First Fleet artwork collection

Bird in profile, facing to the left. It is depicted standing on a rock painted in shades of pale brown, pink and blue, with water in the foreground and a plain background. The head and breast are brown overlaid with black lines on the top of the head. The belly is off-white, the back grey, and the wing pale grey - brown overlaid with darker detail. The drawing is framed by a pencil border and annotated in ink and pencil.

• Thomas Watling]
• The drawing is annotated in ink at bottom "one fifth of its Natural size. A Female.".
• The drawing is signed at lower right "T. Watling, delt.", but is undated.
• The drawing is inscribed in ink at top right with the number "270.". 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 "Crested Tern - La Syn vi. 351. 1 var B". This has been copied in ink at bottom, "Crested Tern. Latham Syn 6. p. 351. variety B.". The page reference is to Latham's General Synopsis of Birds (1781-85).
• This bird was more recently described as "indeterminable" 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 12338
• James Lee of Kensington : purchased ; 1902
• Data sheet available.
• Latham, John. A General Synopsis of Birds. London: Benjamin White, 1781-85.
• 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).