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THOMAS BEWICK. 



of equal size with the volume on four-footed animals. Moreover, Bewick 

 was aware that " his talents were best displayed when employed on 

 representations of such subjects as he was able to see alive;" and it is 

 distinctly observable throughout the Quadrupeds that the figures not drawn 

 from life are far inferior to those taken from nature. For these reasons, 

 therefore, Bewick arranged to have a work which required the illustrations to 

 be drawn from the feathered flocks of Britain only. 



Taken as a whole, the "History of British Birds " is a greater work than the 

 " History of Quadrupeds." There are few, if any, failures, and when the 

 artist-engraver had obtained special opportunities for studying the living 

 birds, the figures have all the spirit and character of the animated original. 

 Of these, and in the majority of the landscape backgrounds, the engraving 

 is well-nigh perfect, resulting in effects which no other style of art can more 

 appropriately convey. In the representations of the feathered coverings it is 

 quite unsurpassed, and in the marvellously dexterous employment of the 

 graver unsurpassable. At the same time it is entirely different from any 

 other method of engraving, being, in fact, the art of wood engraving in its 

 most pure, healthy, and proper condition. The entire form of the work — 

 thanks for this in the Land Birds as much to Beilby as to Bewick — is also 

 more carefully thought out than in the earlier compilation, and it is more 

 concise and correct as well as clearer in the letterpress. 



It is not, however, in the mere arrangement, or even in the engraving, that 

 the Quadrupeds is excelled. It is also in the gallery of tail-pieces scattered 

 profusely throughout the volume; the stories of humanity told in a few 

 square inches, the satires on life conveyed with unfailing certainty and with 

 no apparent exertion, and the beauties of nature exhibited in the little 

 landscapes. Success of the supremest quality is also displayed in the figures 

 of the Birds, which, without exaggeration, are the most faithful to life that 

 have ever been executed. Beautiful illustrations have since been published, 

 and more thoroughly scientific arrangements other natural historians have 



