Audubon's Wilderness Palette: The Birds of Canada is the first major Canadian exhibition of the work of artist and naturalist John James Audubon (1785-1851). At Fredericton's Beaverbrook Art Gallery (www.beaverbrookartgallery.org) until Jan. 15, 2000, the exhibition comprises 100 hand-coloured, life-sized plates from the famed four-volume "double elephant" folio edition of Birds of America (1827-1839), a set of 435 prints based on Audubon's watercolours and prepared over 12 painstaking years by the English engraver Robert Havell, Jr. Only 100 complete sets are still in existence; this one, from the Toronto Reference Library's collection, is one of five held in Canada. Highlighted are extinct species such as the Eskimo curlew and the Great Auk, as well as birds now considered threatened, endangered or vulnerable. "Audubon's approach to bird portraiture revolutionized the way we see nature," says David Lank, curator of the exhibition. "Besides being the first to place birds in their natural habitat and paint them life-size, he had an extraordinary artistic ability and a scientific accuracy which pre-dates the invention of photography." The exhibition's next stop will be the Winnipeg Art Gallery (Feb. 13 to April 2). FIGURE