404 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
printed in one of the Scotch journals, are as valuable to the 
scientific world, as they are delightful to the general reader. 
They give us a rich foretaste of what we may hope and expect 
from such a man. There is a freshness and an originality 
about these essays, which can only be compared to the animated 
biographies of Wilson. . . . To represent the passions and the 
feelings of birds, might, until now, have been well deemed chi- 
merical. Rarely, indeed, do we see their outward forms repre- 
sented with any thing like nature. In my estimation, not more 
than three painters ever lived who could draw a bird. Of these 
the lamented Barrabaud [Barraband], of whom France may 
be justly proud, was the chief. He has long passed away; but 
his mantle has at length been recovered in the forests of 
America. 
Audubon spent four days with Swainson and his 
family at Tyttenhanger, from May 28 to June 1, 1828, 
when they talked birds and made drawings; Audubon 
also showed Swainson “how to put up birds in his style, 
which delighted him.” The friendship between these 
men, though very intimate while it lasted, received a 
sudden check two years later, when Audubon was about 
to publish the letterpress to his plates, as will be related 
farther on."® 
Though his hands were already more than full at 
this time, Audubon seems to have played with the idea 
of publishing a work on the birds of Great Britain, but 
on May 1 he wrote to Swainson that the plan did not 
meet with favor, and later he relinquished all claims in 
such a project to his assistant, William MacGillivray.” 
In the spring of 1828 Audubon began to think of 
returning to the United States, to renew or revise his 
drawings and extend his researches. “I am sure,” he 
**See Chapter XXIX. 
See Vol. II, p. 130. 
