McGill Library
McLennan Library Building3459 rue McTavish
Montreal, Quebec
H3A 0C9
Velvet-Scoter [female]
White-winged Scoter, female
Melanitta deglandi
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 White-winged Scoter from a 18th century specimen [modern geographical distribution: Canada; Breeding occurs in Mid-West Canada.] Attributed to Peter Paillou.
Manuscript note on front of drawing: Velvet-Scoter [female] (Aedemia fusca)
Scientific name: Melanitta deglandi
With manuscript text on accompanying leaf.
Transcription of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Bernicla
Anser, capite collo pectoreq[ue] nigris
ventre albo, sicut etiam Gena &
menta. Regimibus [remigibus] fuscis, dorso &
& [sic] alis cinereis nigro & albo transver
-sale striatis.
The Bernacle
Note. this goose is by Linaeus con-
-founded with the Brent gose
tho a very different bird.
it is better described by Will orn. p359.
Translation of manuscript note on accompanying leaf: Bernicla
Anser, with a black head, neck, and breast,
a white stomach, as also white cheeks and
chin; tawny flight feathers on the wings,
and an ash-coloured back and wings, streaked with black
and white transverse lines.
The Bernacle
Note. this goose is by Linaeus con-
-founded with the Brent go[o]se
tho a very different bird.
it is better described by Will orn. p359.