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Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
The Nest of the Bottle Sparrow
General material designation
Parallel title
Other title information
Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
- Source of title proper: Title from caption.
Level of description
Item
Repository
Reference code
CA RBD MSG BW007-5
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
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approximately 1825 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
1 drawing (watercolour and gouache with pencil): colour (watercolour); 29.8 x 24.1 cm
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
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Numbering within publisher's series
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Archival description area
Name of creator
(1749-1819)
Custodial history
Scope and content
Item consists of a colour drawing of a sparrow poised on a gum arabic tree branch next to a butterfly (eggfly or blue moon butterfly) in flight, with identification and description in pen in contemporary hand: "The Nest of the Bottle Sparrow on a Branch of the Baubul Tree with the Purpled Eyed Butterfly." Additional later pencil notes provide additional identification for the butterfly, "Hypolimnas bolina Linn [India])," and indicate that the image corresponds to Forbes's Oriental Memoirs, 1813, volume 1, page 48. Also contains additional annotations by Henry Mousley with citations and speculation as to the origin of the butterfly (New Zealand). On paper with watermark of J. Whatman 1825.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Arrangement
Language of material
Script of material
Location of originals
Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Associated materials
Copy at exists at Yale: James Forbes Archive. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/2/archival_objects/3199407 Accessed February 12, 2026.
Accruals
General note
Contains extensive notes by Casey A. Wood and Henry Mousely on verso (1927 and 1932), regarding the attribution to James Forbes.
General note
With stamp: Dr. Casey Wood, Author's Club, London, S. W. L. England.
General note
Current binomial(s): (Coraciiformes Alcedinidae)
General note
Note on caption: no sparrow is visible in the image (compare British Library copy, where it is called the "Baya or Indian bottle nested sparrow"). The nest is apparently the Baya bird's nest.