RECENT ACCESSIONS 



Audubon Pictures 



Since the Audubon-Bachman exhibit in March the Museum 

 has become the fortunate possessor of three beautiful pictures 

 by John James Audubon. One is a water-color painting signed 

 by Audubon and labeled in his own handwriting, "Arctomys 

 monax, Gmel. Maryland Marmot, Ground Hog, Woodchuck." 

 This is the original painting from which was Uthographed and 

 colored the plate of this name in the elephant folio edition of 

 Audubon and Bachman's Quadrupeds of North America. The 

 Museum is indebted to Mrs. Morris F. Tyler, a granddaughter 

 of Audubon, for this valuable and beautiful gift. Audubon's 

 paintings have long since found permanent resting places and it 

 is only through the interest and kindness of Mrs. Tyler that the 

 Museum has had the singular good fortune to obtain this treasure. 



The other pictures are superb plates from the first edition of 

 the elephant folio of Audubon's Birds of America, in which the 

 plates were engraved from the original water-color paintings by 

 copper-plate process and were colored by hand. One of these 

 plates is the Frigate Pelican, engraved by Havell in 1835 and 

 now presented to the Museum by Mr. Julian Mitchell. The 

 Frigate Pelican, now known as the Frigate Bird or Man-o'war 

 Bird, is a peculiarly appropriate gift since the only specimen of 

 this pelagic species known to have been taken on the South Car- 

 olina coast is now in the Museum. Only during the heaviest 

 gales does this species approach land in these latitudes. 



The second of the plates is the well-known one of the Golden 

 Eagle, engraved by Havell in 1833 and is the gift of Mr. and Mrs. 

 Henry S. Holmes who had previously presented to the Museum 

 three plates from the uncompleted lithograph edition of the Birds 

 of America. 



The Golden Eagle, while occasionally taken in the upper part 

 of South CaroHna, is as rare a species as the Frigate Bird in the 



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