First Fleet artwork collection

Bird in profile, its body turned to the right and its head to the left, with its bill pointing vertically upwards. It is depicted standing in a landscape consisting of grass in the foreground and to the left of a stream. The bird is painted in shades of brown, with paler underparts overlaid with darker striations and speckles, while the darker upper parts are overlaid with lighter detail. The drawing is annotated in ink and pencil.

• Thomas Watling]
• The drawing is annotated in pencil at top "The Bittern a Variety Syn v. 56". This has been copied in ink at bottom, "The Bittern a Variety Latham Syn v. 56". The page reference is to Latham's General Synopsis of Birds (1781-5).
• The drawing is signed at lower right "Thomas Watling. delt.", but is undated.
• The drawing is inscribed in ink at top right with the number "234.". 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.
• This bird was more recently identified as the Brown Bittern, Botaurus poiciloptilus in Hindwood K. A. (1970).
• The drawing is annotated in pencil at top, "Lambert Drawing III. 21.". 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 12306
• 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).