466 



Audubon, 



" It is where the great magnolia shoots up its majestic trunk, crowned 

 with evergreen leaves, and decorated with a thousand beautiful flowers, that 

 perfume the air around ; where the forests and fields are adorned with blos- 

 soms of every hue ; where the golden orange ornaments the gardens and 

 groves; where bignonias of various kinds interlace their climbing stems 

 around the white-flowered Stuartia, and mounting still higher, cover the 

 summits of the lofty trees around, accompanied with innumerable vines, that 

 here and there festoon the dense foliage of the magnificent woods, lending to 

 the vernal breeze a slight portion of the perfume of their clustered flowers ; 

 where a genial warmth seldom forsakes the atmosphere ; where berries and 

 fruits of all descriptions are met with at every step." 



This is the eloquent introduction to one of the most fascinating 

 descriptions of the bird himself, his courtship, his song, and the 

 thousand cares between the construction of the nest, and the 

 fledging of their young. 



We trust we have said enough to inspire those of our readers 

 who have not read this charming book, with a desire to acquire 

 it : and to it we refer them for the noble descriptions of the lar- 

 ger birds. The bird of Washington, the stately hawk, the black 

 warrior, (falco Harlani,) called after his tried friend. Dr. Harlan, 

 the wild turkey, and its other various contents. But besides these 

 attractions, it contains the most interesting narratives of his ad- 

 ventures, and local descriptions, judiciously interspersed through 

 the work, to the number of twenty. They are as follows: the Ohio, 

 the great pine swamp, the prairie, the regulators, improvements in the 

 navigation of the Mississippi, ajiood, Meadville, the cougar, the earth- 

 quake, the hurricane, Kentucky sports, the traveller and the pole-cat, 

 deer hunting, Niagara, hospitality in the woods, the original painter, 

 Lmisville in Kentucky, the eccentric naturalist, Scipio and the hear, 

 and Col. Boon. These narratives are many of them so powerful, 

 that we rise from the repeated reading of them, almost as fami- 

 liar with the subject, as if we had been the companions of Miv 

 Audubon in his romantic adventures. 



Audubon is now in Florida, leading the woodman's life he is 

 so partial to ; from thence he will either ascend the Mississippi, 

 or strike into the unfrequented wilds of Texas. It is his inten- 

 tion to penetrate, if possible, into California, to whose natural 

 history we are almost entire strangers. He is furnished with 

 all the protection the American and British governments could 

 afford him, having the most powerful recommendations to all 

 the posts on the distant frontiers. We shall continue, whenever 



