Catesby, Mark. Vol.I, Tab. 74, The Bill of the Flamingo in its full Dimension

Mark Catesby (1638 - 1749)Etching with hand color, paper dimensions: approximately 19 x 14 inches From Volume I, Part 4 of Catesby's Natural History of Carolina, Florida & the Bahama IslandsLondon: 1731 - 1771 Currently known as the American flamingo, Phoenicopterus ruber and bent sea-rod, Plexaurajiexuosa*, Catesby described these subjects as follows: CAPUT PHOENICOPTERI NATURALIS MAGNITUDINIS. The Bill of the Flamingo in its full Dimension. I Need not attempt to describe the Texture of the Bill otherwise than Dr. Grew has done in his Mus. R. Sac. p. 67. His Words are these: “The Figure of each Beak is truly Hyperbolical. The upper is ridg'd behind; before, plain or flat and pointed like a Sword, and with the Extremity bended a little down; within, it path an Angle or sharp Ridge, which runs all along the Middle, at the Top of the Hyperbole, not above a Quarter of an Inch high. The lower Beak in the same Place above one Inch high, hollow and the Margins strangely expanded inward