The Most Unusual Birds Print by Michael Kirkman

From a series of exclusive prints by various artists commissioned for Pallant House Gallery. Exhibited alongside the 2020 exhibition ‘Drawn to Nature: Gilbert White and the Artists’.

Gilbert White commented that: ‘The most unusual  birds I ever observed in these parts were a pair of hoopoes (upupa), which came several years ago in the summer, and frequented an ornamental piece of ground, which joins to my garden, for some weeks. They used to march about in a stately manner, feeding in the walks, many times in the day; and seemed disposed to breed in my outlet; but were frightened and persecuted by idle boys, which would never let them be at rest.’ (Letter XI, Selborne, September 9, 1767)