Plate 321
Havell CCCXXI
Red-headed Duck
(Aythya americana)
Audubon may have drawn this pair of redheads (a female at left, a male at right) in Boston in 1832 or 1833. In his text he noted: "The fine pair from which I made the two figures in the plate were given me by my friend Daniel Webster, Esq. of Boston, Massachusetts, whose talents and accomplishments are too well known to require any eulogium from me." Slaughtered by hunters, and deprived of its marsh nesting areas by drainage projects, this species is rapidly declining.
Source: The Original Water-Color Paintings by John James Audubon. Copyright 1966 by American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc.
Learn more about this print on the National Audubon Society's website.