I. THE ROBIN. 5 



ornithology. His imagination is not cultivated 

 enough to enable him to choose, or arrange. 



4. Nor can much more be said for the 

 observations of modern science. It is vulgar 

 in a far worse way, by its arrogance and 

 materialism. In general, the scientific natural 

 history of a bird consists of four articles, — 

 first, the name and estate of the gentleman 

 whose gamekeeper shot the last that was seen 

 in England ; secondl}', two or three stories of 

 doubtful origin, printed in every book on the 

 subject of birds for the last fifty years ; thirdly, 

 an account of the feathers, from the comb to 

 the rump, with enumeration of the colours 

 which are never more to be seen on the living 

 bird by English eyes ; and, lastly, a discussion 

 of the reasons why none of the twelve names 

 which former naturalists have given to the 

 bird are of any further use, and why the 

 present author has given it a thirteenth, which 

 is to be universally, and to the end of time, 

 accepted. 



5. You may fancy this is caricature; but 

 the abyss of confusion produced by modern 

 science in nomenclature, and the utter void of 

 the abyss when you plunge into it after any 



