Giclee reprint of an original lithograph from Volume III of Henry Leonard Meyer’s Illustration of British Birds.

Illustrations of British Birds is a landmark 19th-century ornithological masterpiece created by the Dutch-born British naturalist and artist Henry Leonard Meyer (1797–1865) and his wife, Mary Ann Meyer. Published in its first folio edition in London between 1835 and 1841, it stands alongside the masterworks of John Gould and John James Audubon as one of the most visually stunning, valuable, and comprehensive illustrated surveys of British avian life ever produced. 

The Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus) is a highly successful cosmopolitan species. It is natively found across southern Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Notably, it is not historically native to the Americas; a population successfully colonized the Western Hemisphere in the early 19th century by flying across the Atlantic Ocean from Africa. Today, it is a common sight along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts of North America. In western regions, it is ecologically replaced by the closely related White-faced Ibis (Plegadis chihi), which is best distinguished by its red eyes and a white feather border that wraps completely behind the eye.