First Fleet artwork collection

Three birds, depicted on a green-to-yellow mound which is overlaid with black and grey serpentine lines, against a plain background. The bird at the front of the group is shown standing in profile, facing to the left. It is painted white and overlaid with pale grey hatched lines, with a red bill and frontal shield over the forehead, and orange-yellow legs. Behind it and slightly to the left is a bird lying down, its body turned to the left and its head facing right. It is painted very dark brown heavily overlaid with black hatched lines, with a red-orange bill. The third bird is standing behind and to the right of the other two, and is shown in profile facing right. It is painted blue, darker on the upper parts, and overlaid with darker hatched lines. It too has a red-orange bill with frontal shield. The drawing is framed by a pencil border and annotated in ink and pencil.

• Port Jackson Painter]
• The drawing is annotated in ink at bottom "Three stages of this Bird taken at Lord Howe's Island before it arrives to maturity".
• The drawing is unsigned and undated.
• The drawing is inscribed in ink at top right with the number "259.". 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 "Three changes of white Gallinule Sup. 2. 327". This has been copied in ink at bottom, "Three changes of the white Gallinule Latham Syn Suppt. 2. p. 327.". The page reference is to Latham's Second Supplement to the General Synopsis of Birds (1802).
• This bird was more recently identified as the White Swamphen, Porphyrio albus of Lord Howe Island, now extinct, 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 12330
• 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 Birds of Lord Howe Island', The Emu Vol. 40, Pt.1, 1940 pp.1-86.
• 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).