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Panel 1    BIRDS!

King-parrot

John Hunter (17371821)
King-parrot Alisterus scapularis
Modern common name: Australian King-Parrot
watercolour; 22.8 x 18.5 cm
plate 33 of Birds and Flowers of New South Wales Drawn on the Spot in 1788,’89 and ’90 1788
1790
Rex Nan Kivell Collection
National Library of Australia
NK2039

John Hunter was Governor of New South Wales from 1795 to 1800. His sketchbook, Birds and Flowers of New South Wales Drawn on the Spot in 1788, ’89 and ’90, came to the Library in 1953 as part of the Rex Nan Kivell Collection. Hunter, chiefly a topographical artist, made colourful amateur drawings of birds and plants on his first visit to the colony. One of the earliest European records of Australian birds, the drawings are naive, but observant. The inclusion of illustrative devices such as cherries, bird swings and hands is not merely decorative but draws the life of the strange birds into a European world of wit and delight.


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