McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Ani
Smooth-billed Ani
Crotophaga ani
peter paillou Fect october
Item
1 watercolour painting ; 56 x 39 cm + 1 leaf
Peter Paillou was born in London into a Huguenot family and was recognised in his own time as an eminent ‘bird painter’. In 1744 he began to paint for Taylor White and worked for him for almost thirty years, painting chiefly birds and mammals. He painted as well for Robert More, Joseph Banks, and for the Welsh naturalist Thomas Pennant. Many of his paintings of birds were used as the basis for book illustrations, often engraved by his colleague and fellow Huguenot, Peter Mazell. Paillou was elected to the Society of Artists and in 1763 he exhibited ‘A Piece of Birds, in Watercolours; the Hen of the Wood and Cock of the Red Game’. In 1778, to considerable approval, he also showed a picture of ‘A Horned Owl from Peru’, completely made from feathers.
Charles Collins was an Irish painter, known for his portraits of animals and still-lifes. He achieved success in England painting exotic birds, game, dogs and dead game still-lifes. He was the painter for Robert Furber’s ‘Twelve Months of Fruit’ (1732). In 1736 he published in collaboration with John Lee a set of 12 large engravings, coloured by hand, of British birds in landscape and garden settings, entitled Icones avium cum nominibus anglicis. He then came to the attention of Taylor White, who engaged him to paint birds from his and others’ collections until 1743. Collins died in 1744, when he was described as ‘Bird Painter to the Royal Society.’
Drawing of a Smooth-billed Ani from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: Florida, Caribbean, Central America, and South America. Also attributed to Collins, Charles].
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Ani (Crotophaga ani) peter paillou Fect october;
Manuscript note on back of drawing: Margravius his Brasilian Ani of kin to Parrots. Will. P. 120. This Bird came from Jamaica.
Scientific name: Crotophaga ani
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Crotophaga
Rostrum Compressum semi ovatum
sulco utrinq[ue] exaratum; Mandibula
superiore margine utrinque angulata
Nares perviae.
Ani
Crotophagus ater Rostro breviore
compresso acuato cultrato
Linn. S. N. p. 105. 1.
Habitat in America
The Brasilian Ani
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Crotophaga
The beak is a compressed half-egg-shape
furrowed with a groove on both sides; The upper mandible
has an angled edge on either side.
The nares are open.
Ani
Crotophagus ater [The black...] with a shorter, dense,
sharp, knife-shaped beak.
Linn. S. N. p. 105. 1.
It lives in America
The Brasilian Ani