John James Audubon realised his lifelong ambition. He produced 1,065 of the most beautiful and lifelike depictions of birds ever created. The value to science is that never before had they seen such magnificent displays of birds, life-size, pursuing their prey, feeding their young, males and females together with the habitat that they lived in and the plants that they fed upon. That was something quite new for scientists to see. Less than 200 sets of Audubon's books were produced and only 119 are known to have survived. One recently sold at auction in America for $8.8 million. Audubon's The Birds of America has now become an icon of American culture.


约翰·詹姆斯·奥杜邦实现了他的终身抱负，他完成了对1065种鸟类最漂亮，最接近实物的描绘。史无前例，这画册对于科学界的意义在于，如此壮观的鸟类画册前无古人。实物大小，捕捉猎物，哺育雏鸟，雄雌对照，它们的栖息地，它们食用的植物，这是科学史上的一次创举。奥杜邦的著作发行不到两百套，现今存世的仅有119套。其中一本不久前在美国以880万美元拍出奥杜邦的画册《美国鸟类》，已经成为了美国文化的标志。