Report of the Academy, ly^ 



" * It is in this double capacity of artist and savant 

 that he produced the work, which has been offered to tlie 

 inspection of the Academy. You liave been struck hy 

 the size of the book, which is equal or superior to the 

 largest of that kind that has ever been published, and is 

 nearly as large as the double plates of the Description of 

 Egypt. This extraordinary dimension has enabled him 

 to give specimens of the eagle and vulture of their natu- 

 ral size, and to multiply those which are smaller in such a 

 manner as to represent them in eveiy attitude. 



" ' He was thus able to represent on the same plates, 

 and of the natural size, the plants which these birds most 

 commonly frequent, and to give the fullest detail of their 

 nests and eggs. 



" ' The execution of these plates, so remarkable for 

 their size, appears to have succeeded equally well with 

 regard to the drawing, the engraving, and the coloring. 

 And although it is difficult in coloring to give perspec- 

 tives with as much effect as in painting, properly so call- 

 ed, that is no defect in a work on natural history. Natu- 

 ralists prefer the real color of objects to those accidental 

 tints which are the result of the varied reflections of light 

 necessary to complete picturesque representations, but 

 foreign and even injurious to scientific truth. 



" ' Mr. Audubon has already prepared four hundred 

 drawings, which contain nearly two thousand figures, and 

 he proposes to publish them successively if he receives 

 sufficient encouragement from lovers of science. A w^ork 

 conceived and executed on so vast a plan has but one 

 fault, and doubtless in that respect my auditors have al- 

 ready anticipated me ; it is that its expense renders it al- 

 most inaccessible to the greater part of those to whom it 

 would be most necessary. It certainly cannot be said 

 that the price is exorbilant. One number of five plates 

 costs two guineas ; each plate comes to only ten or 



