Audubon's mockingbird plate depicts four birds defending a nest against a coiled rattlesnake climbing the tree to reach it — a scene rival naturalist George Ord and others in the London scientific establishment publicly ridiculed as fantasy, insisting rattlesnakes couldn't climb trees and accusing Audubon of inventing drama to sell subscriptions. Modern field observation has since confirmed the behavior is real, if uncommon, vindicating a plate that nearly cost Audubon his scientific credibility in his own lifetime. What to notice: the birds' postures read as genuine alarm rather than posed taxidermy — wings flared, beaks open mid-call — the exact naturalistic urgency Audubon's wired-specimen technique was built to capture, and precisely the quality his critics mistook for embellishment.

Maker: John James Audubon (engraved by Robert Havell Jr.)
Date: 1827
Medium of the original: Engraving
Original held by: Wikimedia Commons
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Rights: Public domain, verified
Catalogue number: PA-00281

As chosen: 8 x 12 in, art print, classic frame
Picture	8 x 12 in
Outside size	9.6 x 13.6 in
Depth	0.9 in (22 mm)
Weight	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: shipped weight per size and frame]]
Hanging	[[REAL PROOF NEEDED: hanging hardware Prodigi fits to this frame]]
Material	Enhanced matte art paper, 200 gsm; acrylic glazing
Made in	Charlotte, North Carolina, by Prodigi

Before a size goes on sale, the file is measured against it: pixels per inch at that size, how much of the picture a crop would lose, tone and sharpness. A size that fails is not offered, so there is nothing to choose wrong.

How the print check works

Sizes offered
Size	dpi	Grade	How it fits
8 x 12 in	183	Good	Trimmed 4.3%

Sizes withheld
Size	Why
8 x 10 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
11 x 14 in	Wrong shape: a 11% crop
12 x 16 in	127 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
12 x 18 in	122 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
16 x 20 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
16 x 24 in	91 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
18 x 24 in	85 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
20 x 30 in	73 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
24 x 30 in	Wrong shape: a 13% crop
24 x 36 in	61 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
30 x 40 in	51 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
36 x 48 in	42 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged
40 x 60 in	36 dpi; a historical scan is never enlarged

Scanned: 2026-10-07
Master file: 1,532 x 2,200 px, srgb
Tone: Darks 29, lights 250 of 255; 0% clipped light, 0% clipped dark
Colour: 0% vivid
Sharpness: 27.49