2l8 NATURAL SCIENCE. April. 



of bird-skins, supposed to belong to perfectly new species, about 

 whose biology nothing whatever zvas known. The box was sent to the 

 British Museum, where it stayed five years and was returned, 

 still unopened, by the worthy officials, who had not time, they said, 

 to take up the subject. Five years after the same box was sent to 

 the kindred establishment in Paris, and only seven or eight years 

 had passed when the commission heard that the new species had 

 not been described because the box was in a part of the museum 

 where the assistants only went once in twenty-four hours, and they 

 were not quite sure what had destroyed the skins — a mouse or a 

 rat." Only one statement makes us doubt the truth of this tale : we 

 cannot believe that a box which had once entered the British 

 Museum ever left it again. 



A "Dunciad" of Zoology. 



Then the describers, the cataloguers, the popular natural 

 history writers. They are all belaboured by our witty professor. 

 Thirty-four zoologists at least have written on the non-marine 

 molluscs of Mexico ; and yet Professor Herrera challenges them to 

 produce any information as to the bionomics of the animals. An 

 extraordinary number of people collect birds' eggs ; and the 

 publications devoted to them, especially in America, are remark- 

 able in number and in many respects. There are 52.510 eggs in 

 the U.S. National Museum. Perhaps the 600 and more oologists 

 remember Claude Bernard's remark that no mystery is greater than 

 that of the egg. "En effet, il n'y a pour moi [M. Herrera] aucun 

 mystere plus obscur ni plus pas^ionnant." 



Here are some choice examples of modern zoological literature 

 culled by Professor Herrera from well-known sources. A " Catalogue 

 of the Birds of Dominica," contains such remarks as these : 

 *' Dendrocea plumbea ; nothing known of it. Setophaga ruticilla ; not 

 common. Coccyzus minor ; trusting and stupid ; etc., etc." One 

 eminent explorer thinks it necessary to waste printers' ink thus: 

 " Like all pigeons, this one is fond of water." It would have been 

 more interesting, thmks our satirist, if he had written : " Like all 

 explorers, this pigeon is fond of whisky." 



The paper ends with three model reports for explorers to 



follow : the first imitates the style of the poet-explorer ; the second 



is typical of those who observe nothing ; the third represents those 



who know nothing. We need not reproduce these quotations. 



Similar instances are but too familiar to all of us. They make us 



wonder whether this clever naturalist is not wasting time and paper 



quite as much as those whom he attacks. The people who can write 



drivel like that which he quotes cannot possibl) have the humour 



or intelligence to appreciate Professor Herrera's sarcasm, if ever it 



reaches them. 



" Wit shoots in vain its momentary fires.' 



