So NATURAL HISTORY. 



made upon the structure and habits of different animals 

 appeared from time to time, either in the ' Philosophical 

 Transactions,' or in connection with such works as White's 

 ' Journal of a Voyage to New South Wales,' or Russell's 

 * Natural History of Aleppo.' 



Some notion of Hunter's unwearied activity, and of 

 the wide range of the subjects to which he devoted 

 his attention, may be gathered from the constant 

 but intermittently maintained correspondence which he 

 kept up with Jenner. The latter lived in the country, 

 and was in the habit of either supplying Hunter with 

 specimens, or of carrying out experiments under his 

 direction. Unfortunately, we have only Hunter's letters 

 to Jenner left to us, and these are rarely dated; but his 

 requirements from Jenner, and the directions which he 

 gives him, are often most amusing. At one time we find 

 him working at the cuckoo's stomach, and trying to 

 get material for his observations from Jenner. * I want,' 

 he writes, *a nest with eggs in it; also one with a 

 young cuckoo ; also an old cuckoo.' In the same 

 letter he advises Jenner to remove the egg of a cuckoo 

 into the nest of another bird, and then to tame the 

 young cuckoo and see what sort of a note it has, 

 to which advice he appends the remark 'There is 

 employment for you, young man ! ' In a later letter, 

 he urges Jenner to ' clear up ' the cuckoo, and various 

 other letters contain the same injunction. It may be 

 added that Jenner did ultimately communicate to the 

 Royal Society an account of the hatching and rearing of 

 the cuckoo. 



Hedgehogs form another subject of endless corre- 



