Credit: © The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.10030
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    ‘The Blue-headed Parrot’

    Date
    1761
    Creator
    George Edwards (1694 - 1773, British) , Ornithologist
    Object type
    Library reference
    38029
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 288mm
    width (print): 220mm
    Subject
    Biology
       > Zoology
          > Ornithology
    Content object
    nature
       > animal
          > bird
    Description
    Ornithological study of a Blue-headed Pionus Pionus menstruus, a parrot native to Central and South America. The bird is shown on a low tree branch.

    Plate 314 from chapter 104 of Gleanings of natural history, exhibiting figures of quadrupeds, birds, insects, plants, &c..., by George Edwards, volume 3 (London, for the author, 1764). The author describes the bird within the text: “This very beautiful and rare Parrot I discovered hanging in a cage at the door of Mr. Haswell, Merchant, on the Point, at Portsmouth, May 1761; who, though I was a stranger, kindly accommodated me with a room in his house to take a sketch, and memorandums to finish my drawing: but he could not inform me of its country; only that the ship, by which they received it, came last from the Mediterranean, no part of whose coasts, that I know of, produce any of the Parrot kind...”

    The plate is inscribed: “The blue headed Parrot, from Life. Geo. Edwards Delin: & sculp, August 22 A.D. 1761, it’s native Place unknown.”
    Associated place
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