Mr. W. J. Bioderip on the Dodo. 145 



back view of the bird known to me. In the Duke's picture the head 

 and body are presented to the spectator on a larger scale, and I have 

 nowhere seen the hood or ridge at the base of the bill, from which 

 the bird obtained the name of Cygnus cucullatus, so clearly repre- 

 sented. Near the Dodo are a smew and other aquatic birds, and 

 further off hoopers and terns. In the distance is the ocean, with a 

 sea-monster awaiting the attack of Perseus, who descends on a winged 

 steed to the rescue of Andromeda chained to a rock. Those who 

 have had occasion to describe and figure new species of Testacea, 

 know how difficult it is to find a draughtsman who can give a correct 

 design of the shell to be represented. Unless the artist, like Mr. G. B. 

 Sowerby, jun., is aware of the internal structure of the shell, and 

 acquainted with its organization, a lamentable failure is generally 

 the result. In the picture before us, with one exception — and even 

 in that the specimen may have been distorted — so accurate was the 

 eye of the painter, that if he had been aware of the organization of 

 each shell — knowledge which he probably had not — he could not 

 have represented the objects more correctly. The Nautili *, Strom- 

 bus gigasy Triton, and Pgrula, are painted with great breadth and 

 power, and all are drawn and coloured with wonderful truth ; indeed 

 a conchologist may name every species. One of the Nautili is par- 

 tially uncoated, to show the nacre, and the other dissected, to display 

 the concamerations. None of the shells have the epidermis, and all 

 are of the natural size. The artificial condition of these subjects, 

 and especially of the Nautili, is, it must be allowed, rather out of 

 place in an assemblage of testaceans left on the sands by the retired 

 tide, unless we are to suppose that the sea-nymphs had been amusing 

 themselves by polishing the specimens and displaying the internal 

 structure of one of them ; but this very treatment shows that the 

 designs were accurately made from real objects then considered as 

 rarities. With the exception of the Dodo, none of the natural ob- 

 jects represented are now rare. The shells, especially those whose 

 habitats are the seas of the Antilles, are at present very common ; 

 but at the date of the picture — the second year of the reign of our 

 first Charles — the natural productions of the West Indies were not 

 well known, and were, comparatively, very scarce. With the shells 

 on the shore is the cranium of a carnivorous quadruped, apparently 

 of the family Canidce. The monster-cetacean in the distance has 

 evidently no chance with the avenger who is coming down upon him 

 mounted on a winged steed. But Pegasus, who, with other prodi- 

 gies, sprang from the blood that dropped from Medusa's head, as the 

 conqueror who had cut it off with his harpe traversed the air with 

 his gory trophy, immediately winged its flight to Helicon, there to 

 become the pet of the Muses. The best version of this mythological 

 story relates that when Perseus afterwards killed the sea-monster and 

 delivered Andromeda on the coast of Ethiopia, he effected his pur- 

 pose by raising himself in the air through the aid of the wings and 

 talaria given to him by Mercury, and not with the help of the winged 



* Nautilus pompilius. 

 Ann. fif Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 2. Vol. xv. 10 



