130 



of print and copies of Avhicli arc exceedingly scarce,* which is 

 full of beautiful descriptions of Trinidad and the West Indies, 

 in connection with a highly romantic — we suppose the proper 

 term now-a-days woi;ld be " thrillingly interesting " — story, 

 the late Mr. Maxwell Philip, makes allusion to the " solitary 



bird " " which will open its vein and make its 



parched young ones drink its life-blood,'* and this too in a book 

 which is full of sketches which are otherwise true to nature. 

 Bat that book was written fifty years ago, and since then the 

 study of Natui'al History has been taken up largely. Instead of 

 being looked upon, as it was, even in the writer's boyhood, as 

 the sign of a weak intellect, not to say anything worse, we find 

 it being taught in the schools, and children are encouraged to 

 pursue its study as a healthy recreation. Every day ncAv societies 

 for its cultivation are being started all over the Avorld, and the 

 numbers of papers and magazines existing solely for the purpose 

 of chronicling observations in Natural History, arc legion. We 

 may therefore take it that the men and Avomen of the next 

 generation will be as much more enlightened on the subject of 

 the Avorkings of Nature as the present generation is with regard 

 to the preceding one. 



* Emmanuel Appartocca. 



