56 
In this picture, which seems to have been intended as a record of 
rarities, the foreground represents a sea-shore from which the tide 
has retired, leaving empty shells of the following genera :—Nautilus, 
Pteroceras, Strombus, Triton, Pyrula, Cassis, Cyprea, Conus, Mitra, 
Turbo, Nerita, Mytilus, Ostrea, &c. Behind, on elevated ground, are 
two ostriches, and below, to the right of the spectator, the Dodo is 
represented as in the act of picking up something from the strand. 
The head and body of the bird, covering an area as large as the palm 
of a man’s hand, are seen, but the legs are hidden. ‘The painter of 
the Dodo in my picture, has given the only complete foreshortened 
back view of the bird known to me. In the Duke’s picture the head 
and body are presented to the spectator on a larger scale, and I have 
nowhere seen the hood or ridge at the base of the bill, from which 
the bird obtained the name of Cygnus cucullatus, so clearly repre- 
sented. Near the Dodo are a smew and other aquatic birds, and 
further off hoopers and terns. In the distance is the ocean, with a 
sea-monster awaiting the attack of Perseus, who descends on a winged 
steed to the rescue of Andromeda chained to a rock. Those who 
have had occasion to describe and figure new species of Testacea, 
know how difficult it is to find a draughtsman who can give a correct 
design of the shell to be represented. Unless the artist, like Mr. G. B. 
Sowerby, jun., is aware of the internal structure of the shell, and 
acquainted with its organization, a lamentable failure is generally 
the result. In the picture before us, with one exception—and even 
in that the specimen may have been distorted—so accurate was the 
eye of the painter, that if he had been aware of the organization of 
each shell—-knowledge which he probably had not—he could not 
have represented the objects more correctly. The Nautili*, Strom- 
bus gigas, Triton, and Pyrula, are painted with great breadth and 
power, and all are drawn and coloured with wonderful truth ; indeed 
a conchologist may name every species. One of the Nawfi/i is par- 
tially uncoated, to show the nacre, and the other dissected, to display 
the concamerations. None of the shells have the epidermis, and all 
are of the natural size. The artificial condition of these subjects, 
and especially of the Naw#ili, is, it must be allowed, rather out of 
place in an assemblage of testaceans left on the sands by the retired 
tide, unless we are to suppose that the sea-nymphs had been amusing 
themselves by polishing the specimens and displaying the internal 
structure of one of them; but this very treatment shows that the 
designs were accurately made from real objects then considered as 
rarities. With the exception of the Dodo, none of the natural ob- 
jects represented are now rare. The shells, especially those whose 
habitats are the seas of the Antilles, are at present very common ; 
but at the date of the picture—the second year of the reign of our 
first Charles—the natural productions of the West Indies were not 
well known, and were, comparatively, very scarce. With the shells 
on the shore is the cranium of a carnivorous quadruped, apparently 
of the family Canide. The monster-cetacean in the distance has 
* Nautilus pompilius. 
