Upon corresponding with the gentleman in question, M. L. Lavigne, I was informed that the documents in his possession were of the most varied description, comprising letters, wills, deeds, certificates of births, baptisms, adoptions, marriages and deaths, to the number, it is believed, of several hundred pieces. This unique and extraordinary collection of Audubonian records had been slumbering in a house in the commune of Couëron called "Les Tourterelles" ("The Turtle Doves") for nearly a hundred years, or since the death of the naturalist's stepmother in 1821. Since I was unable to judge of the authenticity of the documents or to visit France at that time, my friend, Professor Gustav G. Laubscher, who happened to be in Paris, engaged in investigating Romance literary subjects, kindly consented to go to Couëron for the purpose of inspecting them. Monsieur Lavigne had already prepared for me, and still held, a number of photographs of the most important manuscripts, which are now for the first time reproduced, and, with the aid of a stenographer, in the course of two or three days they were able to transcribe the most essential and interesting parts of this voluminous material. But at that very moment sinister clouds were blackening the skies of Europe, and my friend was obliged to leave his task unfinished and hasten to Paris; when he arrived in that city, on the memorable Saturday of August 1, 1914, orders for the mobilization of troops had been posted; it was some time before copies of the manuscripts were received from Couëron, and he left the French capital to return to America. These documents came into the hands of Monsieur Lavigne through his wife, who was a daughter and legatee of Gabriel Loyen du Puigaudeau, the second, son of Gabriel Loyen du Puigaudeau, the son-in-law of Lieutenant and Mme. Jean Audubon. Gabriel Loyen du Puigaudeau, the second, who died at Couëron in 1892, is thought to have destroyed all letters of the naturalist which had been in possession of the family and which were written previous to 1820, when his relations with the elder Du Puigaudeau were broken off; not a line in the handwriting of John James Audubon has been preserved at Couëron. In June and July, 1914, Dr. Laubscher had repeatedly applied to the French Foreign Office, through the American Embassy at Paris, for permission to examine the _dossier_ of Jean Audubon in the archives of the Department of the Marine, in order to verify certain dates in his naval career and to obtain the personal reports which he submitted upon his numerous battles at sea, but at that period of strain it was impossible to gain further access to the papers sought.