John James Audubon

John James Audubon (1785 - 1851) was a naturalist and artist, born in Haiti, educated in France. He came to the U. S. in 1803 and eventually traveled throughout much of North America in search of new species of birds and animals. His lifelike illustrations were widely admired both in this country and abroad. His portfolio of bird prints, The Birds of America, was published in England between 1827 and 1838.

The Night Heron and the Owl, fearful of day, with hurried flight sought safety in the recesses of the deepest swamps; while the Gulls and Terns, ever cheerful, gamboled over the water, exulting in the prospect of Abundance. The Florida Keys, 1832.

 

As we advanced, the more slowly did we move, and the most profound silence was maintained, until suddenly coming almost in contact with a thick shrubbery of mangroves, we beheld, right before us, a multitude of Pelicans. A discharge of artillery seldom produced more effect; the dead, the dying, and the wounded, fell from the trees upon the water, while those unscathed flew screaming through the air in terror and dismay. Ibid.

 

The gradual knowledge of the forms and habits of the birds of our country impressed me with the idea that each part of a family must possess a certain degree of affinity, distinguishable at sight in any one of them. My Style of Drawing Birds

 

Look at them! See how they crush the chick within its shell, how they trample on every egg in their way with their huge and clumsy boots. Onward they go, and when they leave the isle, not an egg that they can find is left entire. The Eggers of Labrador, 1833.

 

I have always imagined that there is something very closely allied to the style of the great Van Dyck's coloring in the plumage of the beautiful Ivory-Billed Woodpecker. I see this in its dark glossy body and tail. I see it, too, in the large, well-defined white markings of its wings, neck and bill, relieved by the rich carmine of the pendent crest of the male and the brilliant yellow of the eye. Ornithological Biography, 1831-1839.

 

It would be difficult for me to say where I have not met with that hardy inhabitant of the forest, the Pileated Woodpecker. Even now, when several species of our birds are becoming rare, either to gratify the palate of the epicure or to adorn the cabinet of the naturalist; it is to be found everywhere in the wild woods, although scarce and shy in the peopled districts. Ibid.

 

I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country. He is a bird of bad moral character; he does not get his living honestly . . . Ibid.

 

Doubtless you will say, while looking at the figures of Parakeets I painted for the Birds of America, that I did not spare my labor. I never do, so anxious am I to promote your pleasure. Ibid.

 

The Wood Thrush is my greatest favorite of our feathered tribes. Ibid.