LIFE AT "MINNIE'S LAND" 209 



out having numbers of both works, by which the public can 

 judge of their merits? My idea, in regard to the latter, is 

 that you should carefully get up, in your best style, a volume 

 about the size of "Holbrook's Reptiles." This would enable 

 you to decide on the terms of the book, I think that two thou- 

 sand subscribers at $1.00 for each number, might be obtained. 

 But it must be no half-way affair. 



The animals have never been carefully described, and you 

 will find difficulties at every step. Books cannot aid you much. 

 Long journeys will have to be undertaken. Several species re- 

 main to be added and their habits ascertained. The drawings 

 you can easily make, if you can procure the specimens. I wish 

 I had you here, if only for two days. I think that I have 

 studied the subject more than you have. You will be bothered 

 with the Wolves and the Foxes, to begin with. I have two new 

 species of Bats and Shrews to add. The Western Deer are no 

 joke, and the ever varying Squirrels seem sent by Satan him- 

 self, to puzzle the Naturalists. 



It is evident from this letter that Audubon was then 

 intending to proceed with the work on the Quadrupeds 

 alone and that Bachman's active cooperation was se- 

 cured later. On September 15, shortly after his return 

 to America, he wrote to Thomas M. Brewer on this sub- 

 ject as follows: l 



Now that I am about to commence the publication of the 

 Quadrupeds of North America, I will expect your assistance in 

 the procuring for me of all such subjects as may easily be 

 obtained around you. John Bachman is about to give the 

 whole of his collections and his notes to me ; and as I intend 

 to open a pretty general correspondence in different parts of 

 the Union, I trust to be enabled to proceed roundly on this 

 fresh undertaking. 



*See Thomas M. Brewer (Bibl. No. 79), Harper's New Monthly 

 Magazine, vol. Ixi, p. 666 (1880). 



