154 HEROES OF SCIENCE. 



my advice were likely to be useful and valued and 

 taken ; but in the high circle where you have not 

 cared about remaining, they do sometimes consult 

 competent men, and end, invariably, by following 

 the advice of the ignorant." 



Buffon lived for many years after these troubles, 

 and gained fresh laurels. Those which will last 

 the longest were the results of his charming de- 

 scriptions of the habits of animals. At last, at the 

 age of eighty-one years, he died, full of honours, 

 his last words addressed to his son being, " My son, 

 never leave the path of virtue and honour ; it is 

 the true road to happiness." 



About a year before the death of George I., a 

 son was born to a family of good old name and 

 renown at Downing, in Flintshire. The child was 

 christened Thomas, and his other name was Pen- 

 nant, and these names are constantly coming 

 before naturalists who particularly study zoology 

 at the present time. Little is known about the 

 early years of this ardent student, except that he 

 was educated at Wrexham school. Like most 

 boys he took notice of birds and their habits, and 

 if one may judge from the results, he must have 

 really begun to study the different kinds of birds, 

 carefully, when he was about twelve years of age. 

 He owed his opening career as a zoologist to Ray 

 and Willughby, for it was a present made to him 

 of the book of birds of this last author, that drew 

 his attention to the study of nature which he never 

 subsequently neglected. 



