Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10033
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‘The Short-tailed Pye &c.’
Date
1761
Creator
George Edwards (1694 - 1773, British) , Ornithologist
Object type
Library reference
38029
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 288mm
width (print): 220mm
width (print): 220mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Zoological studies of a Indian Pitta Pitta brachyuran, with a Hercules beetle, Dynastes hercules from Guadaloupe in the Leeward Islands of the Caribbean.
Plate 324 from chapter 114 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 creatures within the text: “Both the Bird and Beetle are figured on the plate of their natural bigness...The Beetle is called the Rhinoceros Beetle, tho’ by mistake the Elephant is wrote on the plate...The Bird here figured and described was brought by Governor Loten from the Island of Ceylon, and is deposited in the British Museum...The Beetle was given me by my worthy friend John Gwilt, jun. Esq., of London, who told me it was brought from the Island of Guadaloupe...”
The plate is inscribed: “The Short-tailed Pie, from the E.Indies, and the Elephant-beetle from the W.Indies. Boath drawn from nature of the size of Life. G.Edwards delin: et Sculp. October 6 AD 1759.”
Plate 324 from chapter 114 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 creatures within the text: “Both the Bird and Beetle are figured on the plate of their natural bigness...The Beetle is called the Rhinoceros Beetle, tho’ by mistake the Elephant is wrote on the plate...The Bird here figured and described was brought by Governor Loten from the Island of Ceylon, and is deposited in the British Museum...The Beetle was given me by my worthy friend John Gwilt, jun. Esq., of London, who told me it was brought from the Island of Guadaloupe...”
The plate is inscribed: “The Short-tailed Pie, from the E.Indies, and the Elephant-beetle from the W.Indies. Boath drawn from nature of the size of Life. G.Edwards delin: et Sculp. October 6 AD 1759.”
Associated place