The 'rice-bird' Helena Crowns and (Louis) Napoleon are

Crowns and (Louis) Napoleon are both references to coins of the two countries

The percentage of profits made by societies sometimes were as high as fifty per cent

The plate is inscribed: 'Taf

In the foreground a figure clears rubble

Design by Frederic Barnett for a 'duplex' low-level bridge

The 'rice-bird' Helena Crowns and (Louis) Napoleon areBird identified by Catesby as 'Hortulanus caroliniensis', the rice bird (modern scientific name: Dolichonyx oryzivorus, the bobolink), perched on a stalk of rice, Oryza sativa. Plate 14 from volume I of The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands, by Mark Catesby (London, 1731). Mark Catesby was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1733. Original: etching. 1731