Eastern fox squirrel
Date
1731
Creator
Mark Catesby (1683-1749, British), Naturalist
Object type
Library reference
18894
Material
Technique
Subject
Description
Zoological study of an Eastern fox squirrel, Sciurus niger, referred to here as the same, shown in left profile, eating an unidenitifed nut or seed, behind a Yellow lady's slipper Cypripedium parviflorum specimen.
Signed and inscribed: 'Sciurus niger Calceolus'
Written in the associated description: 'This Squirrel is about the Size of the preccedent, many of these being entirely black; some have their Noses only white, some their Feet white, others the End of the Tail white, and some others have white round their Necks.'
Plate 73 from volume II of Mark Catesby’s The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (London, 1731).
Mark Catesby (1683-1749), British naturalist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1733. Travelling under the auspices of the Royal Society, Catesby recorded the earliest western scientific descriptions of the flora and fauna of the ‘New World’. He was the first naturalist to use folio-sized colour plates in a natural history book, and etched the copper plates himself before hand-colouring each individual print with watercolours.
Signed and inscribed: 'Sciurus niger Calceolus'
Written in the associated description: 'This Squirrel is about the Size of the preccedent, many of these being entirely black; some have their Noses only white, some their Feet white, others the End of the Tail white, and some others have white round their Necks.'
Plate 73 from volume II of Mark Catesby’s The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (London, 1731).
Mark Catesby (1683-1749), British naturalist was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1733. Travelling under the auspices of the Royal Society, Catesby recorded the earliest western scientific descriptions of the flora and fauna of the ‘New World’. He was the first naturalist to use folio-sized colour plates in a natural history book, and etched the copper plates himself before hand-colouring each individual print with watercolours.