50 STUDY OF NATURAL HISTORY 



the Continent, it seems to have made no great pro- 

 gress among us, were we to judge from the paucity 

 of works then published in Britain. Edwards, it 

 is true, was going on with his excellent History of 

 Birds; and Borlase had done something to illustrate 

 the natural history of Cornwall ; but no new work 

 of any moment appeared in England between the 

 years 1755 and 1766 ; when our accomplished coun- 

 tryman Pennant gave that impetus to the science, 

 which it seems to have required. Pennant was a 

 scholar and a gentleman, possessing great and varied 

 acquirements. He was versed in classic and in his- 

 torical learning ; and passionately attached to the 

 natural history of his own country. His works, in 

 all these departments, are numerous ; but he is 

 chiefly known among us as the first who treated the 

 natural history of Britain in a popular and interesting 

 style. * He followed the system of Linnaeus, except 

 in that strange and unnatural arrangement of the 

 primary orders of birds, which he fell into, and 

 which was the more inexcusable, after the writings 

 of Willughby. There are no novelties of arrange- 

 ment in the works of Pennant, and no original re- 

 search, beyond the accession of new species ; but he 

 contrived to give great interest to his descriptions, 

 by enriching them from the stores of his classic and 

 antiquarian knowledge. Hence he enjoyed great 



* Thomas Pennant. British Zoology, 1 vol. folio. Lon- 

 don, 1766. Ditto, in 4to. Ditto, in 8vo., 4 vols. 1812. 

 — Synopsis of Quadrupeds. Chester, 1771. 1 vol. 8vo. — 

 History of Quadrupeds. London, 1793. — Genera of Birds. 

 London, 1781. 1 vol. 4to. — Indian Zoology. London, 1790. 

 1 vol. 4to. — Arctic Zoology. London, 1792. 2 vols. 4to. 



