JOHN JAMES AUDUBON. 
I. 
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 oftwo 
brothers of his, both officers in the 
French army, as having perished in the 
French Revolution, 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 
