CHAPTER XXXIII 



NEW ENTERPRISES AND LIFE AT "MINNIE'S LAND" 



Settlement in New York — The Birds in miniature, and work on the 

 Quadrupeds — Marriage of Victor Audubon — Cooperation of Bachman 

 in the Quadrupeds secured — Prospectuses — History of the octavo edi- 

 tion of the Birds — Baird's enthusiasm and efBcient aid — Parkman's 

 wren — Baird's visit to Audubon in New York — "Look out for Martens !" 

 and wildcats — New home on the Hudson — Godwin's pilgrimage to 

 "Minnie's Land" in 1842. 



After thirteen years of unmitigated labor, Audubon 

 could have basked in a fame already secure, and could 

 have enjoyed, for a time at least, a leisure handsomely 

 earned. But no sooner had he settled in New York 

 than he entered upon two formidable tasks: one of 

 these was the complete revision of his Birds of America^ 

 to be issued with its text in "miniature," as its reduced 

 form was sometimes described; the other, which he did 

 not live to see brought to completion, was an elaborate 

 work on the Quadrupeds of North America^ eventually 

 carried forward in collaboration with the Reverend John 

 Bachman. 



In his confident and characteristic manner, Audubon 

 at once issued a "Prospectus" of both these undertak- 

 ings. The more cautious Bachman, in writing on Sep- 

 tember 13, 1839, to congratulate him upon their safe 

 return, "in spite of storms, calms, and hurricane," said: 



I am glad that you are about to do something with regard 

 to the "Small Edition of Birds." But are you not too fast in 

 issuing your prospectus of The Birds and Quadrupeds, with- 



208 



