BIRTH AND PARENTAGE 61 
bon, lieutenant of afrigate of the Republic, and of Anne Moinet, 
his legitimate wife, who being present bear witness that the 
adoption of the said Fougére, made by them, is in accordance 
with the present act. 
[Signed] Tarpiveav, priest of Saint- 
Similien, of the town of Nantes. 
The act of adoption was drawn at a time when Cap- 
tain Audubon could have had little leisure to consult 
records had he been disposed to do so, but the dates 
of birth which he then gave for these two children were 
correct both as to the year and month. Fougére, how- 
ever, was born on the twenty-sixth, instead of the twen- 
ty-second of April, and Muguet, on the twenty-ninth, 
instead of the twenty-sixth, of that month. Audubon’s 
mother’s name is indicated in numerous legal documents 
of later date, and, as will appear, in every instance her 
son’s identity is clearly established. 
Young Audubon, who disliked the names of Fougére 
and Rabin, and naturally wished to be rid of their early 
associations, adopted the fanciful name of “La For- 
est,” ** but used it only sporadically and for a short time. 
Some of his drawings of birds made at Nantes or Coué- 
ron as early as 1805, and in New York in 1806 and 1807, 
and possibly others of slightly later date, are signed 
“J. L. F. A.,” or “J. J. L. Audubon.” ?” 
Jean Audubon and his wife are said to have settled 
“An English writer once gave the name of Audubon’s mother as 
Mile. La Forét. 
* Audubon’s signature underwent frequent variations during the first 
twenty-five years of his life, but after 1820 he almost invariably signed 
himself “John J.,” or “J. J. Audubon.” In the record of the civil 
marriage of his sister, at Couéron in 1805, his name appears as “J. J. L. 
Audubon;” in the “Articles of Association” with Ferdinand Rozier, signed 
at Nantes in 1806, it is “Jean Audubon,” and in the release given on the 
dissolution of this partnership, at Ste. Geneviéve, in 1811, the English 
form, “John Audubon,” appears. 
