NOTES ON ILLUSTRATIONS 95 



" Felruary 19//?, 1892. 



" I fear that you will be sick of spotted eagles, but I 

 write to say that I am sending you the Subborne specimen 

 just as I received it last night from Messrs. Pratt of 

 Brighton. It is one of the most beautifully marked of 

 its species that I ever saw, and I shall be much obliged 

 if you will make a careful drawing of it for the book. It 

 would be well to put some life into it. I think as it had a 

 water rat in its stomach when killed, I would put one in its 

 talon in the drawing, and to give the bird an expression of 

 seeing something far off after catching his vole. This I 

 leave to you, only asking you to make the drawing in 

 attitude quite unlike the bird at Cambridge." 



" J/oy iqfh, 1893. 



" The osprey drawing has only one slight defect, and 

 is otherwise quite perfect : namely this, that the principal 

 figure is rather too broad — thick — and gives to me a 

 certain impression of heaviness. I do not know if you 

 can alter this by not showing quite so much of the 

 right wing, or ' drawing ' in feathers of lower belly, and 

 showing more of the legs. I should be sorry to have 

 this beautiful figure much altered, but you will understand 

 me when I say that the aspect is too ' buzzardy.' The 

 osprey is a particularly wide-awake bird in look and in 

 fact." 



" August 1th. 



" The cream-coloured courser is quite perfect. A faint 

 indication of strong rufous in the head of the distant 



