Ornithologist; born in New Orleans, May 4, 1780; was the son of a French admiral.
Educated at
Paris, he acquired much skill as an artist
under the instruction of the celebrated
David.
At the age of seventeen years he began to make a collection of drawings of the birds of
America, and became a most devoted student of the feathered tribes of our country.
So early as 1810 he went down the
Ohio River with his wife and child in an open boat.
to a congenial spot for a forest home.
He visited almost every region of the
United States.
In some of his Western excursions,
Wilson, the ornithologist, was his companion.
In 1826 he went to
Europe to secure subscriptions to his great work,
The birds of America.
It was issued in numbers, each containing five plates, the subjects drawn and colored the size and tints of life.
It was completed in 4 volumes, in 1838.
Of the 170 subscribers to the work, at $1,000 each, nearly one-half came from
England and
France.
He also prepared a work entitled
Ornithological Biographics, and had partly completed a work entitled
Quadrupcds of America, when he died.
His two sons who inherited his tastes and much of his genius, finished this work, which was published in 1850.
His residence, in the latter years of his life, was on the banks of the
Hudson, not far from Washinington Heights.
He died in New York City. Jan. 27. 1851.