56 JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 
In August he left Philadelphia for 
New York, hoping to improve his fi- 
nances, and, may be, publish his draw- 
ings in that city. At this time he had 
two hundred sheets, and about one thou- 
sand birds. While there he again met 
Vanderlyn and examined his pictures, 
but says that he was not impressed with 
the idea that Vanderlyn was a great 
painter. 
The birds that he saw in the museum 
in New York appeared to him to be set 
up in unnatural and constrained atti- 
tudes. With Dr. De Kay he visited the 
Lyceum, and his drawings were exam- 
ined by members of the Institute. 
Among them he felt awkward and un- 
comfortable. ‘‘I feel that I am strange 
to all but the birds of America,’’ he said. 
As most of the persons to whom he had 
letters of introduction were absent, and 
as his spirits soon grew low, he left on 
the fifteenth for Albany. Here he found 
his money low also. Abandoning the 
