Smooth green snake
Date
1731
Creator
Mark Catesby (1683 - 1749, British) , Naturalist
Object type
Library reference
18894
Material
Technique
Subject
Content object
Description
Zoological study of a smooth green snake, Opheodrys vernalis, referred to here as Anguis viridis, shown twined around a branch of yaupon holly, Illex vomitoria.
Signed and inscribed below: 'Anguis &c Cassena &c'
Written in the associated description: 'This inoffensive little Snake abides amng the Branches of Trees and Shrubs, catching Flies and other Insects, on which they feed: They are generally about the Size of the Figure'.
Plate 57 from volume II of Mark Catesby’s The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (London, 1731).
Mark Catesby (1683-1749), British naturalist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1733. Travelling under the auspices of the Royal Society, Catesby recorded the earliest western scientific descriptions of the flora and fauna of the ‘New World’. He was the first naturalist to use folio-sized colour plates in a natural history book, and etched the copper plates himself before hand-colouring each individual print with watercolours.
Signed and inscribed below: 'Anguis &c Cassena &c'
Written in the associated description: 'This inoffensive little Snake abides amng the Branches of Trees and Shrubs, catching Flies and other Insects, on which they feed: They are generally about the Size of the Figure'.
Plate 57 from volume II of Mark Catesby’s The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (London, 1731).
Mark Catesby (1683-1749), British naturalist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1733. Travelling under the auspices of the Royal Society, Catesby recorded the earliest western scientific descriptions of the flora and fauna of the ‘New World’. He was the first naturalist to use folio-sized colour plates in a natural history book, and etched the copper plates himself before hand-colouring each individual print with watercolours.
Associated place
Credit
©The Royal Society
Image number
RS.18802