THOMAS BEWICK. 



like a few others (notably the Magpie and the Blackbird) was slightly altered by 

 Bewick ; in most copies it has the words, " Wycliffe, 1 791," at the foot, but the 

 early impressions are without them, while all after the first edition (including 

 the 1798 edition) are so marked. The Goshawk is a charming engraving, 

 correctly drawn, carefully tinted, and full of animation. The Sparrow-hawk 

 is almost as fine, the featheryness of the plumage being particularly 

 beautiful. The exquisite and noble series of the Owls, in which every one 

 is a perfect study, are specimens of the highest class of Bewick's engravings. 

 The White Owl was done from a water-colour drawing by Bewick which bears 

 the inscription, " Mr. Wm. Hawke; shot 17th March, 1792 ; " and this block 

 and the Tawny Owl show the greatest skill that any worker with the graver 

 has yet attained. 



The arrangement of the work differs at this place from that of Pennant, 

 and, by placing the Shrike after the Owls, the lines laid down by Buffon 

 are observed. The cleverly engraved vignette following represents a miller, 

 who, having loyally made himself drunk on the old king's birthday, is 

 sleeping off the effects under a bush. The numerals which make this 

 inference fair do not, however, appear in the original water-colour sketch. 



Amongst birds of the Pie kind the Hooded Crow is particularly excellent 

 from the ashen colour of the feathers. After the Jackdaw there is a lovely 

 tail-piece of two cows standing in shade in a pool on a hot summer day. 

 This forms a complete picture, possessing all the elements necessary for 

 a large painting. In the same cut in mid-air " we have most intelligibly 

 depicted the futile attempts of a hawk to make his escape from the bufferings 

 of two tyrannical crows ; the magpies, like school-boys, only being there to 

 see the fun." The Magpie engraving presents a fine contrast of tones in 

 its various shades of black and white. This is a block which was more 

 than once altered during the various editions. In the first state it has a 

 double-branched decayed stick conspicuously in the foreground, as shown 

 in the reproduction at p. 242. In the 1798 edition — with the date 1797, 



