McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Tufted Duck [male] & [female]
Tufted Duck
Aythya fuligula
Cha. Collins Fect. Febry 1739-40;
Item
1 watercolour painting ; 56 x 39 cm + 1 leaf
Charles Collins was an Irish painter, known for his portraits of animals and still-lifes. He achieved success in England painting exotic birds, game, dogs and dead game still-lifes. He was the painter for Robert Furber’s ‘Twelve Months of Fruit’ (1732). In 1736 he published in collaboration with John Lee a set of 12 large engravings, coloured by hand, of British birds in landscape and garden settings, entitled Icones avium cum nominibus anglicis. He then came to the attention of Taylor White, who engaged him to paint birds from his and others’ collections until 1743. Collins died in 1744, when he was described as ‘Bird Painter to the Royal Society.’
Drawing of a pair of Tufted Ducks from 18th century specimens [modern geographical distribution: the Palearctic, Oceania, the Indo-Malayan Realm, and the Afrotropics].
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Tufted Duck [male] & [female] (Nyroca fuligula) Cha. Collins Fect. Febry 1739-40;
Manuscript note on back of drawing: The Tufted Duck Anas fumigation prima Gesneri W. p. 365
Scientific name: Aythya fuligula
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Fuligula
Anas crista dependente, corpore
nigro, ventre maculaque alarum
albis L.S.N. p. 128
Habitat in Europae maritimis
The Black Crested
Duck.
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Fuligula
Anas with a hanging crest, a black body,
a white stomach and a white patch on the wings.
L.S.N. p. 128
It lives by the sea in Europe.
The Black Crested
Duck.