498 
BIRD-LIFE. 
numbers of different water-birds, of which many species 
were new to me. The pleasure of such a sight made me 
extremely anxious to become possessed of specimens of 
these various birds. As long as the migratory season 
lasted, I was almost daily to be found in the marsh. 
Though the rain poured in torrents, and my boots became 
leaky, and even rotted from off my feet, I looked on these 
things as trifles compared with the pleasure I experienced 
in becoming acquainted with these birds and their habits. 
This sort of life, however, finished by giving me ague: 
I cured myself, though, with a plant ( Teucrium Scot - 
dium , L.), which I found in the swamp, and had a pair 
of fisherman’s boots made, after which I returned to the 
charge, wading to the little hillocks which lay above 
water; on these I built sheds and screens of sedge and 
reeds, under which I passed the moonlight nights, 
waiting for any rare Duck or other aquatic bird. This 
lasted for three successive summers,—in the years 1770, 
1771, and 1772.” 
Another naturalist earned his treasures of experience 
under almost insurmountable difficulties: I allude to 
Audubon. From his youth the pursuit of Nature and 
her ways seemed to be his especial pleasure. He was 
brought up as a merchant; and on the death of his father 
came into possession of his business and plantation in 
Pennsylvania. There he lived for several years in com¬ 
fortable circumstances; but the inward yearning for 
enquiry into the things of Nature left him no rest at 
home. He had already studied and painted the feathered 
denizens of his native woods, and now sought to become 
acquainted with all the remaining birds of North America. 
He had finished with the greatest of care two hundred 
drawings, before he made arrangements for starting on 
