[book] Audubon began this guide to the four-footed animals of North America with John Bachman, a South Carolina clergyman and naturalist, who edited the work. Audubon contributed about half the drawings and some observations before he died. Two of his sons and other artists drew many of the animals and background settings. The collaborators sought to depict animals in realistic landscapes true to their native habitats, but they often had to rely on second-hand observations and stuffed specimens.

The work was originally published in a very large folio edition, known as a "double elephant," entitled Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America. This volume is from a smaller-sized, later edition.

Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution Libraries.
The Quadrupeds of North America, volume 2 (1854), by John James Audubon (1785-1851) and John Bachman (1790-1874)

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