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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. In this instance, Latham notes that his illustration was based on a drawing by Joseph Banks. The etched plates were hand-coloured, according to the associated description. Of the Striated Tern, Latham wrote (note Latham used of 'f' in place of 's' - this has been reversed here to enable ease of reading):
Size of the white tern Bill black: irides lead-colour: the crown of the head, and sides below the eyes, white, mottled with black: the back part of the head and nape black: the hind part of the next, back and scapulars, white, transversely waved with black, many of the feathers being tipped with that colour: wing coverts blueish white, some of the lesser ones mottled with black; quills the same, with the outer margins black; all the under parts white; tail white, shorter than the wings; some of the feathers edged, and others tipped with black: legs lead-colour.
Inhabits the sea and shores of New Zealand. From the drawings of Sir Joseph Banks. This greatly resembles the young of the Sandwich Tern.
Dr Rebecca Rice, Senior Curator Art, January 2026