As we have noticed, Audubon's large illustrations of the _Quadrupeds_ were completed in 1846; this marked the ebb tide of his powers, and his son, John, who had painted nearly one-half of the originals of the large plates, like Victor, continued to aid Bachman in the prosecution of that work. The first number of this lithographic series was introduced by the common American wildcat, or _Lynx rufus_, in three-quarters natural size, followed by the proverbial ground hog, "Maryland marmot," or woodchuck, shown in both young and adult state, in the size of life. Plate No. 4 reproduced an exquisite drawing of four Florida rats climbing over a pine branch. Some of the elder Audubon's plates of squirrels are particularly fine and recall the best of his more famous bird pictures; the gray fox (No. 3, Plate xxi) is sniffing at a feather blown from a farmer's yard; in another drawing a rascally old black rat and its three young ones are robbing a hen's nest and breaking up the eggs; Hudson Bay squirrels reach after hazel nuts which hang in clusters from green boughs above; opossums, with sardonic grin, are making for the ripe, orange fruits of the persimmon, holding to the branch with their rat-like, coiled tails; the swift fox (_Vulpes velox_) sits on the ground, barking like a dog, with head up-turned, while the better known red fox (No. 18, Plate lxxxvii) struggles in an old-fashioned steel trap, the toothed jaws of which have gripped a paw above the heel, and you observe that his tail is where, in the circumstances, it is bound to be—between his legs. While many of these plates are of the highest degree of excellence, the colors are apt to be too vivid and the execution is far from uniform. [Illustration: AUDUBON'S LAST (?) LETTER TO EDWARD HARRIS, FEBRUARY 22, 1847. From the Jeanes MSS.] Thomas M. Brewer, a valued friend and correspondent,[223] in response to an urgent request, "ere it be too late," paid a visit to the famous naturalist on the Fourth of July, 1846, of which he has given this record:[224] I found him in a retreat well worthy of so true a lover of nature. It was a lovely spot, on a well-wooded point running out in the river. His dwelling was a large old-fashioned wooden house, from the veranda of which was a fine view, looking both up and down the stream, and around the dwelling were grouped several fine old forest trees of beech and oak. The grounds were well stocked with pets of various kinds, both birds and beasts, while his wild feathered favorites, hardly less confiding, had their nests over his very doorway. Through the grounds ran a small rivulet, over which was a picturesque rural bridge.