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Page:Bird-lore Vol 03.djvu/28

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Elliott Coues on Audubon
13

see two plates, one by John Woodhouse and one by Victor, while Audubon was to insert into them a cut -bird figure and then send it to the engraver to be printed. John Woodhouse Audubon attained a measure of skill in the drawing of birds. There happens to be in this portfolio two or three pictures by John Woodhouse Audubon, showing the degree of skill to which he attained.

"Having spoken to you in some little length of the portfolio and its contents, I am led next to remark upon the numerous biographies of Audubon which have thus far appeared, bringing me to what might be called the subdivision of my title of which I understand I am scheduled to speak, more of matters of present interest.

"Members of the Union and their friends who were present in Cambridge last year will recollect my laying before them a large quantity of manuscript of John James Audubon and a fully implied promise that the material was about to be utilized in the course of a year. I am happy to inform you the promise has been carried out. Miss Audubon has in press now a biography of her illustrious grandfather more full and, I am sure, more accurate than any other heretofore appearing, with the addition of the journals of Audubon, some of which I have shown you, and the further reprinting of the series of American Life and Manners. The three volumes of the three journals that are now being reprinted in full and the proof of which I have read are the European Journal of 1826, the Labrador Journal of 1833, and the Missouri River Journal of 1843. I think the European Journal will be found most generally interesting.

"From the journals I am led to speak of other Audubonian matters, prominent among which is the extraordinary growth of Audubon societies throughout the country, whose humane object is the preservation of our birds. They are springing up everywhere, and I consider them one of the most remarkable growths of the humanitarian side of ornithology that has ever been witnessed in the history of science."