NEW YORK (AP).- A rare first edition of John James Audubon’s illustrated “The Birds of America” depicting more than 400 life-size North American species in four monumental volumes was purchased at auction Friday for $7.9 million. Christie’s auction house identified the buyer as an American collector who bid by phone. The winning bid was within the presale estimate of $7 million to $10 million for the work, considered a masterpiece of ornithology art. Another complete first edition of “The Birds of America” sold at Sotheby’s in London in December 2010 for $11.5 million, a record for the most expensive printed book sold at auction. The 3 1/2-foot-tall books feature hand-colored prints of all the species known to Audubon in early 19th-century North America. Audubon insisted on the book’s large format — printed on the largest handmade sheets available at the time — because of his desire to portray the birds in their