Night Herons

Night Heron 

Plate 91 in Illustrations of the American Ornithology of Alexander Wilson and Charles Lucian Bonaparte by Captain Thomas Brown, published by Frazer and Co, Edinburgh, 1835. 

Alexander Wilson (1766 – 1813) was a Scottish-American poet, ornithologist, naturalist, and illustrator. Born in Paisley, Wilson is thought to be the greatest American ornithologist prior to Audubon.   

The herons in the print are two common night herons and a white-crowned heron. 

A copy of the Illustrations of the American Ornithology is held in the National Library of Scotland’s collections.