![]() ![]() The living birds, as if conscious of the death of their companions, sweep over their bodies, screaming as loud as ever, but still return to the stack to be shot at, until so few remain alive, that the farmer does not consider it worth his while to spend more of his ammunition. The gun is kept at work eight or ten, or even twenty, are killed at every discharge. All the survivors rise, shriek, fly round about for a few minutes, and again alight on the very place of most imminent danger. So far from this, the Parakeets are destroyed in great numbers, for whilst busily engaged in plucking off the fruits or tearing the grain from the stacks, the husbandman approaches them with perfect ease, and commits great slaughter among them. Watch video highlights of the Fall 2019 openings hereįrom Ornithological Biography, or, An Account of the Habits of the Birds of the United States of America, by John James Audubon, 1831–49. The Beinecke Library’s page openings of The Birds of America in 2019-2020 feature birds that were plentiful during Audubon’s life but that became extinct or were rendered “critically endangered” by the turn of the twentieth century. Audubon’s work offers opportunities to consider those changes and their lasting consequences. As a result, the American landscape Audubon encountered when he emigrated from France as a young man in 1803 was profoundly different by the time of his death in 1851. ![]() Forests were cleared for agriculture and industry creatures considered pests were ruthlessly destroyed while those considered easy food sources were relentlessly hunted. The lands and lifeforms on the continent experienced dramatic change during the nineteenth century. In his Ornithological Biography, Audubon describes in detail the beauty of old-growth forests, rocky coasts, dense swamps and other American settings he also documents the abundance of individual bird species-in the case of the Passenger Pigeon he describes flocks so enormous that they completely blocked out the light of the sun when they passed overhead. He visited and collected specimens from diverse ecosystems in the East, South, and Midwest, recording bird species and the trees, flowers, insects, and other animals that made up their habitats. For more than a decade, Audubon traveled North America by horse, carriage, steamship, and on foot. John James Audubon’s artworks and writings celebrate what today we commonly refer to as biodiversity, the rich and varied forms of life found in a given landscape.
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