McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Golden-Olive woodpecker, male
Colaptes rubiginosus
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 male Golden-Olive Woodpecker from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: Southeastern Mexico, Central America, and the Mountains of South America.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Scientific name: Colaptes rubiginosus
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Picus granadensis
P. e fusco viridis, occipite nigricante, nucha late-
ribusque gulae coccineis, abdomine lutescente
fasciis transveralibus.
Pico minori Linn: paulo major. Caput supra
e plumbeo nigricans, postice coccineum; Regio
oculorum albida, striis fuscis; Gulae latera prope
rostrum coccinea. Collum supra, Dorsum, Alae
& Cauda e fusco viridia seu subcuprea. Collum
subtus, Abdomen & Pectus lutescentia fasciis
numerosis transversis fuscis. Cauda apice
nigricans. Rostrum & Pedes nigricantes.
Habitat in Insulis Granadis.
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Picus granadensis
P. [the woodpecker] coloured from tawny to green, with a black hindhead, scarlet nape and sides of the throat, and yellow abdomen with transverse bands.
It is a little bigger than the Pico minori Linn [small woodpecker]. The top of the head is coloured from lead-colour to black, the back [of the head] is scarlet; the eyeline is
white, with tawny furrows; The sides of the throat near
the beak are scarlet. The top of the neck, back, wings & tail are coloured from tawny to green or else a copper-colour. The underside of the neck, the abdomen & breast are yellow with several tawny-coloured transverse bands. The tip of the tail is black. The beak and feet are black.
It lives in the Grenadine Islands.