There is a great deal of mystery about Audubon's early life. No one is sure where he was born. No one is sure, either, who his parents were. Audubon called himself by different names at different times and thus added to the mystery.
The part of Audubon's story we know surely about begins in France in 1794. In that year he was adopted by a French naval captain named Audubon. Captain Audubon and his wife were very kind to the boy. They sent him to school, hoping that he would be a soldier or an engineer. But he was more interested in wandering in the woods and drawing pictures of the animals he saw. When he was 18 he came to the United States.
Young Audubon was charming and soon had many friends in America. He tried one way after another of making a living. He taught French and dancing, kept a store, ran a mill, and painted portraits. But his real interest was in painting the birds and other animals he saw.
We owe his beautiful pictures partly to Lucy Bakewell, the girl he married. For she worked as a governess to give him a chance to paint. The hundreds of pictures he painted are now very valuable. The Audubon Society, made up of people much interested in birds, was named in his honor.
