McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Saiga antelope
Saiga Tatarica
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 an unknown animal from a 18th century specimen. Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Manuscript note on back of drawing: a rock buck
Scientific name: Saiga Tatarica
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of mammalia Pecora Capra
11 Tatarica
C. cornibus teretibus rectiusculis perfecte
annulatis apice diaphanis, gula imberba. L.S.N. 97
Ibex imberbis. Act. Petrop. 5. p. 345 & 7. p. 39. t. 19.
habitat in summa Asia. Femina incornis.
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Mammalia Pecora Capra
11 Tatarica
C. with rounded somewhat straight horns that are fully
ringed and transparent at the tip, and a beardless throat. L.S.N. 97
Ibex imberbis. Act. Petrop. 5. p. 345 & 7. p. 39. t. 19.
It lives on the summits [of mountains] in Asia. The female has no horns.