JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 7 
the tragedy awakened in him a lasting 
love for his feathered friends, 
Audubon’s father seems to have been 
the first to direct his attention to the study 
of birds, and to the observance of Nature 
generally. Through him he learned to 
notice the beautiful colourings and mark- 
ings of the birds, to know their haunts, 
and to observe their change of plumage 
with the changing seasons; what he 
learned of their mysterious migrations 
fired his imagination. 
He speaks of this early intimacy with 
Nature as a feeling which bordered on 
frenzy. Watching the growth of a bird 
from the egg he compares to the unfold- 
ing of a flower from the bud. 
The pain which he felt in seeing the 
birds die and decay was very acute, but, 
fortunately, about this time some one 
showed him a book of illustrations, and 
henceforth ‘‘a new life ran in my veins,’’ 
hesays. To copy Nature was thereafter 
his one engrossing aim. 
