HINTS UPON COLLECTING. 315 



a generic type renders its acquisition either incon- 

 venient or unattainable. Few private collections, for 

 instance, have space sufficient for an ostrich, a casso- 

 wary, or a peacock : while the plantain-eater (Muso- 

 phaga^y the Argus pheasant (Polyplectron), and a 

 number of smaller birds, which at present stand as 

 almost solitary examples of their respective genera, are 

 so rare, and bear so high a price, that they are placed 

 beyond the reach of ordinary collectors. In such cases, 

 our plan is, to make slight but accurate pencil-drawings 

 of the, head and feet, of their natural size, whenever an 

 opportunity occurs. This advantage, in most cases, 

 may be enjoyed by consulting the specimens in the 

 British Museum, where many of these rare birds are to 

 be seen, and where they are at all times gratuitously 

 opened, with alacrity and liberality, for the inspection of 

 the scientific student. 



(380.) The practical naturalist, whatever he may 

 think on the inutility of a collection to illustrate his 

 department, will derive no small advantage from the 

 power of referring to specimens at his pleasure ; and 

 of enabling others, by examining them, to complete 

 the history of an animal, the active properties of which 

 he has alone investigated. It is almost impossible, in 

 fact, for a field-naturalist, when speaking of the habits 

 or economy of a species, to make himself well under- 

 stood unless he has sufficient knowledge of his pursuit, 

 as a science, to describe the subject itself in such lan- 

 guage that it may be understood by those who have 

 never seen it ; or unless he preserves specimens for 

 future inspection. A remarkable instance, illustrating 

 this necessity, has already been mentioned ; where, from 

 inattention to these requisites, the naturalists of Europe 

 could not make out even the order, much less either the 

 genus or the species, to which the Hessian fly of the 

 Americans belonged. This was the more extraordi- 

 nary, since a pile of reports, pamphlets, and other pub- 

 lications, had been expressly devoted to describe the 

 injuries it produced. Travellers, who collect the ani- 



