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Sir William Coles Paget Medlycott (1831-1887) Sir William Coles Paget Medlycott (1831-1887) William Medlycott was born into a wealthy English family. Educated at Rugby School, he developed an interest in natural history. He later travelled to Malta and North America where he drew the plants, birds and fishes. In 1860 Medlycott published a Catalogue of
the Birds of Malta, with their English and Maltese
Names. This work was printed for private circulation
only.
This watercolour is of a white-throated sparrow (Zonotrichia albicollis). Medlycott however refers to it as a white-throated finch, the name which the famous bird artist and ornithologist John James Audubon (1785-1851) also referred to it as. Its breeding ground is in Canada and New England but is commonly found in the eastern United States during winter. It feeds primarily insects during the summer, and seeds and berries in the autumn and winter
The William Medlycott Drawings Collection Medlycott’s natural history sketchbooks were deposited in the Natural History Museum. The collection consist of three groups of drawings including sketches and water colours of the plants of Malta, 1857 and Canadian plants, 1868-1885; 137 water colour drawings and pencil sketches of animals of Malta and 69 watercolours of the birds and fishes of North America, 1861-1862. The North American drawings are accompanied with
manuscript notes by Medlycott of his observations,
information about localities and scientific descriptions.
Exhibition and publication details This collection of drawings has not previously been on public display.
References and further reading Jackson, C.E. (1999) Dictionary of Bird Artists
of the World. Antique Collectors' Club: Woodbridge,
Suffolk. 550pp. |
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