174 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



they have done), and refuse to take the few numbers that would 

 have rendered their copies complete, my wish to do all that was 

 in my power has been accomplished. 



Doubtless we should hesitate to blame many of Audu- 

 bon's subscribers for wishing to be relieved from an 

 obligation which for a period of ten years had cost them 

 from $50 to $100 per annum, not to speak of any who 

 had met financial disaster in the panic of that day, but 

 at this juncture he really had no choice. When his 

 eightieth Number, originally intended to be the last, ap- 

 peared in 1837, many important kinds of birds, includ- 

 ing ducks, swan, tern, and the Flamingo, as well as 

 grouse, warblers and woodpeckers, were still calling loud 

 for recognition. So generous of space had he been in the 

 earlier phase of his undertaking that twenty species were 

 each shown on two distinct plates, while in the end the 

 need of compression compelled him to introduce thirty- 

 five composite plates. 



Subscribers to The Birds of America at the begin- 

 ning had been permitted to take a part or the whole, and 

 many incomplete sets were circulated, upwards of 120, 

 as Audubon declared in 1839, having then discontinued 

 their subscriptions. Towards the end of his undertak- 

 ing, owing to the great expense and uncertainty in- 

 volved, he was disinclined to supply any but regular 

 subscribers, as shown by the following letter written 

 from London, May 25, 1838, to William A. Colman 

 of New York: 4 



. . . We find that six of the plates you want are not only 

 largest figs, but some of them extremely full and difficult to 

 colour, and he [Mr. Havell] says that our Printers and our 

 Colourers would not undertake to go throu them without charg- 



4 From MS. in the Public Library, New York. 



