#including seriously fucking up some now extinct bird populations just to get a model

[rowanjasper]

Delirium

Watercolor, gouache, pencil, and ink on paper. 59.62"×40.12" 2004

The Eagle was immediately conveyed to my place of residence, covered by a blanket, to save him, in his adversity, from the gaze of the people. I placed the cage so as to afford me a good view of the captive, and I must acknowledge as i watched his eye, and observed his looks of proud disdain, I felt towards him not so generously as I ought to have done. At times I was half inclined to restore him to his freedom, that he might return to his native mountains; nay, I several times thought how pleasing it would be to see him spread out his broad wings and sail away towards the rocks of his wild haunts; but then, reader, some one seemed to whisper that I ought to take the portrait of the magnificent bird, and I abandoned the more generous design of setting him at liberty, for the express purpose of showing you his semblance.

I occupied myself a whole day in watching his movements; on the next I came to a determination as to the position in which I might best represent him; and on the third I thought of how I could take away his life with the least pain to him. I consulted several persons on the subject, and among other my most worthy and generous friend, George Parkman, Esq. M.D., who kindly visited my family every day. He spoke of suffocating him by means of charcoal, of killing him by electricity, &c. and we both concluded that the first method would probably be the easiest for ourselves, and the least painful to him. Accordingly the bird was removed in his prison into a very small room, and closely covered with blankets, into which was introduced a pan of lighted charcoal, when the windows and doors were fastened, and the blankets tucked in beneath the cage. I waited, expecting every moment to hear him fall down from his perch; but after listing for hours, I opened the door, raised the blankets, and peeped under them amidst a mass of suffocating fumes. There stood the Eagle on his perch, with his bright unflinching eye turned towards me, and as lively and vigorous as ever! Instantly re-closing every aperature, I resumed my station at the door, and towards midnight, not having heard the least noise, I again took a peep at my victim. He was still uninjured, althought the air of the closet was insupportable to my son and myself, and that of the adjoining apartment began to feel unpleasant. I perservered, however, for ten hours in all, when finding that the charcoal fumes would not produce the desired effect, I retired to rest wearied and disappointed.

Early the next morning I tried the charcoal anew, adding to it a quantity of sulphur, but we were nearly driven from the home in a few hours by the stifling vapors, while the noble bird continued to stand erect, and to look defiance at us whenever we approached his post of martyrdom. His fierce demeanour precluded all internal application, and at last I was compelled to resort to a method always used at the last expedient, and a most effectual one. I thrust a long pointed piece of steel through his heart, when my proud prisoner instantly fell dead, without even ruffling a feather.

I sat up nearly the whole of another night to outline him, and worked so constantly at the drawing, that it nearly cost me my life. I was suddenly seized with a spasmodic affection, that much alarmed my family, and completely prostrated me for some days; but, thanks to my heavenly Preserver, and the friends Drs Parkman, Shattuck, and Warren, I was soon restored to health, and enabled to pursue my labours. The drawing of this eagle took me fourteen days, and i had never before laboured so incessantly excepting at that of the Wild Turkey.

-John James Audubon, Ornithological Biography, E.L. Carey and A. Hart 1832

Walton Ford's Pancha Tantra published by Taschen

Delirium, Walton Ford, 2004