Discovery of the earliest dated depiction of Australia’s Regent bowerbird
The Regent bowerbird (Sericulus chrysocephalus) is the type species of the genus Sericulus established by William John Swainson in 1825, one of eight genera constituting the Australo-Papuan bowerbirds together forming the family of Ptilonorhynchidæ.. Although initially unrecognised as a bowerbird, the species became known to the European scientific community in 1808 through John William Lewin’s image in The Birds of New Holland, published in London. This paper focuses on the documentation and contextualisation of the earliest known depiction of the Regent bowerbird dated 1803 and not published until now and another early depiction produced prior to Lewin’s well-known auto-engraved plate.
