Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in an art history class. The professor has been discussing illustrated books.

旁白：请听一段艺术史讲座的节选。教授正在讨论插画书籍。

Professor: I want to take a look at one particular book to give you an idea about what was involved in publishing illustrated books in the 1800s.

教授：我想要给你们看一本特别的书，让你们对19世纪出版的插图书有一个大致的了解。

The book's called The Birds of America, and the illustrator was John James Audubon.

这本书叫做《美国鸟类》，插画家是约翰·詹姆斯·奥杜邦。

So… The Birds of America… four volumes which contained illustrations of nearly every bird in the United States, over 400 birds, all hand-colored, all painted life-sized, the larger birds printed on the largest printing paper available at that time.

《美国鸟类》一共有四卷，这本书里几乎囊括了美国所有鸟类的插图，超过400种鸟类，都是手绘的，都是真实鸟类大小的，较大的鸟就印在当时可用的最大印刷纸上。

This required a lot of dedication, and Audubon is best remembered as an incredibly meticulous, accurate artist, a very accomplished illustrator of the natural world.

这需要创作者尽心尽力地去创作，奥杜邦则被人们铭记为一位一丝不苟的，精确的艺术家，一位很有造诣的自然插画家。

And while there were other artists working on similar projects at the same time,

尽管当时还有别的艺术家也在为相似的话题作画，

Audubon's book remains the most well-known and successful of its kind.

但奥杜邦的书仍然是同类作品中最著名和最成功的。

But, uh, let's talk a bit about Audubon himself first.

但我们先来看看奥杜邦这个人。

First of all, Audubon was not a traditional painter.

首先，奥杜邦不是一个传统的画家。

And by this, I mean that he didn't work in oils.

这句话的意思是，他不是画油画的。

He preferred to use watercolor and pastel crayons, and he worked on paper instead of on canvas.

他更喜欢用水彩和蜡笔，他在纸上作画而不是在画布上。

The thing is, Audubon considered the illustrations in his book, not the original watercolors, to be the finished product.

问题是，奥杜邦认为他书里的插画，不是初期的水彩画，而是完成的作品。

His watercolors were merely preparatory studies, most of which were painted while he was observing birds in the wild.

他的水彩画仅仅是初稿，其中大部分是他在野外观察鸟类时候画的。

These watercolors were then sent to his printer, who created the final prints for the book.

这些水彩画随后被送到他的印刷商那里，印刷商为这本书制作了最后的印刷稿。

And Audubon was so concerned with accuracy that he often scribbled notes to the printer around the edges of these original watercolors.

奥杜邦太在意精确度了，以至于他经常在这些水彩画初稿边缘上潦草地写一些给印刷商的笔记。

In fact, you might question whether producing a work of art was even Audubon's goal.

事实上，你可能会质疑，奥杜邦的目标是否是制作艺术品。

Now, when I look at an Audubon illustration, I see a work of art.

当我在看奥杜邦的插画的时候，我看到的是一件艺术品。

But, it may make more sense to consider Audubon, first and foremost, as a naturalist, as a scientist.

但是，把奥杜邦首先看作一个博物学家，一个科学家可能更合理。

See, the early nineteenth century when Audubon was painting was a time of major scientific inquiry.

你们看，在奥杜邦创作画作的十九世纪早期是一个主要的科学探索时期。

And an essential way of spreading scientific knowledge was through those illustrated books.

并且传播科学知识的一种基本关键方式是通过那些插画书籍。

Student: So what did Audubon consider himself? An artist or a scientist?

学生：所以奥杜邦是怎么看待他自己的呢？艺术家还是科学家？

Professor: I'm not sure the distinction between the two was all that clear in the 1800s.

教授：我也不确定这两者在十九世纪的时候区别是否鲜明。

I think we can accurately state that… that the driving force in his art was getting the science right.

我认为我们可以比较准确地说……他艺术创作的驱动力是让科学依据准确。

And this was perhaps a point that critics of his artwork at the time just didn't appreciate.

这可能是那个时期的批评家们对于他的艺术作品所不认可的点。

Audubon also studied birds in ways that didn't directly inform his art.

奥杜邦研究鸟类的方式并没有直接影响到他的艺术。

Uh, you know what bird banding is, right?

啊，你们知道什么是鸟类环志（套圈），对吧？

A bird has a band attached to its foot so we can learn about things like migration patterns.

一只鸟的脚上有一个环，这样我们就能了解（它们）迁徙的模式。

Well, the first recorded instance of anyone doing that, it was Audubon.

第一次有记录的这种研究的例子就是，奥杜邦做的。

Another example, a common belief at the time was that vultures use their sense of smell to find food.

另一个例子是，当时人们普遍认为秃鹰用它们的嗅觉来寻找食物。

Audubon didn't believe that, so he tested it.

奥杜邦并不相信这个，所以，他试验了一下。

He put a large painting of a dead sheep in a field, and sure enough: vultures found it and started pecking at it.

他把一幅画着一只死羊的大油画放在一块地里，果然，秃鹫发现了它，并且开始啄它。

Now, Audubon's work was very accurate, and we know this because we can compare his illustrations to the birds around us.

奥杜邦的作品很准确，我们之所以知道这一点，是因为他画上的鸟和真鸟差不多。

But sometimes it's not possible to check.

但是有些时候是无法检验的。

There are actually several birds in his book that no one has ever seen.

事实上，在他的书中有几只鸟是没有人见过的。

These are sometimes called Audubon's "mystery birds", because even though he drew them, there is no evidence that they exist in the wild.

这些鸟被称为奥杜邦的神秘鸟儿，因为即使他画了这些鸟，也没有证据证明它们真的在野外存在。

For someone who's respected as a naturalist, isn't it strange to think that he drew some birds that don't appear to be real?

对于一个受人尊敬的博物学家，想想他画了一些看起来不像真的鸟不是很奇怪吗？

For example, there's an illustration that appears to be a type of warbler, a small bird.

例如，有一幅插图似乎是一种莺，一种小鸟。

It has a white ring around its eyes and white bars on its wings.

在它的眼睛周围有一圈白色的环，翅膀上有白色横线。

No one's ever seen a warbler like this,

没有人见过这种莺，

so some people wonder if Audubon maybe forgot certain details about this bird when he painted it,

所以有些人想知道奥杜邦是不是在画这只鸟的时候忘记了一些细节，

or that he copied another artist's work. But considering that Audubon was such a meticulous artist.

或者他抄袭了其他艺术家的作品。但是考虑到奥杜邦是一个如此一丝不苟的艺术家。

Well, there might be a better answer.

嗯，也许有更好的答案。

Hybridization is something that's well known in birds.

杂交在鸟类中很常见。

And it definitely explains a rather unique-looking duck Audubon painted.

这也解释了为什么奥杜邦画了一只看起来很独特的鸭子。

He himself suggested that maybe it wasn't an unknown species, but a hybrid, born from two different species.

他自己提出，也许这并不是一个未知的物种，而是两个不同物种的杂交后代。

Since then, this particular crossing of species has actually been recorded, both in the wild and in captivity.

自从那时候开始，这种特别的杂交物种就被记录了下来，不管是在野生鸟类中的还是在圈养鸟类中的。

So it turns out that Audubon was right, and this duck actually was a hybrid.

结果证明奥杜邦是对的，这只鸭子实际上是杂交的。