McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Eastern Gray Squirrel
Item
1 watercolour painting ; 56 x 39 cm
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 possible Eastern Gray Squirrel from a 18th century specimen. Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Mammalia Glires Sciurus
6 Griseus
Sciurus pedibus pentadactylis,
auribus naso & genis albis. fronte nigro
corpus partibus superioribus nigris
pilis albis interspersis partibus inferi
-oribus albis cauda nigro & albo
longitudinale striata.
Magnitudo excedat ceteris sciuris.
Habitat
The Black & White Squirrel
This is not described
Vol 26 [6?] N 26
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Mammalia Glires Sciurus
6 Griseus [The grey...]
Sciurus with five-toed feet,
white ears, nose and cheeks, a black forehead,
black upperparts interspersed with
white hairs, white underparts,
and a tail striped with black and white
along its length.
It is larger than the other squirrels.
It lives
The Black & White Squirrel
This is not described
Vol 26 [6?] N 26
Image
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