Vol. XX"| Correspondence. ^37 



search 1 have been able to trace only three copies of it. One of these is 

 in the library of the Zoological Society of London, another in the posses- 

 sion of Professor Alfred Newton, the third (a very imperfect copy) in a 

 private library in Tarrytown, N. Y. The latter is the one that was twice 

 sold at auction in New York City, Nov. 23, 1896, and Feb. 23, 1897. 



In 1831 the first European edition of Wilson and Bonaparte's ' Air^erican 

 Ornithology ' was published in Edinburgh, without plates, forming four 

 volumes of Constable's 'Miscellany' and edited by Professor Jameson. 

 That the 'Illustrations' of Capt. Brown were originally intended to 

 accompany the text of the Constable ' Miscellany' edition is clearly shown 

 by contemporary notices. In a notice of Jameson's edition in the 'Edin- 

 burgh New Philosophical Journal' Qameson's), July-Sept., 1831, p. 409, 

 we read : "As a proof of the interest the work [Jameson's edition] is 

 exciting, we may add, that the plates of the original works are re-engrav- 

 ing and publishing. Three editions are now in progress, one in folio, 

 another in royal octavo, a third the size of the Edinburgh [Jameson's] 

 edition of Wilson and Bonaparte, and as stated in the advertisement, 

 intended to bind up with that work." In an advertisement dated April, 

 1831, issued with some copies of the first volume of Jameson's Wilson & 

 Bonaparte, as well as in a critical notice of the first part of Capt. Brown's 

 'Illustrations' which appeared in the 'London Literary Gazette' lor 

 October 8, 1831, the ' Illustrations' are spoken of as forming a companion 

 to the letter-press of Jameson's edition of Wilson & Bonaparte. From 

 the Constable advertisement we further learn that the first part of the 

 'Illustrations ' was published in April, 1831, and consisted of five plates r 

 price, medium folio, colored, 15 s. ; plain, 10 s. ; a few in elephant folio, 

 colored, one guinea. "To be completed in ten parts, each containing .... 

 five plates." The work finally exceeded by much the limits at first 

 assigned to it, the plates amounting to 124 at their completion in 1835, 

 when an engraved title-page was issued, which I transcribe from the 

 copy in the library of the Zoological Society: 



"Illustrations | of the | American Ornithology | of | Alexander Wilson 



I and I Charles Lucian Bonaparte | Prince of Musignano I With the addi- 

 tion of I Numerous recently discovered Species | and Representations of | 

 The Whole Sylva | of | North America. | By | Captain Thomas Brown. 



I FLS.MWS. MKS. MPS. | Late President of the Royal Physical Society. 



I &c. &c. &c. I Edinburgh. | Frazer •& Co. 54 North Bridge | William 

 Curry, Junr. & Co. Dublin | & Smith, Elder «& Co. 65 Cornhill | London. 



I MDCCCXXXV. I Designed & engraved by James Turvey." Folio. 



Collation : Engraved title-leaf, engraved dedication-leaf, pp. i-iii [Sys- 

 tematic Index], pll. col. I-CXXIV. Plate XCVI. is erroneously numbered 

 ^CVI. (rectified in the Index) and 68 of the plates have numbers gummed 

 on after printing (these also are properlj' allocated in the Index). 



The Tarrytown copy, which I have also had the privilege of seeing, 

 although very defective (lacking 37 plates, title-page, dedication and 

 index), is interesting inasmuch as it retains one of the original brown 



