[London, the artist, (before) 1868]. Single leaf (53.2 x 35.3 cm visible). Framed and glazed.

This is the original watercolour painted by the great British ornithologist and bird painter, John Gould (1804-1881) for plate 33 of Part One of his famous work, The Birds of Great Britain. Gould depicted two specimens of the European scops owl, sitting on a branch of a European yew, one catching a large death's-head hawk moth, Acherontia atropos (Linnaeus, 1758) which, with a wing span of eight to twelve cm (3"-5"), is among the largest moths in Europe and Africa. The engraved printed version, first published in 1868 (Waterhouse), is quite faithful to this original, though in mirror image, and somewhat simpler in detail, especially the plumage, which in this original is very accurately executed. Gould added the volume and plate number in pencil, as usual. Nissen IVB, 372; Sitwell, Fine Bird Books, p. 102; Waterhouse, F. H. (1885) The Dates of Publication of Some of the Zoological Works of the Late John Gould, F.R.S, p. 13; Zimmer, p. 261.