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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"Sordid Thrush", native name "Goo-le-bee"
Artist: Port Jackson Painter
Created: [between 1788 and 1797]
Dimensions: 18.4 x 18.6 cm
Reference: Watling Drawing - no. 231

 
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Bird in profile, facing to the right, perched on a branch against a plain background. The body is predominantly pale brown - grey, overlaid with darker hatched lines. The wings and tail are dark brown heavily overlaid with black, with white tips on the tail and edge of the wing. The drawing is framed by a pencil border and annotated in ink and pencil.

 
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  • Port Jackson Painter]
  • The drawing is annotated in ink at lower left "Natural size. Native name Goo-le-bee".
  • The drawing is unsigned and undated.
  • The drawing is inscribed in ink at top right with the number "152.". 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 "Sordid Thrush. Sup 2. 186". This has been copied in ink at lower centre "Sordid Thrush. Latham Syn Suppt 2. p. 156.". The page reference is to Latham's Second Supplement to the General Synopsis of Birds (1802).
  • This bird was more recently identified as the Dusky Wood-swallow, Artamus cyanopterus, in Hindwood K. A. (1970).
  • The drawing is annotated in pencil at top "Lambert Drawing II. 30". This refers to a related set of drawings from the collections of the 13th Earl of Derby, held in the Library at Knowsley Hall, Lancashire.
  • A separate label is attached to the mount alongside the drawing at lower right. It is inscribed in pencil "Type".
  • 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 12231
  • 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. '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).