Part 3

1834

Completion of second volume of "Birds," also second volume of American Ornithological Biography.

1835

In Edinburgh.

1836

To New York again--more exploring; found books, papers and drawings had been destroyed by fire, the previous year.

1837

Went to London.

1838

Published fourth volume of American Ornithological Biography.

1839

Published fifth volume of "Biography."

1840

Left England for the last time.

1842

Built house in New York on "Minnie's Land," now Audubon Park.

1843

Yellowstone River Expedition.

1840-44

Published the reduced edition of his "Bird Biographies."

1846

Published first volume of "Quadrupeds."

1848

Completed Quadrupeds and Biography of American Quadrupeds. (The last volume was not published till 1854, after his death.)

1851

January 27. John James Audubon died in New York.

JOHN JAMES AUDUBON.

There is a hopeless confusion as to certain important dates in Audubon's life. He was often careless and unreliable in his statements of matters of fact, which weakness during his lifetime often led to his being accused of falsehood. Thus he speaks of the "memorable battle of Valley Forge" and of two 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 speaks of himself as being nearly seventeen when his mother had him confirmed in the Catholic Church, and this was about the time that his father, then an officer in the French navy, was sent to England to effect a change of prisoners, which time is given as 1801.