ANIMAL-LIFE AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY. 241 
idea suggested by the lines of Charles Kingsley, and which the 
artist quotes— 
‘She thought of the dark plantation 
And the hares, and her husband’s blood,” 
is banished at once by the appearance upon the scene of thirty 
odd rabbits, four cock pheasants, two hen ditto, and two hares, 
all of which are represented as feeding and playing within a very 
few feet of the unfortunate widow. Apart from the absurdity of 
introducing this quantity of game, or any game at all for the 
matter of that, in such close proximity to an intruder, the details 
of the picture suggest several points of criticism, none of which 
can be considered favourable to the artist. In the first place 
pheasants have no business there at all, for the scene is “ moon- 
light,” a time at which, as every sportsman knows or should 
know, all good pheasants are at roost. In the next place, 
assuming that pheasants are legitimately introduced, one would 
hardly expect to see the old-fashioned Phasianus colchicus amongst 
them, this species having become well-nigh extinguished by 
constant interbreeding with the Chinese torquatus and Japanese 
versicolor. Except in districts far removed from the great centres 
of game preserving, one rarely meets with a bird of the pure old 
breed. Again, the relative proportions of hare and pheasant 
are not well preserved, the former being depicted as not much 
larger than the latter, and of such insignificant weight as to make 
little or no impression on the laid corn on which they are sitting. 
Possibly the picture is intended to point a moral as well as 
to adorn a tale! And we are perhaps to infer that the poacher 
could not have been so black as he was painted, or he would 
not have left so much game behind him! At all events, from a 
naturalist’s point of view, we should be grateful to him for 
having spared the above-mentioned Phasianus colchicus. 
Amongst the marine paintings in the Exhibition this year 
there are several which we should like to notice, did space 
permit, but we are only able to refer to two or three. “The 
Sea-birds’ Resting-place” (447), and ‘“ Where deep Seas moan” 
(1386), both by Mr. Peter Graham, especially attract the eye of the 
naturalist by the bird-life which is skilfully introduced, and the 
artist’s clever treatment of precipitous sea-cliffs and heaving 
waves. By the way Mr. Graham, in the latter picture, has given 
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