[174] From last page of paper covers, in which parts of the work were originally issued.
Below are the following notices:
"Persons desirous of subscribing to the above work are respectfully requested to apply to J. J. Audubon, 86 White street, Henderson Greene, 377 Broadway, or W. A. Colman, Broadway, New York; to J. B. Chevalier, 70 Dock street, or Orrin Rogers, 67 South Second street, Philadelphia; C. C. Little or James Brown, Boston; J. P. Beile, or Geo. Oates, Charleston, S. C.; Gideon B. Smith, Baltimore; David Ridgely, Annapolis, Md.; J. S. Kellogg & Co., Mobile, Ala."
"S. H. Stevenson, Travelling Agent for Kentucky and Virginia; and William A. Pierce for Pennsylvania."
This first octavo edition of Audubon's Birds was issued by J. J. Audubon, and J. B. Chevalier, Philadelphia, in 100 parts, of five plates each, to be bound in 7 volumes, 1840-44. Complete sets in parts are now very rare; previous to 1907 a set is said to have been sold for $500; in 1914 one was offered in Philadelphia for $750. The introduction to No 1, is dated "New York, Nov. 1839," and the fifteenth number, beginning volume ii, "N. Y., Aug., 1840." The first five volumes (1840-42) were issued with the coöperation of J. B. Chevalier, lithographer, 70 Dock Street, Philadelphia, but, according to Mr. Ruthven Deane, he was an agent who received a commission on sales, and, for a time, a share in the profits, but not a co-publisher with Audubon; it is also stated that when misfortune visited Chevalier in later life, he was cared for by Audubon or his sons, up to the time of his death. For fuller details, see [Bibliography, No. 4].
[175] Of these, according to Mr. Witmer Stone (see [Bibliography, No. 221]), 474 are sanctioned in the present "Check List" of the American Ornithologists' Union; seventeen have proved to be identical with others; ten are extra-limital; two are hybrids; and five have never been found since; of Audubon's suppressed species, two have been resuscitated. Audubon is thought to have been personally acquainted with 385 American species, others being known to him only through specimens sent by collectors, or discovered in museums.
[176] First published by Ruthven Deane ([Bibl. No. 48b]), The Auk, vol. xxv (1908).
[177] See "Original Account Book of J. J. Audubon" ([Bibl. No. 223]), The Nation, vol. lxxxiv, from which the following data regarding issues and sales of this work are drawn. The total edition of the plates for No. 2 was 1,345, and of No. 3, 1,339. No. 11 of the plates was the first to run to 1,000 copies in the first printing, and this issue was continued to No. 50, inclusive, excepting Nos. 3, 28, 29, and 30, of which 1,500 seem to have been printed; the plates of these numbers were done at the lithographic establishment of Endicotts, New York, all others being the work of J. T. Bowen, Philadelphia. When subscriptions began to fall off with No. 51, the edition was reduced to 1,150, and again with No. 57, to 1,050, which remained constant to No. 84, or as far as this record goes. Of the text, printed by E. G. Dorsey, 1,200 copies formed the first edition of No. 1, 1,000 copies that of No. 2, and of successive numbers to No. 23. With No. 24, the edition was increased to 2,000, and in February, 1841, the earlier numbers were reprinted, thus forming a second edition of these parts, and affording a chance for correction of errors. (See Audubon's letter quoted above.)
[178] See Ruthven Deane ([Bibl. Nos. 47] and [49-51]), The Auk, vols. xxi, xxiii, and xxiv (1904-7), Passim; and William H. Dall, Spencer Fullerton Baird, a Biography ([Bibl. No. 52]) (1915); to these admirable accounts I am indebted for such abstracts of this correspondence as are here reproduced.
[179] See [Vol. II, p. 169].