Many, perhaps most Germanic engravers seemed to draw their inspiration for animals and birds as much from heraldic bestiaries as from nature in the period we are discussing. The blending of fluid forms like scrolls into representations of animals that Grandview's sketch shows is very ancient; what we see here is the naturalistic ("lifelike") end of a spectrum whose other end is the Celtic and Scythian "foliate beasts". I agree that these artists weren't trying for anatomical accuracy; they had a different style in mind.
That said, some of the low-end German engraving of the '20s is really comic. I have a very useful BSW 12 guage SxS decorated on the bottom of the receiver with a duck worthy of Disney, not I think, an effect the Nazis intended. "Engraver sabotage" or just plain incompetence?
