518 LETTER TO WILLIAM SWAINSON, ESQ. 



fall, or borrow a parasol to protect her eyesight from the flaming 

 luminary. 



If the Dame judged it necessary to furnish your "type" with this 

 "facial disk" in order to increase its power of nocturnal vision, we 

 must lament that the bittern, the heron, the wild duck, and many 

 others have been sadly neglected by her ; for none of these birds 

 have that which you term facial disk, still they all search for food in 

 the darkest night, and wing their way in safety through the darkest 

 sky. 



If my humble opinion of your " Natural History and Classification 

 of Birds" were asked, I should answer, without hesitation, that many 

 parts of it would puzzle much clearer intellects than those contained 

 in my own brain-pan ; that other parts are vastly overstrained, and 

 that others are exceedingly erroneous. Indeed, on a close inspec- 

 tion of it, I could fancy that the whole has been compiled from 

 books, and from dimensions taken from the dried skins of birds. 



Reviewers may pronounce it eminently scientific ; but then they 

 must only expect an assent to their decision from the mouths of the 

 marines ; for, " shiver my timbers,' 7 says Jack, " if the sailors will 

 believe them." 



I will now pass cursorily on to your " Process of Preservation." 



I remember well the day on which your father (whom I much 

 respected) invited me to spend an evening at his house in Waver- 

 tree, near Liverpool. " I have a son," said he to me, " who seems 

 to have a great turn for natural history, and I should feel much 

 indebted to you if you would come and spend the evening with us." 

 " Most willingly, sir," said I, and so I went to Wavertree. 



On that evening, when I saw you for the first time, I imparted to 

 you whatever I thought would be of service, as though you had been 

 a valued and an old acquaintance. It was then that I strongly 

 recommended to you, for your zoological preparations, the constant 

 use of corrosive sublimate dissolved in alcohol. 



When we met again, after a considerable period, you showed me 

 a quantity of bird-skins which you had collected in Brazil. They 

 were exceedingly bad; and on looking at them I said to myself, 

 Ah ! I see that I must have been beating on cold iron when I was 

 imparting my instructions to Mr William. 



