First Fleet artwork collection

Bird, with body facing to the right and head turned to the right, giving a slightly frontal view of an open bill. It is perched on a tree stump protruding from a pale brown - green mound, against an otherwise plain background. The bird is predominantly black, with white patches on the wing and tail. The drawing is framed by a pencil border and annotated in ink and pencil.

• Port Jackson Painter]
• The drawing is annotated in ink at lower left "one half the Natural size. June."
• The drawing is unsigned and undated.
• The drawing is inscribed at top right, in ink and in pencil, with the number "65.". 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 "Noisy Roller Sup. 2.130". This has been copied in ink at lower left "Noisy Roller Lathams Syn Suppt 2 p 130". The page reference is to Latham's Second Supplement to the General Synopsis of Birds (1802).
• This bird was more recently identified as the Pied Currawong, Strepera graculina in Hindwood K. A. (1970).
• The drawing is annotated in pencil at top "Lambert Drawing III 25", and at lower right "Vol. 3 25". 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 affixed to the mount alongside the drawing at lower right is inscribed in pencil "refers to Lambert Drawing", and includes a line pointing to the "Vol. 3. 25" annotation on the drawing (see above).
• A separate label affixed to the mount alongside the drawing at 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 12148
• 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).