40 



how could he be otherwise ? In one of his 

 angling excursions in Cumberland, and in 

 the Western Highlands of Scotland, he 

 made many of those sketches which were 

 afterwards introduced as tail-pieces in the 

 Quadrupeds and British Birds, and which 

 are so forcibly stamped with the impress of 

 genius and truth. If ever an artist deserved 

 the name of " pupil of Nature," it was 

 Bewick. In the History of Quadrupeds, 

 look at the antelope bounding across the plain; 

 the chamois goat pendant on the cliff; the 

 kyloe-ox, the wild boar, the cur and the 

 greyhound-fox ; the shepherd's dog, the 

 mastiff, the dalmatian, and the setter, and 

 you see the very image of the living animal. 

 In his British Birds we perceive the same 

 faculty of truly depicting animal form and 

 expression, exercised in even a higher degree 

 than in the former work. The hawks appear 

 ready in a moment to pounce upon a small 

 bird, should it appear ; and the owls are the 

 very perfection of feathered philosophers, 



