The Spirit of the Great Naturalist. 



The simple truth is spoken when it is said that the Auduljon 

 societies formed for the protection of the wild bird life of America 

 are carrying forward their work not only in the name of Auckibon 

 Init in the spirit which was the great naturalist's guide. John 

 James Audubon was a lover of nature. He made his way deep 

 into the ^Mother's heart and there held his place through the long 

 years of his life. Too little is known to the most of the American 

 people of this man who. Frenchman by extraction, was wholly 

 American in love and loyalty. 



Audubon the Dreamer. 



Some men have said that Audubon was an impractical man, a 

 dreamer. Impractical he was and a dreamer too, but the world 

 is better for its dreamers. The business man of large affairs looks 

 with a sort of pitying arrogance upon the man who loves the woods 

 rather than the counting house. The man who goes to the woods 

 with a purpose in his heart has chosen the better part. The im- 

 practical Audubon will live when those who called him dreamer 

 have been for centuries forgotten. 



Birth of Audubon. 



John James Audubon was born in St. Tammany Parish, Louisi- 

 ana, about twenty miles from New Orleans some time between the 

 years 1772 and 1783. the exact date being unknown. He was the 

 son of Admiral Jean Audubon an officer of the French navy who 

 served under Rochambeau in the fleet which aided America in 

 establishing her independence. Admiral Audubon with his wife 

 were visiting in Louisiana at the time of the birth of the boy who 

 was destined to become the best known of all American naturalists. 

 The boy Audubon's mother was killed in 1793 in Santo Domingo 

 where her husband held a large landed property. Madam Audubon 

 lost her life during one of the negro insurrections in that island. 

 Admiral Audubon took his children to France w^here he remarried 

 and gave his youngest son, John James, the only mother he ever 

 knew. 



Audubon's Love of Birds. 



It is impossible in a brief sketch to tell the hundreth part of 

 what there is to be told of Audubon's life. It was filled with 

 interest from the hour of his birth on the shore of Lake Ponchar- 

 . train to the hour of his death in Audubon Park on Manhattan 



Dei 



