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Natural history

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"Little Bittern"
Artist: Port Jackson Painter
Created: [between 1788 and 1797]
Dimensions: 27.3 x 19.2 cm
Reference: Watling Drawing - no. 309

 
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  • Port Jackson Painter]
  • The drawing is annotated in ink below the drawing, in a panel framed with a single-banded ink border, "December 1/2 the Natural size of the Bird the Drawing was taken from. The Neck is longer but this is his general Attitude". It is annotated in brown ink beneath the panel "Native name Duralia, found in Marshes or moist ground". The tops of further notes are visible on the bottom edge of the drawing, where the paper has been cropped.
  • The drawing is unsigned and undated.
  • The drawing is inscribed in ink at top right with the number "237.". 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 "Little Bittern var. Syn Sup 2. 301". This has been copied in ink at lower left "Little Bittern variety Latham Syn. Suppt 2. p. 301.". The page reference is to Latham's Second Supplement to the General Synopsis of Birds (1802).
  • This bird was more recently identified as the Little Bittern, Ixobrychus minutus in Hindwood K. A. (1970).
  • The drawing is annotated in pencil at top "Lambert Drawing II 90.". 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 below the drawing. 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 12309
  • 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).