130 Rhoads, Note on the 'Birds of America.' [\^ln 



and Mamma join me in those wishes and I remain for ever Your 

 affectionate Friend & Father — 



John J Audubon. 



Tell our Friend Children that I shall soon make a Shipment of 

 Insects to him. 



MORE LIGHT ON AUDUBON'S FOLIO 'BIRDS OF 

 AMERICA.' 



\ 



BY SAMUEL N. RHOADS. 



The following transcript of a clipping, which, from the character 

 of what is printed on the reverse side, appears to have been cut 

 from a New York City newspaper of January, 1838, I recently 

 found laid within the leaves of an old book. It confirms my 

 belief, long entertained, that the estimates placed by bibliographers 

 and historians on the number of published copies of the first 

 (Elephant Folio) edition of Audubon's 'Birds of America' were 

 much too small. 



Mr. Ruthven Deane, whose researches in Auduboniana cover a 

 long period, writes me that "it was believed from creditable 

 information that the number of copies published was seventy-five," 

 and that "the Audubon family [descendants] believe that was 

 about the number." 



My experience in the old-book business during the last fourteen 

 years, in which time I have examined or personally known of the 

 sales of forty or fifty copies of this folio fedition in America alone, 

 was sufficient reason for placing the probable number of copies 

 issued at considerably above one hundred. In the past twenty 

 years it is probable that one New England print-dealer has broken 

 up thirty or forty volumes of this magnificent work, selling the 

 plates separately for framing and other illustrative purposes. 

 The newspaper clipping is as follows : 



