Plate 343
Havell CCLXVIII
American Woodcock
(Philohela minor)
Audubon painted these adult woodcocks between 1832 and 1834 along the Atlantic coast; the bird at left was done separately and then pasted onto the composition. In the text he wrote later to accompany this plate, Audubon rhapsodized at some length over the woodcock as a savory meal, concluding: “…when a jug of sparkling Newark cider stands nigh; and you, without knife or fork, quarter a Woodcock, ah, Reader!—But alas! I am not in the Jerseys just now, in the company of my generous friend Edward Harris; nor am I under the hospitable roof of my equally esteemed friend John Bachman. No, Reader, I am in Edinburgh, wielding my iron pen, without any expectation of Woodcocks for my dinner; either to-day or to-morrow, or indeed for some months to come.”
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.