12 INTRODUCTION. 



(9.) And let none think that, because we have so 

 many works conducted on the plan of White's, and 

 so much on record in these days respecting the 

 habits of animals, there is nothing more to be 

 learnt. Ray has remarked, that so rich is Nature, 

 that a man born a thousand ages hence will still find 

 enough left for him to do and notice.* The field 

 open to the observer is really inexhaustible; and 

 this is not more true in respect of the immense 

 number of species inhabiting this globe, than of 

 what is requisite to perfect the history even of those 

 known. In how very few cases, if any, can we say 

 that we have attained to a complete knowledge of 

 any one species, so as to give a detailed account of 

 all its characters and instincts, and the degree to 

 which these are liable to be affected by an alteration 

 in the circumstances of its life! To those who 

 travel in foreign and remote countries, still more to 

 those who are stationed in localities but seldom 

 visited by man, the force of this remark must be 

 obvious. But even without going from our own 

 neighbourhood, or withdrawing from spots with 

 which we have been long intimate, how much may 

 be learnt in addition to what we yet know! It is 

 not always the animals that we are most familiar 

 with by name and frequency of occurrence, whose 

 history we understand the best. And amongst the 

 lower tribes especially, there are many that fall under 

 our notice almost every day, respecting whose mode 

 of production, food and instincts, we are as much 



* Philosophical Letters, p. 35. 



