McGill Library
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H3A 0C9
Great-billed Alexandrine Parrakeet [male]
Alexandrine Parakeet male
Psittacula eupatria
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 male Alexandrine Parakeet from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: the Palearctic and the Indo-Malayan Realm.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Great-billed Alexandrine Parrakeet [male](Paloeornis magnirostris) Bengalensis Major Ps. Macrourus Lin. Says. Nat.
Manuscript note on back of drawing: Psitacus macrourus Viridis Bengalensis major
Scientific name: Psittacula eupatria
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Bengalensis major
Ps: Macrourus virridis [viridis] rostro rubro. capite
collo et pectore et ventre palide virescie
Dorso et alis viridibus. nucha et humeris
maculis coccineis notatis. lineis
circularis nigris ab inferiore parte
Rostri ad nucha protractis.
Cauda longa Caerulea rectricibus
inferioribus flavis
The Great Benghall
Parroquet
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Bengalensis major
Ps: Macrourus virridis [viridis] [The great green Benghal Parroquet] with a red beak;
a pale green head, neck, breast, and stomach;
a green back and wings; scarlet spots on the nape and
shoulders; and black lines extending from the lower part
of the beak around to the nape.
The tail is long and blue, with golden-yellow flight feathers
underneath.
The Great Benghall
Parroquet