Birds · 18th century
€ 950
One of a kind: this is the sheet in the photographs. Ships from Langweer, the Netherlands.
Original text page included. Please study image carefully.
Antique print titled 'Lanius, Excubitor'. The great grey shrike, northern grey shrike, or northern shrike (Lanius excubitor) is a large songbird species in the shrike family (Laniidae). It forms a superspecies with its parapatric southern relatives, the southern grey shrike (L. meridionalis), the Chinese grey shrike (L. sphenocerus) and the loggerhead shrike (L. ludovicianus). Within the great grey shrike species itself, there are two subspecies. Males and females are similar in plumage, pearly grey above with a black eye-mask and white underparts.
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.
