CHAPTER OF CRITICISM. 
257 
off in the wood-cuts subsequent to the first, I wish to address a few remarks for 
the consideration of your readers. In reviewing the third part, at p. 57, you 
certainly hint at something of the kind, and “ trust that this falling-off is only 
temporary, and that subsequent publications will not tend to justify the doubtless 
erroneous suspicion—which has already reached our ears—that so much pains 
were taken with the wood-cuts in the first part merely to ensure a large sale for 
the work.” If your readers will take the trouble critically to examine parts iii., 
iv., and v., I fear this suspicion will be too strongly confirmed by the inferiority 
of some of the wood-cuts, and unless subsequent numbers improve, it will greatly 
deteriorate the sale of the work. Those illustrations which your readers will 
doubtless on close inspection find to be extremely faulty, are the following :—the 
Montagu Harrier, p. 100; Red-backed Shrike, p. 154; Spotted Flycatcher, p. 
164 (Is this the Grey Flycatcher, which you mention as exceptionable at p. 165 
of The Naturaliit?*); Fieldfare, p. 189; Golden Oriole, p. 212; Hedge Ac¬ 
centor, p. 223 ; Redstart, p. 237 (very bad). 
Perhaps the wood-cut which is the freest from that stiffness which unfortu¬ 
nately pervades them is the Blackbird, p. 202 ; to coin a phrase, it is the most 
Beioickian. There are many other birds in which anything but excellence is 
visible, but I only wish to draw the attention of your readers to the most faulty, 
as it would ill become one who is merely a student in the paths of Nature to be 
too critical. That Mr. Yarrell’s wood-cuts are much inferior to those of 
Bewick in the position and natural character of the birds, I have heard more 
than one ornithologist confess; in point of engraving, the advantage is certainly 
with Mr. Yarrell ; but which is of the most consequence to the ornithologist I 
will leave to your readers to determine. The public may be dazzled and led 
away by the superior style and finish of the engravings, but the lover of Natural 
History should never lose sight of what is certainly of infinitely more conseqence to 
him—a correct representation of the object. Many of Mr. Yarrell’s birds are 
apparently drawn from badly stuffed specimens, which is indicated by the stiffness 
of those that I have pointed out. Those of your readers who wish to be informed 
on the present state of wood-engraving (which is not so palmy as the public 
imagine), will find much interesting and valuable information in the second and 
third chapters of the second volume of Howitt’s Rural Life in England , a work 
invaluable to all lovers of the country. If you think these remarks worth insert¬ 
ing in The Naturalist , I may on a future occasion say a word or two on Mr. 
Bells Quadrupeds. 
I am, Dear Sir, &c. &c. &c., 
Woodside , March 1, 1838. T. B. Hall. 
It is the same,— Ed. 
