Rare Birds

Oil paintings by Naturalist John James Audubon are as rare as ivory-billed woodpeckers. Perched on easels in the White House last week were ten of the rare species, a gift to the U.S. from Australian Refrigerator Manufacturer EJ.L. Hallstrom, who wanted to show his appreciation of U.S. help to Australia in World War II. The Hallstrom Audubons traveled to Australia years ago, when a great-grandson of the painter went Down Under to raise sheep. His heirs sold them to Hallstrom.

President Truman circled the exhibit, inspected five bird paintings, drew up short before a placid brown & white bull. He was never aware, said Harry Truman pleasantly, that Audubon ever painted such a beast.

He had a right to his mild surprise. As well-versed Audubon fans know, the painter devoted his later years to an ambitious series entitled Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. But Audubon did not include his brown & white bull in Quadrupeds. Other four-legged creatures among the Hallstrom pictures are weasels, snow rabbits, a stoat and a red fox.

One picture shows that though Audubon gave up his adventurous wanderings through the U.S. wilderness, settled on a peaceful Manhattan farm in 1842 with his long-suffering wife and children, even in captivity he kept the trigger-quick technique he used when he caught wild birds on the wing. Attached to the back of a meticulously detailed painting of a thoroughly domesticated rooster and his hens is a faded, handwritten note:

"These chickens were painted by John James Audubon in one morning before one o'clock lunch, as someone visiting told him he did not believe such rapid work could be done."

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