Plate 388
Havell CCVI
Wood Duck
(Aix sponsa)
In Audubon’s highly detailed drawing, the colorful male wood ducks appear on the left. The flying male was drawn separately, cut out, and pasted onto the composition; above the head Audubon wrote a note to Havell: “The circle around the eye, and the upper Mandible as in the Male above—.” Most of the drawing was done in Louisiana in 1821; the female in the nest was added about 1825. Audubon drew the sycamore limbs, as well as the delicate fronds of a resurrection-fern atop the hollow branch.
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.
Learn more about the Library's Audubon Collection.