Painted Bunting (Painted Bunting) [53]

Book Description

London: Havell, 1829. Hand-coloured engraving with aquatint and etching by R. Havell, jnr, printed and coloured by R. Havell snr, paper watermarked "J. Whatman/Turkey Mill/1828". Old tears at old folds, flattened out and backed onto tissue. Sheet size: 39 1/2 x 26 5/8 inches. From the first edition of "The Birds of America." A lively image of this spectacular bird of the South. 'The pugnacious habits of this species are common in a great degree to the whole family of Sparrows. Like the most daring, the Common House Sparrow of Europe, they may be observed in spring time, in little groups four, five or six, fighting together, moving round each other to secure an advantageous position, pecking and pulling at each others feathers with all the violence and animosity to which their small degree of strength can give effect. A group thus occupied I have attempted to represent in the plate." (Audubon The Birds of America New York: 1859, vol.III, p.94). 'Like a gaudy tropical flower that has taken wing, the painted bunting livens the gardens on the outskirts of Charleston, Savannah, and many other southern cities and towns. Some call it the nonpareil, for no other American bird can match its dazzling patchwork of color' (R.T. & V.M. Peterson The Audubon Baby Elephant Folio [London: 1981] pl.400). Susanne M. Low, A Guide to Audubon's Birds of America, New Haven & New York: 2002, pp.59-60, plate 53, version 1.

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