JOHN JAMES AUDUBON 123 
and learned institutions. The Lenox 
Library in New York owns three sets. 
The Astor Library owns one set. I 
have examined this work there; there 
are four volumes in a set; they are 
elephant folio size—more than three 
feet long, and two or more feet wide. 
They are the heaviest books I ever 
handled. It takes two men to carry one 
volume to the large racks which hold 
them for the purpose of examination. 
The birds, of which there are a thousand 
and fifty-five specimens in four hundred 
and thirty-five plates, are all life size, 
even the great eagles, and appear to be 
unfaded. This work, which cost the 
original subscribers one thousand dol- 
lars, now brings four thousand dollars 
at private sale. 
Of the edition with reduced figures 
and with the bird biographies, many 
more were sold, and all considerable 
public libraries in this country possess 
the work. It consists of seven imperial 
