124 JOHN JAMES AUDUBOX 



octavo volumes. Five hundred dollars is 

 the average price which this work brings. 

 This was a copy of the original English 

 publication, with the figures reduced and 

 lithographed. In this work, his sons, 

 John and Victor, greatly assisted him, 

 the former doing the reducing by the 

 aid of the camera-lucida, and the latter 

 attending to the printing and publishing. 

 The first volume of this work appeared 

 in 1840, and the last in 1844. 



Audubon experimented a long time 

 before he hit upon a satisfactory method 

 of drawing his birds. Early in his 

 studies he merely drew them in out- 

 line. Then he practised using threads 

 to raise the head, wing or tail of his 

 specimen. Under David he had learned 

 to draw the human figure from a mani- 

 kin. It now occurred to him to make 

 a manikin of a bird, using cork or wood, 

 or wires for the purpose. But his bird 

 manikin only excited the laughter and 

 ridicule of his friends. Then he con- 



