70 AUDUBON 



of exploring part of the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. 

 This expedition they were assisted in making by Col. John 

 Abert,^ who procured them the Revenue cutter " Camp- 

 bell." Fire having afterward (in 1845) destroyed the jour- 

 nals of this period, only a few letters remain to tell us of 

 the coasting voyage to Galveston Bay, Texas, though the 

 ornithological results of this journey are all in the " Birds 

 of America." It was during this visit to Charleston that 

 the plans were begun which led to the " Quadrupeds of 

 North America," under the joint authorship of Audubon 

 and Bachman.^ 



In the late summer of 1837, Audubon, with John and 

 his wife, — for he had married Maria, Dr. Bachman's 

 eldest daughter, — returned to England, his last voyage 

 there, and remained abroad until the autumn of 1839, 

 when the family, with the addition of the first grandchild,^ 

 once more landed in America, and settled, if such wander- 

 ers can ever be said to settle, in New York, in the then 

 uptown region of 86 White St. 



The great ornithological work had been finished, abso- 



1 John James Abert, who was in 1837 brevet lieutenant-colonel of Top- 

 ographical Engineers, U. S. Army, and afterward chief of his corps. 

 Abert's Squirrel, Sciurus aberti, forms the subject of plate 153, fig. 1, of 

 Audubon and Bachman's " Quadrupeds." 



2 This important and standard work on American Mammalogy was not, 

 however, finished till many years afterward, nor did Audubon live to see 

 its completion. Publication of the colored plates in oblong folio, with- 

 out text, began at least as early as 1840, and with few exceptions they first 

 appeared in this form. They were subsequently reduced to large octavo 

 size, and issued in parts with the text, then first published. The whole, 

 text and plates, were then gathered in 3 volumes : vol. i., 1846 ; vol. ii., 

 1851 ; vol. iii., to page 254 and pi. 150, 1853 ; vol. iii., p. 255 to end, 1854. 

 There are in all 155 plates; 50 in vol. i., 50 in vol. ii., 55 in vol. iii.; 

 about half of them are from Andubon's brush, the rest by John Wood- 

 house. The exact character of the joint authorship does not appear; 

 but no doubt the technical descriptions are by Dr. Bachman. Publication 

 was made in New York by Victor Audubon ; and there was a reissue 

 of some parts of the work at least, as vol. i. is found with copyright of 1849, 

 and date 1851 on the title. — E. C. 



' Lucy, now Mrs. Delancey B. Williams. 



