Red Breasted Merganser Bird Print by John James Audubon

An archival premium Quality art Print of the Red Breasted Merganser by John James Audubon for sale by Brandywine General Store. In this painting, the artist features a male and female pair of these birds in a body of water. The male is in the water looking up at the female who is flying overhead. Yellow flowers called Sarracenia Flava are in the water adding more color in addition to the male bird. This plate or picture was #401 in the first Havell edition of The Birds of America by Audubon which was published in the 1830s and included all the birds known in America at that time.  Mergus Serrator - Mr. Audubon gives the following description in his book of the Red Breasted Merganser. The range of the Red-breasted Merganser is of vast extent. In North America I have found it pretty generally dispersed during winter and even to a late period in spring, from Texas to Labrador; and in the Fauna Boreali-Americana Mr. SWAINSON describes a male killed on the Saskatchewan. No date is mentioned, nor is any thing said as to its habits, which would lead me to believe that it must be a rare bird in the Fur Countries. It is found on the western coast however, and has been shot not far from the mouth of the Columbia river by a gentleman of Boston engaged in the fur-trade, and who is well acquainted with the water-birds of our country. In winter it is to be met with throughout the Union, on almost every unfrozen stream; but when the cold increases so as to close the waters it removes southward until it finds a suitable place. This species is by choice mostly dependent on fresh water for its sustenance; but when the winters are very severe it throws itself into the salt lagoons or bays, and there seeks for prey to which it is not well accustomed, and which is rather more difficult to be overtaken, than that which is confined in the narrow mountain-streams for which it shews a natural predilection greater than even that of the Goosander, Mergus Merganser. It breeds in many parts of our Middle and Eastern States, and on two occasions I have found the female in charge of her brood in the lower parts of Kentucky. In the States of New York, Massachusetts and Maine it is by no means a rare occurrence to meet with the nest of this bird along the borders of small secluded lakes. It is as common at this season in the British provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and it is still more plentiful on the islands of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, as well as on the streams of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Red-breasted Merganser is best known throughout the United States by the name of \"Shell-drake.\"  Audubon Bird print #401