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for the great cost of the publication leaving him, however, a very inadequate compensation for his extraordinary in dustry and skill. The first volume was published at New York in the end of the year 1830, the second in 1834, the third in 1837, and the fourth and last in 1839. The whole consists of 435 coloured plates, containing 1055 figures of birds the size of life. It is certainly the most magnificent work of the kind ever given to the world, and is well char acterised by Cuvier, " C est le plus magnifique monument que 1 Art ait encore 6lev^ & la Nature." During the preparation and publication of his great work Audubon made several excursions from Great Britain. In the summer of 1828 he visited Paris, where he made the acquaintance of Cuvier, Humboldt, and other celebrated naturalists, and received from them every mark of honour and esteem. The following winter he passed in London. In April of 1830 he revisited the United States of America, and again explored the forests of the central and southern federal territories. In the following year he returned to London and Edinburgh, but the August of 1831 found him again in New York. The succeeding winter and spring he spent in Florida and South Carolina ; and in the summer of 1832 he set out for the Northern States, with an inten tion of studying the annual migrations of birds, particularly of the passenger pigeon, of which he has given a striking description; but his career was arrested at Boston by a severe attack of cholera, which detained him there till the middle of August. After that he explored the coasts, lakes, rivers, and mountains of North America, from Labrador and Canada to Florida, during a series of laborious journeys, that occupied him for three years. From Charleston, accompanied by his wife and family, he took his third departure for Britain. During his earlier residence in Edinburgh he had begun to publish his Ameri can Ornithological Biography, which at length filled five large octavo volumes. The first was issued there by Adam Black in 1831 ; the last appeared in 1839. This book is admirable for the vivid pictures it presents of the habits of the birds, and the adventures of the naturalist. The descriptions are characteristically accurate and interesting. In 1839 Audubon bade a final adieu to Europe; and returning to his native country, he published, in a more popular form, his Birds of America, in seven octavo volumes, the last of which appeared in 1814. His ardent love of nature still prompted him to new enterprises, and he set out on fresh excursions ; but in thesu he was always accompanied by his two sons, and one or two other natural ists. The result of these excursions was the projection of a new work, The Quadrupeds of America, in atlas folio, and also a Biography of American Quadrupeds, both of which were commenced at Philadelphia in 1840. The latter was completed in 1850, and is, perhaps, even superior to his Ornithological Biography. To great intelligence in observing, and accuracy in delineating nature, to a vigorous, handsome frame, and pleasing expressive features, Audubon united very estimable mental qualities, and a deep sense of religion without a trace of bigotry. His conversation was animated and instructive, his manner unassuming, and he always spoke with gratitude to Heaven for the very happy life lie had been permitted to enjoy. He died, after a short illness, in his own residence on the banks of the Hudson, at New York, on the 27th of January 1851. See Life and Adven tures of J. J. Audubon the Naturalist, edited, from materials supplied by his widow, by Robert Buchanan, London, 1868.


AUGEIAS ([Greek], cf. [Greek]), in Greek Legend, a son of Helios, the sun. He was a prince of Elis, and, consistently with his being a descendant of the sun-god, had an immense wealth of herds, including twelve bulls sacred to Helios, and white as swans. He lived beside the stream Menios ([Greek] = moon) ; and his daughter Agamede was, like Medeia and Circe, skilled in witchcraft, and connected with the moon goddess. The task of Hercules was to clear out all his stalls in one day, and without help. This he did by making an opening in the wall and turning the stream through them. Augeias had promised him a tenth of the herd, but refused this, alleging that Hercules had acted only in the service of Eurystheus.


AUGEREAU, PIEREE FEAXCOIS CHAELES, Duke of Castiglione, was the son of obscure parents, and born in 1757. After serving for a short period in the armies of France, he entered the Neapolitan service, and for some time supported himself by teaching fencing at Naples. In 1792 he joined the Republican army that watched the movements of Spain. He rose rapidly to the rank of brigadier-general, and commanded a division in the army of Italy. Here he distinguished himself in numerous engagements by his energy, skill, and vigorous rapidity of action. To him were due in great measure the brilliant victories of Millesimo, Dego, and Castiglione, and he led the decisive charges at the bloody combats of Lodi and Arcola. In 1797 he took part with Barras and the Directory, and was an active agent in the revolution of the 18th of Fructidor; but his jealousy of his former com rade, Bonaparte, prevented their intimacy ; and he was one of the general officers not privy to the noted revolution of the 18th of Brumaire (Nov. 9) 1799. He received, however, the command of the army of Holland and the Lower Rhine, but was superseded in 1801. From that time he lived in retirement, till 1804, when he was made a marshal of the French empire, and in the following year he was appointed to the command of the expedition against the Yorarlberg, which he quickly subdued. He also distinguished himself greatly in the battles of Jenaand Eylau. In 1809-10 he commanded the French in Catalonia, and tarnished his laurels by his great cruelty to the Spaniards ; but he was again more honourably conspicuous in the campaign of 1813, especially in the terrible battle of Leipsic. In 1814 he had the command of a reserve army at Lyons, and might have made a diversion in favour of Napoleon, but he preferred to submit, and retained a command under the Bourbons. In the following year he at first refused to join Napoleon on his escape from Elba, and when he would afterwards have accepted a command his services were declined. He also failed to obtain military office under the new dynasty, and after having had the painful task of being one of the commission on the trial of Ney, he returned to his estates, where he died of dropsy in 1816.


AUGSBURG, a celebrated city of Germany, capital of the circle of Swabia andNeuburg in Bavaria, the principal seat of the commerce of South Germany, and of commer cial transactions with the south of Europe. It derives its name from the Roman Emperor Augustus, who, on the conquest of Rhaetia by Drusus, established a Roman colony named Augusta Vindelicorum (about 14 B.C.) In the 5th century it was sacked by the Huns, and afterwards came under the power of the Frankish kings. It was almost entirely destroyed in the war of Charlemagne against Thassilon, duke of Bavaria ; and after the dissolution and division of that empire, it fell into the hands of the dukes of Swabia. After this it rose rapidly into importance as a manufacturing and commercial town, and its merchant princes, the Fuggers and "VYelsers, rivalled the Medici of Florence ; but the alterations produced in the currents of trade by the discoveries of the loth and 16th centuries occasioned a great decline. In 1276 it was raised to the rank of a free imperial city, which it retained, with many changes in its internal constitution, till 1806, when it was

annexed to the kingdom of Bavaria. Meanwhile, it was