McGill Library
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Red-Billed Chough
Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax barbarus
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 Red-Billed Chough from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: Morocco and the Canary Islands.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Manuscript note on back of drawing: Pyrrhocorax Aegyptianus
Scientific name: Pyrrhocorax pyrrhocorax barbarus
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Egyptica
U. nigra Caerulescente major, iridibus flavis difert [differt] etiam
a pr[e]cedente in magnitudine et rostro; quid
est majus. arcuato. et Naribus longioribus
nudis.
Habitat in Aegypto
The Egyptian Chough
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Egyptica
U. nigra Caerulescente major [The great bluish-black Egyptian U.] with golden-yellow irises; it differs from the previous bird in size and beak; the beak is very large and curved and the nares are longer
and bare.
It lives in Egypt
The Egyptian Chough