Audubon. 



465 



bodies into a hundred differeni positions, all studied from the parents, whilsfe 

 the latter are heard scolding, even without cause, but as if to prevent the ap- 

 proach of enemies, so anxious are they for the safety of their progeny." See 

 page 428. 



In some remarks on Audubon's works, contained in the Edin- 

 burgh New Philosophical Journal, for April 1831, it is said : 



" It is not enough to say, that our author has invented a new style in the 

 representation of natural objects ; for so true are his pictures, that he who 

 has once seen and examined them, can never again look with pleasure on 

 the finest productions of other artists. To paint like Audubon, will henceforth 

 mean, to represent Nature as she is. The birds are represented such as Na- 

 ture created them, of their full dimensions, glowing in all the beauty of their 

 unsullied plumage, and presenting the forms, attitudes, and motions peculiar 

 to the species. In no case do they appear before us in the stiff and formal 

 attitudes in which we find them in other works, perched upon an unmeaning 

 stump or stone. On the contrary, they are seen in all imaginable positions, 

 pursuing their usual avocations. The fore- shortenings and varieties of atti- 

 tude which induce painters generally to present side views only, seem to 

 have been accounted as nothing out of the ordinary course of drawing ; with 

 so much delicacy, grace, and vigour, have the most difficult positions been 

 managed. A peculiar charm is given to these representations, by the cir- 

 cumstances that the trees, plants, and flowers of the districts in which they 

 occur, are all represented, generally with surprising accuracy, and always 

 with great taste. The flowing festoons of climbing shrubs and creepers, 

 hung with broad leaves, garlands of flowers, and clustered berries, the lichen- 

 crusted branches of the forest trees, and the decayed stumps on which the 

 woodpeckers seek their food, are in themselves objects of admiration." 



This is just praise, and many are the British periodicals in 

 which we find language of this kind. The same may be said 

 with great truth, of his biographical descriptions : in them he 

 does not appear as the dry, systematic naturalist, the manufac- 

 turer of the barbarous Latin jargon, after the manner of the old 

 school, but as the delightful historian of those birds, of which he 

 is the unrivalled painter. In his descriptions, we find the per- 

 suasive power of a mind, which has not been moulded in the 

 conventional forms of society, but taught by its own unrestrained 

 experience, acquired in nature's most retired solitudes, where 

 she was sought, and wooed, and won. For proofs of this, we 

 refer our readers to page 372, where the wood-thrush is de- 

 scribed with a train of eloquent thought, that does him honour 

 as a man and a writer. But we think that it is in his account 

 of the mocking-bird, at page 108, that the power and happy 

 gracefulness of his language are most conspicuous. 



Vol. L— 59 ' * 



