American Avocet (Recurvirostra americana), Volume 4, Plate 318

Likely painted in New Orleans on November 7, 1821.

For this drawing, Audubon contributed one of his own habitats, complete with rocks, grass, and other plants, as finely executed a landscape as anything provided by his collaborators. The plate depicts an adult bird in spring plumage picking up an insect, which Havell had substituted for the somewhat unrealistic-looking slug in the watercolor. Havell also added a younger Avocet in the middle distance. The text accompanying the plate describes Audubon’s discovery of the breeding habits of the Avocet near Vincennes, Indiana, in June 1814. Fascinated by the non-competitive behavior of the male birds hunting for food, Audubon sneaks up to spy on a breeding female and is surprised by the collective action the other birds take against him when his intrusion is discovered.

From John James Audubon’s Ornithological Biography

The fact of this curious bird’s breeding in the interior of our country accidentally became known to me in June 1814. I was at the time travelling on horseback from Henderson to Vincennes in the State of Indiana. As I approached a large shallow pond in the neighbourhood of the latter town, I was struck by the sight of several Avosets hovering over the margins and islets of the pond, and although it was late, and I was both fatigued and hungry, I could not resist the temptation of endeavouring to find the cause of their being so far from the sea. … Next morning at sunrise I was snugly concealed amongst the rushes, with a fair view of the whole pond. … Although a person can advance but slowly when wading through mud and water knee-deep, it does not take much time to get over forty or fifty yards, and thus I was soon on the small island where the Avoset was comfortably seated on her nest. Softly and on all four I crawled toward the spot, panting with heat and anxiety. Now, Reader, I am actually within three feet of the unheeding creature, peeping at her through the tall grasses. Lovely bird! how innocent, how unsuspecting, and yet how near to thine enemy, albeit he be an admirer of thy race! There she sits on her eggs, her head almost mournfully sunk among the plumage, and her eyes, unanimated by the sight of her mate, half closed, as if she dreamed of future scenes. Her legs are bent beneath her in the usual manner. I have seen this, and I am content. Now she observes me, poor thing, and off she scrambles,-running, tumbling, and at last rising on wing, emitting her clicking notes of grief and anxiety, which none but an inconsiderate or callous-hearted person could hear without sympathizing with her.