AUSTRALIAN 230 BIRD WATCHER AUSTRALIAN BIRD WATCHER 2002, 19, 230-234 Early Records of the Red-backed Fairy-wren and Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo from

IAN A.W. McALLAN, 46 Yeramba Street, Turramurra, N.S.W. 2074

The first New South Wales records of the Red-backed Fairy-wren Malurus melanocephalus and Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus banksii were initially given the vague locality of 'New Holland' (Latham 1801a, b). In these two books written by Latham, the Australian matenal was largely derived from drawings sent to from early Sydney. These drawings are now housed in The Natural History Museum in and are the basis of the first descriptions for many species, including the Red-backed Fairy-wren (Hindwood 1970, Stnith & Wheeler 1988). More than one artist was responsible for the drawings, but only one, Thomas Watling, can be positively identified. As a result the drawings have been collectively known as the 'Watling' drawings. However, both the Red­ backed Fairy-wren and the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo are now unknown in the Sydney region. Thus the locality from which these birds came has been the subject of debate (e.g. Ford 1980, Schodde 1982, Debus 2001). At present the most southerly population of the Red-backed Fairy-wren is somewhere near Dungog (32°25'S, 151 °45'E) though it is more regularly seen near Gloucester (32°00'S, 151°58'E) (N.S.W. Bird Atlassers data). It has been recorded slightly farther south on the banks of the Hunter River itself. John Lewin (1808) pictured a bird collected from 'Forests near the banks of Patterson's River'. Lewin is known to have accompanied Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson to the Hunter River in June and July 1801. In this context Lewin was referring to the Hunter River when he wrote of the Paterson, as this was the name that members called the Hunter on this expedition (Historical Records of Australia 1915). Farther south, sightings of this species were reported from Wyong (33°19'S, 151°25'E), in December 1972, and Warriewood (33°41'S, 151°17'E), in October 1973 (Courtney-Haines 1974). However, in both cases the reports were second-hand and were not treated as definite by Courtney-Haines himself, who suggested they may have been ex-aviary birds. In the case of the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo, birds are occasionally seen near the coast south to the Tweed Valley (N.S.W. Bird Atlassers data), but the species is known to have come at least as far south as the Bellinger Valley where a specimen was collected by Robert Grant (Australian Museum specimen 0.28670). The data on Robert Grant's specimens are often considered suspect. However, in this instance the information attached to this specimen is probably valid as Grant was paid by the Australian Museum to collect at the Bellinger in 1889 (Whitten 1954). By the time the arrived in , the natural wonders brought to light by exploratory voyages such as those of Captain James Cook were very much in demand in England. Consequently there were several artists at work in the first few years in Sydney. Apart from the 'Watling' drawings, there are several other sets of drawings known to have natural-history subjects (McAllan in prep.). These include the 'Sydney' drawings in the Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales; the 'Hunter' drawings in the National Library of Australia; the 'Banks MS 34' drawings in The Natural History Museum; and the 'Raper' VOL. 19 (8) Early Records of the Red-backed DECEMBER 2002 Fairy-wren and Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo 231 drawings, split between the Mitchell Library, The Natural History Museum, and the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, New Zealand. The