Passenger Pigeon on a Mossy Branch, Hand Colored Bird Print, Morris, 1896

This is an original wood engraved bird plate, colored by hand, captioned "PASSENGER PIGEON." A single pigeon perches on a mossy branch that rises to the upper right, seen in three quarter view from behind, with the head turned to the right in profile. The head, back and wings are slate blue gray, the wing tips lying side by side, and the long tail is dark down the center with pale gray white outer feathers. The throat and breast are salmon red, the eye red orange and the feet pink. Twigs of small pointed green leaves spring from the branch above and hang below it.

The engraved caption below the picture reads "PASSENGER PIGEON." with a full stop. There is no plate number above the picture and no engraver's credit on the sheet. The passenger pigeon, Ectopistes migratorius, is the North American pigeon that became extinct in 1914.

A History of British Birds was written by the Reverend Francis Orpen Morris (1810 to 1893), rector of Nunburnholme in Yorkshire. The wood blocks for the plates of the work were engraved by Benjamin Fawcett (1808 to 1893) of Driffield in Yorkshire. This fourth edition was issued in six volumes by John C. Nimmo, London, and this plate comes from the third volume, whose title page is dated 1896 and states that the plates are colored by hand. 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.