358 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



University did much to make his work known, and in- 

 vited him to cooperate in an enterprise upon which he 

 was then engaged ; 8 this was pronounced by Dr. Knox 

 of the Medical School to be a "job book," but whatever 

 its merits may have been, Audubon decided after due 

 reflection to stand on his own feet. 



Not long after reaching the Scottish capital, Audu- 

 bon made the acquaintance of Mr. W. Home Lizars, 

 styled "a Mr. Lizard" by a snapshot biographer of a 

 later day, a well known, expert engraver and painter, 

 who engaged in various publishing enterprises. When 

 Audubon had held up a few of his drawings for his 

 inspection, Lizars rose, exclaiming: "My God! I never 

 saw anything like this before." The picture of the 

 Mockingbirds attacked by a rattlesnake particularly 

 struck his fancy, but when he came to the drawing of 

 the Great-footed Hawks, "with bloody rags at their 

 beaks' ends, and cruel delight in their daring eyes," 

 Lizars declared that he would both engrave and publish 

 it. "Mr. Audubon," said he, "the people here don't 

 know who you are at all, but depend upon it, they shall 

 know." Lizars eventually agreed to engrave and bring 

 out the first specimen number of The Birds of America, 

 and about the 10th of November made a beginning with 

 the first plate. On November 28, 1826, he handed Au- 

 dubon a first proof of the Wild Turkey Cock, a subject 

 chosen to justify the great size of the work, which was 

 to be in double elephant folio, and which in point of 

 size is perhaps to this day the largest extended publica^ 

 tion in existence. 9 This and the second plate, which 

 represented the Yellow-billed Cuckoo 10 in the act of 



8 See Note, Vol. I, p. 375. 



'The plates as issued, untrimmed, measured 39% by 29% inches; see 

 Bibliography, No. 1. 



10 See Note, Vol. II, p. 197. Incidentally it may be noticed that the "tiger 



