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1 BIRDS! 
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 17881790
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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