First Fleet artwork collection

Bird in profile, facing to the left, depicted standing on an irrelegularly shaped pink and brown rocky outcrop surrounded by water. The water is represented by a gradated wash of blue through to white and pink, with a blue-grey line marking the horizon line approximately one fifth of the way up the sheet. The bird is situated slightly to the left of the centre of the sheet and has a black head, neck and upper parts, except for a white patch on the wing. The breast and belly are white overlaid with grey hatched lines, and the bill and legs are red. The drawing is annotated in ink and pencil, and is framed by a pencil border at the top and sides, with a ruled ink and wash base-line.

• Port Jackson Painter]
• The drawing is annotated in ink at lower left, above the horizon line, "Native name Booming, seldom seen in more than pairs it is a very Solitary Bird.".
• The drawing is unsigned and undated.
• The drawing is inscribed in ink at top right with the number "254.". 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 "New Holland Oister Catcher Qu - a Var. of [?illegible] Syn v. 219". This has been copied in ink at lower left, above the horizon line, "New Holland Oyster catcher, Qu a Variety of Pied oister catcher, Latham Syn 5. p. 219.". The page reference is to Latham's General Synopsis of Birds (1781-5).
• This bird was more recently identified as the Pied Oyster Catcher, Haematopus ostralegus in Hindwood K. A. (1970).
• 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 12325
• James Lee of Kensington : purchased ; 1902
• Data sheet available.
• Latham, John. A General Synopsis of Birds. London: Benjamin White, 1781-5.
• 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).