McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Herring
Atlantic Herring
Clupea harengus
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 Atlantic Herring from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: the North Atlantic.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Herring (Clupea harengus)
Scientific name: Clupea harengus
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Pisces Abdominales Clupea
Harengus LSN p.522. e.n.
Clupea imaculata [immaculata], maxilla inferiore
longiore.
Habitatat [Habitat] M. Euraeis [Europaeis].
vide linei descriptionem. p. 522. e.nov.
The Herring
The Natural History of this fish
is extreamly uncertain. Those
taken in the North of this Island
appear first & largest in size.
they are said to go to the South & round
the Island in a few days but on the
norfolk & Southern shore they are much
less in size tho later in apearing.
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Pisces Abdominales Clupea
Harengus LSN p.522. e.n.
Clupea unblemished, with a longer lower
mandible.
It lives in the European seas.
See Linnaeus for the description. p.522. e.nov.
The Herring
The Natural History of this fish
is extreamly uncertain. Those
taken in the North of this Island
appear first & largest in size.
they are said to go to the South & round
the Island in a few days but on the
norfolk & Southern shore they are much
less in size tho later in apearing.