most prolific artist was the 'Port Jackson Painter', an unnamed artist with several style traits who was responsible for the majority of drawings. Many of the drawings were not 'originals', being copies of other paintings in the different series. For example, some of the Watling drawings are almost identical to those in the Sydney drawings and it is difficult to say which is a copy. Included amongst the Watling drawings is a map of Port Stephens (reproduced as Plate 111 in Smith & Wheeler 1988). This is believed to be a copy of a map made when the convict transport the Salamander visited Port Stephens in late 1791, the first visit by a settlement vessel to any locality on the New South Wales coast north of the Hawkesbury River. The crew of the Salamander had left Sydney to try its hand at whaling in early November 1791 and returned the next month after visiting Port Stephens (Collins 1802, Cobley 1965). There are no recent definite records of either bird species from near Sydney. It was thus suggested by Schodde (1982) that the drawings of the Red-backed Fairy-wren could refer to birds collected at Port Stephens by members of the Salamander crew, and that the species was not found near Sydney at all (see also Rowley & Russell1997). Later, Schodde (in Schodde & Mason 1997; seep. 77) further implied that the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo was also collected at Port Stephens. However, in the case of the Red-backed Fairy-wren, this supposition is incorrect. The Red-backed Fairy-wren is pictured five times in these early drawings: in the Watling drawings (twice), the Sydney drawings, and the Raper drawings, both in London and Wellington (Hindwood 1964, 1965, 1970). But in only one case can the artist be determined. Drawing number 42 in the Raper series in London is signed by George Raper and dated '1790'. This date alone indicates that the drawing was made before any visit of the settlers to localities north of the Hawkesbury River. George Raper was in Sydney for just two months of 1790 as he was on the Sirius when it was wrecked at in March 1790 (Hindwood 1964). He finally left New South Wales on the hired Dutch ship the Waaksanheyd not long after returning from Norfolk Island in February 1791. This was several months before the arrival of the Salamander in New South Wales in late August 1791 as part of the Third Fleet (Historical Records of Australia 1914a). As Raper cannot have seen any purported specimens from Port Stephens, the Red-backed Fairy-wren must have been part of the original avifauna at the first European settlement of Sydney. The provenance of the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo drawings still remains a problem. There are two definite female Red-tailed Black-Cockatoos amongst the various drawings: number 53 in the Watling series and number 38 in the Banks MS 34 series (Hindwood 1970; C. Gotke in litt.). There is also a drawing that appears to be of a male in the Watling series (number 54). All three drawings appear to be in the hand of the Port Jackson Painter, or copied from his original drawings. The two drawings of the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo in the Watling series are labelled as having the Aboriginal names 'Karratt' and 'Karrott' (Sharpe 1906, Hindwood 1970). These Aboriginal names are in themselves good phonetic renderings of the call of the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo, but not of the calls of the other black-cockatoo species pictured in the early drawings. The similar Glossy Black-Cockatoo Calyptorhynchus lathami is the subject of at least four drawings in the various series, and the Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo C. funereus is also depicted five times. AUS1RALIAN 232 McALIAN BIRD WATCHER

