McGill Library
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Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Ring-necked or Bengal Parrakeet
Blue-winged Parakeet
Psittacula columboides
P. Paillou 1759
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 Blue-winged Parakeet from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: North Western Ghats, India].
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Ring-necked or Bengal Parrakeet (Paloecornis torquata) P. Paillou 1759
Scientific name: Psittacula columboides
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Torquatus
Ps: Macrourus rostri maxilla superiore
rubro inferiore nigro. Iribus flavis
circulis coccineis cinctis capite et
pectore e viride purpurescentibus
abdomine viride flavescente collo
anulo coccineo cincto. Dorso alis et
cauda viridibus remigibus tamen
et rectricibus longissimis Caeruleis
pedibus griscis purpurascentibus
magnitudine precedenti aequalis
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Torquatus
Ps: Macrourus with a red upper mandible
and black lower mandible; golden-yellow irises
with scarlet rings around them, a head
and breast coloured from green to purple,
a golden-green abdomen, and a neck encircled
with a scarlet ring; a green back, wings and
tail, but with flight feathers on both the wings
and the tail that are very long and blue; and
purplish-grey feet.
It is of the same size as the previous bird.