Adult Night Heron on a Fallen Branch, Plate CLII after Lilian Medland, c. 1909

This is an original antique bird print, a photogravure printed in black and gray tones without added color. It shows an adult Night Heron standing on a fallen branch above still water, with reeds and grasses at left and right. The bird faces the viewer's right in a hunched posture, one foot drawn up beneath the white breast. The black crown and back, a long white plume trailing from the nape, the white forehead and face, the large eye and the stout, pointed bill are clearly drawn, and the gray wings are worked feather by feather.

The plate is lettered "PLATE CLII" at lower right and "1/3 scale" at lower center, the scale at which the bird is drawn. The artist's signature, "L. M. Medland", is drawn into the image. No species name is printed on the plate; the identification given here is made from the drawing itself.

Charles Stonham's The Birds of the British Islands was issued in London by E. Grant Richards in five volumes from 1906 to 1911, and this plate is from the third volume. Every plate in the work was made after drawings by Lilian M. Medland and printed by photogravure, so the tones of her original brush and wash drawing survive in a single ink. Medland later married the ornithologist Tom Iredale and moved to Australia.

Printed in a single tone on a generous sheet, the plate looks well in a plain frame with a pale mat, alone or as part of a group of birds.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.