ROBERT HAVELL.
AFTER A PHOTOGRAPH TAKEN SHORTLY BEFORE HIS DEATH IN 1878. PUBLISHED BY COURTESY OF MR. RUTHVEN DEANE.
Under date of December 20, 1832, his friend "had nothing to write but bad news," and hoped "to see our political atmosphere a little brighter. Do not ask me about birds; I do not know a Buzzard from a King Bird.... Oh, what an enjoyment it would be for me to escape, just for one week, from the hydra-headed 'Nullification,' and sit by your side and talk birds!"
Audubon was anticipating his third volume of plates, devoted mainly to water birds, which was begun with Number 45, in 1834, when the following letter was sent to his son in London:
Audubon to his Son, Victor
Boston, Jany, 17th, 1833—.
My dear Victor—
The Columbia arrived yesterday at New York, and N [icholas]. B [erthoud]. has forwarded us Mr. Havell's letter and yours, both dated 30th. of November last—. I hope soon to see the drawings to work on them—. You give no account of that of The Bartram Sandpiper and of The Spotted Sandpiper—; probably they have escaped you—let me know so that I may renew these should they be missing—, but I think my Friend Children has them—enquire—
The Charlotte is not yet in. She had not left Deal on the 27th of Nov r.—
Your Dear Mother & John wrote to you this morning and you will probably receive this, and that letter at the same moment—.