THOMAS BEWICK. 



125 



considered by Bewick so poor that in future editions it is replaced by a much 

 truer portrait of the animal. Differently from the Rabbit, the white fur of the 

 Squirrel is rather insufficiently rendered, and the blackness round the feet 

 suggests that the engraver had had difficulty in pictorially detaching them 

 from the branch. The Grey Squirrel is unsatisfactory; but the Ground 

 Squirrel is sufficiently well engraved to please the most critical. The 

 transition of the stripe is managed without causing the animal to appear 

 anything but round — an operation to a draughtsman in black and white 

 of considerable difficulty. 



In the Jerboa the texture employed for representing the rock is distinctly 

 varied from that used for the grasses, and the soft hair of the animal is 

 altogether different from both. The Tail-less Marmot is from a drawing by 

 Pennant, and is referred to in a letter from him to Allan, the purchaser of the 

 Wycliffe Museum, dated November 27th, 1786, in which he says he sends the 

 drawing and regrets he has no others, having long since been exhausted. 



The Rat, although the drawing is correct, might reasonably have been 

 expected to have been more characteristic. The Water Rat has received 

 more labour, but the Musk Rat is not so good as either, while the Muscovy 

 Musk Rat is almost devoid of originality. In the later editions the Beaver was 

 inserted after the Rat, but in the first edition the Mouse comes next. The 

 latter block is most remarkably poor, for though the drawing is faithful the 

 engraving is weak in the extreme. Bewick appears to have felt this, as in the 

 1820 edition (the seventh) it is changed for another. The Long-tailed Field 

 Mouse (reproduced on page 130) is the best of this series, and greatly excels 

 the Short-tailed Field Mouse, the Shrew Mouse, and the Dwarf Mouse, 

 though the last has some good points. 



Of the large number of the Monkey tribe, the best are the Gibbon 

 and Baboon. They are both executed with great skill, and the latter 

 having been taken from life, Bewick did not fail to produce a block of 

 superior quality. The Mona also is clever, and the Cagvi and the Mico are 



