Black Billed Cuckoo by John James Audubon art print

An archival premium Quality art Print of the Black Billed Cuckoo Bird by John James Audubon for sale by Brandywine General Store. The artist drew this bird for his ornithology book, The Birds of America. The pictures feature a male and female cuckoo in a blooming magnolia tree with the female about to catch a bee. The Cuckoo bird was plate or picture #32 in the first Havell edition of Birds of America. Coccyzuz Erythrophthalmus - Audubon says the following about this bird," I have not met with this species in the State of Louisiana more than half a dozen times; nor indeed have I seen it at all in the Western States, excepting that of Ohio, where I have occasionally observed an individual, apparently out of its usual range. Some of these individuals were probably bound for the Upper Lakes. The woody sides of the sea are the places to which this species usually resorts. It passes from the south early in March, and continues its route through Florida, Georgia, and all the other States verging on the Atlantic, beginning to rest and to breed in North Carolina, and extending its travels to the Province of Maine. The flight of this species is swifter than that of its near relative, the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, for which bird it is easily mistaken by ordinary observers. It does not so much frequent the interior of woods, but appears along their margins, on the edges of creeks and damp places. But the most remarkable distinction between this species and the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, is, that the former, instead of feeding principally on insects and fruits, procures fresh-water shellfish and aquatic larvae for its sustenance. It is, therefore, more frequently seen on the ground, near the edges of the water, or descending along the drooping branches of trees to their extremities, to seize the insects in the water beneath them..." Audubon bird print #32