First Fleet artwork collection

Bird in profile, facing to the left and perched on a tree branch against a plain background. The bird's head is dark brown with a black - dark grey bill, with a knob at the base. The chin is pale with brown stripes. The body is predominantly brown and grey, paler underneath, and with darker brown vertical marks on the throat. The drawing is framed by a pencil border and annotated in ink and pencil.

• Thomas Watling]
• The drawing is annotated in ink at bottom "About One third of the Natural size This bird is generally found perching upon the topmost boughs of tall trees. Its food is insects, and honey, which it extracts from plants and flowering shrubs. The paroquets hold it in enmity; nor do they ever part before a severe contest. -".
• The drawing is signed beneath the branch "T. Watling, delt.", but is undated.
• The drawing is inscribed in ink at top right with the number "87.". 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 "Knob-fronted Bee-eater Sup. 2. 151". This has been copied in ink below, "Cowled Bee eater or knob fronted Bee eater Lathams Syn Suppt. 2. p. 155. It varies from the knob fronted in the sex or age.". The page reference is to Latham's Second Supplement to the General Synopsis of Birds (1802).
• This bird was more recently identified as the Noisy Friar Bird, Philemon corniculatus, by Hindwood K. A. (1970).
• A separate label, attached to the mount alongside the drawing at the lower right, 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 12167
• 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).