Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

The sulphur-crested cockatoo is not an Indian bird but an exotic import from Australia or New Guinea, perhaps brought to Calcutta by mariners or traders and acquired by Lady Impey as a pet. Shaikh Zain-ud Din’s careful study shows it perching on a branch of a custard-apple tree (annona reticulata), another import originally native to the West Indies. As in his other early studies of 1777 such as the Indian Pied Hornbill [LI901.7], Zain ud-Din already shows great assurance in adapting his technique to this unfamiliar large format. His artful pairing of the bird with a fruiting branch again follows the example of European scientific illustrations which he was probably shown by Lady Impey.