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Message: <blockquote data-quote="waterlark" data-source="post: 3604932" data-attributes="member: 143506">"water lark"This did come from a copy of Catesby's The natural history of Carolina, Florida and the Bahamas Islands, but that does not mean he painted it - it was loosely inserted into the volume (and has since been removed). Likewise, there is no evidence it was painted for inclusion in Catesby's book. Interestingly the copy it was inserted into once belonged to Thomas Pennant, and it contains one other bird painting (of a swallow-tailed kite) that is not by Catesby. Pennant could have added it.There is no provenance on the painting - no indication where the specimen originated, no signature. Having seen and studied the original painting, I am not convinced it is Catesby's work, for several reasons, and I interpret "of Bather" as a dyslexic version of "or Bather" (although why it should be a bird that bathes, I do not know). Nor is there an ornithologist called Bather. If the watercolour is in fact Catesby's, that rules out American dipper because it is highly improbable that he could have seen it alive, nor even obtained a specimen, given he was only ever in eastern North America in the 1710s-1720s. But rock pipit, water pipit and female blackbird are evidently all possible.I am grateful to everyone who has made attempts to identify the bird - I posted the question in the hope there might be a clear identification, but evidently there isn't!</blockquote>