Brown Headed Worm Eating Warbler Art Print by John James Audubon

An archival premium Quality art Print of the Brown Headed Worm Eating Warbler by John James Audubon. In this ornithology print, Mr. Audubon only shows a single specimen of this small songbird. It is setting in a beautiful branch of orange colored azalea that is in full bloom with two very colorful butterflies flying around the bird and flower blossoms. The azalea branch and butterflies were drawn by a sister of Mr. Audubon's friend, Miss Martin. This brown and white bird was drawn for inclusion in the great ornithology book, The Birds of America which was published by John James Audubon during the 1830s. This worm eating warbler was plate or picture number 198 in the first Havell edition. Mr. Audubon describes the brown headed worm eating warbler thus: The bird represented in the plate before you was discovered by my friend John Bachman, near Charleston in South Carolina, while I was in another part of our continent, searching for the knowledge necessary to render my ornithological biographies as interesting as possible to you:--it was in the spring of 1832, when I was rambling over the rugged country of Labrador, that my southern friend found the first specimen of this bird, near the banks of the Edisto river. I have been favoured by him with the following account of it. "I was first attracted by the novelty of its notes, four or five in number, repeated at intervals of five or six minutes apart. These notes were loud, clear, and more like a whistle than a song. They resembled the sounds of some extraordinary ventriloquist in such a degree, that I supposed the bird much farther from me than it really was; for after some trouble caused by these fictitious notes, I perceived it near to me, and soon shot it. "The form of its bill I observed at once to differ from all other known birds of our country, and was pleased at its discovery. On dissection it proved to be a male, and in the course of the same spring, I obtained two other males, of which the markings were precisely similar. In the middle of August of that year, I saw an old female accompanied with four young. One of the latter I obtained: it did not differ materially from the old ones. Another specimen was sent to me alive, having been caught in a trap. I have invariably found them in swampy muddy placer, usually covered with more or less water. The birds which I opened had their gizzards filled with the fragments of coleopterous insects, as well as some small green worms that are found on water plants, such as the pond lily (Nymphaea odorata) and the Nelumbium (Cyamus flavicomus). The manner of this species resemble those of the Prothonotary Warbler, as it skips among the low bushes growing about ponds and other watery places, seldom ascending high trees. It retires southward at the close of summer." Audubon bird print #198