BRITISH ZOOLOGISTS. 97 



first of the many journeys or ' tours ' which he took in later 

 life. On this occasion he visited Cornwall, where he 

 acquired 'a strong passion for minerals and fossils.' 

 Eight years later he visited Ireland, and, as he invariably 

 did, he kept a journal of his tour, which was extensive 

 enough, embracing, as it did, points as distant as Giants' 

 Causeway on the north, and Cork on the south. ' Owing, 

 however,' as he says himself, 'to the conviviality of the 

 country,' this journal ' never was a dish fit to be offered to 

 the public.' 



In the year 1761, Pennant began his great work, the 

 ' British Zoology,' the first edition being a folio, and, when 

 complete, containing one hundred and thirty-two plates. 

 This work went through many editions, in a smaller form, 

 and was translated into Latin and German. The editions 

 most valued are the quarto editions of 1776 and 1777. 

 There is also a good octavo edition of date 1776, in four 

 volumes. The classification adopted in the * British 

 Zoology ' is in the main that of ' the inestimable Ray,' with 

 such alterations as later discoveries seemed to Pennant 

 to render necessary. Pennant had no pretensions to be 

 a comparative anatomist, and his work therefore contains 

 no anatomical details. He gives, however, succinct, 

 descriptions of the more conspicuous and easily recognised 

 characters of the animals described in his work, along 

 with an account of their 'uses,' and a history of their 

 habits and mode of life. The figures of the animals 

 described are, further, often fairly characteristic. Pennant 

 was a keen observer, and in many cases the observations 

 which he makes on the habits of animals are not only 

 very interesting but also very accurate. 



