PREFACE. The pioneer in American ornithology was Alexander Wilson,
a Hcotch weaver and poet, who emigrated to this country in 1794,
and began the publication of his great work upon our bir in 1808.
He jigured and described three hundred and twenty species, Jfty-six
of them new to sciace. His death occurred i r 1 . 813, before the
publication of his work had been completed. But the chief of
American ornithologists was John James Audubon. Audubon did not
begin where Wilson left ofi He was also a pioneer, beginning his
studies and drawings of the birds probably as early as Wilsola did
his, but he planned larger and lived longer. He spent the greater
part of his long life in the pursuit of ornithology, and was of a
more versatile, jlexible, and artistic nature than was Wilson. He
was collecting the material for his work at the same time thut
Wilson was collecting his, but he did not begin the publication of
it till d fourteen years after Wilson7s death. Both mm went
directly to Nature and undenoent inkedible harhhips C exploring the
woods and marshes in quest of their mterial. l Audubon7s rambles
were much wider, and extended over a much longer period of time.
WiEson, too, contentplated a work upon our quadrupeds, hut did not
live to begin 9. Audubon was blessed with good hedth, length of
years, a devotecl an self-smjicing wife, and a buoyant, sanguine,
and elastic disposition. He had the heavenly gift of enthusiasm - a
passionate love for the work he set out to do. He was a natural
hunter, roamer, woodsman as unworldly as a child, and as abple and
transparent. We have had better trained and more scientijic
ornithologists since his day, but none with his abandon and poetic
fervour in thestudy of our birds. Both n m were famous pedestrians
and often walked hundreds of miles at a stretch. They were natural
eqlorers and voyagers. They loved Nature at rst hand, and not
merely as she appears in books andpictures. They both kept
extensive journals of their wanderings and observations. 8everal of
Audu60n7s recording his ropean experiences seem to have been lost
or destroyed, but what remain make up the greater part of two large
volumes recently edited by his grand-daughter, Maria R. Audubon. I
h here to express my gratitude both to Miss Audubon, and to Messrs.
Charles 8cribner7s Boons, for permitting me to draw freely from the
ye and Journals just mentioned. The temptation is strong to let
Audubon7s graphic and glowing descriptions of American scenery, and
of his tireless wanderings, speak f or themselves. It is from these
volumes, and from the life by h widow, published in 1868, that I
have gathered the material for this brief biography. Audubon7 s
life naturally divides itself into three periods his youth, which
was on the whole a gay and happy one, and which lasted till the
time of his marriage at the age of twenty-eight his business career
which fozbwed lasting ten or more years, and consisting mainly C
getting rid of the f ortune his father had left him and his career
as an ornithologist which, though attended with great harcEships
and privations, brought him much happiness and long before the end,
substantial pecuniary rewards. His ornithological tastes and
studies really formed the main current of his life from his teens
onward...
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