JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 125 
ceived the happy thought of setting up 
the body of the dead bird by the aid 
of wires, very much as a taxidermist 
mounts them. This plan worked well 
and enabled him to have his birds per- 
manently before him in a characteristic 
attitude: ‘The bird fixed with wires on 
squares I studied as a lay figure before 
me, its nature previously known to me 
as far as habits went, and its general 
form having been perfectly observed.’’ 
His bird pictures reflect his own 
temperament, not to say his nation- 
ality ; the birds are very demonstra- 
tive, even theatrical and melodramatic 
at times. In some cases this is all right, 
in others it is all wrong. Birds differ 
in this respect as much as people do— 
some are very quiet and sedate, others 
pose and gesticulate like a Frenchman. 
It would not be easy to exaggerate, for 
instance, the flashings and evolutions of 
the redstart when it arrives in May, 
or the acting and posing of the catbird, 
