Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots is an 1832 book
by Edward Lear containing 42 hand-coloured lithographs (example
pictured). Lear started painting parrots for the book in 1830 when he
was 18 years old, and to get material for his book he studied live birds
at the London Zoo and in private collections. Although the book was a
financial failure, Lear's paintings of parrots established his
reputation as one of the best natural history artists of his time. It
found him work with leading contemporary naturalists, and the young
Queen Victoria engaged him to help her with her painting technique.
Lear's works influenced children's illustrators such as Beatrix Potter
and Maurice Sendak. He continued with his nature painting for some
years, but from about 1835 he became concerned about his failing
eyesight, and increasingly concentrated on his nonsense works and
landscape painting. He may have contributed to the illustrations for
Charles Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle.
Read more:
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illustrations_of_the_Family_of_Psittacidae,_or_Parrots>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1396:
Ottoman wars in Europe: Ottoman forces under Bayezid I
defeated a Christian alliance led by Sigismund of Hungary near present-
day Nikopol, Bulgaria.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Nicopolis>
1800:
French Revolutionary Wars: After U.S. ships became involved,
French forces abandoned their invasion of the Batavian island of
Curaçao.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasion_of_Cura%C3%A7ao_%281800%29>
1944:
Second World War: British troops began their withdrawal from
the Battle of Arnhem in the Netherlands, ending the Allies' Operation
Market Garden in defeat.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Arnhem>
1981:
Sandra Day O'Connor became the first female justice of the
Supreme Court of the United States.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandra_Day_O%27Connor>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
martial:
1. (comparable) Of, relating to, or suggestive of war; warlike.
2. (comparable) Connected with or relating to armed forces or the
profession of arms or military life.
3. (comparable) Characteristic of or befitting a warrior; having a
military bearing; soldierly.
4. (not comparable, astrology, obsolete) Pertaining to the astrological
influence of the planet Mars.
5. (not comparable, astronomy, obsolete) Of or relating to the planet
Mars; Martian.
6. (not comparable, chemistry, medicine, obsolete) Containing, or
relating to, iron (which was symbolically associated with the planet
Mars by alchemists); chalybeate, ferric, ferrous.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/martial>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't
bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try
to be better than yourself.
--William Faulkner
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/William_Faulkner>