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Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Blue-headed Parrot
General material designation
Parallel title
Blue-headed Parrot
Other title information
Pionus menstruus
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Caption title.
- Parallel titles and other title information: Title from Mousley: Pionias menstrues
Level of description
Item
Repository
Reference code
CA RBD MSG BW002-297
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Statement of scale (cartographic)
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Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
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Date(s)
Physical description area
Physical description
1 watercolour painting ; 56 x 39 cm + 1 leaf
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Archival description area
Name of creator
(approximately 1720-approximately 1790)
Biographical history
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.
Custodial history
Scope and content
Drawing of a Blue-headed Parrot from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: the Neotropics.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
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General note
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Blue-headed Parrot (Pionias menstrues)
General note
Manuscript note on back of drawing: a blue headed Parrot from Vera Cruz
General note
Scientific name: Pionus menstruus
Accompanying material
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Accompanying material
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Caerulocephalus
25 Ps: Brachyurus rostro nigro angulo
superiore rubro Capite collo et superiore
parte pectoris caeruleo sed maculo nigro
infra Auribus Ventre Abdomine cauda
et alis viribus, sed in superioribus partibus
alarum flavescente, ano phenicio [phoeniceo] Cauda
subtus caeruleis. Habitat apud Vera Crux in India
Occidentale. L.S.N. p100
The Blue Headed Parrot. Psittacus cyanocephalus
P. brachyurus viridis, capite caeruleo, cauda
subtus basi rubra, rostro nigro angulo baseos
rubro.
Rostrum nigrum: Mandibula supaeriore ad
angulum inferiorem baseos rubra. Caput
Collumque caerulea: macula nigra utrinque
pone aures. Corpus viride. Alae virides humeris
flavescentibus: Remiges primariae superne ad
marginem interiorem & inferni ad marginem
exteriorem nigricantes. Cauda aequalis:
Rectricibus 12, superne lateribus caeruleis,
intermediis viridibus, subtus omnibus basi
rubris apice viridibus. Pedes lividi.
Habitat in Insulis Granadis & in
Vera Cruce Indiae occidentalis.
Accompanying material
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Caerulocephalus
25 Ps: Brachyurus [The blue-headed parrot] with a black beak
that is red in the uppermost corner, a blue head and neck,
and a breast that is blue at the top but has a black patch lower down;
green ears, stomach, abdomen, tail,
and wings, but golden-yellow upper parts
of the wings; a purple-red posterior, and a tail
that is blue underneath. It lives near Vera Cruz in the West Indies. L.S.N. p100
The Blue Headed Parrot. Psittacus cyanocephalus
P. brachyurus viridis [The blue-headed green parrot], with a blue head, a tail
that is red underneath at the base,
and a black beak that is red at the corner of the base.
The beak is black: the upper mandible to
the inner corner of the base is red. The head
and neck are blue: there is a black spot on both sides
behind the ears. The body is green. The wings are green with golden-yellow
shoulders: The top of the primary wing feathers
to the inner edge and the underside of the feathers to
the outer edge is black. The tail is the same:
with 12 flight feathers, of which those on the sides are blue on top,
the middle ones are green, all are red underneath at the base
with green tips. The feet are blue.
It lives in the Grenadine islands and in
Vera Cruz in West Indies.
Alternative identifier(s)
Volume number
Birds Volume 1, Painting 41