Under a Wild Sky (59 page)

129
   
At Louisville, they stopped
Ibid.

129
   
It was November of 1811
Ibid.

129
   
“I can scarcely believe”
Ibid.

130
   
Audubon stayed just long enough
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 84.

130
   
It was on this ride
Audubon, “A Wild Horse,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. III, pages 270–74.

130
   
Nolte remembered their introduction differently
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 85. Ford, clearly, preferred Nolte's version of events, which he recorded in his memoirs. Whichever account is correct, Vincent Nolte was to eventually play a pivotal role in Audubon's life.

130
   
But when Audubon reached Henderson
DeLatte,
Lucy Audubon
, page 68.

131
   
For some reason he went by boat
Audubon, “A Wild Horse,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. III, pages 270–74.

131
   
In April, the Audubons learned
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 86.

131
   
In a moment of rare candor
Dallett, “Citizen Audubon: A Documentary Discovery,”
Princeton University Library Chronicle
, vol. XXI, nos. 1 and 2 (Autumn 1959 and Winter 1960): 89–93. Audubon's naturalization in 1812 was actually a finalization of an application begun six years earlier, following his return from a visit to France. Audubon had accurately stated his birthplace in that first declaration back in 1806.

10. KENTUCKY HOME

132
   
Back down the Ohio
Audubon, “The Ohio,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. I, pages 29–32.

133
   
After a couple of days, Audubon opened the trunk
Audubon,
Ornithological Biography
, vol. I, pages xiii–xiv.

134
   
He'd begun to set his birds
Blaugrund and Stebbins (eds.),
John James Audubon
, pages 9–10.

134
   
Tom Bakewell had arrived
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 88. Alice Ford reports that when Bakewell walked in on him, Audubon was busy with a watercolor depicting an otter with its foot caught in a trap. The original was lost, but Audubon repainted the gruesome scene many times in oil while he was in England.

134
   
In November, Lucy gave birth
Ibid.

134
   
Audubon, determined at last
DeLatte,
Lucy Audubon
, page 71.

134
   
Audubon bought several adjacent lots
Ibid., page 74.

134
   
The state of Kentucky named the town
Towles,
Henderson
, page 54.

134
   
Audubon found domestic goods
DeLatte,
Lucy Audubon
, page 74.

134
   
Early in 1814, Audubon and Tom Bakewell opened a second store
Ibid., page 75.

135
   
Audubon tried his hand at
Ibid., page 74.

135
   
In a six-year period
Ibid.

135
   
They evidently acquired
Ibid., page 76.

135
   
She sent for her pianoforte
Ibid.

135
   
Fencing wasn't a popular diversion
Ford,
John James Audubon
, page 96.

135
   
Another time, the whole town
Herrick,
Audubon the Naturalist
, vol. I, page 253.

135
   
One of Henderson's leading lights
DeLatte,
Lucy Audubon
, page 83. There's some conjecture here, but I think DeLatte makes a persuasive case that Lucy's status was defined by Audubon's wealth and physical courage, which made him quite a heroic figure in the community. Audubon could be rough and coarse, but on the frontier these attributes were to his advantage, and he was looked up to in the small town. Lucy's well-appointed house, her friendship with the Rankins, and her husband's appealing blend of artistic sensitivity and pioneer derring-do undoubtedly distanced Lucy from many neighbors not nearly so well off or well-married.

135
   
When Audubon found a very young turkey
Audubon, “The Wild Turkey,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. I, pages 1–17.

136
   
Audubon was not fond of swan meat
Audubon, “Trumpeter Swan,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. IV, pages 536–42.

136
   
Knowing the huge white bird
Ibid.

136
   
When Audubon lived in Kentucky
Personal communication, Nate Rice, Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, April 17, 2002.

136
   
But the brown-headed cowbird
Ibid.

136
   
There were no house sparrows
Ibid. See also the species accounts in Sibley,
The Sibley Guide to Birds
, and also in Bull and Farrand,
The Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Birds, Eastern Region
.

136
   
Audubon never saw a
Ibid.

137
   
He sees advancing from afar
Audubon, “The Green-Winged Teal,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. III, pages 219–25.

138
   
Once, while watching mallards
Audubon, “The Mallard,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. III, page 164–72.

139
   
Audubon liked to stand on the bank
Audubon, “The American Woodcock,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. III, pages 474–82.

139
   
One of his favorite pursuits
Audubon, “Fishing in the Ohio,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. III, pages 122–27.

140
   
The form in all the varieties
Ibid.

141
   
Audubon was especially interested in
Audubon, “A Flood,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. I, pages 155–59.

141
   
One day as Audubon walked along
Audubon, “The Eccentric Naturalist,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. I, pages 455–60.

143
   
If you picture to yourself
Ibid.

145
   
Rafinesque eventually became a professor
Kastner,
A Species of Eternity
, pages 246–48. Upperclassmen advised younger students not to miss Rafinesque's humorous and wildly entertaining lecture on ants, in which he attributed to the insects many traits of human society.

