and Ormthological Biography, 3t^l 



country, and altliough I was the bearer of letters from Ameri- 

 can friends, and Statesmen of great eminence, my situation ap- 

 peared precarious in the extreme. I imagined that every indi- 

 '' vidual whom I was about to meet might be possessed of talents 

 '• superior to those of any on our side the Atlantic ! Indeed, as I 

 "for the first time walked on the streets of Liverpool, my heart 

 ^' nearly failed me, for not a glance of sympathy did 1 meet with 

 ' in my wanderings for two days. To the woods I could not be- 

 take myself, for there were none near. But how soon did all 

 "* around me assume a different aspect ! How fresh is the recol- 

 "^' lection of the change ! The very first letter which I tendered 

 *^' ' procured me a world of friends. My drawings were publicly 

 ^ exhibited, and publicly praised. Joy swelled my heart: the 

 *^ first difficulty was surmounted. Honours which, on application 

 ^' being made through my friends, Philadelphia had refused to 

 *^' grant, Liverpool freely accorded." , ('« 



'' It is unnecessary to follow Mr Audubon in his progi-ess 

 through England. Suffice it to say, that, in Edinburgh, he 

 commenced the publication of his " Birds of America,"^ After 

 • a few plates had been presented to the world difficulties occur- 

 ' red. The engraver, Mr W. H. Lizars, expressed his satisfac- 

 tion at being relieved of the work, which was transferred to Mr 

 t' R. Havell jun., a London artist, who has continued the en- 

 gravings. The work commenced in 1827, and already the first 

 volume, consisting of 100 plates, is completed. It will be fol- 

 ^^^ lowed by at least three of equal size. 



''' ' * In estimating the merits of a book, it may in some few cases 

 '' 'fte necessary to employ the carpenter'^s rule. Without mea- 

 suring with as much accuracy as Mr Audubon would em- 

 ploy in transferring to his paper the claw of a Humming 

 bird, or the nasal plumelet of a Regulus, we find the pages 

 of his work to be three feet three inches in length, and two 

 feet two inches in breadth. This gigantic volume, in a battle 

 of the books, would doubtless play its part to astonishment, 

 and, by mere weight, overthrow a whole battalion of the mul- 

 titudinous romances, novels, poems, and nondescript skirmish- 

 ers, with which the land is overrun. But in modem war- 

 fare, thanks to gunpowder and wit, a stripling may level a 

 giant, and a duodecimo may display better generalship than 



