AUDUBON, John James (1785 - 1851).
Loggerhead Shrike, Plate 57.
Aquatint engraving with original hand color.vLondon: Robert Havell, 1827-1838.
38 5/8" x 25 1/2" sheet.

Provenance: John Vickers Painter Collection.
Comparable: Christie's, 1987 - $3,080; Neal Auction Co., 2010 - $2,868.The Loggerhead has no song, but utters a shrill clear creaking prolonged note, resembling the grating of a rusty hinge slowly moved to and fro. This sound is heard only during the spring season, and whilst the female is sitting. About the beginning of March these birds begin to pair. They exhibit at this time few of those marks of the tender affection which birds usually shew. The male courts the female without much regard, and she, in return, appears to receive his haughty attentions with merely just as much condescension as enables her to become the mother of a family, whose feelings are destined to be of the same cold nature (Audubon's Ornithological Biography, 1831).