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Story: European discovery of plants and animals

Tūī

Image
Tūī

This hand-coloured engraving of a tūī (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae) was the first published illustration of a New Zealand bird. It appeared in Peter Brown’s New illustrations of zoology (1776). Labelled ‘The New Zealand Creeper’, it was based on a stuffed specimen collected on James Cook’s first voyage to New Zealand (1768–71). The butterfly is not a New Zealand species.

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British Museum

Permission of the British Museum must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

John Andrews, European discovery of plants and animals – The first naturalists, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/artwork/10940/tui (accessed 9 June 2026).

Story by John Andrews, published 1 March 2009.