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Show 334 MR. R. B. SHARPE ON A HAWK-OWL. [Apr. 4, inde 4 Evangeliste.' Internal evidence fails to show more than that it did not appear before 1643, occurrences in which year are several times mentioned in its pages (e. g. pp. 261 and 345) ; and on a fly-leaf are the initials « R. L.' and the date ' 1676.' Now I am informed by Mr. Bradshaw, the Librarian of the University of Cambridge, that A. de Wees is known to have published an edition of this work (which I should have said is a translation and amplification of Pliny's Natural History) in 1662, the same year that Wolfgangh did. But the volume I have here is not that edition, and must therefore be either an earlier or a later one. I am inclined to believe the former, (1) because, as I have already said, no year later than 1643 is mentioned in it, and (2) because the figure of the Dodo which it contains (at p. 374) is unquestionably of cognate origin with that given in the rare edition of Bontekoe's Voyage (p. 7), which I now exhibit. This edition of Bontekoe is^thought by Strickland* to have been published " a year or two" subsequently to 1646. Comparing the two figures now before you, I think you will admit that the copper-plate of the Pliny has not been copied from the woodcut of the Bontekoe, but the woodcut from the copper-plate ; and if so, the impression in Mr. Hooper's Plinyf is the earliest we yet know of this very singular figure. It is unfortunate that the fate of Broderip's copy is unknown to me ; nor am I aware of the existence of a second copy of that (Wolfgangh's) edition. Both in the title-page and in the text there are many typographical differences between the two editions, if the extracts reprinted in our ' Transactions' may be trusted ; but these differences seem to have no scientific interest, however valuable they may be to bibliographers, and I will not trouble you with them." Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe, F.Z.S., exhibited a specimen of a Hawk- Owl (Surnia ulula), belonging to Mr. James Rawlence, of Bulbridge-within- Salisbury. It was shot by a Mr. Long several years ago near Amesbury, in Wiltshire, and was given by him to Mr. Rawlence, in whose collection it remained till Mr. Mansell-Pleydell happened to see it, and brought it to London for identification. The specimen was very interesting as being the first British-killed specimen of the true Swedish Surnia ulula. It would be seen, on reference to the ' Birds of Europe,' that all the specimens of Hawk-Owls hitherto killed in Great Britain have belonged to the American form, Surnia funerea, with the exception of one bird shot in Shetland, which was probably the Swedish bird; this, however, could not be ascertained, as the * ' The Dodo' &c. p. 63. t The full title of the volume is C. PLINI S E C U N D I Des wydt-vermaerden Natuur-kondigers vyf Boecken. Handelende van de Nature, I. Van de Menschen. II. Van de viervoetige en kruypende Dieren. III. Van de Vogelen. IV. Van de kleyne Beestjes of Ongedierten. V. Van de Visschen, Oesters, Kreeften, &c. Hier zijn by-gevoeght de Schriften van verscheyden andere oude Autheuren de Natimr der Dieren aengaende. En nu in desen laetsten Druck wel het vierde part vermeerdert, uyt verscheyden nieuwe Schryvers en eygen ondervin-dinge : en met veel kopere Platen verciert. t'AMSTERDAM. By Abraham en Jan de Wees, Boek-verkoopers / inde 4 Evangeliste. |
