176 ANJflVEKSARY ADDKESS 



the blue tit, '^ Panis cceride^is,'''' and the long-tailed tit, ^^ Par us 

 cmiclatus.^^ Any one at all acquainted with Latin can see the 

 meaning of these terms, and without effort commit them to 

 memory. That the want of such knowledge may lead to trifling 

 inconvenience I had an instance of some years since, when a friend, 

 knowing I was making a collection of birds' eggs, purchased at a 

 high price and sent to me from a foreign country the eggs of 

 " Coccothraustes chloris'''' and '■^ Mnberha citrinella,''^ under which 

 learned names he had purchased at a long price the eggs of the 

 greenfinch and yellow-hammer. 



The Comte de BufFon, the great French naturalist, was con- 

 temporary with Linnaeus — in fact, born the same year. His works, 

 though not exactly adapted for the perusal of the young, are of 

 great beauty and worth. He was a voluminous writer — my own 

 edition is in 20 octavo volumes. Every beast and bird is the subject 

 of a long and ingenious essay, in which its nature, habits, and 

 peculiarities are set forth at great length and generally very 

 accurately. His great failing was a disposition to make too nice 

 distinctions, and elevate chance specimens into specific varieties. 

 He describes, for instance, at least half-a-dozen dormice, amongst 

 which we have the " fat dormouse," and the " gilt-tail dormouse," 

 which presents very much the appearance of a mouse with a skinned 

 tail. Then we find no less than sixteen bats specified. There is 

 the " bull-dog bat," the " bearded bat," and the " horse-shoe bat," 

 whose flesh is stated to be good to eat, at least " as good as that of 

 the water-rat " ! Indeed, the Frenchman's love of eating and his 

 culinary propensities peep out everywhere. The flesh of the sea- 

 bear is stated to be " tolerable eating," that of the golden eagle 

 "though hard and fibrous, is not without merit." Young barn- 

 owls " make a not unpleasant meal," and the flesh of the 

 robin-redbreast is "more delicate than that of the throstle." A 

 sentimental description of one of the pretty singing birds concludes : 

 "You eat this little bird with bread-crumbs." The analogy Buffon 

 draws between the nature of beasts and birds, though fanciful, is 

 ingenious. He compares the eagle, noble and generous, to the lion ; 

 the vulture, cruel and insatiable, to the tiger; the crow, feeding on 

 carrion, to the hyaena ; the falcons, trained to sport, to the dogs ; 

 the owls, preying by night, to the cats; the herons and cormorants, 

 fish-eaters, to the otters; birds provided with crops, to the 

 ruminating animals. 



There were many contemporary writers of note about, or shortly 

 after, the time of Buffon, whose works, if time permitted, I would 

 faiu refer to, such as Pennant, Latham, Cuvicr, and others, but I 



