ON THE PROGRESS AND PRESENT STATE OF ORNITHOLOGY. 203 



is beyond all question the best adapted to ornithology. Lithography possesses 

 all the freedom and facility of drawing as contrasted with the laborious me- 

 chanical process of engraving, and is hence peculiarly fitted to express the 

 graceful and animated actions of birds. Another merit is the expression of 

 softness which it communicates to the plumage, and the power of showing the 

 roundness of the forms by a homogeneous shading, instead of the parallel 

 lines and cross hatchings employed in engraving. The lines introduced to 

 represent the individual feathers possess just that amount of indistinctness 

 which we see in the living object, and which adds so much to its beauty. 



It is a matter of some pride to us, that while in certain other departments 

 of natural history (especially in fossil conchology) the British lithographei's 

 must yield the palm to foreigners, yet in ornithology our own artists have 

 never been equalled. Lithography was, I believe, first applied to the deli- 

 neation of birds by Mr. Swainson, who soon attained great excellence in the 

 art. His ' Zoological Illustrations,' his plates to the ' Fauna Boreali-Ameri- 

 cana,' and his ' Ornithological Drawings of the Birds of Brazil,' possess great 

 merits both of design and execution, as does also Mr. Lear's great work on 

 the Psittacidce. But all these productions are eclipsed by the pencil of Gould, 

 whose magnificent and voluminous works exhibit a gradual progress from 

 excellence to perfection. Temminck, who in 1835 said of Gould's ' Birds of 

 Europe,' " lis sont d'un fini si parfait, tant pour le dessin, la pose, et I'exacte 

 verite de I'enluminure, qu'on pourrait, avec de si beaux portraits, se passer 

 des originaux monies," would, I am sure, pass even higher encomiums on the 

 ' Birds of Australia,' which Mr. Gould is now publishing. One little fault, 

 and one only can I find in these beautiful drawings, and that is, that the hal- 

 lux, which in all the Insessores is essential to the steady support of the bird, 

 is too often represented as projecting backwards instead of firirdy clasping, 

 as it ought, the perch. Mr. Richter and Mr. Waterhouse Hawkins, both of 

 whom have been employed in executing on stone the designs of Mr. Gould, 

 have attained great excellence in the art, as has also Mr. D. W. Mitchell, the 

 able coadjutor of Mr. G. R. Gray in the ' Genera of Birds.' The latter has 

 successfully applied the new art of " lithotinting " to the representation of 

 smooth and hard surfaces, such as those of the beak and legs of birds. He 

 has also in some cases executed the whole plumage in lithotint, producing a 

 beautiful and delicate finish, the effect of which is intermediate between litho- 

 graphy and engraving. 



Lithography has never been applied extensively to ornithology upon the 

 continent. The plates in Vieillot's ' Galerie des Oiseaux,' and in the Atlas 

 to Erman's ' Reise um die Erde ' are very indiff'erent, those in Werner's 

 ' Atlas des Oiseaux d'Europe ' a shade better, and in the ' Petersburg Tratis- 

 actions ' they are tolerably good. The Prince of Canino's ' Fauna Italica,' 

 Nilsson's ' lUuminade Figurer till Skandinaviens Faui/a,' and Riippell's ' Mu- 

 seum Senckenbergianum,' are the only continental works which I have seen, 

 in which the lithographs at all approach to the excellence of the British 

 artists. 



The lithographic plates in Spix's 'Avium species novae in itinere per Bra- 

 ziliam collectse,' are tolerably executed ; but in rather a peculiar style, the 

 legs and beaks of the birds, and in some instances the whole body, being first 

 covered with black, and the lighter parts afterwards scraped off with a sharp 

 point. Examples of this style also occur in some of Mr. Mitchell's plates. 

 In particular cases, especially in representing the scuta of the legs and feet, 

 and the details of black plumage, this method may be adopted with great 

 advantage. 



There is a real though somewhat paradoxical cause of the superior excel- 



