Acer palmatum, although there are more than 100 species of maple worldwide, only one species (Acer campestre) is native to the UK.

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Natural history

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"Soft-tailed Flycatcher"
Artist: Port Jackson Painter
Created: [between 1788 and 1797]
Dimensions: 31.2 x 18.3 cm
Reference: Watling Drawing - no. 263

 
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Bird in profile, facing to the left and leaning forwards, occupying roughly the top half of the sheet. It is perched on a tree stump on a grey-green base which occupies the lower half. The background is plain. The upper parts of the bird are predominantly brown with black striations, and the underparts white-grey. The colour and markings are represented entirely by cross-hatched lines of brown, black and grey over bare paper, apart from the throat, which is painted as a blue stain overlaid with deeper blue hatched lines. The tail is approximately twice the size of the bird's body and consists of five long straight feathers with separated barbs. The drawing is framed by a pencil border and annotated in ink and pencil.

 
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  • Port Jackson Painter]
  • The drawing is inscribed in ink at top left "++".
  • The drawing is unsigned and undated.
  • The drawing is inscribed in ink at top right with the number "186". This refers to the catalogue list compiled by John Latham c. 1801 which was acquired with the drawings, and is filed with them at the end of the Watling Drawings series.
  • The drawing is annotated in pencil at top "Soft-tailed Flycatcher Sup. 2. 224." This has been copied in ink at centre left "Soft tailed Flycatcher. Latham. Syn Suppt 2. p. 224. Male.". The page reference is to Latham's Second Supplement to the General Synopsis of Birds (1802).
  • This bird is missing from the list in Hindwood K. A (1970). However it resembles the Emu Wren Stipiturus malachurus (male) depicted in Watling Drawing no. 261.
  • The author of this catalogue record is Suzanne Stenning.
  • By permission of the trustees of the Natural History Museum (London)
  • Two sets of transparencies held in the Natural History Museum (London) Zoology Library and Picture Library: Picture Library reference number 12263
  • James Lee of Kensington : purchased ; 1902
  • Data sheet available.
  • Latham, John. Supplement II to the General Synopsis of Birds. London: Leigh, Sotheby, 1802.
  • Hindwood, K.A. 'Historical Associations and Early Records of the Emu Wren', The Emu Vol.31 pp.33-110, 1931.
  • Hindwood K. A. 'The "Watling" drawings with incidental notes on the "Lambert" and the "Latham" drawings', Proceedings of the Royal Zoological Society of New South Wales for the years 1968-69 (1970).