Credit: ©The Royal Society
    Image number: RS.18360

    ‘Double spurr’d partridge’

    Date
    1790
    Creator
    Peter Mazell (1721, Irish) , Engraver
    Object type
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (page): 245mm
    width (page): 185mm
    height (print): 195mm
    width (print): 155mm
    Subject
    Content object
    nature
       > animal
          > bird
    Description
    Ornithological study of a male [top] and female [bottom] double-spurred spurfowl, Pternistis bicalcaratus, referred to here as Perdix bicalcaratus. The male has two spurs on one leg, and one on the other, while the female lacks spurs.

    Inscribed below: ‘P Mazell Sculp. M&F DOUBLE SPURR’D PARTRIDGE’

    Written in the associated text: ‘The bill of the MALE is red: from that to the region of the eyes is a naked red space. The head is varied with black and white streaks.

    […]

    The head of the female is cinereous. The color of the back and belly rufous, brightest below. The tail dusky. Legs red and unarmed.’

    Plate 7 from Thomas Pennant’s Indian Zoology (London, 1790), printed by Henry Hughs for Robert Faulder.

    Thomas Pennant (1726–1798), British naturalist, traveller, and writer, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1767. Best known for his published accounts of tours throughout the British Isles. He never travelled outside of Europe and his account of Indian Zoology was gleamed from drawings brought back by Joan Gideon Loten (1710-1789), a servant in the colonies of the Dutch East India Company and 29th Governor of Sri Lanka, then Ceylon.
    Related fellows
    Thomas Pennant (1726 - 1798, Welsh) , Naturalist
    Joan Gideon Loten (1710 - 1789) , Colonial administrator
    Associated place
    <The World>
       > Asia
          > Sri Lanka
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