The text on the frame states that this enormous ox was won by Jacop Reyerszoon Boon in a competition for parrot target shooting. According to the text on the painting the animal was about sixteen hands high, or about one-and-a-half metres. Its circumference was almost 3 metres and it measured 3.30 metres centimetres long. Shooting parrots was an annual competition in which the various archers' and marksmens' guilds took part. The winner was pronounced 'king of the guild'. The text also tells us that Boon has won for the second time. The painting of the prize ox hung in the room of the Grocers' Guild in Amsterdam's town hall.