Figure

PAUL PHILIPPE JOSSIGNY Laughing Kookaburra Dacelo novaeguineae. Engraving, 19.7 × 14.9 cm; from Pierre Sonnerat’s Voyage à la Nouvelle Guinée (1776). Titled ‘Grand Martin-Pécheur de la Nouvelle Guinée’ (‘The Great Kingfisher of New Guinea’), this is the first illustration of a kookaburra. Sonnerat published the drawing in his account of a purported expedition to New Guinea in 1771. In fact, the unscrupulous Sonnerat had never been to New Guinea and the specimen was almost certainly collected in Australia by Sir Joseph Banks on Cook’s first voyage. Sonnerat even claimed authorship of the painting, which was actually by French draughtsman Paul Jossigny. NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA