Audubon. 



463 



been chosen from amongst those in the vicinity of which the birds were 

 found, and are not, as some persons have thought, the trees or plants upon 

 which they always feed or perch." 



Taking it for granted, that the patronage which this great 

 work has begun to receive in this country, will soon be so much 

 extended, as to enrich every considerable town in the United 

 States with at least one copy, — for what town or neighbour- 

 hood is there, which does not possess patriotic, wealthy, and 

 liberal friends to the arts, who can unite in a subscription for 

 this purpose ? — we shall not repeat the encomiums it so well de- 

 serves : we imagine there are few of our readers, who will not 

 be able to have access to this unrivalled work ; to those, how- 

 ever, who hitherto have not had an opportunity of seeing it, we 

 shall state, — what they may already have conceived, knowing 

 the objects described to be as large as life, — that the first volume, 

 already published, containing one hundred plates, is truly a gi- 

 gantic volume. We saw a copy of it, recently, bound in calf, 

 brought by Mr. Audubon from England, which weighed forty- 

 five pounds. The pages are three feet three inches long, and 

 two feet two inches broad. Each number, the price of which 

 is two guineas, or about ten dollars, contains five plates : one 

 hundred and twenty-four plates have already been published, 

 of which one hundred form the first volume : the others will ap- 

 pear gradually ; so that the total amount of the cost of this un- 

 rivalled work, is progressively paid, and in small sums. The 

 intention is, to publish at least five numbers annually. To each 

 volume of plates, consisting of twenty numbers, is annexed a de- 

 scriptive and narrative volume of " Ornithological Biography."* 



This book, which was first published in London, has been re- 

 printed in Philadelphia, and is perhaps the handsomest octavo- 

 ever got up in America. But this is its slightest merit; it is in 

 the contents we find what is truly inimitable. Every thing there 

 is communicated in an earnest and simple manner, sometimes 

 with a vivid eloquence and beauty that is touching. There is 

 not one of the one hundred descriptions contained in this volume,, 

 where evidences of this may not be found. We open the book 

 at random at page 96, at the head, " Bewick's Wren." 



"The bird represented under the name of Bewick's Wren, I shot on the 

 19th October, 1821, about five miles from St. Francisville, in the state of 



X Ornithological Biography, Royal 8vo. p. 506. Philadelphia, Judah Dobson. 



