Plate 1
Havell I
Wild Turkey
(Meleagris gallopavo)
“The great size and beauty of the Wild Turkey,” Audubon wrote, “its value as a delicate and highly prized article of food, and the circumstance of its being the origin of the domestic race now generally dispersed over both continents, render it one of the most interesting of the birds indigenous to the United States of America.” Audubon assigned the wild turkey the place of honor at the beginning of his Birds of America. The painting was probably done in 1825 and shows the male striding through cane characteristic of the riverbanks and swamps of the south central and southeastern United States.
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.
Learn more about the Library's Audubon Collection.