Now known as the Ivory-billed Woodpecker and believed to be extinct, this largest of all North American woodpeckers was once abundant in the Carolinas and much of what is now the southeastern United States. Catesby depicts the bird in the Willow Oak, a soft-wood tree found in low-lying wetlands like the Big Woods of Arkansas where the Ivory-bill may recently have been observed. With a rustic beauty, Catesby thoroughly documents both tree and bird and describes the woodpecker in this way: "The bill, white as ivory, three inches long, and channeled from the base to the point; the iris of the eye, yellow; the hind part of the head adorned with a large peaked crest of scarlet feathers; a crooked white stripe runs from the eye on each side of the neck."

About Mark Catesby

When Mark Catesby published his landmark work, The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (1731 — 1743), it was the first comprehensive study and illustration of the flora and fauna of the English colonies in the New World.

The Royal Society and its President, Sir Isaac Newton, invited Catesby in 1720 "to Observe the Rarities of the Country for the uses and purposes of the Society". In 1722, Catesby set sail for Charleston, South Carolina and produced hundreds of drawings and watercolors before returning to London four years later.

To reduce the cost of publication, Catesby himself designed, engraved and colored the plates. Each Perfect Recreation™ is made from a pristine First Edition of The Natural History hand colored by Catesby and purchased in the original syndication by Charles Cavendish of the Royal Society and bequeathed to his more famous scientist son, Henry.

In addition to being the first documentation of the wildlife and vegetation of the Americas, The Natural History is the first work of natural history art to place animals in the context and setting of the plants of their natural habitats. This artistic breakthrough is believed to have influenced Audubon's great works a century later.

If you'd like to learn very much more about his landmark work, you might want to buy Empire's Nature: Mark Catesby's New World Vision at Amazon.com