REMARKS ON FANCIFUL SYSTEMS. 243 



comparison, how could the marvellous discovery have been 

 made, that the snout of a Nasua, and the "Avocetta,"" were 

 " as like as it is possible, considering that one is a quad- 

 ruped and the other a bird." The proboscis of an Elephant 

 you could hardly conceive to be the counterpart of a Snipe's 

 bill ; nor the horn of a Highland Bullock that of a Game- 

 Cock's spur ; nor can I comprehend how a hea\'y short- winged 

 Black Grouse should " represent in its own circle " the light, 

 aerial, long-pinioned swallow, merely because both have a 

 forked tail. But a real systematist thinks no more of swallow- 

 ing a palpable absurdity than a Boa Constrictor does of en- 

 gulphing a curly-headed " nigger "' — poor fellow. As to the 

 persons who shoot birds for mere sport, all I can say of them 

 is that they are mere sportsmen. I have known very good 

 men among them, and bad ones too. 



But, in good earnest, do you say that in your classifications 

 a Cow's horn is equivalent to a Cock's spur. 



In the classification of some, certainly not in mine. " These 

 appendages," says a writer whose book, just come out, I have 

 put into my pocket, having found it so interesting that I 

 thought a passage or two from it might amuse you, " are ana- 

 logous, and perform the same functions as the horns of the 

 ruminating quadrupeds, which represent this order in the 

 circle of the mammalia. It is very curious, indeed, to trace the 

 numberless points of analogy between these two groups, and 

 to see how nature herself, in despite of their different forms, 

 makes them to represent each other. Rasorial birds and un- 

 gulated quadrupeds (ungulata) are the only vertebrated animals 

 which defend themselves by kicking their enemies." 



You surprise me ; but are you not in jest ? 



There : Read for yourself. The singularity of a fact is no 

 proof of its want of authenticity. But, for my part, I can per- 

 ceive no analogy between a spur and a horn, further than that 

 they are both somewhat similar in form and structure. The 

 horn of an Ox is a bony excrescence covered with a horny 

 sheath, and so is the spur of a Cock ; but the latter is the ana- 

 logue of the first toe of a quadruped, and so is placed on the 

 foot ; while the former, being situated on the head, can scarcely 



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