QotD: "But hopes are Shy Birds flying at a great distance seldom reached by the best of Guns"

Today is John James Audubon's birthday (#228 for those counting).

The Biodiversity Heritage Library blog has a much better post on JJA and his work, so I'll just leave you with this quote from the birthday boy:

"A true conservationist is a man who knows that the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children. As I grew up I was fervently desirous of becoming acquainted with Nature. But hopes are Shy Birds flying at a great distance seldom reached by the best of Guns." -- John James Audubon (his Journal, 1820)

The picture on the left (top) is a copy of Birds of America held by the fabulous library of the California Academy of Sciences (San Francisco).

Below (left) is a life mask of JJA from the library of the Academy of Natural Sciences (Philadelphia)