THE ORNITHOLOGICAL GUIDE. 23 



unsound — it would not stand the test ; for if followed 

 out in detail, it would lead back instead of forward, 

 — and there is no middle course. 



There is one class of Naturalists the members of 

 which adopt any appellations which may be in use 

 in the district where they reside, and who trouble 

 themselves but little about scientific niceties — these 

 are the Field Naturalists. They do not take erro- 

 neous names on system, as Mr. Strickland would, 

 but simply from indifference or thoughtlessness. 

 They are so engaged in their subject, say they, that 

 they cannot apply themselves to obtain the correct 

 names ; but these should come as naturally as gram- 

 mar — and so they would were the principles of the 

 one understood as well as those of the other. Field 

 Naturalists would greatly increase the value of their 

 labours were they to pay more attention to these 

 points, but instead of attending to them they are too 

 apt to despise them. The pursuits and ways of 

 thinking of this class has been so well drawn by 

 Swainson, in his Series of Zoology in Lardner's 

 Cabinet Cyclopaedia, that I shall subjoin the sketch: 

 — "Naturalists, in the general acceptation of the 

 word, may all be classed under two distinct divisi- 

 ons — the practical and the scientific. Their more 

 immediate pursuits, no less than their necessary 

 qualifications, are very dissimilar, but he only who 

 unites them all is the true naturalist. The practical 

 naturalist wanders abroad, and observes individuals 

 The fields and the woods are his museum and library. 



