An Index and Guide to Audubon's Birds of America

John James Audubon's double-elephant folio Birds of America (1827-38) is probably the most valuable American book. It contains 435 life-size scientifically accurate, hand-colored prints of every species of North American bird known at the time. A single print has brought almost $50,000 at auction , and a full set 9as prints) has totaled $1,930,000. Interest in Birds of America has never been greater, but, surprisingly, no in-depth, variorum study of the prints has yet been published-even through there have been nearly 100 reprint and facsimile editions, as well as dozens of books on Audubon himself. Since Birds of America was first published, most of the species and popular names for birds have changed, and there has been no work that systematically related bird names Audubon used in his watercolors to names on the plates and, most important, to the modern popular and scientific names. In this volume, with the full cooperation of the American Museum of Natural History, Susanne M. Low has set out to fill this need.