John James Audubon was an artist, naturalist, and ornithologist, best known for The Birds of America. His work combined close observation of North American birds with large-scale, dramatic illustration.
John James Audubon
Audubon and His Journals
Maria Audubon. 2 Vols. J.C. Nimmo, 1898.
The artist and author of Birds of America was on a visit to Europe to sell his pictures, but felt 'unhappy and dull' in London and pined for home.
On 22nd January 1828, after a bad night's sleep at his lodgings in Great Russell Street, he 'dressed and walked off in the dark to Regent's Park, led there because there are some objects in the shape of trees, the grass is green, and from time to time the sweet notes of a Blackbird strike my ear and revive my poor heart...As daylight came a flock of Starlings swept over my head, and I watched their motions on the green turf where they had alighted'
Two days earlier he had visited the park and 'saw a large flock of Wild Ducks passing over me; after a few minutes a second flock passed over me…Two flocks of Wild Ducks, of upwards of twenty each! Wonderful indeed!' On 2nd February he visited the Zoo. On 6th May.
I walked early round the Regent's Park, and there purchased four beautiful little Redpolls from a sailor, put them in my pocket, and, when arrived at home, having examined them to satisfy myself of their identity with the one found in our country, I gave them all liberty to go. What pleasure they must have felt rising, and going off over London; and I felt pleasure too, to know they had the freedom I so earnestly desired