111. THE DABCHICKS. 99 



grain with good in it, gives them much of their 

 bright and often £-.rch expression; while the 

 flatteneci iris under the beetling brow of the 

 'falcons, — projecting, not in frown, but as roof, 

 to sha:de the eye from interfering skylight, — 

 gives them their apparently threatening and 

 ominous gaze ; the iris itself often wide and 

 pale, showing as a lurid saturnine ring under 

 the shadow of the brow plumes. 



87. I speak of things that are to be : very 

 assuredly they will be done, some day — not 

 far off, by painters educated as gentlemen, in 

 the strictest sense — working for love and truth, 

 and not for lust and gold. Much has already 

 been done by good and earnest draughtsmen, 

 who yet had not received the higher painter's 

 education, which would have enabled them to 

 see the bird in the greater lights and laws of 

 its form. It is only here and there, by Durer, 

 Holbein, Carpaccio, or other such men, that 

 we get a living bird rightly drawn ; * but we 

 may be greatly thankful for the unspared 

 labour, and attentive skill, with which many 

 illustrations of ornithology have been produced 



* The Macaw in Sir Joshua's portrait of the Countess of 

 Derby is a grand example. 



