534 .VISCOUNT WALDEN. 



Poor Lord Walden is very angry ; His Lordship's general 

 urbanity is proverbial, but on the present occasion his habitually 

 sweet temper has been sadly ruffled. 



I am so sorry ! I really am quite blameless in this matter ; no 

 doubt I did allude in a delicate though regretful manner to 

 certain so-called cabinet naturalists, not the real cabinet natural- 

 ists, to whose learning and research every branch of natural 

 history owes so much, but the mere synonymy grubbers, who 

 too often usurp that title. 



But I protest that in all I said I had only the class in the 

 abstract, and not any particular members of it in view. 



If now His Lordship straightway places the cap, upon his 

 own illustrious head, and then so loudly vituperates the humble 

 manufacturer as to attract every one's attention to the excessive 

 accuracy of the fit, surely I am not to blame if (despite the 

 curious toadyism which in England so often places a titled dilet- 

 tante in positions which only really eminent men of science 

 could worthily fill) he finds at last his proper position in public 

 estimation. 



His Lordship's present laborious personal attack upon me 

 professes to.be a reply to certain strictures of mine on "Die 

 Papag-ien" of Dr. Finsch. But it is no reply in any ordinary 

 sense of the word ; it does not attempt even to show that Dr. 

 Finsch is right in any one single point in which I stated that he 

 was in error; it is simply framed on the lines of the traditional 

 Irish brief, " no case for the defence, abuse the counsel for the 

 prosecution." 



This tirade is not very amusing (but then his worst enemies 

 never accused His Lordship of possessing the faintest perception 

 of humour) nor Very brilliant (but then his best friends never 

 credited him with any striking capacities, except in matters of 

 finance), but he has doubtless done his best, and it would be 

 unkind to discourage him ; besides, it would be most ungrateful 

 on my part to be hard upon His Lordship ; he figures my new 

 species in the Ibis with the most amiable docility ; he often 

 gives little crumbs of help in matters of synonymy, and now he 

 has favored Stray Feathers with an advertisement thirty pages 

 in length ! 



As for Dr. Finsch, he is cast in a larger mould ; since my 

 paper was published I have received a most friendly note from 

 him, with copies of some of his more recent papers. I have no 

 doubt that when he catches me tripping, as he always easily can, 

 and takes the trouble to take me in hand, he will duly flagellate 

 me. So much the better; all we want is the truth — fancy the flint 



