BIO: Richard Dunscombe Parker (c. 1805-81) was an Anglo-Irish gentleman farmer who lived at Landscape House, Sunday's Well, Cork. In common with many of his kind, he was also an avid sportsman. He was exceptional, however, in that he also painted birds. Influenced by the printed bird-books of Thomas Bewick, John Gould and the great ornithological artist John James Aububon, Parker produced a series of 170 large watercolor paintings of the birds of Ireland between about 1833 and 1868. Parker and his brothers were keen ornithologists as well as sportsmen, and corresponded with the eminent naturalists of the day, in particular William Thompson of Belfast, whose 4-volume "Natural History of Ireland" published about 1850, contains numerous references to Parker. Thompson rated Parker's bird-paintings as high as Gould's and Audubon's prints. Parker never married. The huge book of bird-paintings was passed to his niece Miss Eleanor Parker of Carrigrohane Lodge, Cork, who died ! in 1932. She bequeathed it to the Belfast Museum, now the Ulster Museum. It lay neglected in store until it was re-discovered by museum staff in 1976. On examination, the paintings appeared as fresh as the day they were painted, as they had been completely protected from the light for over a century. The discovery generated great excitement in the Museum, 170 paintings were shown to the public in a major exibition at the Ulster Museum in 1980. "The Birds of Ireland," a large book of 40 color reproductions, was published as a hand-bound limited edition by Blackstaff Press of Belfast in 1984. Splended as the color reproductions were, the sheer size and brillance of Parker's original watercolors was almost overpowering. Parker was also a very able painter of plants and landscape. His corncrake runs through tall grass between buttercup and red heather. While very rarely seen or heard, their call, resembles the grating of the teeth of a comb, is very distinct. His wheat! ear, in summer and winter plumage, stands in a moorland landscape with a lake. It is the earliest of the summer birds, usually making its appearance in the last weeks in March. The habitat of all his birds had been carefully studied. Parker's beautiful peregrine falcons were drawn full-face rather than in profile; peregrine falcons were always admired for their speed and docility, and in medieval times the peregrine was the falcon specially reserved for kings and nobles. -- Excerpts, "Ireland of the Welcomes," July-August 1984