side at the want of appreciation of character displayed by the
Emperor of Russia, and by royal personages generally, our well-meaning
friend walked away.

This familiar allusion to Audubon, for the first time, informed me of
the fact that, in the vicinity of my own home in Louisiana, had Audubon
and his family resided for years; and, as I became better acquainted
with his works, I could readily perceive that the rich and undulating
lands of the Felicianas, their primitive forests, their magnolia groves,
and ever-blooming gardens, suited well the taste and pursuits of the
naturalist; for the merry descendants of many of those immortalized
beauties that grace his book still, in congregated thousands, fill the
air with song and flight.

From few did Audubon attract attention; there was nothing in his seeming
wastefulness of time to command respect. The sportsmen with whom he was
surrounded seldom "sighted" their weapons on anything less than a lordly
buck, and as they saw nothing in Audubon but what appeared before their
eyes, they measured their own ambition with no little sarcasm against
one who "found game in the chickadee and humming-bird." But Audubon
lived in a world of his own; for weeks he slept in the forest, that he
might make himself acquainted with the habits of some, but for him
unknown, bird. For days, he hung like a spectre upon the margin of the
Dismal Swamp, until the flamingo, swan, and wild duck heeded not his
familiar presence. Placing a powerful telescope under the broad,
spreading tree, he drew the laborious and tiny birds, as they built
their nests, within his visual grasp, and counted each stick, and twig,
and moss, and hair, until the little fabric was complete. In time, he
returned to his charge, and, by the same artificial means, watched and
admired the growing family, saw the food that reared the young, admired
the tender endearments of the married birds, and recorded the whole with
the faithfulness of a Pepys, and with the pastoral sweetness of a
Collins or Shenstone.

"I remember, as if it were but yesterday, Audubon's first appearance in
New Orleans," said a now widely-distinguished gentleman to me; "and I
shall never forget," he continued, "his industry and enthusiasm, his
utter devotion to his favorite pursuit. In those days, many Indians
brought game to the city to sell, and Audubon soon had these wild sons
of the forest in his employ. Every farthing that the most
self-sacrificing econo