There are about twenty paintings here all told, mostly by Shaikh Zain ud-Din, one of three painters commissioned by Lady Impey to catalogue her aviary during her stay in India in the late 18th century. The Mughal-trained artist produced images of delicacy and precision, paying great attention to biological accuracy. These haven't the characterfulness and flamboyance of the Edward Lear bird pictures in last year's exhibition at the Ashmolean, but they are similar in flavour, being essentially a substitute for photography, and beautiful as a by-product of their function, which was to record. Some of Lady Impey's paintings, indeed, were used to first "describe" species types, for example the Pink Headed duck.

Here you will find a flamingo, with feathers dulled by an aviary diet from their customary pink; a lovely little demoiselle crane (made famous on a recent David Attenborough series for their plucky annual journey across the Himalayas), and a menacing adjutant stork, among others. There's even a sulphur-crested cockatoo, rather far from its natural home in Australia. My favourite is a goose next to the cockatoo - not that its posture is particularly convincing, but the texture and colour of the iridescent green feathers along its back is rather lovely and extremely lifelike.