vn,(;Ai: dicta. |;{ 



wi'ijjht, fuhturs in tin- bi-DJuicst sense of the \\()nl, not tints or 

 shades of line, (inality of flesh, smd slmpe, uiv liy no nie:ins to 

 be set down as distinct and penuauent species ; for it will he 

 foniul that a transposition of tlicsc I'roni one place to anothc-r, 

 and even the re-^nlar eonrsc of reprodnction, will Ijriii;^ them 

 l)ack to the oriirinal or normal t\ pi'. 



W hat strikes ns, nioreovc-r, at fir>t sight, as in no small 

 (lej^ree singnlar, is the fact, that ditlerent varieties of one 

 species will \i'ry frecincntly ditlV r more widely from one another, 

 and from the original type, so far as those externals which 

 strike the mere superficial oljserver. than entirely distinct and 

 immntahle species. 



This it is which so often leads eonnnon and vulgar-minded 

 persons, who are in the habit of boasting that they believe their 

 own eyes only, and resorting to other absurdities of that kind, 

 and who will not take the trt)idjle of connecting causes and 

 cfTccts, or considering logical consequences, to disregard, and 

 even to hold in contempt, the teachings of scientific men as 

 nure theoretical dreamers, useless coiners of hard terms, and 

 founders of distiuctions, founded upon no difference. 



Such, I am sorr}* to say, is too often the habit of sportsmen ; 

 who will fre(|ucntly give ear to the superstitious and absurd 

 garrulity of some rustic ignoramus, who pronounces his abso- 

 lute yea or nay upon some fact about which he is utterly igno- 

 nint, and who has no earthly cpudification for judging on the 

 (|ualities of the bird, lna.st, or fish in (picstion, than that of 

 having seen it so often that he ought t(» know something about 

 it, which he docs not ; while they turn away contemptuonslv, or 

 listen coldly to the tenchingN of the nuin, whose arguments are 



