Dunnock Foraging on Turf, Hand Colored Bird Print, Morris, 1896

An original wood engraved bird plate, colored by hand, captioned "DUNNOCK." A single bird stands on a flat strip of turf, facing to the left, its body low and pitched forward with the head lowered and the fine bill pointing ahead. The head, throat and breast are blue gray, the back and wings rich brown spotted and streaked with darker brown, and the flanks pale with small dark spots. The legs and feet are yellowish. The ground is a band of green turf over sandy soil with a few small grass tufts along its lower edge, set against plain paper.

The caption is engraved in spaced capitals below the picture: "DUNNOCK." There is no number or other lettering above the picture, and no engraver's credit within it. The Dunnock is Prunella modularis.

This plate comes from the fourth edition of A History of British Birds by the Reverend Francis Orpen Morris (1810 to 1893), rector of Nunburnholme in Yorkshire, who wrote the text. The edition was issued in six volumes by John C. Nimmo of London, and this plate belongs to the third volume, whose title page is dated 1896 and states that the plates are colored by hand. The wood blocks for the plates of the work were engraved by Benjamin Fawcett (1808 to 1893) of Driffield in Yorkshire. Each plate combines an engraved black key block with a printed gray tint, finished by hand in watercolor.

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