Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.9990
Looking for a special gift? Buy a print of this image.
‘The American Water-Rail’ [Virginia rail]
Date
1757
Creator
George Edwards (1694 - 1773, British) , Ornithologist
Object type
Library reference
38029
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 288mm
width (print): 220mm
width (print): 220mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Ornithological study of the Virginia rail Rallus limicola from North America, posed on a bank by the waterside.
Plate 279 from chapter 69 of Gleanings of natural history, exhibiting figures of quadrupeds, birds, insects, plants, &c..., by George Edwards, volume 2 (London, for the author, 1760). The author describes the bird within the text: “This Bird is here figured of its natural size: the print was worked on the copper immediately from the Bird...This Bird was sent from Pennsylvania by Mr. Bartram: it is exactly of the size and shape of our English Water-rail...”
The plate is inscribed: “The American Water Rail, Etched from Nature of the bigness of life. George Edwards Delin. et Sculp: AD 1757.”
Plate 279 from chapter 69 of Gleanings of natural history, exhibiting figures of quadrupeds, birds, insects, plants, &c..., by George Edwards, volume 2 (London, for the author, 1760). The author describes the bird within the text: “This Bird is here figured of its natural size: the print was worked on the copper immediately from the Bird...This Bird was sent from Pennsylvania by Mr. Bartram: it is exactly of the size and shape of our English Water-rail...”
The plate is inscribed: “The American Water Rail, Etched from Nature of the bigness of life. George Edwards Delin. et Sculp: AD 1757.”
Associated place