11. LEGIONS OF THE AIR

146
   
The cedar bird—now called the cedar waxwing
Audubon, “The Cedar Bird,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. I, pages 227–31.

146
   
Audubon thought goldfinches and purple finches
Audubon, “The American Goldfinch,”
Ornithological Biography,
vol. I, pages 172–76.

147
   
Everything about the great horned owl
Audubon, “The Great Horned Owl,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. I, pages 313–18.

147
   
He discovered that he could get quite close
Ibid.

147
   
He thought it ironic that
Audubon, “The Night-Hawk,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. II, pages 273–78.

148
   
American white pelicans were numerous
Audubon, “American White Pelican,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. IV, pages 88–102.

150
   
The last time anyone saw a Carolina parakeet
Sibley,
The Sibley Guide to Birds
, page 14.

150
   
The passenger pigeon had disappeared
Ibid.

150
   
Bill white. Iris hazel
Audubon, “The Carolina Parrot,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. I, pages 135–40. Parrot or parakeet? Audubon and Wilson casually switched between both names for this parakeet, which was a member of the parrot family. I've elected to use the currently accepted term—parakeet—except where quoting from another source.

150
   
Carolina parakeets, he wrote
Ibid.

152
   
In the fall of 1813
Audubon, “The Passenger Pigeon,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. I, pages 319–27.

153
   
Some years after seeing
Ibid.

154
   
Once, near the Green River
Ibid.

155
   
Passenger pigeons in flight, high and untouchable
Ibid.

156
   
On a chilly winter day in 1814
Audubon, “The Bird of Washington,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. I, pages 58–65.

157
   
It happened again near the Green River
Ibid.

158
   
Then, while walking from Henderson
Ibid.

158
   
Audubon saw this eagle
Ibid., and Corning (ed.),
Journal of John James Audubon, 1820–1821
, page 28.

159
   
That's about 50 percent larger
Sibley,
The Sibley Guide to Birds
, page 127. Sibley gives eighty inches for the wingspan of a bald eagle, a weight of 9½ pounds, and a length of thirty-one inches.

159
   
Not even the California condor
Ibid., page 106.

159
   
“All circumstances duly considered”
Audubon, “The Bird of Washington,”
Ornithological Biography
, vol. I, pages 58–65.

159
   
On closer examination
Ord to Charles Waterton, April 23, 1832. American Philosophical Society. George Ord, always foremost among Audubon's detractors, was obsessed with trying to discredit Audubon's account of the Bird of Washington. This ten-page letter, in Ord's minute, precise handwriting, offers perhaps his most detailed analysis, containing extensive tables, measurements, and extrapolations intended to show that the bird simply could not have been as big as Audubon claimed it was. Ord never gave up. Three years later, he was still corresponding with Waterton on the subject. In a letter dated April 15, 1835 (American Philosophical Society), Ord informed Waterton that Titian Peale, the artist who had completed a number of drawings for later editions of the Wilson/Bonaparte
American Ornithology
, was certain the bird was an immature bald eagle.

160
   
Canada geese, for example
Personal observation and Sibley,
The Sibley Guide to Birds
, page 74. The size variability of the Canada goose is not typical of most bird species. Sibley notes that the species includes our “largest and nearly our smallest geese,” and he gives a weight range of 3½ pounds to over 9 pounds.

160
   
A comparison of the three images
Personal observation. To my knowledge, no one has ever bothered to measure Audubon's drawing of the Bird of Washington to see if it corresponds to his statements about its size, or for the purpose of comparing it to his drawings of the adult and juvenile bald eagle. I did exactly that on September 25, 2003, using three drawings that are part of the original double-elephant folio in the library of the James Ford Bell Museum of Natural History at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. Laying down sheets of clear acetate to protect the prints, I measured the birds with a yardstick laid directly atop the images. The results are, I believe, convincing evidence that Audubon's Bird of Washington really was as big as he claimed. Although Audubon was often untrustworthy in what he said or wrote, he never varied his basic drafting technique, in which matching grids on his mounting board and drawing paper were used to produce an image that was exactly life-size. And I can think of no reason why,
when making his drawing of this bird many years before it even occurred to him to publish a written description of it, he would have decided to scale up its dimensions. I think instead that Audubon unwittingly provided proof of what he later said about the enormity of the specimen. All of which leaves the major question unanswered. What kind of bird was it? Of the several ornithologists I asked about this, none could conceive that it was a distinct species of native eagle no longer in existence. Nate Rice, of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia (personal communication, June 16, 2003), told me it would be unlikely that such an animal existed without having been observed and reported by other naturalists working at the time, and that, lacking a specimen, no evaluation of Audubon's claim is possible. Rice did say that there are occasional sightings of a “melanistic” variant of a species of Pacific sea eagle that is larger than the bald eagle. Rice said a colleague had recently examined a specimen of a “giant black eagle” in Russia that turned out to be a melanistic sea eagle. However, Rice stressed that the species is only thinly distributed in Alaska and is rarely seen in the lower forty-eight states. Finding a doubly rare melanistic variant in the central United States would have thus been mind-bogglingly improbable.