Pin Tailed Duck by John James Audubon art print

An archival premium Quality art Print of the Pin Tailed Duck by John James Audubon for sale by Brandywine General Store. This bird was plate or picture number 227 in the famed ornithology book The Birds of America, the first Havell edition, written by Audubon in the first part of the 19th century. Mr. Audubon attempted to draw all the birds in America with a brief description of each one for this masterpiece book, which would now bring millions of dollars if you had a complete edition. In this painting, Mr Audubon shows a male and female specimen of this duck, coming up out of the creek. They are both standing on the grassy creek bank and after a large bug which might be a mosquito, with the male being the closest to catching this delectable meal. This large pair of ducks filled up the paper so the bug is on the outside border along with part of the female's tail. The more common name for this water bird is the northern pintail. Anas Acuta - Mr. Audubon describes this bird thus in Birds of America. The first observation that I made on arriving at Labrador, was that no species of Ducks, excepting those which were entirely or chiefly oceanic, seemed to resort to that coast, and I left the country with the same impression. We saw no Mallards, Teals, Widgeons, or Wood Ducks there; nor any species of Merganser, excepting the Red-breasted, which is a marine bird. The Pintail Duck, then, was not seen in the parts of that country which I visited; nor was it known in Newfoundland, on the Magdeleine Islands, or in the British province of Nova Scotia, at least along its Atlantic boundaries. In Kentucky and the whole of the Western Country, where it is extremely abundant in early autumn, during winter, and up to a very advanced period in spring, you meet with it wherever its usual food is found. It follows the waters of the Mississippi to New Orleans, is seen westward in the prairies of Oppelousas, and extends to the eastward as far as Massachusetts, beyond which, like the Mallard, it is very seldom seen. Indeed, this species is at all times rare on the sea coast of America, and must therefore be considered as an inland bird. Audubon Bird print #227