First Fleet artwork collection

Bird in profile, facing to the left, perched on a tree stump with grass and vegetation at its base against a plain background. The upper parts of the bird are a dark olive green, the wings are dark brown with lighter markings, and the underparts are white. The drawing is framed by a pencil border and annotated in ink and pencil.

• Thomas Watling]
• The drawing is annotated in ink at bottom "Half the Natural size - Native Name Den-gong A small wood pecker of New South Wales".
• The drawing is signed by Watling at lower right with his initials "T.W.g.", but is undated.
• The drawing is inscribed in ink at top right with the number "139.". 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 "ash-tailed Creeper - La MS Var. of Dirigang Sup. 2: 166?". This has been copied in ink at bottom, "Ash Tailed Creeper, Latham MS. A variety of Dirigang Suppt 2. p. 166.". The page reference is to Latham's Second Supplement to the General Synopsis of Birds (1802), and "Latham MS" refers to the catalogue list compiled by Latham (see note above).
• This bird was more recently identified as the White-throated Tree-creeper Climacteris leucophaea in Hindwood K. A. (1970). (ITIS gives Cormobates leucophaea as the preferred taxonomic name for the White-throated Tree-creeper.)
• The drawing is annotated in pencil at top "Lambert Drawing. II. 45.". 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 is attached to the mount alongside the drawing at lower right. It 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 12217
• 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).