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

Skip to page content

Natural history

Image 2 of 508
  previous page next page

"Agile Creeper"
Artist: Port Jackson Painter
Created: [between 1788 and 1797]
Dimensions: 16.1 x 18 cm
Reference: Watling Drawing - no. 190

 
hide detailed image description

Bird in profile, facing to the left, perched on a branch against a plain background. The bill is open to show the 'brush' tongue. The underparts of the bird are white - pale blue, overlaid with pale grey hatched lines. The upper parts are predominantly brown - grey overlaid with black hatched lines. The tail is long, with pale brown upper feathers and pale grey underneath. The drawing is framed by a pencil border and annotated in ink and pencil.

 
hide notes

  • 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 12190
  • 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).
  • Port Jackson Painter]
  • The drawing is annotated in ink at lower left "Natural size."
  • The drawing is unsigned and undated.
  • The drawing is inscribed in ink at top right with the number "111.". 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 in "Qu. Agile Cr. Syn Suppt 2. 168 ?". This has been copied in ink at lower left, "Qu if[?] Agile Creeper. Latham Syn Suppt 2. p. 168". The page reference is to Latham's Second Supplement to the General Synopsis of Birds (1802).
  • This bird was more recently described as "indeterminable" in Hindwood K. A. (1970).
  • The drawing is annotated in pencil at top "Lambert Drawing II. 58". 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.