THE 



LIFE AND LABOURS OF AUDUBON. 



CHAPTEE I. 



Intboduction — The Audubon Genealogy.* 



The name of Audubon is of French origin; it is extremely 

 rare, and while confined in America to the family of the 

 naturalist, has in France been traced only among his ancestry. 

 Audubon has told us all that he knew of his relations. He writes : 

 " John Audubon my grandfather was born at the small village 

 of Sable d'Olonne, in La Vendee, with a small harbour, forty- 

 five miles south from Nantes. He was a poor fisherman with a 

 numerous family, twenty-one of whom grew to maturity. There 

 was but one boy besides my father, he being the twentieth born, 

 and the only one of the numerous family who lived to a con- 

 siderable age. In subsequent years, when I visited Sable 

 d'Olonne, the old^ inhabitants told me that they had seen the 

 whole of this family, including both parents, at church several 

 times on Sunday." 



The father of the naturalist appears to have caught at an 

 early age the restless spirit of his times, and his father, who 

 saw in it the only hope the youth had of obtaining distinction, 

 encouraged his love of adventure. He himself says of his start 

 in life : " When I was twelve years of age my father provided 



* The first five or six chapters are merely the preliminary to the series of 

 episodes which follow, and are marked by none of the restless motion and 

 bright colour of the naturalist's life. Still, they will be acceptable to those 

 whcm Audubon interests personally. — B. B. 



