Dutch bird-painter Melchior de Hondecoeter was the best Old Master bird artist of the seventeenth century. He spent his life in the Netherlands where his father and uncle were well-known artists. Melchior de Hondecoeter specialised in producing large and flamboyant canvases of interesting birds, be they farmyard fowl, peacocks, ducks and waterfowl or many exotic species just introduced to Europe. His meticulous painting of the bird's feathers and the correct proportions of the bird's anatomy set him apart from his contemporaries. But it was the life-like quality of his birds, based on observation of the living birds, a mix of unrelated species, as well as interesting architectural details or a lush landscape that made his paintings special. This painting is rather sombre in colour and shows a pair of herons and two lapwings in close proximity at the water's edge, in a classical landscape with some ruins in the background.