For all of the birds that John James Audubon shot and killed, he never harvested them for marketing purposes. All of the birds Audubon killed and collected were for identification, study, drawing, or consumption. The latter was especially important since the diet of Audubon and practically every other Anglo-European in North America depended heavily on the livestock they could keep and the animals they could hunt. But at least on one occasion Audubon noted the benefits of eating fruits and vegetables. Audubon must have been in a very hungry state before he decided to take his chances on swallowing a Muscadine grape and not contract “bilious fever.” On the contrary, Audubon discovered, “For my part, I can well say, that the more I have eaten of them the better I have found myself; and for this reason seldom lost an opportunity of refreshing my palate with some of them in my rambles.”
Once partial to Wild Muscadine grapes, Audubon would have had no trouble finding more. “You may see vines of this species fifteen inches in diameter near the roots, either entwined round the trunk of a large tree, and by this means reaching the top branches and extending over them and those of another tree, or, as if by magic, swing in the air, from roots attached at once to some of the uppermost branches.” For Birds of America, Audubon placed the Summer Red Bird among the fruit, leaves, and tendrils of the Wild Muscadine as drawn by his assistant, Joseph Mason. The Summer Red Bird is known today as the Summer tanager.