50 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [NOV. 9, 
‘“My success in Edinburgh borders on the miraculous. I am 
féted, feasted, elected honorary member of societies, making 
money by my ‘exhibition and my paintings. It is Mr. Audubon 
here, and Mr. Audubon there, and I can only hope that Mr. Au- 
dubon will not be made a conceited fool at last.” 
He continued to wear his hair long and flowing on his shoul- 
ders, which made him very conspicuous wherever he went; and 
once a stranger suggested to him to paint an Osage Indian 
hunting wild turkey s, as likely to prove an attraction. On 
which he comments: “ No doubt it would, for whatever is most 
strange is most taking now. But so long as my hair floats over 
my shoulders I shall probably attract attention enough, and if 
it hung to my heels it would attract more.” 
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and comment- 
ing on it in a letter to his wife, he says: ‘So, poor Audubon, if 
not rich, thou wilt be honored at least and held in esteem 
among men.’ 
He now issued his Prospectus for the Birds of America, ar- 
ranged his affairs, and under the importunities of his friends, cut 
off his hair which he had so long worn in ringlets, and started 
for London. Here he worked very hard and painted many pic- 
tures, a number of which, by the help of Sir Thomas Lawrence, 
he was able to dispose of at various prices from £10 to £30. 
Without the sale of them he was, as he says, bankrupt when his 
work was scarcely begun, and all his hopes blasted, for he had 
actually to borrow five pounds to purchase materials for his 
pictures. When he had completed one of these, he would go 
out in the evening and visit the shops of the Jews and others, 
and take any price he could get for it. In this way he sold a 
large number, and when in after years he sought to find these 
pictures he was unable to trace a single one. 
Up to this time there was no text to his book, the plates alone 
having been issued without any accompanying explanation. He 
now commenced to prepare the Ornithological Biography, which 
eventually filled five volumes. He felt himself unfitted for this 
literary work, and applied to Mr. James Wilson of Edinburgh 
to recommend some one who, to use his own words, “ would 
undertake to correct my ungrammatical manuscript, and assist 
me in arranging the more scientific part of the Biography of 
Birds,” and was referred to Mr. William McGillivray. No bet- 
ter or more fortunate choice could have been made, and what- 
ever scientific value there is in Audubon’s biography is derived 
largely from McGillivray’s codperation. Audubon worked in- 
cessantly at this book, McGillivray keeping abreast of him, and 
Mrs. Audubon re- wrote the entire manuscript to send to 
America and secure the copyright there. 
