One of the most famous images from the most famous American ornithological work by the iconographic John James Audubon. The ‘Birds of America’ was first printed by Havell in London. This second edition was printed at the instigation of Audubon’s son John Woodhouse Audubon who aimed at producing a more affordable version by using the chromolithographic process. For the process, he hired the noted printmaker Julius Bien who transferred the images to stone, printed the colours and finished them by hand where necessary. The outbreak of the American Civil War interrupted printing and the project was never fully completed. In 1973 an attempt to locate known examples had traced only 49 surviving. Ayer pp. 24-5; Fries Appendix B, pp. 355-9; Nissen 50; Reese ‘Stamped with a National Character’ 40.