Swallow-tailed Hawk, from the Birds of America series (N37) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes 1888

Allen & Ginter’s lithograph, "Swallow-tailed Hawk," from the Birds of America series, presents a tableau of predation rendered in vivid color and meticulous detail. The composition is divided into distinct panels, one showcasing two birds in flight against a twilight sky, the other dominated by the hawk in its act of capturing a snake. The hawk's dynamic posture, diving downward, creates a powerful diagonal thrust that intersects with the sinuous curves of the snake. This interplay of line and form generates a visual tension, a semiotic clash between predator and prey. The rendering, though ostensibly naturalistic, flattens the picture plane, emphasizing surface over depth. The composition reflects a structuralist impulse to categorize and order nature. The work is less a study of individual species than a presentation of nature as spectacle, mediated through cultural codes of observation and representation.