Spoonbill

Spoonbill 

Plate 94 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 spoonbill is pictured in a tropical landscape. 

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