APPENDIX. 185 



£o that we know the bird pofTefTes the whole breadth of 

 Africa nearly on a parallel. I may be allowed to fay, that, 

 when I gave him mine, I did not expect he would fo far have 

 anticipated my publication as to have exhibited it as a part 

 of the king's cabinet till he had heard my idea of it, and 

 what further I could relate of its hiftory more than he had 

 learned from feeing the feathers of it only. When I faw 

 the draught, it put me in mind of the witty poem of Mar- 

 tial : A man had Hole fome of his verfes, but read them fa 

 ill, that the poet could not understand them well enough 

 to know they were his own — 



Sed male dum recltas incipli ejfe tuum. 



The bird is fo ill-defigned that it may pafs for a different 

 fpecies. It is too fhort in the body; too thick ; its neck too 

 mort and thick ; its legs, the pupil and iris of the eye, of a 

 Wrong colour; its tail affectedly fpread. Thefe are the 

 confequences of drawing from fluffed fubjetfts. The brown 

 upon the back is too dark, the light- blue too pale, too much 

 white upon the iide of its head. Thefe are the confequen- 

 ces of having a bad painter ; and the reader, by comparing 

 my figure with thofe drawn by Martinet in Buffon, may 

 eafily perceive how very little chance he has to form a true 

 idea of any of thefe birds, if the difference is as great be- 

 tween his other drawings and the original, as between ray 

 drawing and his, De Seve would have given it a jufter pic- 

 ture. 



W A A L I A. 



