Ornithology m the International Exhibition. 281 



judges fiud no fault with them on that score, but as pictures of 

 bird-/z/e they are unapproached by anything we have seen in 

 the Exhibition. Of the " Sea Piece " (No. 1451), by Mr. H. Gatke 

 of Heligoland, we can also speak highly, having with some diffi- 

 culty discovered its abiding-place at the end of the print-gallery. 

 It is very good, and the Gannets in the foreground are painted 

 with great accuracy, showing this artist to be as good an inter- 

 preter of nature with the pencil, as many of our readers already 

 know him to be with the pen. 



In the Foreign department ornithological pictures are rare, 

 and we have not met with any deserving high praise from 

 our point of view. We regret to find nothing from the easel of 

 Herr Ferdinand von Wright, a Finnish artist, whose works are 

 well known and appreciated in his own country, in Sweden, and in 

 Germany. This gentleman, from the specimens we have elsewhere 

 seen of his painting, has a remarkable gift for painting Owls ; 

 and in this particular though somewhat limited sphere, even Mr. 

 Wolf would find him a rival hard to beat. Norway possesses 

 two painters who draw their subjects from the bird-world, but 

 we cannot congratulate either of them on having attained 

 great success. The " Partridge and Young " (Foreign Division, 

 No. 1425) of Herr Printz is but tame, while Herr Boe's four 

 ornithological pictures (Nos. 1414, 1443, 1447, and 1448) seem 

 studies rather of stuffed than of living birds. Thus we con- 

 clude our list of works in which ornithology is illustrated by the 

 " shapes and forms of art divine." 



In other departments of the Exhibition where figures of birds 

 are introduced, either alone or as accessory ornaments, we find 

 them generally represented conventionally, and therefore in a 

 manner distasteful to the naturalist, rather than with any regard 

 to accuracy. Yet that this is by no means essential to the 

 requirements of either beauty or utility is shown by at least 

 one notable exception — an ecclesiastical lectern of carved oak, in 

 the Mediaeval Court (Class 30, No. 5659), the work of the 

 Rev. R. S. Baker, representing a White-tailed Eagle, studied from 

 life, which only wants an indication of the feet-scales to be as 

 perfect an image of the bird, as it is a handsome and serviceable 

 piece of church-furniture. 



