JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 123 

 and learned institutions. The Lenox 

 Library in New York owns three sets. 

 The Astor Library owns one set. I 

 have examined this work there ; there 

 are four volumes in a set ; they are 

 elephant folio size more than three 

 feet long, and two or more feet wide. 

 They are the heaviest books I ever 

 handled. It takes two men to carry one 

 volume to the large racks which hold 

 them for the purpose of examination. 

 The birds, of which there are a thousand 

 and fifty-five specimens in four hundred 

 and thirty-five plates, are all life size, 

 even the great eagles, and appear to be 

 unfaded. This work, which cost the 

 original subscribers one thousand dol- 

 lars, now brings four thousand dollars 

 at private sale. 



Of the edition with reduced figures 

 and with the bird biographies, many 

 more were sold, and all considerable 

 public libraries in this country possess 

 the work. It consists of seven imperial 



