7463 Testimonial to the Editor. 



allowing me to choose the form the Testimonial should take. I 

 believe that the more usual present of plate, or some durable orna- 

 ment bearing a record of the event, would have been more consonant 

 with the wishes of some of those who have so liberally subscribed ; 

 but you, as a Committee, have, without hesitation, yielded to my 

 strongly expressed wish for books, allowing me to make my own 

 selection ; a selection which 1 trust will be as serviceable to others 

 as to myself; and the remote probability of their becoming obsolete, 

 or being worn out, before these events happen to myself, cannot be 

 reasonably contemplated. And let me here express a fervent hope 

 that, should my life be spared for a few more winters, my choice 

 will be approved by those who occasionally seek, at my hands, 

 the information you have thus afforded me the opportunity of 

 diflFusing. 



" A printed List of the Subscribers will appear in every volume ; 

 and you may believe me, gentlemen, when I say that I shall point to 

 this List as the record of one of the most pleasant events that have 

 occurred during the course of ray Natural-History labours ; labours 

 always of love, but now, by your kindness, rendered doubly 

 agreeable. 



" Finally, I may express the great pleasure I feel in acceding, 

 without a moment's hesitation, to your request to insert your flattering 

 Address in the pages of this journal. Now that the subscription has 

 closed, I can have no motive in withholding from my readers and 

 contributors the record of an event which I feel confident will be as 

 gratifying to them as to myself: the ' Zoologist' belongs to my con- 

 tributors far more than to myself : its unparalleled value as ' a reper- 

 tory of facts' is of their creation : my reward is their reward, my 

 triumph their triumph. The annals of journalism do not afford a 

 second instance of such entire unity of purpose and cordiality of 

 feeling as exists between the contributors to the ' Zoologist' and its 

 nominal manager. 



"It only remains, gentlemen, that I subscribe myself, 



" Most gratefully and faithfully yours, 



" Edward Nkwman, 

 " 7, York Grove, Peckhain, 

 March 25, 1861," 



