Description
Columba fasciata
Flora: Cornus nuttalli
Print size: 26 1/4" x 39 1/4"; image size: 28" x 20 1/2"
Princeton Audubon Limited Edition - produced 1985
This print is based on a composition probably painted in the winter of 1836-37 in Charleston, S.C. Maria Martin drew the dogwood branch, a drawing most interesting to botanists since the accompanying text in the Ornithological biography contains the first recorded description of the western, or mountain, dogwood, Cornus nuttalli, which has six involuted bracts instead of the four of the well-known eastern species.
Audubon wrote: "In my plate are represented two adult birds, placed on the branch of a superb species of dogwood, discovered by my learned friend, Thomas Nuttall, Esq., when on his march toward the shores of the Pacific Ocean, and which I have graced with his name."
These pigeons lay only one egg to the nest, and breed usually only once a year, the lowest reproductive rate of any North American game bird except the extinct passenger pigeon. The enactment in 1913 of the Federal law for the protection of the migratory birds saved this species.
EHJ
Princeton Audubon prints are direct-camera facsimile lithographs of the Robert Havell Jr. (1793-1878) engravings for The Birds of America (1827-38). Princeton's Double elephant Folio prints are issued in limited editions of 500 or 1500 prints. All are numbered and have a seal in the bottom margin to demonstrate their authenticity.
Printed on heavy Mohawk paper that is recommended by the Library of Congress for archives, the paper is specially toned to match the average paper color of the antique originals.
Item Number:
1735
