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Article: Birds on a wire; John James Audubon.(Biographies of John James Audubon, bird artist extraordinaire)(Book Review)
- Article from:
- The Economist (US)
- Article date:
- August 7, 2004
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 Economist Newspaper Ltd. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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A whopping great whooping crane
COUNTLESS journals have told of the beauty and danger of early America's wilderness. Far fewer have included attempts to sketch it. Thank goodness, then, for the perseverance of John James Audubon, the bastard son of a French naval officer, who came alone to America as a teenager in 1803.
Audubon's genius was for drawing birds. But in the days before cameras, first he had to kill them. After marvelling at the grace of, say, a white pelican gliding after a school of fish, he would take aim with his hunting rifle, using fine shot so that the bird was not blown to pieces in the process. He then fixed wires to prop up his ...