4 DIE PAPAGEIEN. 



fine ; who don't know Latin, who never did and never will, and 

 who with all their exertions never turn out anything but Dog- 

 Latin, bristling with words used, not in their old classical signi- 

 fications, but, in those which their modern European derivatives 

 bear. If these, doubtless estimable, bid misguided beings could 

 only realize how thoroughly their " Latin " (save the mark !) tells 

 its own and their tale, they would, I think, wash their hands of 

 the whole business, and write what they have to say in their 

 own vigorous mother tongues, English or German, without any 

 idle pretence to a learning they never possessed, and which even 

 did they possess it, would be of no real use now-a-days for the 

 purpose to which they seek to apply it. 



I do not suppose that this protest of mine will have the 

 slightest effect, but the pseudo-classicists,* may rest assured 

 that 100 years hence, when English is spoken, as it then will be, 

 by 500 millions of people, any of their writings that survive, 

 will do so only in expurgated editions from which all the 

 ' ' Latin " has been carefully expunged. 



Probably, however, they wisely do not look so far a-head, but 

 content themselves with the present ; and, if so, it is just as well 

 that they should realize, that instead of earning a reputation as 

 scholars they are for the most part, however admired for their real 

 scientific attainments, laughed at for their affectation of classicality. 



And now to return to Dr. Fringilla, I mean Einsch, and the 

 genus Palaomis. 



On the very threshold, at page 2, I stumble on this astound- 

 ing statement. 



" Sexes generally not to be distinguished, on the other hand, the 

 young always." 



To one who has with his own hands ascertained by dissection 

 the sexes of several hundred individuals belonging to ten species 

 of this genus, this assertion of the similarity of the sexes, is as 

 startling as it would be if made in regard to the Phasianida. 

 And for the author of a Monograph of the family to assert it, 

 is as though a man who had not learnt his alphabet should set 

 up as a teacher of reading and writing to others ! 



One is at first tempted to throw the book into the fire, under 

 the impression that such utter ignorance on such a cardinal 

 point, must involve the entire worthlessness of the work; a 

 more extended perusal of it however shows, that Dr. Finsch 

 brought to his undertaking, learning, patience, industry, a vast 

 amount of reading and intelligence of an high order, and it 



* I use this expression for the special benefit of people who are shocked at 

 " columboides" and the like. 



