OBSERVATION AND PERSEVERANCE. 807 
posing the genus Harpalus (beetles of easy acquisition, 
and which any entomological friend will point out to 
him), and then endeavouring to find out, and to define 
in writing, in what manner each species may be charac- 
terised. Occasional exercises of this sort will soon give 
him a keenuess of perception, and a tact in discriminat- 
ing, which he will be long in acquiring by other means. 
(373.) Perseverance is another quality, not only re- 
quisite for acquiring, as far as possible, a knowledge of 
every thing already known upon any given object, but 
also in discovering new or unrecorded facts in its history. 
Amateur naturalists are too apt to believe that the his- 
tories of our native animals are complete, seeing that they 
have been so repeatedly described ; yet so contrary is this 
from the real fact, that almost every monthly number of 
our natural-history periodicals brings to light some new 
feature, or some hitherto unobserved circumstance, in the 
economy of animals which have been described by fifty 
authors. Strange as it may appear, we may cite even the 
robin as a bird whose habits have been treated of most 
partially andimperfectly. In regard to insects, we are, 
in general, most deplorably ignorant, even on the history 
of such as annually inflict no small injury on the crops 
of the agriculturist. This deficiency of information ori- 
ginates, in a great measure, from want of perseverance 
in establishing facts by repeated observation, and thus 
distinguishing such as are casual and incidental, from 
those that truly belong to the habitual economy of the 
animal. Perseverance is a very different quality from 
zeal: for the one implies patient investigation, — the 
other, ardour, or enthusiasm. Perseverance, to a natu-— 
ralist. is a quality not easily attained; for, amid the: 
boundless variety of nature, there are so many objects! 
which court his attention, — so many new investigations | 
suggest themselves to his mind, even when employed 
upon the elucidation of one,—that he is generally led away | 
from that which he should finish, before he has given. 
to it half the attention it requires. In this way, he 
finds himself, not unfrequently, involved in several 
bay 
