432 



ENTOMOLOGY. 



chirping of the field cricket, and trace it to the 

 burrow, at the mouth of which it sits ready to dart 

 upon its prey. 



Notice these things, and then say whether these 

 and a thousand other observations of a similar nature 

 are not infinitely more interesting than the mere pur- 

 suit and capture of specimens, or the dry technical 

 detail necessary for their specific determination. 



" Those who have studied nature only in books," 

 observes St. Pierre, " can see only their books in 

 nature, they look upon the natural world only to find 

 therein the names and the characters of their systems. 

 If they are botanists they are satisfied to have dis- 

 covered a plant of which some author has spoken, 

 and having assigned it to the class and the order 

 which he has pointed out, the}- gather it, and spread- 

 ing it between two bits of grey paper, they sit down 

 content with their knowledge and their researches. 

 They do not form a herbal to study nature, but they 

 study nature to form a herbal. It is in the same way 

 that they make collections of animals, that they may 

 learn their genera and species and treasure up their 

 names. But can he be a lover of nature who thus 

 studies her wonderful works? How great a differ- 

 ence is there between a dead vegetable, dry, faded, 

 discoloured, whose stems and leaves and flowers are 

 crumbling to powder, and a living vegetable, full of 

 sap, which buds, flowers, gives forth perfume, fruc- 

 tifies, and sows itself again maintains an universal 

 harmony with the elements, with insects, with birds, 

 with quadrupeds, and, combining with a thousand 

 other vegetables, crowns our hills and adorns our 

 banks. The animal loses by death even more of its 

 characteristics than the vegetable, for the animal has 

 received a more vigorous portion of life. Its prin- 

 cipal qualities vanish, its eyes are shut, its pupils are 

 dim, its limbs are stiff, it is without warmth, without 

 motion, without feeling, without voice, without in- 

 stinct. What a difference between the animal who 

 enjoys the light, distinguishes objects, moves towards 

 them, calls the female, couples, makes its nest or lair, 

 brings up its young, defends them from their enemies, 

 congregates with its kind, and gives music to our 

 woods, and animation to our meadows." 



But the out-door observation of these and such 

 like subjects by the real lover of nature and no one 

 merits this name who does not bestow attention of 

 this kind upon the objects of his research, leads to 

 far higher considerations and views. Peculiarities of 

 economy, and herein almost every species of animal 

 differs from its neighbour, necessarily imply cor- 

 responding peculiarities of organisation", often indeed 

 minute, and to be sought after with great care and 

 labour, often with the assistance of the microscope. 

 The philosophically minded student will therefore 

 combine with the observation of habits investigation 

 of structure, and in this latter particular lies the 

 merit of such laborious naturalists as Lyonner, Swam- 

 merdam, or Straus-Durckheim, who lay open to our 

 view the minute intricacies of the internal anatomy 

 of various species of insects. The following observa- 

 tions upon the connexion between these two branches 

 of our subject, from the Introduction to the Mena- 

 geries, will be read with pleasure, from the soundness 

 of the views which they inculcate. " It is amazing 

 how much quickness the habit of observation will 

 impart to the whole intellect, and give it an aptitude 

 for understanding and enjoying the thing observed. 

 There is nothing, for instance, so common as to find 



men wanting in a perception of picturesque beauty, 

 of that feeling which enables some to take great 

 delight in a landscape, not only for its extent, or the 

 grandeur of its parts, but for the harmonious arrange- 

 ment which is necessary to the effect of a picture, or 

 for some accidental circumstances of light and 

 shadow, or of colour, which render the prospect 

 more than usually attractive. Now this is strictly 

 an acquired faculty, and one which is produced by 

 the practice of looking at nature or at the monuments 

 of art, with the previous adaptation of the vision to 

 picturesque objects ; and a person who enjoys the 

 faculty (we say enjoy, for it is a source of real 

 pleasure) is said to possess a painter's eye. It is pre- 

 cisely in the same way that a naturalist, by constantly 

 observing the peculiarities of animal life, acquires the 

 readiest perception of the differences in the structure 

 and habits of the great variety of living beings, and he 

 perceives in each of them qualities which a less prac- 

 tised observer would entirely overlook. Through 

 these habits of observation, the science of zoology, 

 which comprehends all that relates to the description 

 of classification of animals, has been gradually estab- 

 lished. By diligent observations the peculiar struc- 

 ture of vast numbers of individual animals has been 

 ascertained, their habits have been accurately de- 

 scribed, and many ancient errors, which arose from 

 hasty examination, have been exploded. Thus, in 

 the more recent scientific works on zoology, the acci- 

 dental circumstances of size or colour, or locality, or 

 any identity in unimportant habits, have ceased to be 

 guides in the classification of animals, but the essential 

 peculiarities of their formation, which chiefly determine 

 their habits, have alone been regarded. We mention 

 this, to poirrt out that the actual observations of suc- 

 cessive naturalists, leading to the accumulation of a 

 great body of facts, have principally contributed to 

 the advance of zoology as a science in modern times, 

 for the science being wholly founded upon observa- 

 tion, and not upon previous calculations, or any series 

 of experiments, the greater our collection of facts 

 the nearer have we approached to systematic per- 

 fection." 



These views FO fully coincide with our own opinions 

 of the necessity for continual observation of facts, that 

 we have not hesitated to introduce them into this 

 article, although they are equally valuable with refer- 

 ence to every department of zoology. The observa- 

 tion of facts has been too much neglected amongst 

 us ; there is, however, one passage contained in the 

 above extract, which appears to us to call for further 

 notice. We are there told that " the essential pecu- 

 liarities of formation chiefly determine the habits " of 

 animals, and a little further we meet with the remark, 

 that the systems of Cuvier, Blumenbach, and others, 

 are founded upon a consideration both of the teeth 

 and of the organs of touch, and therefore, " being 

 formed with especial reference to the tico great dis- 

 tinctions which determine the most important habits of 

 the animal, are called natural systems." 



Now this passage, and numerous others which we 

 might quote from the works of other modern writers, 

 both popular and scientific, to the like effect, appear 

 to the author of this article to result either from 

 very incorrect ideas of the system of nature, or 

 from a carelessness of expression which leads us to 

 imply the existence of such incorrect ideas. Let us 

 not be misunderstood. These passages seem to us to 

 imply that, in the opinion of the writers, a certain form- 



