Antique Bird Print of the Common Loon by Sepp & Nozeman (1829)

Description: Antique print titled 'Colymbus Glacialis'. This print depicts the common loon (Dutch: ijsduiker). The common loon or great northern diver (Gavia immer) is a large member of the loon, or diver, family of birds. Breeding adults have a plumage that includes a broad black head and neck with a greenish, purplish, or bluish sheen, blackish or blackish-grey upperparts, and pure white underparts except some black on the undertail coverts and vent. Non-breeding adults are brownish with a dark neck and head marked with dark grey-brown. Their upperparts are dark brownish-grey with an unclear pattern of squares on the shoulders, and the underparts, lower face, chin, and throat are whitish. The sexes look alike, though males are significantly larger and heavier than females. During the breeding season, they live on lakes and other waterways in Canada, the northern United States (including Alaska), as well as in southern parts of Greenland and Iceland. Small numbers breed on Svalbard and sporadically elsewhere in Arctic Eurasia. Common loons winter on both coasts of the US as far south as Mexico, and on the Atlantic coast of Europe.

This print originates from 'Nederlandsche Vogelen; volgens hunne huisdouding, aert, en eigenschappen beschreeven", Amsterdam, 1770-1829 by C. Nozeman, M. Houttuyn and J.C. Sepp. This is the most important and first study in the Netherlands of ornithology at that time. The birds are depicted as they are in life, said to be depicted close to life sized and in their environment.

Original text page included.

Artists and engravers: This monumental work is associated with Christiaan Andreas Sepp, Jan Christiaan Sepp, Jan Sepp, Cornelis Nozeman, Martinus Houttuyn and Coenraad Jacob Temminck.