Lizars throws up the work after engraving ten plates, and it is transferred to London, where, in the hands of Robert Havell, Junior, it is new born and brought to successful completion eleven years later.
Summer.—Affairs at a crisis; resorts to painting and canvasses the larger cities.
December.—Five parts, or twenty-five plates, of The Birds of America completed.
1828
March.—Visits Cambridge and Oxford Universities; though well received, is disappointed at the number of subscribers secured, especially at Oxford.
September 1.—To Paris with William Swainson; remains eight weeks, and obtains 13 subscribers; his work is eulogized by Cuvier before the Academy of Natural Sciences, and he receives the personal subscription, as well as private commissions, from the Duke of Orleans, afterwards known as Louis Philippe.
1829
April 1.—Sails from Portsmouth on his first return to America from England, for New York, where he lands on May 1.
Summer.—Drawing birds at Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey.
September.—To Mauch Chunk, and paints for six weeks at a lumberman's cottage in the Great Pine Woods.