John James Audubon, an American ornithologist of great distinction was born in Louisiana, May 4, 1780. He went to France to study art and on his return to America spent many years in travelling through the great forests of this country, perfecting his knowledge of ornithology and making sketches from which he prepared colored plates of every species of bird with which he was acquainted. In 1826 he again visited Europe, where he was treated with marks of the greatest respect by Cuvier, Humboldt, and other celebrated scientists, and began to publish, in London, his first great work on ornithology. He subsequently brought out many works on the same subject, which were distinguished alike by Audubon's profound knowledge of the science, by his skill in designing the plates, and by the clear terse language in which he described the birds. For one of his works, The Birds of America, he received numerous subscriptions at one thousand dollars per copy. He died in 1851.
Adapted from The Dictionary of Biography by Charles Morris
| Birth of John James Audubon. | |
| Visited Europe, met with respect by other esteemed scientists. | |
| Death of John James Audubon. |
| How Audubon Came to Know the Birds in | Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans by Edward Eggleston |