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Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Green Kingfisher
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Chloroceryle americana
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Title based on 2019 species identification.
Level of description
Item
Repository
Reference code
CA RBD MSG BW002-750
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Statement of scale (cartographic)
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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
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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 Green Kingfisher from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: Central America and South America.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
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Accruals
General note
General note
Manuscript note on back of drawing: Alcedo Americana Cristada. A king’s fisher from a Marican
General note
Scientific name: Chloroceryle americana
Accompanying material
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Accompanying material
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Alcedo cristata.
A. macroura cristata, supra caerulescens, abdomine
ferrugineo.
Magnitudo Pici Martii L.S.N. p.113. Caput
caerulescens, cristatum. Gula alba. Collum
caerulescens cingulo albo. Dorsum caerulescens.
Alae supra caerulescentes maculis parvis albis
adspersae; subtus plumbeae maculis magnis
subfaciaribus [subfasciatis] albis. Obs: margo interior
Remigum nigricans. Tectrices alarum subtus
ferrugineae. Abdomen ferrugineum immaculatum.
Cauda aequalis, rectricibus supra nigris
margine caeruleis, inferne plumbeis, utrinque
maculis albis donatis. Digiti tres antici:
duobus extimis connatis.
Varietas: fasciis duabus linearibus albis in
alis abdomineque rubicundo; sed forte
sexus tantummodo differentia.
Habitat in Insulis Granadis.
Vol 13 page 30
Accompanying material
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Alcedo cristata.
A. macroura cristata [The crested…], with blue upperparts, and a reddish-brown abdomen.
It is the size of the Pici Martii L.S.N. p.113. The head
is blue and crested. The throat is white. The neck
is blue with a white ring. The back is blue.
The wings are blue on top with small scattered white spots;
the underparts are lead-coloured with large indistinct white patches. Obs[ervation]: The inner edge of the flight feathers on the
wings is black. The covert feathers on the wings are reddish-
brown underneath. The abdomen is an unmarked reddish-brown.
The tail is even, the flight feathers on the tail are black on top
with blue edges, and lead-coloured underneath, they are marked
with white spots on either side. There are three toes to the front:
the two outermost toes are joined.
Variation: with two white linear bands on the wings
and a red abdomen; but perhaps
this is only a difference in sex.
It lives in the Grenadine islands.
Vol 13 page 30
Alternative identifier(s)
Volume number
Birds Volume 13, Painting 30