RICHTER, Henry Constantine (1821-1902). Watercolour for Gould's The Birds of Asia of Orange-bellied Flowerpeckers, Dicaeum dorsale, Dicaeum trigonostigma (Scopoli) [c.1875].

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RICHTER, Henry Constantine (1821-1902). Watercolour for Gould's The Birds of Asia of Orange-bellied Flowerpeckers, Dicaeum dorsale, Dicaeum trigonostigma (Scopoli) [c.1875].

(534 x 356mm). Pencil and watercolour heightened with touches of bodycolour gum arabic. Numbered '2.37.a' and inscribed on the mount: 'Gould Dicaeum dorsali Yellow-throated Dicaeum'.

ORIGINAL WATERCOLOUR FOR GOULD'S THE BIRDS OF ASIA. The specimens came from Panay, Philippine Islands, and were found by Dr J.B. Steere (1842-1940) 'on the highest part of the island, in the remains of the virgin forest on the highest range of the mountains west of Iloilo'. Steere travelled in the Philippines in 1874-1875 and lent Gould these type specimens before he returned to America and to take up a Professorship at the University of Michigan. Richard Bowdler Sharpe named this flowerpecker dorsale after the red spot on the male specimen's back. The birds are depicted lifesize, measuring approximately 9 centimeters. R.B. Sharpe Transactions of the Linnean Society, Second Series, Zoology I, part 5, 1876.

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Catalogue Notes
Gould stated that this species belonging to a group of orange-bellied flowerpeckers and was called dorsale by Richard Bowdler Sharpe because of the red spot on its back. The specimens came from Panay, Philippine Islands, and were found by Dr J.B. Steere (1842-1940) 'on the highest part of the island, in the remains of the virgin forest on the highest range of the mountains west of Iloilo'. Steere travelled in the Philippines in 1874-75 and lent Gould these type specimens before he returned to America and became Professor at the University of Michigan. The birds are depicted lifesize, length 3.5 inches. The male has an orange-red spot on its back, the female is olive-green and yellow. R.B. Sharpe, Transactions of the Linnean Society, 1876, 2nd series, Zoology, I, part 5. DISTRIBUTION: Southern Asia from eastern India and Thailand through Malaya to Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Bali and the Philippines. The subspecies, D.t.dorsale, illustrated here occurs on the central Philippine islands of Masbate, Panay and Negros.

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