First Fleet artwork collection

Drawing of two birds, presumed to be the male and female of the same species, perched on either side of a tree which has been drawn to a much smaller scale. The tree, standing on an area of green, occupies the centre of the composition and has a brown trunk shaded with black to the right, and clumps of green foliage on the upper branches. The male bird is perched on a branch to the left and is depicted in right profile, leaning forwards with its tail raised. The head and upper back are blue with a black band around the neck, across the eye and down the throat, and longer feathers on the cheek outlined in a darker tone. The wing is pale brown, with feathers outlined in grey, and the tail feathers are dark blue and black with some pale brown edges. The female on the right hand side of the tree is depicted in left profile. The bird's upper parts are brown, with the feathers of the wing and tail outlined and shaded with darker hatched lines, and the underparts off-white with grey hatched lines. The drawing is annotated in pencil at the bottom.