Historical bird plates

Audubon, The Birds of America · Plate 75

Merlin

Printed “Le Petit Caporal”

Plate 75 of Audubon's The Birds of America: Merlin (Falco columbarius)
Full resolutionCourtesy of the John James Audubon Center at Mill Grove, Montgomery County Audubon Collection, and Zebra Publishing.

Printed on the plate

“Le Petit Caporal”

Modern identification

Merlin

Falco columbarius

  • Certain
  • A variant
  • Falcons and Caracaras · Falconidae

Why

Audubon's “Le Petit Caporal” (Falco temerarius), which he named as a species, is an adult male Merlin, as he wrote in 1839; its main plate is 92.

Sources

audubon.org; Wikimedia Commons

Who made the plate

Drawn from Nature and Published by John J. Audubon, F. R. S. F. L. S.Engraved, Printed, & Coloured, by R. Havell.

As the credit line gives it. More on who made these plates.

The same bird on other plates