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Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Grackle sp?
General material designation
Parallel title
Carib Grackle, leucistic
Other title information
Quiscalus lugubris
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Caption title.
- Parallel titles and other title information: Title from Mousley: Quiculus?
Level of description
Item
Repository
Reference code
CA RBD MSG BW002-489
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
Physical description area
Physical description
1 watercolour painting ; 56 x 39 cm + 1 leaf
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
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Numbering within publisher's series
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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 leucistic Carib Grackle from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: the Caribbean and Northern South America.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Notes area
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General note
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Grackle sp? (Quiculus?)
General note
General note
Scientific name: Quiscalus lugubris
Accompanying material
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Accompanying material
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Caput Rostrumque basi plumis holosericeis
brevissimis tectum.
Magnitudo Picae. Caput subdepressum, supra
planiusculum, undique plumis brevissimis
nigris holosericeis vestitum. Rostrum nigri-
cans a basi lata acuminatum, depressiuscu-
lum, supra convexum obtuse carinatum:
Mandibulae laevis superiore paulo latiore.
Nares apertae. Obs: Basis rostri usque ad
nares plumis holosericeis obtectum, qua
manifeste a reliquis Gallinis differt. Collum
nigrum, superne tectum plumis nigris ejus-
dem indolis ac in capite, inferne pennis
reflexis reliquis longioribus cucullo quasi
indutum, fere in modum Fringae pugnacis.
Obs: Pennae omnes quae nigrae sunt basin habent
cineream. Pectus, Sternum, Abdomen & Dorsum
nigra. Alae corpore paulo longiores; Remiges 15:
prima tota nigra, reliquae latere exteriore
canescentes, latere interiore nigrae, exceptis
ultimis quae plurimum totae canescunt. Tectrices
alarum exteriores nigrae, interiores, quae
numero plures sunt, canae. Cauda nigra:
rectricibus decem aequalibus. Pedes nigricantes:
Femora plumosa. Digiti antici tres, unico postico.
Obs: Tibiae & Digiti tenuiores sunt quam plerumq[ue]
in avibus hujus ordinis.
Admodum affinis Graculae faelidae.
Habitat in Insulis Granadis.
Accompanying material
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: The head and base of the beak are covered with very short silken feathers.
It is the size of a magpie. The head is somewhat depressed, and
a little flat on top, and is covered all over with very short black silken feathers. The beak is black,
pointed, and wide at the base, it is a little flatter,
it is convex on top and has a dull rhamphotheca.
The upper mandible is smooth and a little wider.
The nares are uncovered. Obs[ervation]: the base of the beak all the way up to the nares is covered in silken feathers, by which it clearly differs from the rest of the Gallinis. The neck
is black, and is covered at the top with black feathers of the same type as those on the head, and lower down it is as though hooded with feathers that are folded back and longer than the rest, just as in the manner of the fighting Fringae.
Obs[ervation]: All the feathers which are black are ash-coloured
at the base. The chest, breast, abdomen, and back
are black. The wings are a little longer than the body; there
are 15 flight feathers on the wings: the primary feathers are
completely black, the rest are white on the outer edge,
and black on the inside, with the exception of the lowest
feathers most of which are completely white. The outer covert
feathers on the wings are black, and the inner ones, of which
there are a greater number, are white. The tail is black:
and there are ten even flight feathers. The feet are black: the thighs
are feathered. There are three toes to the front, and only one to the back.
Obs[ervation]: The tibias and toes are thinner than
most in birds of this order.
It is closely related to the Graculae faelidae.
It lives in the Grenadine Islands.
Alternative identifier(s)
Volume number
Birds Volume 6, Painting 23