Went to Philadelphia to get his drawings published. Thwarted. There met Sully, and Prince Canino.
Sailed for Europe to introduce his drawings.
Went to Paris to canvass. Visited Cuvier.
Returned to the United States, scoured the woods for more material for his biographies.
Elephant folio, _The Birds of North America_, published.
_American Ornithological Biography_ published in Edinburgh.
In Florida, South Carolina, and the Northern States, Labrador, and Canada.
Completion of second volume of "Birds," also second volume of _American Ornithological Biography_.
To New York again--more exploring; found books, papers and drawings had been destroyed by fire, the previous year.
Published fourth volume of _American Ornithological Biography_.
Built house in New York on "Minnie's Land," now Audubon Park.
Published the reduced edition of his "Bird Biographies."
Completed _Quadrupeds and Biography of American Quadrupeds_. (The last volume was not published till 1854, after his death.)
_January 27_. John James Audubon died in New York.
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.
The two race strains that mingle in him probably account for this illogical habit of mind, as well as for his romantic and artistic temper and tastes.