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Pin-tailed Sand Gruse
Pin-Tailed Sandgrouse
Pterocles alchata
P. Paillou 1755;
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 pair of Pin-Tailed Sandgrouse from 18th century specimens [modern geographical distribution: the Iberian Peninsula, North Africa, and the Middle East].
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Pin-tailed Sand Gruse (Pterocles alchata) P. Paillou 1755;
Manuscript note on back of drawing: wire-tailed grouse from Algiers
Scientific name: Pterocles alchata
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Tetrao Africana
Tetrao Africana Rectricibus
duobus intermediis Longissimis
Habitat in Uropa [Europa] austrule [australe] et in
Africa apud Algiers
The
Wire Tailed Grouse
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Tetrao Africana
Tetrao Africana with two very long
central tail feathers.
It lives in southern Europe and in
Africa near Algiers.
The
Wire Tailed Grouse