apparently it once flowed nearer to the house but has been pushed away by the construction of modern dykes. The hilltop to which I have just referred, like the roof of the villa, commands a panorama of the whole region, including Nantes and all the surrounding communes. "La Gerbetière" is now a small estate of less than fifty _ares_, or one and a half acres, of land. The buildings, which form a quadrangle with enclosed court, occupy a corner next the side street, and stand about 200 feet back from the main highway leading from Couëron to Port Launay. The extent of the original property cannot now be determined, but Lieutenant Audubon, who retired at the age of fifty-seven, was never a farmer on a large scale. The original house, which probably dates from early in the eighteenth century, has an easterly wing or L, continued into a long, low section through which the court is now entered from the road at the side; this was probably added by Jean Audubon, but the westerly end and wing are a more modern accretion, built for the accommodation of additional tenants, as many as three families having occupied the place in 1857. "La Gerbetière" was entered from the main street by a small door which pierces the high enclosing wall, and leads the visitor into what was formerly an ornamental garden, the original design of which can still be traced. At the time of my visit, however, this entrance had long ceased to be an avenue of response. Encouraged by the sight of a peddler's cart, I walked up the side street and entered the court. Here the response was prompt and vigorous enough, and from the guardians of the place, one of which was chafing at his chain close to the doorway. I crossed rather gingerly to an open hallway, opposite the main entrance, and knocked repeatedly, noting here that rooms opened to this small entrance hall on either side, and that a steep stairway led to others above. At last, during a temporary lull in the barking of dogs, the "tok-tok" of sabots was heard on the stairs, and I handed up my card with one from the director of the Natural History Museum at Nantes. After various messages had been shouted back and forth, I was led through another passage to the tenant, who was talking with the peddler in the garden. Julien Lebréton, who was a farmer on a small scale, received me kindly and answered my questions to the best of his ability; it did not surprise me that he was both puzzled and suspicious, or that his first thought was of our coming to look over the place with a view to its purchase.