George Crozier. 171 



expert in finding rare insects, being aware what species 

 the latter feed upon, and familiar with their forms. He 

 showed, in the highest degree, how happy a man can 

 make himself by the study of natural history, however 

 humble his station in life, and however confining his 

 employment. For Crozier, like all the rest of the old 

 Lancashire naturalists, got his living, as already indicated, 

 by manual labour, exercised in a shop on Shudehill, the 

 last place in the world one would look to for the abode 

 of a naturalist, yet made by his intelligent pastimes one 

 of the most contented in Manchester. Here we have 

 looked over his dried plants, his choice exotics given him 

 by friendly gardeners, examined his birds and shells, and 

 listened while he told his adventures " by flood and field." 

 Of such he was always ready with large store, being, as an 

 old Banksian associate reminds me, in a letter of pleasant 

 anecdote and reminiscence, "one of those plain, plod- 

 ding, practical naturalists, whose knowledge the field and 

 forest, the uplands and the watery doughs, had far more 

 contributed to give than the lore of books." * * * 

 " The quiet, unromantic study of books," he continues, 

 "would never have made either him or them what they 

 were. Active adventure, real life within the whole 

 domain of nature, was their condition of enjoyment; 

 and, consequently, the secluded footpaths, the fine old 

 green and lonely lanes, the umbrageous bosky dell, with 

 its clear babbling brook, and rich with plants, insects, 

 and minerals, were their haunts." In all his excursions 

 he was joined by from three to a dozen of his com- 