George Caley was a natural-history collector for Sir Joseph Banks and was based in Parramatta from 1800 to 1810 (Whitten 1954). In an account of the birds in his collections he noted that there was a species of black-cockatoo that he had not seen that also had the name 'Carat' (Vigors & Horsfield 1827). It has at various times been suggested that Caley was referring to the Red-tailed Black­ Cockatoo (cf. Ford 1980). However, a drawing of the Glossy Black-Cockatoo in the Hunter series is labelled 'Ca-ratt' (plate 41 in Calaby 1989), and two of the Watling drawings Of the Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoo are also labelled 'Karratt' (Sharpe 1906, Hindwood 1970). So there is no guarantee that any of these variations on 'Carat' actually applied to the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo and it may have been a general term for any black-cockatoo species. Nevertheless, Ford (1980; also in Forshaw & Cooper 1981) believed that the evidence of the Watling drawings alone indicated that the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo was originally found somewhere near Sydney at the time of the first European settlement, and this is probably the case. Records of the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo from inland New South Wales are usually from the floodplain of the Darling River and adjacent tributaries. It can often be seen feeding on the ground on the floodplain itself (pers. obs.). Similarly, many of the sightings and habitats listed for northern Australia also indicate a preference for riverine habitat (Forshaw & Cooper 1981). Although A.J. North's account of the species (North 1911) suggests confusion with the Glossy Black­ Cockatoo by some of his correspondents, the collection of a bird at its nest near Copmanhurst on the Clarence River in May 1900 confirms the identity of birds seen in the vicinity by both George Savidge and North himself. This specimen, 0.11754, is still in the Australian Museum (cf. Llewellyn 1974; pers. obs.). North's own observations indicate that the birds were to be seen in the large eucalypts on the banks of the Clarence River. Given this preference by the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo for riverine habitat, it is worth reconsidering the visit of the Salamander at Port Stephens. There is no existing detailed account of the visit. The best we have is the comment by Collins (1802) that 'the Salamander had remained long enough at Port Stephens. .. to take an eye-sketch of the harbour and of some of its branches or arms'. The map in the Watling drawings is thus one of the few remaining relics of the visit. It shows that, although soundings were made as far west as Swan Bay, there was only one place where the ship actually anchored and the crew came ashore. This was immediately off Nelson Bay where a fresh-water stream was noted. Today, downtown Nelson Bay is a large tourist centre, but there are still extensive areas of the original vegetation nearby. Most of the surrounding habitat is dense swampy heath on sandplain and coastal woodland on either deep sand or rocky hills. There has probably never been any extensive riverine habitat with large eucalypts or floodplain there, as Nelson Bay is ringed by steep hills. It has generally been overlooked that there were massive changes very early in European settlement to the habitats along the Parramatta River and later on the Hawkesbury River. At the time of discovery these areas had rich alluvial soils dominated by large eucalypts with a low, often grassy, understorey (Benson & Howell 1990). By November 1790 the early settlers at Parramatta had cleared around 200 acres (Tench 1793). Within five years of the settlement of Sydney over 1700 acres had been cleared, 1400 acres of which were for cereal crops (Collins 1802). Most of the clearing at this stage was also near Parramatta. By August 1799 almost 8700 acres were under cultivation, including large areas on the Hawkesbury River (Historical Records of Australia 1914b). It is likely that VOL. 19 (8) Early Records of the Red-backed DECEMBER2002 Fairy-wren and Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo 233 the loss of the Red-backed Fairy-wren and the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo populations occurred close to Parramatta rather than at the Hawkesbury, as the Red-backed Fairy-wren was recorded by Raper in 1790 before the settlement of the Hawkesbury. On this basis the loss of these species must have been rapid, as neither was definitely recorded by Caley. It is not surprising to find that certain species of birds suffered from wholesale clearing of specific habitats. Apart from the loss of the Red-backed Fairy-wren and the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo, some other birds now extinct in suburban Sydney featured in these early drawings. These include the Red Goshawk Erythrotriorchis radiatus, Eastern Bristlebird Dasyornis brachypterus and Blue­ faced Honeyeater Entomyzon cyanotis, the last being the subject of no fewer than ten drawings (these species were reproduced in Smith & Wheeler 1988, Calaby 1989, Pearce 1989, and Olsen 2001). The Brahminy Kite Haliastur indus (reproduced in Smith & Wheeler 1988, and Pearce 1989), was also long thought to be locally extinct. However, it has slowly been re-establishing its former range over the last 20 years and there have been some near-Sydney records in recent years (e.g. Frenchs Forest, January 1994: Morris & Burton 1996). Despite the fact that there are large areas of original habitat, and that there have been bird-watchers either resident or regularly visiting Port Stephens for over 60 years, there are still no confirmed sightings of either species in the area. It is more likely they have never been seen there by Europeans. However, it is certain that the Red-backed Fairy-wren was found at Port Jackson in the early days of settlement, and it is highly likely the Red-tailed Black-Cockatoo was as well.

Acknowledgements I have had several useful discussions on early drawings from Sydney with Richard Neville (Pictures Librarian, Mitchell Library, State Library of N.S.W.), and with the late Julian Ford while in Ottawa in June 1986. Carol Gotke and Ann Datta (librarians at The Natural History Museum in London) kindly provided me with copies of the drawings in the Banks MS 34 series. Walter Boles, Dick Cooper and Stephen Debus commented on drafts of this note.

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