Credit: © The Royal Society
Image number: RS.10534
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‘The Boat-Bill’
Date
1792
Creator
James Fittler (1758 - 1835, British) , Engraver
After
Charles Reuben Ryley (1747 - 1798, British) , Painter
Object type
Library reference
R63366
Material
Technique
Dimensions
height (print): 280mm
width (print): 216mm
width (print): 216mm
Subject
Content object
Description
Ornithological study of two specimens of the Boat-billed Heron (Cochlearius cochlearius).
Plate 45 from Museum Leverianum containing select specimens from the museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever...by George Shaw (published by James Parkinson, 1792).
The accompanying text states that: “The Boat-bill is a South American bird, and frequents watery places, feeding nearly in the manner of Herons, on fish, frogs,&c.”
The plate is inscribed: “C.R.Ryley delt. J.Fittler sculp. CANCROMA COCHLEARIA. THE BOAT BILL. Published. as the Act directs.Octr.2. 1792. by I.Parkinson. Leverian Museum.”
Plate 45 from Museum Leverianum containing select specimens from the museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever...by George Shaw (published by James Parkinson, 1792).
The accompanying text states that: “The Boat-bill is a South American bird, and frequents watery places, feeding nearly in the manner of Herons, on fish, frogs,&c.”
The plate is inscribed: “C.R.Ryley delt. J.Fittler sculp. CANCROMA COCHLEARIA. THE BOAT BILL. Published. as the Act directs.Octr.2. 1792. by I.Parkinson. Leverian Museum.”
Object history
The natural historian George Shaw (1751-1813) was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1789. His book, from which this plate is taken, was an account of the collection built up by Sir Ashton Lever FRS (1729-1788). The museum was originally at Leicester House, London and was displayed publically after Lever’s death, moving to a rotunda building near Blackfriars Bridge.
Associated place