John James Audubon has always been a favorite with the writer, for the
invincibleness of his love of Nature and of birds is only equalled by
the spontaneous freshness of his style, springing from an affectionate
and joyous nature. Recently there was found by accident, in an old
calf-skin bound volume, an autobiography of the naturalist. It is
entitled "Audubon's Story of his Youth," and would make a very pretty
book. As introductory to the diaries and ornithological biographies of
the birds, it would be very useful.
Two or three incidents in the life of this fascinating character are
interesting as showing the influence of the accidental in ultimate
achievement.
"One incident," he says, "which is as perfect in my memory as if it had
occurred this very day, I have thought thousands of times since, and
will now put on paper as one of the curious things which perhaps did
lead me in after times to love birds, and to finally study them with
pleasure infinite. My mother had several beautiful parrots, and some
monkeys; one of the latter was a full-grown male of a very large
species. One morning, while the servants were engaged in arranging
the room I was in, 'Pretty Polly' asking for her breakfast as usual,
'_Du pain au lait pour le perroquet Mignonne_,' (bread and milk for
the parrot Mignonne,) the man of the woods probably thought the bird
presuming upon his rights in the scale of nature; be this as it may, he
certainly showed his supremacy in strength over the denizen of the air,
for, walking deliberately and uprightly toward the poor bird, he at once
killed it, with unnatural composure. The sensations of my infant heart
at this cruel sight were agony to me. I prayed the servant to beat the
monkey, but he, who for some reason, preferred the monkey to the parrot,
refused. I uttered long and piercing cries, my mother rushed into the
room; I was tranquilized; the monkey was forever afterward chained, and
Mignonne buried with all the pomp of a cherished lost one. This made, as
I have said, a very deep impression on my youthful mind."
In consequence of the long absences of his father, who was an admiral in
the French navy, the young naturalist's education was neglected, his
mother suffering him to do much as he pleased, and it was not to be
wondered at, as he says, that instead of applying closely to his
studies, he preferred associating with boys of his own age and
disposition, who were more fond of going in search of bird's nests,
fishing, or shooting, than of better studies. Thus almost every day,
instead of going to school, he usually made for the fields where he
spent the day, returning with his little basket filled with what he
called curiosities, such as birds' nests, birds' eggs, curious lichens,
flowers of all sorts, and even pebbles gathered along the shore of some
rivulet. Nevertheless, he did study drawing and music, for which he had
some talent. His subsequent study of drawing under the celebrated David,
richly equipped him for a work which he did not know was ever to be his,
and enabled him to commence a series of drawings of birds of France,
which he continued until he had upwards of two hundred completed. "All
bad enough," he says, "yet they were representations of birds, and I
felt pleased with them." Before sailing for France, he had begun a
series of drawings of the birds of America, and had also begun a study
of their habits. His efforts were commended by one of his friends, who
assured him the time might come when he should be a great American
naturalist, which had such weight with him that he felt a certain degree
of pride in the words, even then, when he was about eighteen years of
age.
"The store at Louisville went on prosperously, when I attended to it;
but birds were birds then as now, and my thoughts were ever and anon
turning toward them as the objects of my greatest delight. I shot, I
drew, I looked on nature only; my days were happy beyond human
conception, and beyond this I really cared not." [How like Agassiz, who
said he had not time to make money.] As he could not bear to give the
attention required by his business, his business abandoned him. "Indeed,
I never thought of business beyond the ever-engaging journeys which I
was in the habit of taking to Philadelphia or New York, to purchase
goods; those journeys I greatly enjoyed, as they afforded me ample means
to study birds and their habits as I traveled through the beautiful, the
darling forests of Ohio, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania." Poor fellow, how
many ups and downs he had! He lost everything and became burdened with
debt. But he did not despair for had he not a talent for drawing? He at
once undertook to take portraits of the human head divine in black
chalk, and thanks to his master, David, succeeded admirably. He
established a large drawing school at Cincinnati, and formed an
engagement to stuff birds for the museum there at a large salary.
"One of the most extraordinary things among all these adverse
circumstances" he adds, "was, that I never for a day give up listening
to the songs of our birds, or watching their peculiar habits, or
delineating them in the best way I could; nay, during my deepest
troubles, I frequently would wrench myself from the persons around me
and retire to some secluded part of our noble forests; and many a time,
at the sound of the wood-thrushes' melodies, have I fallen on my knees
and there prayed earnestly to our God. This never failed to bring me
the most valuable of thoughts, and always comfort, and it was often
necessary for me to exert my will and compel myself to return to my
fellow-beings."
Do you not fancy that Audubon was himself a _rara avis_ and worthy of
admiration and study?
Such a man, in the language of a contemporary, should have a monument in
the old Creole country in which he was born, and whose birds inspired
his childish visions. It should be the most beautiful work possible to
the sculptor's art, portraying Audubon in the garb he wore when he was
proud and happy to be called the "American Woodman," and at his feet
should stand the Eagle which he named the "Bird of Washington," and near
should perch the Mocking Bird, as once, in his description, it flew and
fluttered and sang to the mind's eye and ear from the pages of the old
reading book.