Audubon Barred Owl, Plate 46

AUDUBON, John James (1785 - 1851).
Barred Owl, Plate 46.
Aquatint engraving with original hand color.
London: Robert Havell, 1827-1838.
38 1/2" x 25 1/2" sheet, 44 1/4" x 32 1/2" framed.

Comparable: Arader Galleries, 2019 - $22,500; Guernseys, 2013 - $18,300.

"The Barred Owl is a great destroyer of poultry, particularly of chickens when half-grown. It also secures mice, young hares, rabbits, and many species of small birds, but is especially fond of a kind of frog of a brown colour, very common in the woods of Louisiana. I have heard it asserted that this bird catches fish, but never having seen it do so, and never having found any portion of fish in its stomach, I cannot vouch for the truth of the report. (Audubon's Ornithological Biography, 1831).