The small quadrupeds were published in Octavo form just as the birds, but for the first time, the name of Audubon's son, John W., appeared on many of the plates.  J. T. Bowen was the lithographer, but about 17 of the plates in volume one were lithographed by Nagel and Weingaertner of New York.  A number of artists, chiefly William E. Hitchcock and R. Trembly, transferred the images to the stones, signing their initials on the plates.  About 2,000 copies of all four editions were sold. The First Edition was 1849-54 and the last 1870.  These three-volume sets, as with the seven volumes of birds, were used as gifts to foreign governments by the U. S. government.  The plates measure about 7 x 10 inches and are stone lithographs colored by hand. 

Audubon died in 1851, before this work was completed.  In the quadruped octavo edition, J. W. Audubon was credited with being the artist on ten plates which had been credited to J. J. Audubon in the folio edition. The collector should bear in mind that while America's animals were discovered over a period of time, going back to the 1600's, they were not described and illustrated in one publication until John J. Audubon and Rev. John Bachman published the Imperial Folio of quadrupeds in the early 1840's.  This was a monumental effort - considering that most of the animals are nocturnal.  A few of the animals illustrated by Audubon and described by Bachman are so-called "mystery animals" as they are still unidentified.  The print collector, besides owning an original Audubon print,  will also possess a unique piece of American history.  In addition, this process - a hand-colored stone lithograph - is an exquisite art form, never to be seen again due to what would be an exorbitant cost in today's world.

To our knowledge, for the first time on the internet, the Audubon/Bachman names of the animals are accompanied by the common names used by mammalogists today when they differ from those used in the 1800's. Of course, the names Audubon used in  this list are identical to those on the large Imperial Folio prints, 21 x 27 inches, in the Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America publication. Following are some reference books on Audubon's animals.  Obviously, many books have been written on his birds and animals and are easily found in libraries or on the internet:

Boehme, Sarah - John James Audubon in the West:  The Last Expedition, to accompany exhibits at Buffalo Bill Museum, Cody, Wyoming, and three other museum shows, Abrams Press, 2000 Cahalane, Victor - The Imperial Collection of Audubon Animals, Hammond, Inc., 1967 Ford, Alice - John James Audubon: A Biography, Abbeville Press, 1988 Ford, Alice - Audubon's Animals: The Quadrupeds of North America, New York Studio, 1951 Krammer, William - Audubon's Quadrupeds of North America, Wellfleet Press, 1989 McDermott, John - Audubon in the West, University of Oklahoma Press, 1965 Peterson, Roger Tory - The Art of Audubon: the Complete Birds and Mammals, New York Times Books, 1979