Plate 17: White Heron(?) and Black Stork Killing a Snake with a Dragon's Blood Tree

Joris Hoefnagel

National Gallery of Art

Two large birds stand on either side of a central tree with a knife embedded in its trunk. The bird on the left is gray and has long legs and a sharp beak, while the bird on the right is mostly dark with a white belly and red legs and beak. The tree has a brown trunk and bright green, bushy foliage at the top. The color palette is dominated by natural shades of brown, green, and gray, with touches of red.