No. 1] THE AUSTRAL AVIAN RECORD 23 



in England was probably in the liands of John White himself. 

 Further, probably White bought other paintings as well, 

 and naturall}^ at that time would not discriminate between 

 the works of the various artists. 



The series now in the British Museum (Natural History) 

 studied by Sharpe and well-known as the Watling drawings 

 were not all painted by Wathng, but the work of at least three 

 distinct artists is included. The paintings made by Watling 

 himself are nearly all signed either T. Wathng or Thos. Wathng, 

 whereas none of the others have any signature whatever. 

 Moreover, in connection with many of Watling's paintings 

 notes concerning the birds are given, but none appear on the 

 ones not painted by Watling. The workmanship is quite 

 different, so that the pictures can be separated with ease 

 without reference to the signatures. In the British Museum 

 series the birds alone are indexed to the number of 295 

 drawings, but some of those are now missing. The list has 

 on the top edge " This Catalogue was wrote by Dr. Latham, 

 author of the ' General Synopsis of Birds,' " and through 

 this note Sharpe concluded that these paintings were the 

 " types " of the new species described by Latham from 

 " Mr. Lambert's Drawings," and notes that these paintings 

 do not seem to have been the property of Mr. Lambert at 

 any time. Herein there appears a slight error on Sharpe's 

 part, an excusable one under the circumstances, as the paintings 

 generally agree well with the descriptions. In his enthusiasm 

 Sharpe also wrote : " Up to the present time it has never 

 been known where Latham obtained the material for describing 

 so many Austrahan birds." Sixty years previously the 

 Lambert drawings had been examined, discussed and reported 

 upon by the three greatest British ornithologists of their day, 

 G. R. Gray, J. Gould and H. Strickland. 



The article appeared in the Annals Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 Vol. XI., p. 189, et seq., March 1, 1843, and was entitled 

 " Some Rectification of the Nomenclature of Austrahan 

 Birds." By George Robert Gray, Esq. " British Museum 

 Dec. 14, 1842. My Dear Sir— The Earl of Derby having 

 kindly lent me the three volumes of the drawings of Austrahan 



