拍品专文
Previously attributed to Waterhouse (who described the Living Mammalia in The Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle, II, London 1840 [see lot 16]) but the inscriptions and style suggest the attribution to Augustus Earle, the draughtsman on H.M.S. Beagle until late 1832, who shared a cabin with Darwin and would have been on board for FitzRoy's first surveying voyage along the Patagonian coast in September-October 1832: 'The details concerning Earle's departure from the Beagle are confused, as FitzRoy states that Earle did not remain on board after August 1832. However it is known that Earle was on board the Beagle when it returned to Montevideo from Bahia Blanca on 26 October 1832.' (J. Hackforth-Jones, Augustus Earle, Travel Artist, London, 1980, p. 12).
Darwin was left at Bahia Blanca at the end of August and would travel by land back up to Buenos Aires. On the coast he found the fossilised remains of a number of gigantic extinct quadrupeds, including an ancestor of the armadillo, and described the four living species of armadillo common in the area: 'The four species have nearly similar habits; the peludo, however, is nocturnal, while the others wander by day over the small plains ... The apar, commonly called mataco, is remarkable by having only three moveable bands; the rest of its tesselated covering being nearly inflexible. It has the power of rolling itself into a perfect sphere, like one kind of English woodlouse ... The pichy prefers a very dry soil; and the sand-dunes near the coast, where for many months it can never taste water, is its favourite resort: it often tries to escape notice, by squatting close to the ground. In the course of a day's ride, near Bahia Blanca, several were generally met with. The instant one was perceived, it was necessary, in order to catch it, almost to tumble off one's horse; for in soft soil the animal burrowed so quickly, that its hinder quarters would almost disappear before one could alight. It seems almost a pity to kill such nice little animals, for as a Gaucho said, while sharpening his knife on the back of one, "Son tan mansos" (they are so quiet).' (C. Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, London, 1959, p. 91).
For an engraving of the three-banded armadillo which appears to be taken from the present drawings, see C. Darwin, A Journal of Researches, London, 1910, p. 108.
Darwin was left at Bahia Blanca at the end of August and would travel by land back up to Buenos Aires. On the coast he found the fossilised remains of a number of gigantic extinct quadrupeds, including an ancestor of the armadillo, and described the four living species of armadillo common in the area: 'The four species have nearly similar habits; the peludo, however, is nocturnal, while the others wander by day over the small plains ... The apar, commonly called mataco, is remarkable by having only three moveable bands; the rest of its tesselated covering being nearly inflexible. It has the power of rolling itself into a perfect sphere, like one kind of English woodlouse ... The pichy prefers a very dry soil; and the sand-dunes near the coast, where for many months it can never taste water, is its favourite resort: it often tries to escape notice, by squatting close to the ground. In the course of a day's ride, near Bahia Blanca, several were generally met with. The instant one was perceived, it was necessary, in order to catch it, almost to tumble off one's horse; for in soft soil the animal burrowed so quickly, that its hinder quarters would almost disappear before one could alight. It seems almost a pity to kill such nice little animals, for as a Gaucho said, while sharpening his knife on the back of one, "Son tan mansos" (they are so quiet).' (C. Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle, London, 1959, p. 91).
For an engraving of the three-banded armadillo which appears to be taken from the present drawings, see C. Darwin, A Journal of Researches, London, 1910, p. 108.