OBSERVATION AND PERSEVERANCE. 307 



posing the genus Harpaliis (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 keenness 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 and imperfectly. 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 



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