of his marriage at the age of twenty-eight; his business career which
followed, lasting ten or more years, and consisting mainly in getting rid
of the fortune his father had left him; and his career as an ornithologist
which, though attended with great hardships and privations, brought him
much happiness and, long before the end, substantial pecuniary rewards.

His ornithological tastes and studies really formed the main current of his
life from his teens onward. During his business ventures in Kentucky and
elsewhere this current came to the surface more and more, absorbed more and
more of his time and energies, and carried him further and further from the
conditions of a successful business career.

J. B.

WEST PARK, NEW YORK, January, 1902.




CHRONOLOGY


1780

_May 4_. John James La Forest Audubon was born at Mandeville,
Louisiana.

(Paucity of dates and conflicting statements make it impossible to insert
dates to show when the family moved to St. Domingo, and thence to France.)