in. 



OF SOME OF THE OBSTACLES BIPEDING THE STUDY OF 

 ZOOLOGY, AND THE LIEANS OF OVERCOMING THEM. 



One of the opprobria of zoology, at the present day, 

 is the great number of nommal species, of almost 

 every class of animals which have been described and 

 published, and which have been brought forward with- 

 out sufficient attention to the relative importance of the 

 characters on which specific distinctions should be based. 

 Hence it happens that, ra approaching the study of this 

 science, we are compelled to possess ourselves, at the 

 outset, of a mass of useless and cumbersome learning, 

 which, under the name of syno7iymy, consists of Utile 

 else than the accumulated misapprehensions of preced- 

 ing writers as to the value of specific difierences, and 

 the record of the errors which they have thereby been 

 induced to coromit. We cannot pass this shapeless mass 

 without notice, for its very bulk challenges attention ; 

 nor can we avoid it, for it obtrudes itself at every point. 

 The very necessity that exists, of investigating the 

 errors of others, m order to render our o^vn labors more 



