34 MATESHIP WITH BIRDS 



Thomas Watling, who arrived in "New Holland" in 

 1792.* 



Only seldom have I heard the call of the grey 

 Graucalus echoing in Victoria as early as August. 

 It is September's bird just as definitely as are the 

 full-voiced Rufous Whistler, Reed-Warbler, and 

 Song-Larks. Each of these birds was known to 

 present itself during the eighth month rarely one 

 might stay in the South the Winter through but 

 then, in the colloquial phrase, it seemed to be speak- 

 ing out of its turn. The guests had come, as it were, 

 before the hosts were ready. Absurdly enough, the 

 calendar suggested a line of demarcation. Let 

 August "droop her deep-blue eyes in pleasant sleep," 



* Watling, one of the earliest painters of Australian material, 

 holds a place of considerable negative importance in the orni- 

 thology of the country, since it has been discovered that it 

 was (probably) from his paintings that Dr. John Latham, the 

 celebrated British ornithologist, obtained the material for 

 describing many "New Holland" birds then new to science. 

 In a publication of the British Museum, dealing comprehen- 

 sively with the history of the collections, it is pointed out by 

 Dr. R. Bowdler Sharpe that "in 1902 the Museum acquired 

 from Mr. James Lee, a grandson of the famous horticulturist, 

 of Hammersmith, a large volume of paintings executed for 

 the latter by one of his collectors, Thomas Watling, between 

 1788 and 1792. The drawings had evidently been shown to 

 Latham, who named most of the birds, and seems to have 

 referred to the picture as 'Mr. Lambert's drawings.' They do 

 not seem to have been Lambert's property at any time. The 

 types of Latham's species are, in fact, founded on these draw- 

 ings of Watling's. The collector was sent to New South 

 Wales by Mr. Lee, and some of the illustrations in White's 

 'Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales, 1790,' were drawn 

 by Watling, who refers to White in his volume of paint- 

 ings. . . ." Then follows a list of the drawings, "as deter- 

 mined by Latham himself, and bearing his handwriting," 

 together with short notes and aboriginal names by Watling. 



This little Museum romance is not weakened seriously by 

 the fact that some of its statements and dates do not square 

 with the results of more recent Australian research. In the 



