Perruche à Taches Noires du Cape de Dieman. Atlas du Voyage à la recherche de la Pérouse. No 10.
Audibert del. Perée sculp. Dien Scripsit. [Paris: H.J.Jansen, 1800.] Engraving. 305 x 445mm (12 x 17½"). Narrow margins top and bottom. A 'Black Spotted Parakeet' seen in Tasmania. In 1788 Jean-Francois de Galaup, comte de La Pérouse set sail from Botany Bay and was never seen again. Despite the upheaval of the French Revolution the National Assembly was moved to send an expedition in search of their lost hero, 1791-3, under Chevalier Bruni d'Entrecasteaux. Despite finding no trace of La Perouse, losing its commander and many crew to scurvy, and finally splitting between royalist and republican factions, the expedition was judged a success because of the important observations made by the expedition's scientists, especially in Australia. This account, compiled by the expedition's botanist, Jacques Julien Houtou de Labillardière, was published as 'Relation du voyage à la recherche de La Pérouse', with natural history plates by Redouté and Audebert. The work even has its own abbreviation in botantical literature, 'Voy.Rech.Perouse'.
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