Plate 228
Havell XI
Bald Eagle
(Haliaeetus leucocephalus)
This painting, done in pencil, water color, pastel, and ink, was inscribed “New Orleans 1822.” In truth, it appears to be a copy of a pastel drawing Audubon did previous to 1819. “It was in the month of February 1814, that I obtained the first sight of this noble bird,” Audubon wrote, “and never shall I forget the delight which it gave me.” Audubon persisted in believing that this bird, in its dark plumage, was a new species, and not the same as the bald eagle he drew for Plate 2 and Plate 106. He called it the “Bird of Washington (Falco eashingtonii).” (“If America has reason to be proud of her Washington, so has she to be proud of her Great Eagle.”) The bird has been cut out and pasted down on a sheet of paper.
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.