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178 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
from the first. Access to these apartments was gained 
from the street by means of a spiral stairway, the open- 
ing of which may still be seen in the Egyptian Hall. 
It is common to speak of this gifted man as if he 
alone had stifled all the art of the eighteenth century 
in France, as if he were the molder of his age and not 
a part of it. Too often has he been judged on the 
basis of a few, unfortunately conspicuous, theatrical 
pieces, while his excellent portraits, of which there are 
many, entitle him to the gratitude of posterity. 
Buchanan remarked that the mannerism of David could 
“still be traced in certain pedantries discernible in 
Audubon’s style of drawing,” which is a fancy without 
any basis in fact. If it could be shown that drawing 
from the casts of antique statues could develop man- 
nerisms in the careful delineation of birds and mammals, 
it would still appear that Audubon’s style was really 
formed at a later period. 
This brief Paris episode, which at most could have 
lasted but a few months, represented all the formal 
instruction which Audubon ever received in drawing, 
although he enjoyed some private tuition at a much 
later day. As to the sciences now embraced in biology, 
that is, zodlogy and botany, which would have been 
most useful to him, the score was blank; even books on 
any of these subjects were rare in America at the be- 
ginning of the nineteenth century. 
When Audubon first came to the United States, he 
brought with him all his drawings of French birds, and 
a few pieces which may belong to this early period have 
been described.® Done in a combination of crayon and 
water color, they represent a European Magpie, a Coot 
°See R. W. Shufeldt, in The Auk and the Audubonian Magazine 
(Bibliography, Nos. 184 and 190). 
