Many of Philip Reinagle's drawings in the Royal Academy collection are studies of birds, some of which are preparatory drawings for paintings. Birds feature in many of Reinagle's compositions (see his Diploma work) and he also produced a group of paintings depicting large assemblies of different types of birds, such as 'The King Eagle Pursued to the Sun by a Multitudinous Flock of Birds'. The source material for such compositions was almost certainly Sir Ashton Lever's museum or 'Holophusikon', which was open to the public in London between 1773 and 1806. The collection included ethnographic material, natural objects like fossils and shells as well as a large number of stuffed birds and animals. Reinagle provided illustrations for George Shaw's Museum Leverianum, containing Select Specimens from the Museum of the late Sir Ashton Lever, Kt. , London, 1792-96.

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