I5Y TUE I'KESIDENT. 175 



of SO vonomoiis a nature that its breath consumes not only grass 

 and herbage, but stones ! He tells us that the young bear is born 

 a shapeless mass, and is licked by its mother into shape ; that when 

 the crocodile opens its mouth, which it does in order to have its 

 teeth picked by the little trochilus, the ichneumon seizes the 

 opportunity to rush down its throat and devour its entrails ! He 

 tells us that the eagle compels her young to gaze upon the sun, 

 and if they but wink, incontinently pushes them out of the nest ; 

 that the halcyon (the kingfisher) builds its nest on the waves, in 

 the winter time, and that, whilst incubation proceeds, the waves 

 are hushed and calm. There is, he says, an anonymous beast in 

 Ethiopia, whose head is so heavy that he cannot lift it up — which 

 is fortunate, as to meet his gaze is death. These little anecdotes 

 lead to the conclusion that the Greeks were not alone open to the 

 charge of credulity. Still, Pliny's work is a wonderful one, and 

 well worthy of perusal by those who would study the science from 

 its origin. A folio translation of his ' Natural History ' was pub- 

 lished in 1601, but a modern one has recently appeared. 



There were contemporary — or nearly contemporary — writers 

 whose names are scarcely known excepting to the student, and 

 whose works, if they have descended to us, are of that class 

 which it is said that "no gentleman's library should be without," 

 and which no gentleman ever thinks of taking down from his 

 shelves. 



After Pliny some hundreds of years elapsed during which no writer 

 of eminence appeared. Greece and Rome had waxed and waned, 

 culminated, and gone to decay. Great Britain in the time of the 

 Saxons was utterly barbarous and illiterate. The Normans, though 

 more civilised, were better game-preservers than naturalists. The 

 poacher of the present day who grumbles over a 20s. fine, with 

 10s. Q)(l. costs, may be thankful that he did not live under the 

 Plantagencts. The man who killed the King's deer was bound 

 upon the back of a wild stag, and sent forth into the wilderness to 

 be torn or gored to death, or tied naked to a tree to form a target 

 for the King's archers. Hanging was the mildest fate that awaited 

 him. 



The first writer of note of more recent times on the subject of 

 Natural History was Linnaeus, the Swedish naturalist, born in 

 1707. His classification and nomenclature, with some modification, 

 is still adopted, and deservedly so, for it is both clear and 

 intelligible. Indeed, one of his great merits, in my opinion, is the 

 simplicity of his scientific nomenclature. Take, for instance, the 

 family oJE the tits — the Paridoe. The great tit is " Pams major ^'' 



