#pintails

Photo: Tom Benson

"Widespread across North America, Europe, and Asia, the Northern Pintail is probably one of the most numerous duck species in the world (although outnumbered by the omnipresent Mallard). Slim and long-necked, it has an elegant appearance both on the water and in flight. Pintails are wary at all seasons, and become very secretive during the flightless stage of their molt in late summer."

A Catesby Waterfowl Feathursday

We’re having a pretty wet April here in southeastern Wisconsin, which puts us in mind of our feathered friends who just love the water. These three fellows come from our 1974 folio facsimile set of English naturalist Mark Catesby’s Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands. Originally published between 1729 and 1747, our facsimile is reproduced from the 3rd edition housed at the Boston Athenaeum, published in a limited edition of 500 copies by The Beehive Press of Savannah, Georgia. The set was designed and printed by The Stinehour Press of Vermont, with plates printed by The Meriden Gravure Company.  

Shown here from top to bottom are: 

Laughing Gull (Leucophaeus atricilla).

Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps).

White-cheeked Pintail (Anas bahamensis).

View other posts from Catesby’s Natural History.

Another Gamebird Feathursday

Last week we discussed Wisconsin’s fall hunting season and the deeply ingrained tradition of the hunt in our state. Some might feel a bit squeamish or perhaps even repulsed by the idea of hunting our dear feathered neighbors. Here at UWM Special Collections, we love and respect our avian residents and visitors, but we also recognize and respect that hunting is a distinctive part of the Wisconsin character, even if we may not engage in it ourselves. So, in keeping with our fall hunting theme, we present a few four-color reproductions of gamebird paintings by the noted American wildlife artist Lynn Bogue Hunt from conservationist, avid bird-hunter, and former editor of Field & Stream magazine Ray P. Holland’s 1945 publication Shotgunning in the Lowlands, published in New York by A. S. Barnes and Company. Our copy is a 1946 second printing, produced in an edition of 2500 copies.

Ray Holland was a friend of Milwaukee-area celebrity, General Billy Mitchell, who is regarded as the father of the United States Air Force. We were taken by Holland’s remarks about Mitchell and his highly-controversial advocacy for American investment in air power, which opens the chapter on Sora hunting:

General Billy Mitchell told me that the sora rail was his favorite game bird. As far as I’m concerned, that alone put the sora in the upper brackets. General Mitchell has been more than vindicated in every statement he ever made. He was right about battleships, airplanes and many other things. Because the brass hats wouldn’t listen to him, this country has paid with the lives of men and millions of dollars. When he says the sora rail is a grand game bird, that is exactly what it is. No one knows much more about rail-birds and rail-bird shooting than did the former head of our air forces.

arrow-swift

“Pintails, arrow-swift in flight, are the “Greyhounds of Waterfowl”.”

October 1951