ROBERT, Nicolas (French, 1614-1685).
Couple de chanteurs d'Afrique à croupion jaune (A Pair of African Yellow-rumped Singers, or Black-throated Canaries) Crithagra atrogularis (formerly Serinus atrogularis).
Pencil, watercolor, and gouache on vellum, with gold border.
Numbered '49'.
ca. 1675.
15 1/4” x 11 5/8” vellum.

The present sheet depicts a pair of black-throated canaries, small seed-eating finches of the family Fringillidae native to sub-Saharan Africa. Robert renders the bird above in a striking descending posture, its diagnostic lemon-yellow rump fully displayed against the dark, scalloped plumage of its back and wings, while a second individual perches below among broad green leaves, its softer grey-brown coloring suggests a female or juvenile. The two are arranged along a single sinuous branch rising from a tuft of foliage and stone, a balance that harmonizes ornithological accuracy with the decorative rhythms of the vélin tradition.

The species, also known as the black-throated seedeater or southern yellow-rumped seedeater, is widely distributed across Angola, Botswana, Burundi, the Republic of the Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It frequents thorn scrub, broadleaf woodland, dry savanna, subtropical and tropical dry shrubland, and cultivated landscapes, foraging in flocks for grass and weed seeds on the ground and in low vegetation. The black-throated canary was formerly placed in the genus Serinus, but phylogenetic analyses of mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences revealed that the genus was polyphyletic, and a number of African species, including this one, were subsequently transferred to the resurrected genus Crithagra.

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