First Fleet artwork collection

Back view of bird with its body turned slightly to the left and its head turned in profile to the right, perched on a tree branch against a plain background. The bird has a red head with a grey bill, a green back, and blue and green wings and tail. The drawing is framed by a pencil border and annotated in ink and pencil.

• Thomas Watling]
• The drawing is signed "Thos. Watling, delt.", but is undated.
• The drawing is inscribed in ink at top right with the number "38.". 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 "Non-pareil Parrot - Sup 2. 85". This has been copied in ink at bottom centre, "Nonpareil Parrot, Latham Syn. Suppt 2 p 85". The page reference is to Latham's Second Supplement to the General Synopsis of Birds (1802).
• This bird was more recently identified as the Eastern Rosella Platycercus eximius in Hindwood K. A. (1970).
• The drawing is annotated in pencil at top "Lambert Drawing I. 18". 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.
• 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 12128
• 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).