THE OSPREY. 



31 



Letters. 



RECENT SALES OF AUDUBON'S WORKS. 



The question has been asked, "What is the 

 current price at which Audubon's great work 

 on the Birds of America, and his Ornithological 

 Biography can be purchased or sold for?" 



The answer must be, in the first place, it de- 

 pends very much on the condition of the copy. 

 A slight defect, such as a stain on a plate even, 

 will detract materially from its value in the 

 eyes of those who generally buy books of such 

 magnitude To go extensively into the ques- 

 tion would call for more time and space than we 

 can spare. We give, however, some point- that 

 will interest our correspondent and other persons 

 who delight in Auduboniana. These points re- 

 late to the prices of three works: — 



1. The Birds of America, published from 1827 

 t" 1839 in 4 volumes, elephant folio, with 435 

 plates. 



2. Ornithological Biography, -which is really 

 the text to the preeeeding, published from 1831 

 to 1839, in 5 volumes, 8vo. 



3. The Birds of America, first octavo edition, 

 published from 1840 to 1*44 in 7 volumes, .it 

 New York. 



The original elephant folio edition, it is said, 

 has brought as much as $2,500. We have not 

 been able to confirm this statement from the 

 data at hand and by no means vouch for it. 

 The most recent record for the United States 

 at present available is of a copy with the 

 435 plates, and including' the Ornithological 

 Biography, that sold for $1,250, (Bangs, Feb. 6, 

 1896). A copy was sold in ls>i2 at London (by 

 Sotheran) for £345 (about SI, 725). 



A partial collection of the plates (259) was sold 

 at the sale of Dr. Hewetson's library for £30 

 ($150) to Quaritch. 



The Ornithological Biography may sometimes 

 be bought for considerably less than §>20although 

 copies in good condition generally command 

 more. Two were sold in 1899 for $18.75 and 

 $17.50 respectively. One in the original cloth 

 binding was sold (1896) for $26.50. In England 

 fine copies bound in calf realized as much as 

 £6 to £W; at the Aylesford sale (1888) £10. 



On the other baud, a copy was sold at the 

 Pollard sale ("5 vols., uncut") to Quaritch as 

 lo.v as £1; at the Hewetson sale in 1899 one 

 brought £3 ($15). 



The first issue of the 8vo. edition brings gen- 

 erally between 200 and 250 dollars or somewhere 

 near those figures at auction. At the last sale 

 recorded (Bangs, Jan. 15, 1900,) a copy realized 



only $176.75 but had the "text somewhat 

 spotted." Another was sold at the Cox sale, 

 (Bangs. April, 1899) for $241,50. One at the Ives 

 sale (1891) sold as high as $252. At other -ales, 

 copies were knocked down forSlso 1x07 . ~po.; n 

 (1895), and £40 or $200 (1890). 



On this occasion we cannot go into further 

 detail or give information about the other edi- 

 tions. Editors. 



BROWN'S EDITION OF WILSON'S AND BONA- 

 PARTE'S AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 



Another question asked is. where can a copy 

 of Brown's reproduction of Alexander Wilson's 

 and Bonaparte's American Ornithology be 

 found'.' 



It is added that no copy can be found by the 

 inquirer, but one is reported to have been' sold 

 at auction some years ago in New York. All 

 libraries consulted, including the British Muse- 

 um, reported thai no copies are owned by them. 



The work referred to is entitled "Illustrations 

 of the American Ornithology of Alexander 

 Wilson and Charles Lucien Bonaparte, with the 

 addition of numerous recently discovered species 

 and representations of tht- whole Sylva of North 

 America. Edinburgh and London. 1835." 



We take the title from the Catalogue of the 

 Library of the Zoological Society of London. 

 Agassiz and Strickland, in their Bibiographia 

 Zoologias et Geologiae, give a somewhat different 

 one — after Bonaparte substituting "With all the 

 new discoveries and the addition of the whole 

 Forest Sylva." It is also dated 1835. Finally, 

 the same work is catalogued in Engelmann's 

 Bibliotheca Historico-Naturalis 1846) as "Illus- 

 trations of Wilson's American Ornithology. 

 No. 1. 5 plates in fol. Edinburg 1831. — 5j- 

 colour. 1£ Is." 



Does this mean that the work was issued in 

 numbers with varying titles? Again, does this 

 mean that there are two issues with different 

 title pages or simply that in one case a descrip- 

 tion has been substituted for the words of the 

 title? 



As just indicated, there is a copy of the work- 

 in question in the Library of the Zoological 

 Society of London. We know of no other. The 

 work must be very rare. It is not entered in 

 Sabin's Dictionary of Books relating to America. 



We shall be glad to receive further informa- 

 tion from any person and publish in connection 

 with more that we have in hand in a future 

 number. EDITORS. 



Notes. 



ABUNDANCE OF QUAIL OK BOBWHITE. 



Sportsmen are looking forward to the general 

 opening of the Quail season November 1 with 

 interest more animated than for several years 

 past, for the reason that reports from all secti' uis 

 favored by the renowned game birds are to the 

 effect that the covers are unusually well supplied. 



The effects of the memorable blizzard were 

 very disastrous so far as Quails were concerned, 

 as well as otherwise, and it was at first believed 

 that it would require years for them to become 

 plentiful again. Last spring a year ago hun- 

 dreds of pairs of Quails were secured in the west 

 and brought to the storm swept east in order to 

 increase and multiply. Very few couples, how- 



