SCHOOLBOY " HOWLERS " 29 



given in the pages of The University Correspondenty 

 I presume their authenticity is vouched for. 



Even if you did have to kill a Butterfly I guess 

 there is not one of you who would " pinch its 

 borax," and if you were asked to describe what 

 blood-vessels are you would never reply, " Please, 

 sir, blood-vessels are the veins, arteries, and 

 artilleries ! " 



Then again, if I asked you, " What is a ruminat- 

 ing animal ? " would you reply, that it is one " that 

 chews its cubs " ? You would surely, too, be well 

 aware that Algebra was not the wife of Euclid, 

 and that the masculine of Vixen is most certainly 

 not Vicar ! Yet these are some recent howlers by 

 schoolboys, which I hope will be a warning to my 

 readers to guard against. 



Unfortunately a great deal of destruction is still 

 carried on in the country among both animals and 

 plants, and perhaps a better title for some parts of 

 this chapter would have been " What not to do in 

 the country! " For instance, I knew of some 

 boys recently who could find nothing better to do 

 than procure a young Blackbird and throw it at one 

 another until the poor little bird was emaciated 

 and torn almost to death. Fortunately it was 

 rescued from them by a kind old gentleman of my 

 acquaintance, but all efforts to revive the wee 

 mite were of no avail, and at last it dropped its 

 little head and breathed its last. 



