26 A LOVE OF SCIENCE.

and French it is said well, though his writings are
alleged by critics to want the idiomatic precision
of a native. In 1777 he went to Paris, where the
rich collections of birds, and the writings and con-
versation of naturalists, at first attracted and then
disappointed him. He was delighted with the
varied wealth of collections from all quarters of
the world which were opened to his inspection.
But, accustomed to pry into the habits and eco-
nomy of the living bird, the mere cataloguing and
classifying of skins and skeletons soon became
repulsive to him; and the inaccuracies of mere
closet speculators nourished a perhaps overweening
estimate of his own more living knowledge. This
feeling, his sportsman’s habits, the pleasant recol-
lections of his boyhood in the forests of Guiana, all
contributed to make him dwell with pleasure on
the project of ransacking some yet unexplored
regions of the earth, in order to search for their
feathered inhabitants. With this object he quitted
Paris, unknown to his friends, in July 1780. Like
Audubon, he exclaims—“ Neither the ties of love
nor friendship (and he was now a married man)
were able to shake my purpose. I communicated my
projects to none, but, inexorable and blind to every
obstacle, yielded to the passion that impelled me.”

He accordingly repaired to Amsterdam, where
he formed an intimate accuaintance with the celo-