236 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
ground immediately behind them and full face to the spectator, 
is represented as shooting straight out of the picture presumably 
at birds some forty yards in front of him. The fore-shortening 
of the breech-loader is cleverly effected, and the gillie, who brings 
up the rear, carries in his left hand a brace of admirably painted 
Grouse. Apart from the original treatment of the subject, this 
picture, both in outline and colour, strikes us as the best which 
Mr. Ansdell has sent this year. 
Mr. Cooper has contributed “‘A Warm Sunny Evening” (257), 
“ Mid-day Repose” (344), ‘‘Shadow and Sunshine” (373), “A 
Group in the Meadows” (717), ‘“ The Challenge” (1377), ‘‘ The 
Victor’s Shout” (1379), and ‘‘ Receiving the Challenge” (1384) ; 
all good specimens of his peculiar mannerism in the treatment of 
cattle and landscape. Of these we should say the masterpiece 
is ‘Shadow and Sunshine,” wherein a gathering rain-cloud is 
admirably represented, and the incidence and the distribution of 
the lights and shadows upon the cattle most skilfully managed. 
A picture with a very similar title, “Cloud and Sunshine” 
(1399), by Mr. Davis, attracts that attention which is always due 
to the works of this artist, who as a painter of cattle at the 
present day may be regarded as facile princeps. Much, however, 
as we admire his landscape, his clouds, and his cows, we could 
wish that the bird-life which he has introduced had been better 
rendered. His Rooks are poor and incorrectly drawn. The 
picture of his which most takes our fancy this year is “A Mid- 
summer Night” (225), wherein a group of cattle are seen at 
night upon a pasture. Viewed at a proper distance this picture 
grows upon the spectator and strikes him as being a most careful 
study of attitude and repose, while the seeming advances of the 
dun bull to the white cow are as skilfully indicated as they are 
true to nature. 
Very different to the clean-fleeced—we had almost said 
carefully-groomed—sheep of Mr. Ansdell are the weather-beaten 
flocks of Mr. Macwhirter, which give such life to his Highland 
landscapes. In his ‘Last Days of Autumn” (81), wherein a 
shepherd is seen driving a flock of horned sheep down a rocky 
slope fringed on one side with leafless birch trees, we have an 
illustration of the striking effect which is produced in a landscape 
by the introduction of a little animal-life, when that animal-life is 
skilfally and accurately depicted. 
