BY WILLIAM HAYES, CIRCA 1780

William Hayes (d.1802), artist and ornithologist, produced basso relievo bird pictures, similar to the work of the Irishman Samuel Dixon. In 1771 he published a volume containing forty hand-coloured engravings entitled A Natural History of British Birds etc., with their Portraits accurately drawn and beautifully coloured from Natur. By the late 1780s Hayes was employed by the Childs at Osterley, recording the exotic birds in their remarkable `menagerie', assisted by his wife and some of his children. This resulted in the publication between 1794 and 1799 of his Portraits of Rare and Curious Birds with their Descriptions. Accurately drawn and beautifully coloured from species in the Menagerie of Child, the Banker at, Osterley Park, nr. London. At first Hayes used his work on British birds as subject matter for his embossed pictures, but latterly also his engravings for the two Osterley volumes.