44 ADVANTAGES OF GENERAL KNOWLEDGE OP ZOOLOGY. 



acquaintance with Botany and Entomology will direct the 

 rambler among the fields and lanes, to many objects of great 

 interest, which the ordinary observer would pass unnoticed ; and 

 the inspection of the haunts of the marine tribes, will frequently 

 lead the Naturalist, who may have previously paid them but a 

 very superficial attention, to spectacles of the rarest and most 

 unexpected beauty. 



23. There are many reasons why it is desirable to gain a 

 general acquaintance with Zoology, before taking up any single 

 branch as a regular object of pursuit. In the first place, the 

 interest which is derived from the cultivation of the science, 

 is very much increased, by the wideness of the field which is 

 thus embraced. To the mere Entomologist, the Birds, the Rep- 

 tiles, the land and fresh- water Shells, which he meets with in the 

 course of his insect-hunting rambles, are but as inanimate objects, 

 instead of furnishing him with a number of new subjects of 

 interest. The mere Ornithologist, in like manner, by confining 

 himself exclusively to Birds, misses various sources of gratifica- 

 tion, which a small amount of knowledge of other branches of 

 Natural History would enable him to derive, from the observa- 

 tions to which he would be led, during his pursuit of the fea- 

 thered tribes; and the mere collector of Shells, who thinks of 

 nothing but the completeness of his cabinet, not only misses the 

 opportunities of adding to our very limited knowledge of the 

 structure and habits of the animals which form them, but also 

 loses a large amount of pleasure, which he might derive from the 

 observation of the structure and habits of the animals, that he 

 would meet with in the same haunts. Of the advantage of a 

 general interest of this kind, to those who pursue Natural His- 

 tory for the sake of the healthful and agreeable occupation which 

 it affords to the mind, and the store of interesting information 

 which it opens to its grasp, we cannot have a better proof than 

 the pleasure which is derived from the perusal of the simple 

 record of such observations, in such works as "White's Natural 

 History of Selborne, Knapp's Journal of a Naturalist, Gosse's 

 Canadian Naturalist, and Jesse's Gleanings in Natural History. 

 And to those who make some particular branch of Natural His- 



