item details
Overview
Dr John Latham was England's foremost ornithologist in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, whose reputation was based on the remarkable achievement of having recorded some 3000 bird species by 1800. Latham was a member of the Royal Society, and a prominent figure in the formation of the Linnean Society. He was a close associate of such contemporary leading scientific figures as Sir Joseph Banks, Thomas Pennant and Sir Ashton Lever, with whom he swapped specimens and reports of the latest ornithological discoveries. Much of his work relating to birds from Aotearoa and the Pacific was based on specimens collected on Cooks voyages between 1769 and 1779.
Latham's first ornithological work was A General Synopsis of Birds (1781-85) which included 106 illustrations by the author, and described many new species Latham had discovered in both private and public collections. However, as he had not attached significance to naming those species he described, he published Index Ornithologicus in 1790 in which he specified a binomial name to attempt to secure the honour of originating a species' scientific name. This was followed by Supplementum Indicis Ornithologici in 1801, which has become the authority for around 70 species of birds, most from Australasia. For this reason, his work holds importance in this part of the world. In his eighties, he revisited his magnum opus, publishing an expanded version of A General Synopsis of Birds in eleven parts titled A General History of Birds between 1821 and 1828.
Latham worked from drawings or skins to create his illustrations which demostrate the characteristics of such works of art - paired or single birds, perched on boughs, somewhat stilted in composition, and seldom showing the plumage to full effect. The etched plates were hand-coloured, according to the associated description. Of the Fan-tailed Flycatcher, Latham wrote (note Latham used of 'f' in place of 's' - this has been reversed here to enable ease of reading):
"Size of the Bearded Titmouse: length six inches and a half. Bill black, a little bent, and furnifsed with bristles at the base: the irides hazel: the whole head, taking in the eyes, is black: this desfcends on the back part lower than the nape, from whence it passes forwards in a narrow collar to the throat: the chin, throat, and sides of the neck, except where this collar passes, are white; and over the eye is a white streak like an eyebrow: the upper parts of the body are olive brown, the quills darkesft, and sfome of the wing coverts tipped with white; the under parts yellowish ruft-colour, growing whitish towards the vent: the taile is longer thatn the body, and cuneiform in shape; the two middle feathers black; the others white; the legs dusky.
This inhabits the southern isle of New Zealand. Dr Forster informs me, that it is an exceedingly familiar species; is constantly hunting after insects; and flies away with ts tail spread in fhape of a fan: is easily tamed, and will then fit on any persons shoulder and pick the flies off. It has a chirping kind of note, not to be called a song. It is called by the natives Diggo-wagh-wagh.
This is subject to variety. One met with in the isfland of Tanna, was darker in colour: the two middle tail feathers of a sooty black, with white shafts, the inner margins and tips whitish; the others have the inner webs deep black, the shafts paler black, and the outer webs almosft wholly grey.
I find also a second variety in the collection of Sir Joseph Banks, which had only the outer tail feathers white; the others white, with the margins dusfky. This specimen was full seven inches in length, and came from Dusky Bay."
Latham's illustration is based on George Forster's watercolour painting of the fantail, made in Tamatea, Dusky Sound in 1773, now in the collection of London's Natural History Museum.
Dr Rebecca Rice, Senior Curator Art, January 2026