The Couta-Couti or Brazil Squirrel

Watercolour drawing of a South American coati (Nasua nasua), inscribed beneath the image with a title, date and location: ‘The Couta-Couti or Brazil Squirrel – Mermaid 1805 West Indies’. The drawing is the work of naval officer Aiskew Paffard Hollis (1764–1844), who commanded the ‘Mermaid’ (the ship mentioned in the inscription) from 1803 until 1808. During that time, the ship was based in Bermuda. For other examples of Hollis’s work, see PAH4885 and ZBB0352–84.