Bittern Stalking Through Reeds, Plate CLV 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 a Bittern pushing forward through dense reeds, the body low and the thick neck stretched up and forward to the viewer's right with the dagger bill raised. The mottled and barred plumage, the dark crown and moustache stripe and the long, loose feathers of the neck are drawn in fine detail, and the large feet with long claws are spread across a fallen reed stem in the foreground. Reedmace heads and seeding rushes fill the background.

The plate is lettered "PLATE CLV" 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.