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To the gratification of Audubon and his friends, the octavo edition of his Birds of America was an immediate and great success. Only 300 copies of the plates of the first number, which was ready on December 3, 1839, were printed, but in little more than a month 300 more were demanded, and the number of plates required rose steadily until January 9, 1841, when it stood at 1,475 copies.[177] The total number of subscribers given in Audubon's published lists was 1,198, of which 198 are credited to Boston, 164 to Baltimore, 141 to New York, sixty-five to Philadelphia, and forty-three to foreign countries, ten of which went to England; Mr. George Oates of Charleston subscribed for seven copies. Such a reception for an expensive work on natural history was unprecedented in the United States, and has had few parallels in any country.
At the very beginning of this new undertaking, the hand of disease and bereavement rested heavily on the Audubon and Bachman families; they were obliged to see first one and then another of their daughters swept by the same terrible malady, tuberculosis, to an early grave. Mrs. John Woodhouse Audubon died at her old home in Charleston, whither she had gone for the benefit of her health in the previous winter, on September 23, 1840, at the age of twenty-three; and Mrs. Victor Audubon, after a long sojourn in Cuba, and shortly after returning to her home in New York, died there on May 25, 1841, at the age of twenty-two. Audubon was very fond of his daughters-in-law, and his "beloved Rosy," as Victor's wife was familiarly called, is said to have been a particular favorite and the life of his family circle. If work at this time brought no pleasure, it at least afforded him relief from painful thoughts.
In June, 1840, a boy who lived in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, mustered up courage to write to the naturalist and give him an account of a new bird, the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, which he and his brother had discovered, under the very noses, as it were, of all the ornithologists in America. With that fine sense of modesty which characterized the man in after life, for his name was Spencer Fullerton Baird, he wrote:[178] "You see Sir that I have taken (after much hesitation) the liberty of writing you. I am but a boy, and very inexperienced, as you no doubt will observe from my description of the Flycatcher."
Audubon, who had just returned from the sick-bed of his daughter-in-law, replied promptly as follows:
Audubon to Spencer Fullerton Baird
New York, June 13, 1840.
Dear Sir,
On my return home from Charleston S. C. yesterday, I found your kind favor of the 4th inst. in which you have the goodness to inform me that you have discovered a new species of fly-catcher, and which, if the bird corresponds to your description, is, indeed, likely to prove itself hitherto undescribed, for although you speak of yourself as being a youth, your style and the descriptions you have sent me prove that an old head may from time to time be found on young shoulders!
I wish you would send me one of the stuffed specimens as well as the one preserved in spirits, and wish you also to rest assured that if the little Muscicapa stands as a nondescript that I shall feel pleased to name it after your friend.