Audubon’s darker side

JOHN James Audubon is best remembered for his monumental The Birds of America, but there is far more to him than that: this book uses published and unpublished writings to raise our awareness of his life and works. He was a complex man. He called himself a naturalist and lover of nature but infamously killed thousands of birds. This book has amazing, fascinating descriptive material, particularly from the coasts of America, and much perceptive insight into the lives of birds. Yet you cannot get past the constant slaughter – he condemns destroying innumerable seabirds and their eggs (and collecting “eight tons” of Sooty Tern eggs), then goes ashore, with two sailors loading his guns, to enjoy an hour shooting Puffins. He shoots all seabirds for amusement, wanders ashore killing young eagles, Ospreys and kinglets as he goes …

In Florida there was carnage wherever he came across colonies or roosts of herons, flamingos, cormorants, frigatebirds, pelicans, waders, skimmers … anything and everything (dolphins and alligators too) afforded excellent sport, often ‘as many as I wished to shoot’, sometimes he and the crew creating piles of dead birds as big as a haystack. The book does also show his prowess as an artist and observer, with some interesting puzzles (Great Black-backed Gulls fade in summer to become paler above than a herring gull? A Great Shearwater with a yellow bill?!). I’ve always wondered why his Common and Arctic Terns seem to have swapped wings. But look at the famous Brown Pelican – a superbly beautiful painting. I’d rather remember him for that. Rob Hume