184 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
to dried and mounted skins, but such ability is not easy 
to acquire or impart. Method is always subordinate to 
power, and Audubon at his best, when not hampered by 
lack of time, was able to represent the living, moving 
bird in a hundred attitudes never attempted before, 
which surprised the world of his day by the remarkable 
skill, freshness and fidelity they displayed. 
Some have complained that Audubon, in striving 
for effect, too often exaggerated the action of his sub- 
jects; his birds, like the Frenchman he was, gesticulate 
too much, while Wilson’s were more cautious or sedate, 
as became a canny Scot. The complaint may be well 
founded, but the explanation is too trivial for serious 
consideration. Wilson, like his predecessors, regardless 
of nationality, merely followed custom, which led by 
the path of least resistance. Barraband and all the best 
French artists before him in depicting bird and animal 
life had done the same, and in their hands the perch, 
were the subject a bird, became stereotyped to the last 
degree, as if inserted with a rubber stamp. Audubon 
followed the same course until he became imbued with 
the desire of endowing his animals with all the moving 
energy of which they were capable, whether in seizing 
their prey, feeding their young, or fighting their ene- 
mies. It is well known that many an animal, though 
ordinarily cautious or even timid, can be roused to vig- 
orous action under the spur of emotion, as when its 
young are suddenly threatened, and be it warbler, blue- 
bird, or cuckoo, may become a contortionist at a mo- 
ment’s notice. Very few of the 1,065 life-size drawings of 
birds which appear in his large plates could be truly 
described as fantastic or unnatural. 
Audubon’s problem was rendered more difficult by 
the fact that all of his animals were drawn to the size 
