Description
Lophodytes cucullatus
Print size: 26 1/4" x 39 1/4"; image size: 24 1/2" x 19 1/2"
Princeton Audubon Limited Edition - produced 1985
Based on a composition painted in New Orleans in 1821. Of the male, at left, Audubon wrote: "Its broad and rounded crest of pure white, with an edging of jetty black, and which it closes or spreads out at pleasure, renders the male of this species conspicuous on the waters to which it resorts. The activity of its motions, the rapidity of its flight, and its other habits, contribute to render it a pleasing object to the student of nature..."
Edward Howe Forbush considered the hooded merganser the most beautiful of its family. He wrote: "Vivacious, active, elegant in form, graceful in carriage, its presence adds a peculiar charm to the little ponds and streams on which it delights to disport...One who has seen a small flock of this species placing on the dark waters of a tiny shaded pool with two or three beautiful males darting about among the others, opening and closing their fan-like crests and throwing the sparkling drops in showers over their glistening plumage, will rarely find anywhere a finer and more animated picture of bird life."
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:
1726
