PAINTED BUNTING (OR FINCH)

John Abbot was born in London in 1751, came to Georgia in 1776, and spent the remaining six decades of his life recording the flora and fauna along the Savannah River.  Only a few hundred of Abbot’s more than 5,000 watercolors were ever published, most notably as illustrations for The Natural History of the Rarer Lepidopterous Insects of Georgia, published in 1797.  This image of a Painted Bunting was purchased from Abbot in 1805 for the collection of Chetham’s Library in Manchester, England.