Audubon's genius as a portrayer of birds was in time recognized by America's foremost artists. When he exhibited his work in England and Scotland in 1826, he was elected to membership in eminent societies. He resolved to publish his drawings under the title, "The Birds of America," all to be "engraved on copper, to the size of life, and colored after the originals." The work was eventually issued (1838) in eighty-seven parts, which contained four hundred and thirty-five plates depicting more than a thousand individual birds, besides trees, flowers and animals native to the continent of North America. In America the price of the parts complete was one thousand dollars. Today a perfect set is valued at four times the cost of the original. Many famous men and institutions were numbered among Audubon's subscribers to his various works on birds and mammals. Sometimes accompanied by his sons, he traveled from Labrador to Florida and from Maine almost as far west as the Rockies, in his search for bird and animal models. In 1842, Audubon took possession of a fine house he had built on an estate overlooking the Hudson, near what is now 155th Street, New York. Nine years later, "America's pioneer naturalist and animal painter" died here, surrounded by his devoted family. The house he erected remains in a fair state of preservation on a secluded plot of ground below Riverside Drive, and part of the land owned by him has been given the name, Audubon Park. His body rests on the hill above his home, in Trinity Cemetery, amid friendly trees that gave shade to the likely spot during his life time. Audubon Societies exist in many parts of America. The National Association of Audubon Societies for the Protection of Wild Birds and Animals is an active monument to the work and ideals of the great naturalist. PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 7, No. 9, SERIAL No. 181 COPYRIGHT, 1919, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC. [Illustration: FROM A BUST BY W.E. COUPER. IN THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, NEW YORK J. LOUIS RODOLPHE AGASSIZ BY COURTESY OF THE MUSEUM] _AMERICAN NATURALISTS_ _J. Louis Rodolphe Agassiz_ TWO