Company School watercolour of a Black Francolin

---

India, First half of the 19th century
Watercolour on European paper
32cm high, 49cm wide

Black Francolin (Francolinus francolinus)
A scrub and grassland pheasant, with a range across Turkey, Iran, northeast India, and Bangladesh. This bird was painted by Ram Das in Calcutta, c. 1777, for the Impey album, and for the Wellesley album c. 1798-1805 (see British Library NHD 29/78).