THE AUDUBON MONUMENT IN NEW YORK CITY. 21 9 



behalf of the New York Academy of Sciences, he expressed his 

 gratification at the completion of the monument, which he 

 committed to the care of the Rev. Morgan Dix, who represented 

 the Trinity Cemetery Corporation. 



At the American Museum of Natural History, the same 

 evening, Mr. D. G. Elliot, the well-known author of so many 

 beautiful folio works on mammals and birds, pronounced an 

 eulogium on Audubon, in which he gave an interesting account 

 of his life and labours as a naturalist. 



It was, he said, at the most beautiful season of the year, 

 when all the groves were echoing with melody issuing from 

 countless feathered throats, and the air was redolent with the 

 perfume of the flowers, that on the 4th of May, 1780, in the 

 then French province of Louisiana, on his father's plantation, 

 John James Audubon was born. A few years after his birth, 

 Mrs. Audubon accompanied her husband to San Domingo, and 

 there perished during the insurrection of the negroes. The elder 

 Audubon returned to France with his family, and the naturalist's 

 son was sent to school, but young Audubon spent his time in the 

 fields and woods collecting objects of natural history, and made 

 about 200 drawings of birds. Declining to enter the army of 

 General Napoleon, his father sent him to America to look after 

 some property called Mill Grove, which he had near Philadelphia. 

 Here he led an idle existence, and most of his time was occupied 

 in hunting and fishing and drawing. In a description of himself 

 written at this time he says : — " I had no vices, but was fond of 

 shooting, fishing, and riding, and had a passion for raising all 

 sorts of fowls, which source of interest and amusement occupied 

 all of the time." 



He would wander over little-known portions of the land, 

 intent only upon the discovery of some new feature or the capture 

 of some specimens already known but not yet added to his col- 

 lection. In after years, looking back upon this happy period of 

 his youth, he says, " Why could I not have kept to this delicious 

 mode of living?" 



One morning he entered the residence of his neighbour, 

 Mr. Wm. Bakewell. He was shown into the drawing-room, 

 where a young lady rose to welcome him. This was his intro- 

 duction to Miss Lucy Bakewell, his future wife, who proved to 

 be a most fitting mate to such a man as Audubon. 



s2 . 



