358 AUDUBON, THE NATURALIST 
University did much to make his work known, and in- 
vited him to codperate in an enterprise upon which he 
was then engaged; * this was pronounced by Dr. Knox 
of the Medical School to be a “job book,” but whatever 
its merits may have been, Audubon decided after due 
reflection to stand on his own feet. 
Not long after reaching the Scottish capital, Audu- 
bon made the acquaintance of Mr. W. Home Lizars, 
styled “a Mr. Lizard” by a snapshot biographer of a 
later day, a well known, expert engraver and painter, 
who engaged in various publishing enterprises. When 
Audubon had held up a few of his drawings for his 
inspection, Lizars rose, exclaiming: “My God! I never 
saw anything like this before.” The picture of the 
Mockingbirds attacked by a rattlesnake particularly 
struck his fancy, but when he came to the drawing of 
the Great-footed Hawks, “with bloody rags at their 
beaks’ ends, and cruel delight in their daring eyes,” 
Lizars declared that he would both engrave and publish 
it. “My. Audubon,” said he, “the people here don’t 
know who you are at all, but depend upon it, they shall 
know.” Lizars eventually agreed to engrave and bring 
out the first specimen number of The Birds of America, 
and about the 10th of November made a beginning with 
the first plate. On November 28, 1826, he handed Au- 
dubon a first proof of the Wild Turkey Cock, a subject 
chosen to justify the great size of the work, which was 
to be in double elephant folio, and which in point of 
size is perhaps to this day the largest extended publica. 
tion in existence.® This and the second plate, which 
represented the Yellow-billed Cuckoo *° in the act of 
® See Note, Vol. I, p. 375. 
°The plates as issued, untrimmed, measured 3914 by 2914 inches; see 
Bibliography, No. 1. 
See Note, Vol. II, p. 197. Incidentally it may be noticed that the “tiger 
