Birds depicted in a folio of eighteenth century water-colours by Sarah Stone

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In 1996 The Natural History Museum purchased a series of original water colour drawings by Sarah Stone of specimens in the Leverian Museum, on many of which descriptions of new species were made by John Latham. The contents of the Leverian Museum were auctioned, the specimens were scattered and most are now lost. Sarah Stone's pictures represent the only surviving evidence of the identity and appearance of these specimens. Some of Latham's descriptions based on Leverian specimens have never been identified with any known species. In the absence of the specimens the Sarah Stone pictures are important for nomenclatural reasons. The purpose of this paper is to identify each picture with its current scientific name, to check if any of the original identifications were erroneous and to see if any of the pictures could be found to represent unknown or extinct species. The Leverian collection contained specimens of species which would not be known to science for up to 50 years or more. It has long been known that the dispersal of the Leverian collection was a tragedy, but the evidence of Sarah Stone's drawings indicates that it was an even greater tragedy than had previously been thought.