444 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 



issued in parts, from 1831 to 1835, and was intended as 

 a further companion to Jameson's text for all who could 

 afford that expensive form of illustration. By a curious 

 coincidence Audubon's Ornithological Biography (vol. 

 i) , Jameson's edition of Wilson and Bonaparte (vol. i) , 

 and Brown's Illustrations (pt. i), were all noticed on 

 the same page of the London Literary Gazette for 

 April 9, 1831. "This day is published," so reads the 



taining 5 colored plates; 22 inches long by 17 inches broad, being con- 

 sidered more than double the size of the original work." The first number 

 of this work was reviewed in the London Literary Gazette for October 8, 

 1831, when it was said that in it were represented 25 birds, 13 forest trees, 

 and 12 insects; the completed work would comprehend "all the forest 

 trees of America, with their fruits, together with the principal insects 

 of the country," as well as all the birds that had been discovered up to 

 the time of issue. 



Brown's piratical work must have had a very limited circulation, 

 since it is now so rare that not even the British Museum possesses a 

 copy, and, so far as known, it is not found in any public library of the 

 United States. I was told at Wheldon's, the London shop devoted to 

 works on natural history, that but two copies had ever been handled, and 

 that they commanded a high price. The work was originally sold at 

 26. The only copy known to me is in the library of the Zoological Society 

 in London, from which the present citation is made; on one of its fly-leaves 

 is written this note: "I have seen the wrapper of No. 1 of this work. 

 It is dated 1831. There is no information as to its contents. C. Davis 

 Sanborn. 22.5.05." This copy was referred to by Dr. Theodore Gill; see 

 The Osprey, vol. v, pp. 31 and 109 (Washington, 1900 and 1901). Dr. Walter 

 Faxon has traced two other copies, one formerly in possession of Professor 

 Alfred Newton, and another, but very imperfect set, in a private library 

 at Tarrytown, New York. According to Faxon, a single brown paper wrap- 

 per preserved in the Tarrytown copy bears a full printed title, which differs, 

 however, from that which was subsequently engraved for the completed 

 work; for fuller citation, see "A Rare Work on American Ornithology," 

 The Auk, vol. xx (1903), pp. 236-241. 



Mr. Ruthven Deane has written me that several years ago he secured in 

 New York a fragment of this work, consisting of the paper wrappers of 

 four Parts, Nos. 1-4, the last three of which contained five plates each; 

 there were in addition 10 scattered plates, making 25 plates in all; the 

 price of "21 Shillings" is printed on each of the wrappers, which also bear 

 the date "1831," but no titles. 



Another pirated work, Illustrations of the Genera of Birds, by the 

 same author, was begun in 1845, but met with even less success, and was 

 never completed; this was taken from A List of the Genera of Birds, pub- 

 lished in 1840 by George Robert Gray, and according to Alfred Newton 

 (A Dictionary of Birds, London, 1896, p. 30, note) was "discreditable to all 

 concerned with it." 



