OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE WISCONSIN AND ILLINOIS AUDUBON SOCIETIES. 
One Year 25 Cents Single Copy 5 Cents 
Published by the Wisconsin Audubon Society at Appleton, Wisconsin 
Entered as second class matter, May 16, 1904, at Appleton, Wis., under the act of Congress of Mar, 3. ’79. 
j' VOL. XL SEPTEMBER, 1908. No 3 
Audubon. 
Ten years or so before the eighteenth 
century made its bow of farewell, a bright¬ 
eyed lad with decidedly foreign features 
might have been seen lying down amid 
the profuse and fragrant flowers of a 
plantation in Louisiana, where, shielded 
by the orange trees, he was intently 
watching the movements of the southern 
mocking-bird. That studious lad was 
John James Audubon, who afterwards 
became one of the most honored natur¬ 
alists of his time and who gave to the 
world that monumental work on “The 
Birds of America,” that remains to this 
day without a peer. 
Audubon was born in New Orleans, 
May 4, 1780. His father—a Frenchman 
—crossed the Atlantic in a fishing smack 
from Nantes, and found his way to 
Louisiana, where in a few years he be¬ 
came an extensive ship-owner. His 
mother was a Spanish senorita of New 
Orleans, which at that time was Spanish 
territory. 
The father was an ardent worshiper 
of Napoleon, and took the boy to France 
to be educated, and to win fame among 
i the armies of the “Little Corsican.” But 
the boy had no mind to be a soldier,and 
so, after a few years, was sent out to take 
charge of the estate in Louisiana, and 
j ‘ 
another in Pennsvlvania. At Mill Grove, 
near Valley Forge, he met and married 
Lucy Bakewell, the daughter of an Eng¬ 
lish neighbor. 
But at this time (1808) the new and 
wonderful West was enticing numbers of 
adventurous souls awav from the Atlan¬ 
tic seaboard, and Audubon and his young 
wife went to Louisville, Kentucky, where, 
by the way, one of their two remaining 
daughters—Miss Harriet B. Audubon— 
is living at present. 
In this new country he began the 
nature study which was to make him 
famous in earnest. The woods were 
amply stocked with game, the swales with 
water-fowl. It was an ideal place for a 
bird-lover to do his work. And to do it 
well, he was greatly assisted by the draw¬ 
ing school of David during his stay in 
France. 
Then there came to him the dream of 
a complete record of American Birds. 
And these should be given in their nat¬ 
ural surroundings and in their natural 
size. The pictured eagle should be on 
the same proportion as the real bird of 
flight. So with the wild pigeon, the 
thrush, and the humming-bird. 
But to do the work he set himself, he 
must thoroughly acquaint himself with 
the haunts of the birds he would portray. 
And this of necessity made him a rover 
in the cause of science such as few men 
have been. At one time he would be 
away for months in the Appalachian 
Mountains; and at another, far away 
among the Indians of the prairies, study¬ 
ing grouse and wild swan. One year 
