Plate 303
Havell CLXXXVIII
Tree Sparrow
(Spizella arborea)
Audubon's son John began to draw birds under his father's guidance early in 1832, and this painting of adult tree sparrows was among the first on which John assisted his father. Drawn in the autumn of 1832, it was sent that same year to Audubon's older son, Victor, who was in London supervising the work on the engravings. "The pair represented in the plate," Audubon wrote of these birds, "and which have been placed on a twig of the Barberry bush [Berberis canadensis], were procured at Boston. The drawing from which it has been copied was made by my youngest son."
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.