Audubon's Ornithological Biography. 185 



of Sciences, Paris, on the engravings of the Birds of America, 

 says : — " On peut caracteriser l'ouvrage de M. Audubon en 

 peu de mots, en disant que c'est le monument le plus magni- 

 fique qui ait encore ete eleve a l'ornithologie," &c. u We 

 may characterise this work of M. Audubon's in a few words: 

 it is the most magnificent monument that has yet been 

 raised to ornithology. It is in the twofold quality of an artist 

 and a naturalist that he has produced the work, which has 

 been examined by the academy. You have been struck with 

 the size of the engravings, which are equal, or superior, to 

 any that have been published of this kind ; and which have 

 allowed him to represent large species of birds, like the eagle 

 and the tetrao, of the natural size ; and to depict the smaller 

 species in a variety of attitudes. He has also been able to 

 give, in the same plates, the branches of plants on which the 

 birds commonly are perched, of their natural size, with the 

 nests and eggs. The execution of these plates, so remarkable 

 for their size, appears to us to be equally successful with 

 respect to the design, the engraving, and the colouring. ,, 



The publication of a work so large and costly might well 

 be regarded, at first, by Mr. Audubon, as a " hazardous and 

 expensive undertaking;." but we are happy to find that it has 

 received a liberal and extensive patronage in Great Britain 

 and on the Continent of Europe # , as well as in the United 

 States of America [VII. 173.]. It is, however, to the two 

 volumes of Ornithological Biography that the present review 

 refers ; and, before we proceed, we think it right to correct a 

 mistake which, we believe, has been common respecting this 

 work : it has been regarded, by those who have not seen it, 

 as merely containing illustrations of the splendid engravings 

 of the birds of America. It is true, the descriptions are valu- 

 able accompaniments to the engravings, and are numbered 

 the same as the plates ; but, excepting this, the Ornithological 

 Biography is entirely an independent work: as much so as 

 White's Natural History qfSelborne, and, like it, is replete with 

 original observations of the habits and instincts of birds and 

 other objects of natural history ; but comprising a far more 

 extended range of country, and a greater variety of animals, 

 than could fall under the notice of Mr. White, in Woolmar 

 Forest, or the vicinity of Selborne. 



* As a proof of the encouragement given to natural history in France, 

 it deserves to be stated that King Charles X., before his expulsion, had 

 subscribed for ten copies of the engravings of the Birds of America: the 

 present government of that country informed Mr. Audubon that the sub- 

 scription would be regularly continued and paid until the work was com- 

 pleted. 



