First Fleet artwork collection

Bird in profile, facing to the left, perched on a branch against a plain background. The upper parts of the bird are very dark brown to black, except for a white-grey forehead and markings on the wing and tail. The underparts are red. The drawing is framed by a pencil border and annotated in ink and pencil.

• Thomas Watling]
• The drawing is annotated in ink at top left "++", at bottom, in pale brown ink and what appears to be Watling's copperplate hand "Half the Natural size", and below, in a different hand, "Native name Karreet".
• The drawing is signed "Thos. Watling, delt.", but is undated.
• The drawing is inscribed in ink at top right with the number "129.". 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 "Scarlet breasted Flycatcher La MS". This has been copied in ink at centre left "Scarlet-breasted Flcatcher Lathams MS". "Lathams MS" refers to the manuscript catalogue list compiled by John Latham (see note above).
• This bird was more recently identified as the Flame Robin, Petroica phoenicea (male) in Hindwood K. A. (1970).
• The drawing is annotated in pencil at top "Lambert Drawing III. 43". 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 partial annotation, inscribed in pale brown ink, is visible on the reverse of the drawing The edges of the text appear to have been lost through the drawing being cropped. What remains reads "domestic little bird frequents fields & g as the Robin in England & is called th Wales & Norfolk Island where it is still ous than in N.S.W. This is the ma e breast is a much paler colour head & tail instead of being nearly b n -". The full annotation is given on a separate sheet mounted below the drawing.
• A separate sheet of laid paper measuring 7 x 9.3 cm. is mounted below the drawing. It is inscribed in blue pencil at top right with the number "189", and in ink, "++ This domestic little Bird frequents Fields and Gardens, as does the Robin in England and it is called the Robin of new south Wales and Norfolk Island where it is still more numerous than in New south Wales. This is a Male, the female breast is of a much paler color, and the Back, Head and Tail, instead of being nearly black, is a brown."
• 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 12266
• James Lee of Kensington : purchased ; 1902
• Data sheet available.
• 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).