APPENDIX: NO. XLIV. 65 
little pools where the Common Toad was spawning. The record of 
any new locality is useful in tracing the distribution of a species. I 
have not happened to hear of this Newt being found in England, 
except in the South and South-west. 
21 Cambridge Terrace, Hyde Park, 
March 1852. 
XLIV. 
On THE Speciric DistinctNeEss oF THE RinGep GUILLEMOT. 
(‘ Zoologist,’ x. (1852) pp. 38477-3479. ] 
In an interesting note (Zool. 3425), Mr. A. Newton remarks it 
can only be ascertained by repeated observations whether or not the 
Ringed Guillemot is to be regarded as a distinct species from the 
Common one; but he expresses his opinion that it is a point which 
may be easily ascertained, and he feels that it is highly desirable the 
question should be settled. Whilst I cordially acknowledge the 
justice of these views, I confess I do not see any probability of a 
speedy settlement of the matter. Assertions which find their way 
into books of authority are very long before they entirely lose 
credit. They are handed down from one writer to another; they 
are received as articles of early faith to which one is apt fondly 
to cling in after years: those who might make original observations 
not caring to run the risk of unsettling their former belief, whilst 
those who have no personal opportunities of inquiry prefer the 
established authority of their first favourite to that of any one- 
who has been rash enough to call it in question in any point. 
Numberless feelings are operating in the same direction. In 
questions of species, this man has specimens which are valuable 
as long as the species is supposed to be distinct ; that man has some 
equally powerful bias, of which he may not be at all conscious. 
Few persons are actuated by a pure love of truth. But these are 
not the only difficulties. There are differences of opinion as to 
what really constitutes a species, and not many people have clear 
ideas on this head, none, I believe, can have any permanently 
settled notions. At all events, those who hold the opinions which 
have been recently advocated by several of the most advanced men 
in paleontological research must be in some perplexity. If certain 
living beings have made their first appearance not in one spot, but 
in several parts of the world independently, in one case precisely 
similar to each other, in another so nearly similar that they will 
still breed together continuously, in a third so that they commonly 
breed together for one or two generations: if on the other hand, 
as we know, ages of peculiar influences may have subsequently made 
apparently distinct races, that is what we call permanent varietics, 
PART LV. e 
