Sbrtfte:*1Flotes 



wherein are crowded with automatic pre- 

 cision all the obtainable specific details. 

 One is literature, the other is science. 

 The gap between them is ocean-wide. 



In his paper on the heron Buffon is 

 again at his best — large, learned, a master 

 of his materials, so far as essay-writing 

 can go; and it is to him that the general 

 reader must turn to-day for the best com- 

 prehensive review of the old writers on the 

 subject. Indeed, we look in vain to our 

 encyclopedias in search of just what BufTon 

 nearly always gives. Wilson and Audu- 

 bon followed his literary method (at a 

 distance) in their bird-biographies; but 

 they lacked his learning, his free access to 

 large libraries, and his almost unlimited 

 correspondence with observers the world 

 over. He knew the trick of selecting and 

 compressing the bits of interest furnished 

 by all his sources of information, and then 

 he saturated them with his individuality 

 of style ; for he demonstrated with ease 

 the truth of his celebrated phrase, " Le 

 style est I'homme meme." 



Coming to the nightingale in the due 

 126 



