104 ATIDRAIN AUDUBON diploma as a physician in 1826, became sub- director of the library of the institute, founder and president of the entomological society, and in 1838 member of the academy. At the request of the government he investigated the injury caused by insects to the silk and vine culture, and published the results of his obser- vations in the annals of the academy and of the entomological society. He described Sa- vigny's zoological designs in the great work on Egypt published under the auspices of the government, contributed to various cyclopaedias, and published with Milne-Edwards, his colla- borator in many other works, Eecherches pour aenir d Vhistoire naturelle du littoral de la France (2 vols., Paris, 1830) ; and with Milne- Edwards and Blanchard, Histoire de insectes nuisilles d la viyne, et partieulierement de la pyrale, qui devatte les vignolles (Paris, 1842). AUDRAIN, a X. E. county of Missouri ; area, 680 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 12,307, of whom 1,070 were colored. The surface is level or undulating; the soil is generally fertile and suitable for grazing. In 1870 the county pro- duced 44,545 bushels of wheat, 648,963 of In- dian corn, 292,435 of oats, 12,226 tons of hay, 6,850 Ibs. of tobacco, 28,223 of wool, and 241,- 855 of butter. Capital, Mexico, on the North Missouri railroad. AI'DKA.V the name of a celebrated family of French engravers, all descending from Louis Audran, an officer of the wolf-hunt under Hen- ry IV., whose son CLAUDE, born in 1592, set- tled at Lyons, became professor of engraving at the academy of that city, and died in 1677. GERARD, son of Claude, born at Lyons in 1640, studied three years at Rome under Carlo Ma- ratti, and acquired fame by his engraving of a portrait of Pope Clement IX. Colbert invited him to Paris, where he, with almost unparal- leled ability, engraved for Louis XIV. the best pictures of Le Brun. He was also the author of a work on the proportions of the human figure, published in folio, with 27 plates of ancient statues. He died in Paris in 1703. JEAN, brother of Gerard, born about 1667, had his studio in the Gobelins, and left a number of fine works of art, the most celebrated of which is his engraving of the Enlevem.ent des Salines, after Poussin. He died in 1756. Sev- eral others of the family attained considerable distinction. AUDUBON,a 8. W. county of Iowa; area, 630 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 1,212. It is intersected by an affluent of the Missouri. In 1870 the county produced 26,174 bushels of wheat, 98,- 150 of Indian corn, 7,100 of oats, and 3,457 tons of hay. Capital, Exira. AI'Dl li<. John James, an American ornithol- ogist, born on a plantation in Louisiana, May 4, 1780, died in New York, Jan. 27, 1851. He was the son of an officer in the French navy. When very young he showed the greatest fondness for birds, keeping many as pets. He made sketches of these, and, disclosing con- siderable talent as a draughtsman, was taken to France to be educated, and placed in the studio of the celebrated painter David. He was 17 years old when he returned to his native country, and he afterward became pos- sessed of a fine farm on the banks of the Schuylkill in Pennsylvania. His researches into the habits of birds, and his drawings of them, absorbed his attention, and though un- successful at first in bringing his drawings be- fore the public, he laid during the years of his life in Pennsylvania the foundations of the great work which he afterward produced. A severe trial befell him when, after having ac- cumulated a large stock of the most carefully executed designs, he discovered that the whole of them had been destroyed by mice. After 10 years' residence in Pennsylvania, he removed to Henderson, Kentucky, where he embarked in trade. In 1810 he made the acquaintance of the Scotch ornithologist Alexander Wilson, who was then prosecuting his own researches in the American wilderness, and accompanied him in his excursions. The next year Audubon visited the bayous of Florida, gathering with his rifle and pencil new subjects for study. In 1824 he went to Philadelphia and New York, to make arrangements for the publication of the results of his labors ; and for the same pur- pose he sailed for England in 1826. He was everywhere received by learned societies and scientific men with the utmost cordiality and enthusiasm. Among his warmest admirers in Great Britain were Jeffrey, John Wilson, and Sir Walter Scott ; and in Paris, Cuvier, Geoft'roy St.-Hilaire, and Humboldt. Of the 170 sub- scribers at $1,000 each to his splendid volume, the "Birds of America," nearly one half camo from England and France. This volume was issued in numbers, containing five plates each, every object being of the size of life. By Nov. 11, 1828, eleven numbers of the work had ap- peared, with nearly 100 plates. In 1829 he re- turned to the United States, where he gathered materials for a new work, which he termed his "Ornithological Biographies." In 1832 he made another visit to England, where in the course of two years the second volume of the " Birds of America " was published, and a sec- ond volume also of the " Ornithological Biog- raphies." In 1833, having returned for the last time to this country, he established him- self in a beautiful residence on the banks of the Hudson, near the city of New York, where he commenced a new edition of the " Birds of America," in imperial octavo. This was finished in seven volumes in 1844. During this interval Audubon exhibited in the hall of the New York lyceum of natural history a collection of his original drawings containing several thousand specimens of birds and animals, all of which had been gathered by his own hand, all drawn as large as life, and all represented in their natural habitats or localities. He next pro- jected a work on the " Quadrupeds of America," on the same imperial scale with that on the birds. For this purpose he began, in company
