Tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae), ‘La Cravate frisée’, plate 92 from Histoire naturelle des oiseaux d’Afrique. Vol. 2.

1799

Private Collection

Paris: J. J. Fuchs

This wonderful engraving of a tui was published in a book on African birds by François Levaillant (sometimes Le Vaillant, 1753–1824), a French explorer and noted ornithologist. The bird, from which this image was painted, had been transported from London, and was said to be the first tui specimen to be included in a French zoological collection. Levaillant used arsenic soap to preserve his specimens, and he endeavoured to present them in life-like positions for the illustrators. He also dismissed Linnaeus’ binomial nomenclature, preferring to use descriptive French names. The bird’s distinctive neck feathers drove Levaillant to call the tui, Cravate frisée, the ‘Curly Cravat’.