The Audubon Reader (72 page)

The kind opinion which you evince towards the worth of my second volume [of the
Ornithological Biography
] is a treasure to me, because I believe every word you say. I have some hopes that the one now being printed will please you still more so … As to the rage of Mr. Waterton or the lucubrations of Mr. Neal, who by the bye is a
subscriber to the
Birds of America
(bona fide) I really care not a fig. All such stuffs will soon evaporate being mere smoke from a dunghill …

John is making rapid progress in portrait
painting. He works now for money and has abundance to do here—on an average, five setters a day, which keeps him at the easel for eight hours. He is in fact more industrious than I used to think he ever would be; had I been as much so at his age, I might have become a great man, but I had no one to point out the way to me. I left my father too early or too late and unfortunately had too much money at my command in those days. I am now trying hard to make
amend honorable
by laboring from morn to night everyday, for this being
Sunday I devote altogether to writing to my correspondents & friends, and as you see, pretty long epistles too! Victor paints fine landscapes and works hard also! My old friend knits socks for us all; indeed, my dear friend, we are a working family.

If I can live to complete my work, I shall leave my sons in a good way, having the hope that when all is settled, each will have a very fair amount to go on with. Our expenses are considerably less here than they were in London, we see very little company here at mealtimes, which in London is quite a misfortune to those without thousands of guineas. Our sons spend many of their evenings at
Professor Wilson’s, who has a delightful family, learned & amiable as well as accomplished …

You say nothing respecting money matters. Have you not received my letters on this subject? Is the business [of old claims against Audubon from Henderson days] settled? Do let me know. We have no new
subscribers in Europe; nay, I do not expect to have many more, but expect to procure some when I go to America, which I expect will be in the course of the next summer, in time to see you all before I push for the Sabine River along the Mexican Gulf. John will go with me. Lucy & Victor will remain to attend to the work. I should have liked to have sailed next April, but I am desirous to prepare the letterpress of the 4th volume as much as possible in case of accident happening to me. I also wish to write something personal of myself, which I think necessary to do before I depart …

This lovely bird is found in all parts of the United States, where it is generally a permanent resident. It adds to the delight imparted by spring and enlivens the dull days of winter. Full of innocent vivacity, warbling its ever-pleasing notes and familiar as any bird can be in its natural freedom, it is one of the most agreeable of our feathered favorites. The pure azure of its mantle and the beautiful glow of its breast render it conspicuous as it flits through the orchards and gardens, crosses the fields or meadows or hops along by the roadside. Recollecting the little box made for it as it sits on the roof of the house, the barn or the fence stake, it returns to it even during the winter, and its visits are always welcomed by those who know it best.

When March returns the male commences his courtship, manifesting as much tenderness and affection towards his chosen one as the dove itself. Martins and House Wrens! be prepared to encounter his anger or keep at a respectful distance. Even the wily cat he will torment with querulous chirpings whenever he sees her in the path from which he wishes to pick up an insect for his mate.

The Bluebird breeds in the Floridas as early as January and pairs at Charleston in that month, in Pennsylvania about the middle of April and in the State of Maine in June. It forms its
nest in the box made expressly for the purpose or in any convenient hole or cavity it can find, often taking possession of those abandoned by the Woodpecker. The
eggs are from four to six, of a pale blue color. Two and often three broods are raised in the year. While the female sits on the second set of eggs the male takes charge of the first brood and so on to the end.

The
food of this species consists of coleoptera, caterpillars, spiders and insects of various kinds, in procuring which it frequently alights against the bark of trees. They are also fond of ripe fruits such as figs, persimmons and grapes, and during the autumnal months they pounce on grasshoppers from the tops of the great mullein, so frequent in the old fields. They are extremely fond of newly ploughed land on which, especially during winter and early spring, they are often seen in search of the insects turned out of their burrows by the plough.

The song of the Bluebird is a soft agreeable warble, often repeated during the love-season when it seldom sings without a gentle quivering of the wings. When the period of
migration arrives its
voice consists merely of a tender and plaintive note, perhaps denoting the reluctance with which it contemplates the approach of winter. In November most of the individuals that have resided during the summer in the Northern and Middle Districts are seen high in the air moving southward along with their families or alighting to seek for food and enjoy repose. But many are seen in winter whenever a few days of fine weather occur, so fond are they of their old haunts and so easily can birds possessing powers of flight like theirs move from one place to another. Their return takes place early in February or March when they appear in parties of eight or ten of both sexes. When they alight at this season the joyous carols of the males are heard from the tops of the early-blooming sassafras and maple.

During winter they are extremely abundant in all the Southern states and more especially in the Floridas, where I found hundreds of them on all the plantations that I visited. The species becomes rare in Maine, still more so in Nova Scotia and in Newfoundland and Labrador none were seen by our exploring party.

My excellent and learned friend Dr. Richard Harlan of Philadelphia told me that one day while in the neighborhood of that city, sitting in the piazza of a friend’s house, he observed that a pair of Bluebirds had taken possession of a hole cut out expressly for them in the end of the cornice above him. They had young and were very solicitous for their safety, insomuch that it was no uncommon thing to see the male especially fly at a person who happened to pass by. A hen with her brood in the yard came within a few yards of the piazza. The wrath of the Bluebird rose to such a pitch that notwithstanding its great disparity of strength it flew at the hen with violence and continued to assail her until she was at length actually forced to retreat and seek refuge under a distant shrub, when the little fellow returned exultingly to his nest and there caroled his victory with great animation. At times, however, matters take a very different course, and you may recollect the combats of a Purple Martin and a Bluebird of which I gave you an account in my first volume.

This species has often reminded me of the Robin Redbreast of Europe, to which it bears a considerable resemblance in form and habits. Like the Bluebird the Redbreast has large eyes, in which the power of its passions are at times seen to be expressed. Like it also he alights on the lower branches of a tree where, standing in the same position, he peeps sidewise at the objects beneath and around until, spying a grub or an insect, he launches lightly towards it, picks it up and gazes around intent on discovering more, then takes a few hops with a downward inclination of the body, stops, erects himself and should not another insect be near, returns to the branch and tunes his throat anew. Perhaps it may have been on account of having observed something of this similarity of habits that the first settlers in Massachusetts named our bird the Blue Robin, a name which it still retains in that state.

Were I now engaged in forming an arrangement of the birds of our country, I might conceive it proper to assign the Bluebird a place among the Thrushes.

[The Bluebird,
Sialia sialis
, appears in Plate 113 of
The Birds of America
.]

Charleston, South Carolina

22 January 1836

My dear old friend:

As the ship
Thomas Bennett
sails for London tomorrow, I embrace this favorable opportunity of adding my mite to what the ladies are saying in their letters. I presume they have given you all the chitchat of the town and have left nothing but what is stale for me to say. I will therefore leave family matters to them and address you on other subjects.

You have heard no doubt of the
war which your particular favorites, the redskins, are waging in Florida. If you were here just now I would challenge you to another dispute about
William Penn, etc., but it is indeed a serious and melancholy affair. All the plantations from St. Augustine up the St. John’s River are ruined, houses burnt, Negroes carried off and cattle killed and many of the inhabitants murdered. There are no white inhabitants, I think, left to the south of that on the east Florida coast but those on
Indian Key and Key West. Our army too has in several encounters, from our great inferiority of force, been beaten and the soldiers scalped. General Hernandez still holds out manfully at his plantation. I fear, however, that he and his little band may have fallen by this time. Troops are now flocking in from all quarters and in a month the tables will be turned, but alas, it will be too late. East Florida is in great measure ruined.

I yesterday received a letter from [Nicholas] Berthoud together with your last plates, which have arrived but they are yet at Kimhardt’s. Before I forget it, let me ask you why your second volume was never republished in America. None of your subscribers have received it and the Columbia College make bitter complaints about it and have not paid your bill. Still there would be money enough in my hands to pay your [law]suit if I were not too lazy to collect it. You will, however, be soon here yourself and tell us all about it.

I have tried to collect the opinions of the most intelligent about
you and your work in America and I am prepared to state that both stand as fair as it is possible. We have, I think, said enough here about [Charles] Waterton in
The
Northern Intelligencer
and all our reviews, it is time to spare the toad else he might fancy himself a bullfrog. Please do not speak of, or trouble yourself about, him … In truth these attacks have only pushed you on higher, pushed up your metal and made you work harder. I hope you may live to complete your work and review it too and where any error may have crept in, correct them. This, by the bye, is the noblest part of the man’s character. Your work then completed will be standard for all future time to come and your book will be triumphantly referred to as authority when all the fooleries that your enemies have written against it will be forgotten. There is at this day nothing like it in the world. When I look across at your best English works on natural history, I look in vain for an account of habits. No wonder that the community will not study natural history when the books on the subject contain nothing but hard names and dissertations by the hour on the peculiar structure of a bill or toe and no more. I long for a sight of your third volume …

Nell, the pointer, sends her respects to you. She is just saying so whilst she is looking in my face, I understand her, she is a lady. Alas, I have scarcely had time to take a gun in my hand—but she is first-rate.

Maria [Martin], good girl, has sent you a few drawings of shells as evidence of what she will send you in a few weeks. She is my right hand still—paints for me, keeps butterflies and even toads and snakes if I should wish them, makes caps for the girls and breeches for the boys and works for everybody but herself. May she be rewarded with a good husband and may you and I crack a joke at her wedding. All our loves to our friend, Mrs. A. and the boys …

London, England

22 January 1836

My worthy friend,

The first Number of the last volume of
The
Birds of America
is now under the graver, and my friend
Robert Havell tells me that unless
I
keep him back, the enormous work will be finished and complete in 22
months
from this date!! How delicious is the idea and how comfortable should I feel at this moment were I able fully to say to Havell
you shall not be detained a moment!
But there are drawbacks in all undertakings, and in mine especially, numerous ones. Nay, I have still to cross the broad Atlantic twice at least, and go and ransack the wildest portions of our Southern country …

I have shipped per packet
The England
, three hundred copies of the third volume of my text, in six boxes each containing fifty copies, and have directed Mr. Berthoud of New York to send one case of these volumes to your care, and I now beg of you to have them sold, not given away! Here that volume has been soundly reviewed and is spoken of as far better than the formers, and I am proud of this inasmuch as the habits of our water birds was not understood by the great Wilson!

The fire at New York has destroyed the whole of our library, our bedding, sheets, implements of drawing, &c., &c., &c., and our guns, so that I am obliged to have guns at least made anew. The riots at Baltimore were also much against us, and there we have lost many a number unpaid and undelivered of
The Birds of America
. Here, we thank God go on well, and are prospering, although just now we pay 200£ rent for the house we are in. Number 58 is finished and will be forwarded to America next week. Number 59 up to plate 295 is already engraved, so that, in two months from this date, I shall have at least exceeded Wilson in numeric species. You will read of the reviews here, and therefore I must remain mum on that subject …

I am happy to hear that no war is to take place between us and
the French, at all events to the full impression here and in Paris. John and myself proposed to be with you all sometime next summer when I expect you will be ready to go along with us to the
Sabine River, &c.…