LONG-BILLED CURLEW... CITY OF CHARLESTON (PLATE CCXXXI)

Numenius americanus JW 36 fine, fresh impression sheet 25 5/8 by 38 in.; 650 by 965 mm. Based on a composition painted in late October, 1831. Audubon and his assistant, George Lehman, were warmly received in Charleston, S.C. and invited by the Reverend John Bachman to stay in his home, from which place Audubon made many important excursions. One such outing to the "Bird Banks" south of Charleston, where great flocks of long-billed curlews were seen, ended with a sumptious picnic, with Audubon as the chef. They ate "fish, fowl and oysters" procured on the spot, "some steaks of beef, and a sufficiency of good beverage." Salt had been forgotten, Audubon wrote: "I soon proved to my merry companions that hunters can find a good substitute in their powder flasks. Our salt... was gunpowder, as it has been with me many a time; and to our keen appetites, the steaks thus salted were quite as savoury as any... cooked at home." See color illustration on Plate XV.