JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 



THERE is a hopeless confusion as to 

 certain important dates in Audubon's 

 life. He was often careless and unreli- 

 able in his statements of matters of fact, 

 which weakness during his lifetime 

 often led to his being accused of false- 

 hood. Thus he speaks of the "memo- 

 rable battle of Valley Forge " and of two 

 brothers of his, both officers in the 

 French army, as having perished in the 

 French Bevolution, when he doubtless 

 meant uncles. He had previously stated 

 that his only two brothers died in infancy. 

 He confessed that he had no head for 

 mathematics, and he seems always to 

 have been at sea in regard to his own 

 age. In his letters and journals there 

 are several references to his age, but 

 they rarely agree. The date of his birth 

 usually given, May 4, 1780, is probably 

 three or four years too early, as he 



