THE ARTIST'S BIRDS. 191 



which the artist is most successful are those Hving 

 in a state of domestication or under the protection 

 of man. Tliis goes flir to prove that painters 

 neglect their golden ()|)portunities of studying wild 

 bird-life, and when called upon to portray it trust to 

 memory, to stuffed specimens, or to faulty pictures. 

 Domestic birds are easy to observe, and the painter 

 can study them throughout the progress of his 

 work — hence the reason of his greater success. 

 The birds selected by the artist at present are 

 remarkably few, the number of species represented, 

 or misrepresented, being probably less than a score. 

 This seems surprising when we know there are 

 hundreds of birds that might be portrayed to 

 advantage, and at the same time introduce an 

 element of variety which would be as welcome as it 

 would be fresh. The hackneyed Gull, which may 

 be any one of the half-dozen common British 

 species ; the Crow, which does duty for anything 

 and everything black ; the stereotyped \J , which is 

 anything from an Eagle to a Wren, together with 

 domestic poultry and Pigeons — these are the artist's 

 birds, on which he chiefly if not entirely relies to 

 lend a sense of life to his work. Once let the 

 artist be brought to see the error of his wavs in 

 this direction, and there can be no doubt for the 



