Birds in Studio and on the Hillside ¹

Abstract

(1) HPHE second volume of Mr. Thorburn's beautiful book includes the rest of the crows, the larks, the picarian birds, the diurnal birds of prey, the owls, cormorants, and some of the herons. Many of these are large birds, and it has not been possible to figure so many of them on one plate. Two species—the golden eagle o and the eagle owl—have plates to themselves, and these are most beautiful pictures. Mr. Thorburn is very successful with owls, which must be most difficult birds to paint, and he is famous for his pictures of eagles. The golden eagle is drawn flying along a steep hillside and carrying a mountain hare. The author writes that when an eagle is flying “the curious notched pinion feathers may be clearly seen, separated like the fingers of a hand.” This is well shown in the plate. The introduction of certain striking plants which grow in the haunts of various birds is continued with most pleasing effect. Thus the Egyptian nightjar lies on the sand beside that thick, fleshy-leaved plant with large pink, yellow-centred flowers familiar to visitors to North Africa. The common nightjar is figured flying and thus displaying the curious white spots on the underside of the wing. As this volume includes the eagles, hawks, and falcons—favourite studies of the artist—the plates are, if anything, more pleasing than those in the first volume.