Plate 290
Havell XIII
Slate-Colored Junco
(Junco hyemalis)
Audubon inscribed this painting of two males simply “February”; the year was probably 1822. “The twig on which you see them is one of the Tupelo, a tree of great magnitude, growing in the low grounds of the state of Louisiana, and on one of which I happened to shoot the pair represented in the plate.” Ordinarily, “tupelo” refers to Nyssa sylvatica; this tree, drawn by Joseph Mason, is actually a close relative, commonly called cotton-gum (Nyssa aquatica).
Source: The Original Water-Color Paintings by John James Audubon. Copyright 1966 by American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc.
Learn more about this print on the National Audubon Society's website.
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