JOHN JAMES AUDUBON

_John Burroughs_




TO C. B.




PREFACE.


The pioneer in American ornithology was Alexander Wilson, a Scotch weaver
and poet, who emigrated to this country in 1794, and began the publication
of his great work upon our birds in 1808. He figured and described three
hundred and twenty species, fifty-six of them new to science. His death
occurred in 1813, 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 off. He was also a pioneer, beginning his
studies and drawings of the birds probably as early as Wilson 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, flexible,
and artistic nature than was Wilson. He was collecting the material for his
work at the same time that Wilson was collecting his, but he did not begin
the publication of it till fourteen years after Wilson's death. Both men
went directly to Nature and underwent incredible hardships in exploring the