John James Audubon

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John James Audubon image
ISBN-10:

1406823651

ISBN-13:

9781406823653

Author(s): John, Burroughs
Released: Jan 01, 2007
Publisher: Echo Library
Format: Print on Demand (Paperback), 60 pages

Description:

The pioneer in American ornithology was Alexander Wilson, a Scotch weaverand poet, who emigrated to this country in 1794, and began the publicationof his great work upon our birds in 1808. He figured and described threehundred and twenty species, fifty-six of them new to science. His deathoccurred in 1813, before the publication of his work had been completed.But the chief of American ornithologists was John James Audubon. Audubondid not begin where Wilson left off. He was also a pioneer, beginning hisstudies and drawings of the birds probably as early as Wilson did his, buthe planned larger and lived longer. He spent the greater part of his longlife in the pursuit of ornithology, and was of a more versatile, flexible,and artistic nature than was Wilson. He was collecting the material for hiswork at the same time that Wilson was collecting his, but he did not beginthe publication of it till fourteen years after Wilson's death. Both menwent directly to Nature and underwent incredible hardships in exploring thewoods and marshes in quest of their material. Audubon's rambles were muchwider, and extended over a much longer period of time. Wilson, too,contemplated a work upon our quadrupeds, but did not live to begin it.Audubon was blessed with good health, length of years, a devoted andself-sacrificing wife, and a buoyant, sanguine, and elastic disposition. Hehad the heavenly gift of enthusiasm--a passionate love for the work he setout to do. He was a natural hunter, roamer, woodsman; as unworldly as achild, and as simple and transparent. We have had better trained and morescientific ornithologists since his day, but none with his abandon andpoetic fervour in the study of our birds.Both men were famous pedestrians and often walked hundreds of miles at astretch. They were natural explorers and voyagers. They loved Nature atfirst hand, and not merely as she appears in books and pictures. They bothkept extensive journals of their wanderings and observations. Several ofAudubon's (recording his European experiences) seem to have been lost ordestroyed, but what remain make up the greater part of two large volumesrecently edited by his grand-daughter, Maria R. Audubon.I wish here to express my gratitude both to Miss Audubon, and to Messrs.Charles Scribner's Sons, for permitting me to draw freely from the "Lifeand Journals" just mentioned. The temptation is strong to let Audubon'sgraphic and glowing descriptions of American scenery, and of his tirelesswanderings, speak for themselves.It is from these volumes, and from the life by his widow, published in1868, that I have gathered the material for this brief biography.Audubon'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 timeof his marriage at the age of twenty-eight; his business career whichfollowed, lasting ten or more years, and consisting mainly in getting ridof the fortune his father had left him; and his career as an ornithologistwhich, though attended with great hardships and privations, brought himmuch happiness and, long before the end, substantial pecuniary rewards.His ornithological tastes and studies really formed the main current of hislife from his teens onward. During his business ventures in Kentucky andelsewhere this current came to the surface more and more, absorbed more andmore of his time and energies, and carried him further and further from theconditions of a successful business career.J. B.WEST PARK, NEW YORK, January, 1902.

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