Amsterdam, Jan Christiaan Sepp, 1770. Single sheet, large folio (52.3 x 35.8 cm). Printed surface 44.2 x 30.0 cm. Hand-coloured copper-engraved plate of Nycticorax nycticorax (L.) and its egg.

This plate shows the black growned night heron. It is an uncommon, elusive night bird from wetlands in Europe. Cornelius or Cornelis Nozeman (1720-1786) was a Dutch Remonstrant churchman and naturalist. "It was in Rotterdam that he began preparations for his great work on Nederlandsche Vogelen (Birds of the Netherlands) that was published in installments by Christiaan Sepp starting in 1770. This work, finished well after both men had died in 1829, was the first "encyclopedic" book of the birds of the Netherlands" (Wikipedia). A very good, clean plate. Rare. Anker, 369; Nissen IVB, 684; Sitwell, Fine bird books, p. 129; Zimmer, p. 469.