Historically, specimen hunters were frequently obsessives. There were so many obstacles that they needed to be but in a profession which attracts obsessives, one man was more obsessive than most. The museum houses the most important natural history library in the world. It has over a million books, but there is one that stands out. It was the ambitious creation of John James Audubon, the illegitimate son of a French sea captain and servant girl. The magnificence of this work by Audubon is, in fact is the scale. In 1820, with no formal training, Audubon embarked on a 20-year-mission. He wanted to observe and paint every species of bird in North America, each one of them life-sized.


纵观历史，"标本猎人"通常偏执顽强。因为探索路上，遍布艰难险阻，在这个偏执狂众多的领域中，有一个人鹤立鸡群。自然博物馆拥有世界上最重要的自然历史图书馆，拥有一百多万册图书，但这一卷尤为突出，约翰·詹姆斯·奥杜邦的伟大著作。他是一位法国船长和女仆的私生子，奥杜邦著作的伟大之处在于其宏伟的规模。1820年，未接受过正规培训的奥杜邦，开始了一项长达二十年的使命。他想观察并绘画下北美地区所有鸟类，并且采取1:1比例描绘。