Audubon, John James (1780-1851), an American naturalist, a native of Louisiana. His parents were French. They sent him to Paris to study drawing. From childhood Audubon was given to hunting birds' nests and to keeping birds as pets. When he returned from Paris he took to an outdoor life. He spent years in what were, at that time, the wildernesses of the Mississippi Valley. He made his headquarters for a time at Henderson, Kentucky. He explored the forests and waterways of the West and South. Sometimes his tramp occupied several months. In 1826 he went to London and published a work called The Birds of America. It contained a description of over one thousand birds with reproductions of drawings colored by his own hand. A complete set of Audubon's Birds in good condition is now worth several hundred dollars. Audubon's memory is preserved by an organization of Audubon societies. Branch associations for the protection and study of birds have been organized in not less than forty states of the Union. See BIRD.