48 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 
months later, he pathetically recounts 
what befell them: ‘‘A pair of Norway 
rats had taken possession of the whole, 
and reared a young family among 
gnawed bits of paper, which but a 
month previous, represented nearly one 
thousand inhabitants of the air !”’ 
This discovery resulted in insomnia, 
and a fearful heat in the head; for 
several days he seemed like one 
stunned, but his youth and health 
stood him in hand, he rallied, and, un- 
daunted, again sallied forth to the 
woods with dog and gun. In three 
years’ time his portfolio was again 
filled. 
The third catastrophe to some of his 
drawings was caused by a fire in a New 
York building in which his treasures 
were kept during his sojourn in 
Europe. 
Audubon had an eye for the pictur- 
esque in his fellow-men as well as for the 
picturesque in Nature. On the Levee 
