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Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Iceland Falcon
General material designation
Parallel title
Gyrfalcon
Other title information
Falco rusticolus
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Caption title.
- Parallel titles and other title information: Title from Mousley: Falco islandus
Level of description
Item
Repository
Reference code
CA RBD MSG BW002-383
Edition area
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Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
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
Publisher's series area
Title proper of 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 Gyrfalcon from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: the Northern United States, Canada, Northern Europe, and Russia.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Notes area
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Accruals
General note
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Iceland Falcon (Falco islandus)
General note
Manuscript note on back of drawing: Falco Islandei fossey
General note
Scientific name: Falco rusticolus
Accompanying material
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Accompanying material
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Falco islandicus
F. cera pedibusque flavis, supra fuscus fasciis
pallidis, subtus albidus maculis nigricantibus,
cauda corpore breviore.
Falcone gentili Linn: major. Caput supra sordide
lutescens maculis longitudinalibus crebris nigrican-
tibus. Rostrum caerulescens dentibus validis in
maxilla utraque. Dorsum supra fuscum maculis
transversalibus numerosis albidis. Alae supra
fuscae obsolete fasciatae subtus
pallidiores apicem caudae subaequantes. Pectus
& Abdomen albida, maculis fuscis in Pectore lon-
gitudinalibus in Abdomine rotundatis. Femora
albida fasciis transversis fuscis. Cauda corpore
brevior, scilicet novem unciae longa, pallida,
fasciis duodecim fuscis. Rectrices duodecim
aequales. Corpus longitudine duodecim unciarum.
Habitat in Islandia
Falco Islandicus Fuscus
The Brown Iceland Falcon
Falco Gentilis
The Falcon Gentill
Falco Gentilis
varietat.
a variety of the Falcon Gentill
Accompanying material
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Falco islandicus [The Icelandic falcon]
F. with a golden-yellow cere and feet, tawny upperparts with pale bands, and white underparts with black spots,
and with a tail that is shorter than the body.
It is bigger than Linnaeus' Falcone gentili [gentle falcon]. The head is dirty-yellow on top with an abundance of elongated black spots. The beak is blue with strong teeth in
each jaw. The back is tawny on top with
many white transverse spots. The wings are a striped dull tawny colour on top and are paler underneath; they are almost even with the tip of the tail. The breast
and abdomen are white, with tawny elongated spots on the breast and rounded spots on the abdomen. The thighs
are white with tawny horizontal bands. The tail is shorter
than the body, namely nine inches long, and pale,
with twelve tawny bands. There are twelve equal flight feathers on the tail. The body is twelve inches long.
It lives in Iceland.
Alternative identifier(s)
Volume number
Birds Volume 4, Painting 10