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unreasoning ignoramus would dream of using it. Alas ! I fear 

 the wise are very few in number. * * * * 



Out of consideration for the writer's feelings when 

 he comes to the analysis of his "argument" by the 

 cold light of reason, as opposed to the glamour of the 

 midnight oil, I withhold the signature attached to 

 this curious letter. I will even refrain from enlarg- 

 ing upon the self-evident fallacies contained in the 

 " argument." They will be suflSciently apparent to 

 the intelligent subscribers to this journal, as well as 

 to the numberless readers in those Free Libraries on 

 the tables of which it finds a monthly home before 

 being bound up to take its place in the Reference 

 Room. But for the enlightenment of the writer him- 

 self, (who, although not a member of the Club, I know 

 reads this magazine), I will append a parallel to the 

 intelligent Oouldians, who, although they knew not 

 the taste of soft food (containing egg), no sooner saw 

 a soft shelled egg on the ground than they immediately 

 reasoned out (by hereditary instinct ?) that at last they 

 had found the philosopher's stone ! A year or two 

 ago I bought a dozen Goldfinches in the autumn, 

 adults and grey pates. In the bottom of the flight 

 cage which served as their temporary home I put a 

 handful or two of " mixed seed." The next morning 

 oddly enough I found that the only empty seed husks 

 in the cage were those of the — inga seed ! It is evi- 

 dent that these birds, bred in these climes, had never 

 before seen this seed, and if they (whose brains are 

 the largest in proportion to their bodies of all known 

 species, being tV of their entire weight), jumped at 

 once at the chance of the inga seed, then by the light 

 of the Gouldians' behaviour that seed must be the 

 best in all creation. In this place I myself express no 



