Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.9982
Looking for a special gift? Buy a print of this image.
‘The Yellow-rumped Fly-catcher, and the Gentian of the Desert’
Date
1757
Creator
George Edwards (1694 - 1773, British) , Ornithologist
Object type
Library reference
38029
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 286mm
width (print): 220mm
width (print): 220mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Studies of a bird, probably the Yellow-rumped Warbler Setophaga coronata perched upon a gentian, which is in flower, both from colonial Pennsylvania, North America. These are shown with a ‘Scythian Lamb’, reproduced from the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society after a drawing by Johann Philipp Breyne FRS (1680–1764).
Plate 255 from chapter 45 of Gleanings of natural history, exhibiting figures of quadrupeds, birds, insects, plants, &c..., by George Edwards, volume 1 (London, for the author, 1758). The author describes his subjects within the text: “The bird here figured is of its natural size...I received this bird, preserved dry, from Mr. William Bartram, of Pennsylvania, with a drawing of the Gentian only, which I have added to it rather as a decoration...they are scarce in Pennsylvania...The Scythian Lamb, figured in the corner of the plate...is a kind of Moss growing about the roots of fern, and forming sometimes the appearance of a quadruped.”
The plate is inscribed: “The Sythian Lamb. The Yellow rumped fly catcher. The Autumnal Gentian of the Desert. G Edwards Del. et Sculp. 1757.”
Plate 255 from chapter 45 of Gleanings of natural history, exhibiting figures of quadrupeds, birds, insects, plants, &c..., by George Edwards, volume 1 (London, for the author, 1758). The author describes his subjects within the text: “The bird here figured is of its natural size...I received this bird, preserved dry, from Mr. William Bartram, of Pennsylvania, with a drawing of the Gentian only, which I have added to it rather as a decoration...they are scarce in Pennsylvania...The Scythian Lamb, figured in the corner of the plate...is a kind of Moss growing about the roots of fern, and forming sometimes the appearance of a quadruped.”
The plate is inscribed: “The Sythian Lamb. The Yellow rumped fly catcher. The Autumnal Gentian of the Desert. G Edwards Del. et Sculp. 1757.”
Associated place