On August 25, 1822, John James Audubon completed his drawing of the Mocking Bird. The bird is commonly known today as the Northern mockingbird. To add drama, Audubon wrapped a rattlesnake around the nest of the Northern Mockingbird bird. “On all such occasions, not only the pair to which the nest belongs, but many other Mocking-birds from the vicinity, fly to the spot, attack the reptiles, and, in some cases, are so fortunate as either to force them to retreat, or deprive them of life.”
The rattlesnake that was used for the drawing was described as “five feet and seven inches, weighed six and a quarter pounds, and had ten rattles.” Audubon added that he was “anxious to give it a position most interesting to a naturalist, I put it in that which the reptile commonly takes when on the point of striking madly with its fangs.” Also striking out madly were members of the science community claiming that rattlesnakes neither climb trees nor consume eggs. In the opinion of rival naturalist George Ord (1781-1866), Audubon and “His far-famed Rattlesnake Story is a miserable fabrication—one of the clumsiest lies that ever was invented.” If there was any one drawing that almost doomed the publication of Birds of America, it was the Northern mockingbird.