Figure

JOHN GOULD and HENRY CONSTANTINE RICHTER Night Parrots Pezoporus occidentalis. Watercolour, 54.5 × 37 cm; between 1861 and 1867. Richter, or Gould, apparently prepared this watercolour for transfer to lithographic stone, for publication in The Birds of Australia. This newly discovered sketch is the first known illustration of the Night Parrot, but it never made it to publication. Apparently, Gould, having seen a newly arrived captive in London Zoological Gardens, realised that he had misrepresented the species, which does not gather in flocks nor perch in trees, and it was redrawn (see p. 137). COLLECTION OF BELINDA AND ANDREW ISLES