Rose Colored Pastor or Rosy Starling, Antique Hand Colored Print, 1896

An original wood engraved bird plate, colored by hand, captioned "ROSE-COLOURED PASTOR." A single bird stands on open ground in right profile, with a long shaggy crest falling from the crown to the back of the head. The head, crest, throat and upper breast are black, the body soft rose pink, and the wings and tail black with a blue green sheen. The bill is pale pinkish buff, the eye orange, the legs buff. The ground is washed in pale green and buff with small tufts of grass and a few stones, and a low pale line of distant ground runs behind the bird.

The caption "ROSE-COLOURED PASTOR." is engraved in capitals below the picture, with a full stop. No plate number or engraver's credit appears on the plate. The bird is known today as the Rosy Starling, Pastor roseus.

The plate comes from the fourth edition of A History of British Birds by the Reverend Francis Orpen Morris (1810 to 1893), rector of Nunburnholme in Yorkshire. This edition was issued in six volumes by John C. Nimmo, London, and the plate belongs to the third volume, whose title page is dated 1896 and states that the plates are colored by hand. The wood blocks for the plates of the work were engraved by Benjamin Fawcett (1808 to 1893) of Driffield in Yorkshire. Each plate combines an engraved black key block with a printed gray tint, finished by hand in watercolor.

This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed.