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American Flamingo Princeton Audubon Limited Edition
Phoenicopterus ruber Print size: 26 1/4" x 39 1/4"; image size: 25" x 37" Produced 1985 - Princeton Audubon Limited Edition Audubon saw several flocks of American flamingos in the Florida Keys in 1832, and while anxious to obtain a specimen from which to make a painting, he was never able to shoot one. During a stay in London, he wrote repeatedly to his friend John Bachman, a Lutheran minister in Charleston, South Carolina, asking for a specimen. In a letter dated October 31, 1837, he said: "As to flamingos their Eggs &c I fear this is up for me; and this proves to me now that I was a great fool not to have gone to Cuba, or sent a person there expressly..." Fortunately, it wasn't "up" for him after all. He finally obtained specimens from Cuba and made the drawing for this Havell plate in London in 1838. The flamingo's highly specialized manner of feeding is as noteworthy as its dramatic coloring. The bird plunges its head underwater upside down, then with the upper bill of its sickle-shaped beak serving as a dredge and the tongue as a sieve, it scoops small shellfish from the bottom of shallow lagoons.
SKU: 221431
Category: Posters and Prints
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