A rare complete set of five antique prints showing in great detail the wonderful Western Arfak Parotia Bird of Paradise, in French “Le Sifilet Oiseaux De Paradis”. Published in Paris France in the year 1835 (first edition) in "Histoire Naturelle Des Oiseaux De Paradis" (Natural History Of Birds Of Paradise), the first and most comprehensive work on birds of paradise entitled until John Gould's great monograph started appearing 20 years later. By René Primevère LESSON (1794-1849), a surgeon, pharmacist, naturalist on the round-the-world scientific voyage of the corvette La Coquille (1822-1825), led by Jules-Sébastien-César Dumont D'URVILLE (1790-1842) and Louis-Isidore DUPERREY (1786-1865).
The western or Arfak parotia (Parotia sefilata), is a medium-sized, approximately 33 cm long, bird-of-paradise with a medium-length tail. Parotia comes from the Greek parotis, a lock or curl of hair by the ear, alluding to the head wires. The specific name sefilata is derived from the Latin word 'sex', meaning six, and filum, a thread or filament. The western parotia is found only in the mountain forests of Vogelkop and the Wandammen Peninsula of Western New Guinea. The diet consists mainly of fruits such as figs, and arthropods.
Like other birds-of-paradise, the western parotia is sexually dimorphic. The male has jet black plumage, with striking iridescent scale-like, golden-green breast shields and triangular silver feathers on its crown. The occipital plumes (or head wires) arise from above and behind the eyes, with three long, erectile wire-like plumes with smaller spatulate tips, above and behind each eye. As with most member in the family, the female is unadorned and has brown plumage. The species is similar to Lawes's parotia (Parotia lawesii).
The species is polygynous. Males presumably perform a series of courtship displays on terrestrial courts in exploded leks. In courtship display, the male performs a ballerina-like dance with its elongated black plumes spread around skirt-like, right below the iridescent breast shield. During the spectacular dance, he shakes his head and neck rapidly to show the brilliance of his inverted silver triangle-shaped head adornment to attending females.
LESSON studied these birds in their natural habitat during the expedition and was the first European to observe birds of paradise alive in the wild and was the first to describe a Bird of Paradise in flight when the voyage visited New Guinea in 1824. He brought back numerous specimens from the Australia, Moluccas and New Guinea. The voyage concentrated on the exploration of the Pacific Ocean, Australia, New Zealand, Oceania, Polynesia and South America. His classic monograph on these birds includes a synopsis of species with descriptions and synonymies and a treatment of each, at least 4 of which were new to European science.
A hand-finished engraved plate, heightened with gum arabic by Paul Louis OUDART (1796-1860) and Jean Gabriel PRÊTRE (1768-1849). Each illustration is numbered and signed by the illustrators. Like Redouté, OUDART was a pupil of the celebrated Dutch master Gerard van Spaendonck, and 'one of the outstanding French illustrators and bird painters' (Jackson op. cit p.382). He began exhibiting ornithological paintings at the Salon in 1819. PRÊTRE, worked at Museum d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris and provided the plates for many of the important French natural history works published in the first half of the 19th century: as Anker notes, 'these works were illustrated in accordance with the highest requirements of the time by artists such as J.G. Prêtre'.
Colour-printed engraving with hand-colouring, this print effortlessly captures the exotic beauty of one of the most spectacular of all Birds of Paradise. These almost 200 year old prints are much sought after by collectors of these amazing birds and very suitable for framing.
