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Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Pinnated Bittern
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Botaurus pinnatus
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 BW002-736
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Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
Physical description area
Physical description
1 watercolour painting ; 56 x 39 cm
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 Pinnated Bittern from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: Central America and marshy tropical South America.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Notes area
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Accruals
General note
Scientific name: Botaurus pinnatus
Accompanying material
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Ardea fasciata.
A. capite laeviusculo, supra ferrugineo maculis transver-
sis nigris, subtus nigra maculis transversis albis.
Ardea stellari paulo minor. Caput, Collum, Dorsum &
Tectrices Alarum ferrugineae maculis seu fasciis
transversalibus nigris. Obs: Collum subtus dilutius
coloratum ut Caput supra saturatius, non autem
nigricans ut in Ardea stellari. Abdominis latera
& Alae subtus genuaque extus albida fasciis trans-
versalibus nigris. Obs: secundum medium abdominis
Pennae longiores ex ferrugineo albidae a collo ad cau-
dam currunt, ubi etiam genua tegunt. Genua semi-
nuda inferne ut & Tibiae fuscae. Alae nigricantes:
Remigibus 22 apice albidis, et ad marginem exterio-
rem maculis tribus l. [s.] quatuor parvis subtriangulari-
bus ex ferrugineo albidis notatae. Rostrum capite
paulo longius, pallide flavescens. Nares lineares,
obliquae.
Obs: Pennae capitis in mare subreflexae, pennaeque
pectoris longiores quam in femina.
Habitat in Insulis Granadis.
Accompanying material
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Ardea fasciata.
A. with a smooth head, reddish-brown upperparts with black
horizontal patches, and black underparts with white horizontal patches.
It is a little smaller than the Ardea stellari. The head, neck, back
and covert feathers on the wings are reddish-brown but crossed
with black horizontal bands. Obs[ervation]: The neck is a pale
colour underneath while the head is a deep colour on top, it is not,
however, as black as in the Ardea stellari. The sides of the
abdomen, the underparts of the wings, and the outside of the
knees are white with black horizontal bands. Obs[ervation]: along
the middle of the abdomen there are longer feathers coloured from
reddish-brown to white that run from the neck to the tail, where
even the knees are covered. The knees are semi-
bare on the inside and the tibias are tawny. The wings are black.
There are 22 flight feathers on the wings with white tips, and marked at the outer edge with three or four small somewhat
triangular patches coloured from reddish-brown to white. The beak is slightly longer than the head, and is a pale golden-yellow colour. The nares are linear and slanting.
Obs[ervation]: The feathers of the head are somewhat folded back
in the males, and the feathers on the breast are longer than in the females.
It lives in the Grenadine islands.
Alternative identifier(s)
Volume number
Birds Volume 13, Painting 16