YARRELL'S "BRITISH BIRDS" 213 



worse since from doing so, I can only recommend your 

 following the example in respect to the Vipers. This is 

 really all I have to say on the subject ; when some one 

 is able to show by what means the process of digestion 

 in the mother- vipers is arrested, it may be worth talking 

 about, otherwise we might as well attempt to argue with 

 an ordinary Chinaman, who will maintain that an eclipse 

 is caused by the Great Dragon attacking the sun or the 

 moon (as the case may be) and swallowing the whole or 

 part of those bodies. But if you don't like lying down 

 and being kicked, at least do not pull me (for Heaven's 

 sake) into the controversy. I think you will find letting 

 it drop the cheapest in the end, for there is not a chance 

 of your convincing your opponent ; and if there were, 

 you may depend upon it he is not worth convincing.* 



It must be admitted that in the search for truth, 

 and in the avoidance of inaccuracies, caution may be 

 carried beyond the bounds of reason. This is especially 

 so in a subject like the study of the birds of Great Britain, 

 where the increasing number of accurate observers is 

 constantly adding to our local knowledge. In 1871 

 Newton began the editing of the fourth edition of 

 YarrelPs " History of British Birds," the standard work 

 on the subject. There was an agreement made with 

 Mr. Van Voorst, the publisher, to the effect that the 

 whole book should be completed and published not later 

 than the year 1885. By the end of 1879 only a quarter 

 of the book had been produced. 



I only hope Part V. will not give me so much trouble. 

 I have brought between two hundred and three hundred 

 books here to enable me to get on with it, but I cannot 

 say as yet that I have seriously begun, though much of 

 the preliminary work is done. I have also brought a 

 large number of skins. 



By the beginning of 1882, when more than ten of the 



* Letter to T. Southwell, May 13, 1891. 



