LIFE AT "MINNIE'S LAND" 223 



and prosperity, I pray you to consider me as your friend and 

 obt. servant, 



John J. Audubon. 



In the following letter by William Yarrell,® English 

 naturalist and sportsman, are interesting references to 

 Audubon's smaller edition of The Birds of America as 

 well as to the writer's History of British Birds, which 

 later became the standard work on the ornithology of 

 Great Britain: 



William Yarrell to Audubon 



[Addressed] J. J. Audubon Esq"" 



NO- 86 White Street 

 New York. 



[Superscribed by Audubon] 

 March 10. 1841. 

 [English postmark] D 

 Paid 

 4 MR 4. 

 1841 

 My dear Sie, 



Your letter, and also that of your son, are now before me, 

 both received so long ago as the middle of last year — how 

 time flies with those who are fully occupied — I reproach my- 

 self for having allowed them to remain so long unanswered — 

 and hope my numerous avocations, which absorb my whole time, 

 will be admitted as my excuse. I see M""- B. Phillips every 

 now and then, we meet only to talk about you — I have received 

 from his hands the first 17 N°s of your smaller American Birds 

 and like them much — as I could not afford to have the large 



•William Yarrell (1784-1856) was the author of A History of British 

 Fishes (1835-36), and A History of British Birds (1839-43) in three 

 volumes; the latter has passed through several editions, the fourth and 

 best being by Alfred Newton in four volumes (1871-85). For the favor 

 of reproducing this letter, and another by Yarrell given in Chapter XXXIV, 

 I am indebted to Mr. Ruthven Deane. 



