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The Green Perroquet with Red Beak
Ring-necked Parakeet female
Psittacula krameri
p. Paillou February 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 female Ring-necked Parakeet from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: the Palearctic, the Indo-Malayan Realm, and the Afrotropics].
Manuscript note on front of drawing: The Green Perroquet with Red Beak (Rufirostris Ps. Macrourus) p. Paillou February 1759
Manuscript note on back of drawing: Lin. says. Nat. Will. Ornith. P. 116
Scientific name: Psittacula krameri
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Rufirostris
Psittacus Macr: viridis rostro rubro caera [cera] alba
iridibus flavis palpebris albis. rectricibus
lorgioribus [longioribus] caerulescentibus. pedibus
griseis. magnitudine precedenti paulo
minore.
The Green Parroquet
with a red Beak.
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Rufirostris.
Psittacus Macr: viridis [The green parroquet] with a red beak
and white cere, white eyes with golden-yellow irises, longer
blue flight feathers on the tail, and grey feet.
It is slightly smaller than the previous bird.
The Green Parroquet
with a red Beak.