“Oh, it is soon told,” said Uncle Thomas; “but I hope the moral you will long remember. From his earliest years, Mr. Audubon has been an enthusiastic student of Nature. His whole time has been devoted to it, and years spent in traversing the woods and prairies of his native country, studying the habits and manners of Birds. His rambles, he tells us, speaking of these wanderings, invariably commenced at break of day; and to return wet with dew and bearing a feathered prize was the highest enjoyment of his life. After a long time spent in these enquiries, an accident which happened to two hundred of the drawings which he had made of the various Birds which he found, nearly put a stop to his researches in ornithology. ‘I shall relate it,’ he says, ‘merely to show how far enthusiasm—for by no other name can I call the persevering zeal with which I laboured—may enable the observer of Nature to surmount the most disheartening obstacles.’ I left the village where I had resided for several years, to proceed to Philadelphia on business. I looked to all my drawings before my departure, placed them carefully in a wooden box, and gave them in charge to a relative, with injunctions to see that no injury should happen to them. My absence was for several months, and when I returned, after having enjoyed the pleasures of home for a few days, I inquired after my box, and what I was pleased to call my treasure. The box was produced and opened; but, reader, feel for me: a pair of Norway Rats had taken possession of the whole, and had reared a young family amongst the gnawed bits of paper which, but a few months before, represented nearly a thousand inhabitants of the air! The burning heat which instantly rushed through my brain was too great to be endured, without affecting the whole of my nervous system. I slept not for several nights, and the days passed like days of oblivion, until the animal powers being recalled into action through the strength of my constitution, I took up my gun, my note-book, and my pencil, and went forth to the woods as gaily as if nothing had happened. I felt pleased that I might now make much better drawings than before, and ere less than three years had elapsed, I had my portfolio filled again.” CHAPTER III. UNCLE THOMAS TELLS SEVERAL INTERESTING TALES ABOUT THE FEROCITY AND TENACITY OF LIFE IN THE VULTURE, AND ABOUT THE GREEDINESS WITH WHICH IT DEVOURS ITS PREY.