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Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
Variable Hawk
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Buteo polysoma
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Title based on 2019 species identification.
Level of description
Item
Repository
Reference code
CA RBD MSG BW002-372
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
undated (Creation)
- Creator
- Paillou, Peter, approximately 1720-approximately 1790
Physical description area
Physical description
1 watercolour painting ; 56 x 39 cm + 1 leaf
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
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Archival description area
Name of creator
(approximately 1720-approximately 1790)
Biographical history
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.
Custodial history
Scope and content
Drawing of a Variable Hawk from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: South America.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
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Language of material
Script of material
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Associated materials
Accruals
General note
Manuscript note on back of drawing: B [Unfinished watercolor of specimen]
General note
Scientific name: Buteo polysoma
Accompanying material
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Accompanying material
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Falco nigricans
F. cera obscura, pedibus luteis corpore nigricante
maculis transversalibus fusco-ferrugineis.
Magnitudine Gallinae meleagridis. Caput
parvum, nigrum, maculis paucissimis
ferrugineis. Rostrum parvum, plumbeum:
Cera obscura. Collum supra & Dorsum
nigricantia immaculata; Pectus & Abdomen
nigricantia maculis ferrugineis irregularibus
adspersa. Alae supra nigricantes maculis
transversalibus in remigibus primariis (quae
undecim) plumbeis, in secundariis (quae decem)
fuscis; subtus alae pallidiores. Cauda aequalis alis longior:
Rectrices duodecim laterales fuscae maculis pal-
lidis; intermediae albidae, omnes pone medium
nigrae, apice albescentes. Femora nigricantia
fasciis crebris dilutes ferrugineis. Tibiae nudae, luteae.
Habitat in Insulis Granadis.
Accompanying material
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Falco nigricans [The black falcon]
F., with a dark cere, yellow feet, and black body
with tawny reddish-brown spots crossing it.
It is the size of the Gallinae meleagridis [the Guinea-Fowl]. The head is small, black, with very small reddish-brown
spots. The beak is small, and lead-coloured:
the cere is dark. The top of the neck and the back
are a pure black; the breast and abdomen
are black and sprinkled with irregular reddish-brown
spots. The tops of the wings are black with spots
crossing them, the primary feathers (of which there are
eleven) are lead-coloured, the secondary feathers (of which there are ten)
are tawny; the undersides of the wings are paler. The tail is the same but longer than the wings:
There are twelve flight feathers on the sides of the tail that are tawny with pale spots; the flight feathers in the middle of the tail are white, all those behind the middle
are black, and have white tips. The thighs are black
with an abundance of pale reddish-brown bands. The tibias are bare, and yellow.
It lives in the Grenadine Islands.
Alternative identifier(s)
Volume number
Birds Volume 3, Painting 35