McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Bald Eagle
Haliaeetus leucocephalus
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.
Drawing of a Bald Eagle from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: North America.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Manuscript note on back of drawing: Aquila Pennsylvanus sent me from the Delaware River. This Eagle I had from Pennsylvania from ye Delaware River
Scientific name: Haliaeetus leucocephalus
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Pensylvaniensis
Aquila Caera [cera] albida. rostro nigro.
capite fusco, Nigro maculato, collo
inferiore parte griseo. remigiis, et
Faemoribus Nigris. cauda Nigra
maculis albis notata. corpore fusco
albo nigroq[ue] maculato pedibus luteis.
Habitat in Pensilvania
super Delawar fluv
The Pensylvanian
Eagle
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Pensylvaniensis
Aquila [The Pennsylvanian Eagle] with a white cere; black beak; tawny head speckled with black, and a neck
that is grey underneath; black flight feathers on the wings, and
black thighs; a black tail
marked with white patches; a tawny body
speckled with white and black, and yellow feet.
It lives in Pennsylvania
above the Delaware river.
The Pennsylvanian
Eagle