374 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



change in subsequent editions of this printed state- 

 ment. 21 



Audubon left Edinburgh for London on April 5, 

 1827, with locks shorn but energy unabated. He fol- 

 lowed a roundabout course, visiting Belford, "Mitford 

 Castle," Newcastle-upon-Tyne, York, Leeds, Liver- 

 pool, and Shrewsbury, at every point extending his ac- 

 quaintance, showing his drawings to many, and adding 

 appreciably to his growing list of subscribers. Several 

 days were spent in hunting and drawing birds with the 

 Selbys, at their beautiful country place called 'Twizel 

 House," at Belford, in Northumberland, where he was 

 soon made to feel as much at home as with his older 

 Liverpool friends, the Rathbones, at "Green Bank." 

 P. J. Selby, after whom Audubon named a Flycatcher 

 which appeared in his second number, was an amateur 

 artist and ornithologist, and at that time was engaged 

 upon an extensive publication to which Audubon was 



21 The work, as originally announced, was to appear in parts of 5 

 plates each, at 2 guineas a part, and in order to distribute the expense 

 to purchasers it was expected to issue but 5 parts a year. The plates, 

 to be engraved on copper, were of double elephant folio size, and printed 

 on paper of the finest quality, all the birds and flowers to be life-size, and 

 to be carefully colored by hand, after the originals; any subscriber 

 was at liberty to take a part or the whole. It was stated in the 

 prospectus of 1829, when 10 parts had been published: "There are 400 

 Drawings, and it is proposed that they shall comprise Three Volumes, 

 each containing 133 Plates, to which an Index will be given at the 

 end of each, to be bound up with the volume. ... It would be advisable 

 for the subscriber to procure a Portfolio, to keep the Numbers till 

 a volume is completed." To avoid the expense entailed by copyright 

 regulations in England, indices and all other letterpress were eventually 

 omitted; the number of parts was extended to 87, or 435 plates, and the 

 number of volumes to 4, a necessity imposed by the discovery of many 

 new birds, even after the omission of the figures of the eggs, which 

 Audubon had reserved for the close, and the undue crowding of many 

 of his final plates. The "Prospectus" issued with the first volume of 

 the text in 1831 contained a list of the first 100 plates, together with 

 extracts of reviews by Cuvier and Swainson, and a list of subscribers 

 to the number of 180. For further details, see Bibliography, No. 1, and 

 Appendix III, No. 2. 



