Audubon, John James (1785-1851).
Great Horned Owl, Plate 61.
Aquatint engraving with original hand color.
London: Robert Havell, 1827-1838.
38” x 25 1/4” sheet, 46” x 34” framed.
Comparable: Arader Galleries, 2017 - $51,850.
“The flight of the Great Horned Owl is elevated, rapid and graceful. It sails with apparent case, and in large circles, in the manner of an eagle, rises and descends without the least difficulty, by merely inclining its wings or its tail, as it passes through the air. Now and then, it glides silently close over the earth, with incomparable velocity, and drops, as if shot dead, on the prey beneath. At other times, it suddenly alights on the top of a fence-stake or a dead stump, shakes its feathers, arranges them, and utters a shriek so horrid that the woods around echo to its dismal sound. Now, it seems as if you heard the barking of a cur-dog; again, the notes are so rough and mingled together, that they might be mistaken for the last gurglings of a murdered person, striving in vain to call for assistance; at another time, when not more than fifty yards distant, it utters its more usual hoo, hoo, hoo-e, in so peculiar an under tone, that a person unacquainted with the notes of this species might easily conceive them to be produced by an Owl more than a mile distant.”
- (Audubon’s Ornithological Biography, 1831).