AUDUBON 



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lutely completed,^ in the face of incredible delays and diffi- 

 culties, and representing an amount of work which in these 

 days of easy travel it is hard to comprehend. The " Syn- 

 opsis " also was published in this year, and the indefatigable 

 worker began at once the octavo edition of the " Birds," and 

 the drawings of the quadrupeds. For this edition of the 

 " Birds " Victor attended almost wholly to the printing and 

 publishing, and John reduced every drawing to the required 

 size with the aid of the camera lucida, Audubon devoting 

 his time to the coloring and obtaining of subscribers. 



Having fully decided to settle in New York City, and 

 advised their friends to that effect, Audubon found he 

 could not live in any city, except, as he writes, " perhaps 

 fair Edinburgh;" so in the spring of 1842, the town 

 house was sold, and the family moved to " Minniesland," 

 now known as Audubon Park, in the present limits of New 

 York City. The name came from the fact that my father 

 and uncle always used the Scotch name " Minnie " for 

 mother. The land when bought was deeded to her, and 

 always spoken of as Minnie's land, and this became the 

 name which the Audubons gave it, by which to day those 

 of us who are left recall the lovely home where their 

 happy childhood was spent ; for here were born all but 

 three of the fourteen grandchildren. 



No railroad then separated the lawn from the beach 

 where Audubon so often hauled the seine; the dense 



* Victor Audubon wrote in reply to a question as to how many copies 

 of the " Birds " were in existence : " About 175 copies ; of these 1 should 

 say 80 were in our own country. The length of time over which the work 

 extended brought many changes to original subscribers, and this accounts 

 for the odd volumes which are sometimes offered for sale." 



In stating that the work had been " absolutely completed " in 1838, 1 must 

 not omit to add that when the octavo reissue appeared it contained a few 

 additional birds chiefly derived from Audubon's fruitful voyage up the 

 Missouri in 1843, which also yielded much material for the work on the 

 Quadrupeds. The appearance of the " Synopsis " in 1839 marks the interval 

 between the completion of the original undertaking and the beginning 

 of plans for its reduction to octavo. — E. C. 



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