'ers business, fatigue, or pleasure to prevent him each 

 evening from noting down every interesting observation. In 

 this way, a mass of information has been accumulated from 

 year to year. When he sits down to write the history of a 

 bird (which is usually in the evening), he first reads over all 

 the memoranda which he has made with regard to its habits 

 and he is generally able to write an interesting paper on the 

 subject in the course of an evening. At some leisure moment 

 this is again revised and corrected: the scientific details he 

 leaves to the last. 



