9781422271728

JOHN JAMES AUDUBON

manage his farm; John James took charge of the farm at Mill Grove near what is now the town of Audubon, near Norristown, Pennsylvania, and effectively began his life as an American. He continued to study the wildlife around him, particularly the birds. He also began his technique of supporting dead birds on wires so that he could paint them in various postures. He married a neighbor’s

daughter, Lucy Bakewell, and had two sons and later a daughter. Although he does not seem to have had a good head for business, he saw himself as a great entrepreneur and merchant and embarked on a series of unsuccessful ventures. The inspiration for a work on birds may have been triggered by a chance meeting with Alexander Wilson. Wilson was a Scotsman who had traveled to America in

PLATE 5 Yellow-Billed Cuckoo Coccyzus americanus

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