Nürnberg, Adam Ludwig Wirsing, [1770]-1772. Large, printed sheet (40.0 x 24.8 cm). Engraved and originally hand-coloured plate, numbered and captioned.

A fine plate from possibly the first but certainly one of the most beautiful hand-coloured nidological works ever, and almost never found complete - even individual plates, such as this one, are rare. It shows the North American ruddy duck ( Oxyura jamaicensis), with a remarkable blue bill. It "is a duck from North America and one of the stiff-tailed ducks. Ruddy ducks were imported into the UK in 1948 by conservationist Sir Peter Scott. As a result of escapes from wildfowl collections in the late 1950s, they became established in Great Britain, from where they spread into Europe. By the year 2000, the population had increased to around 6,000 individuals. This duck's aggressive courting behavior and willingness to interbreed with the endangered native white-headed duck ( Oxyura leucocephala), of southern Europe, caused concern amongst Spanish conservationists. Due to this, a controversial scheme to extirpate the ruddy duck as a British breeding species started; there have also been culling attempts in other European countries. By early 2014, the cull had reduced the British population to about 20-100, down from a peak of about 5500 in 2000. In Europe, the Ruddy duck is included since 2016 in the list of Invasive Alien Species of Union concern (the Union list). This implies that this species cannot be imported, bred, transported, commercialized, or intentionally released into the environment in the whole of the European Union" (Wikipedia). The image is exceptionally large. The first author, Adam Ludwig Wirsing (1734-1798) was a versatile German engraver with a keen interest in natural history. The German medical doctor and naturalist (principally ornithologist) Friedrich Christian Günther (1726-1774) was responsible for the descriptive text. Uncut. With the widest possible margins. The colouring bright and accurate. Some pale smudges in the margins; otherwise an excellent, wide-margined and clean copy. Anker, 537; Nissen IVB, 1002; Sitwell, Fine bird books, 157; Not in Zimmer.