24 CHAPTERS ON THE NATURAE HISTORY 



compendium* of any of these branches. But what I do distinctly 

 mean is, that for one to be great in ornithology, for example, he 

 must at least be capable of drawing and painting birds cor- 

 rectly, whether he exercises the art nature may have given him 

 or not. 



Many "closet-naturalists" there have been who, in their life's 

 work, have demonstrated their extreme usefulness in advancing 

 the biological sciences, while upon the other hand a great deal 

 of the labor performed under such conditions has come to be the 

 most serious stumbling-block in the way of sound progress. 

 Consequently, whenever it becomes possible, animals and plants 

 should be invariably studied alive, both in nature, and under all 

 other conditions that opportunity may offer. It is only by such 

 means that we can ever obtain a correct idea of form, color, 

 habits, uses, and actions of certain organs or appendages, and 

 much else besides. 



Of the living specimens, too, that we study, we should always 

 make good photographic pictures, as well as correct colored 

 drawings. When dissections and other preparations are made, 

 and no working naturalist can dispense with these, they, too. 

 must be copied upon paper, and according to a prescribed scale, 

 either by the means of pen. pencil, brush, and pigment; by the 

 camera.; or by the camera lucida; or by any other skillful con- 

 trivance in use for the purpose. In coloring dissections on 

 papers, conventional tints should always be used, as red for the 

 arteries and blue for the veins, and so on. If naturalists invari- 

 ably employed the same colors for the same structures in pro- 

 ductions of this class, a great point of vantage would be gained. 

 And of still greater importance is it that a universal nomen- 

 clature of colors come into use, and our coming young natural- 

 ists of the present can do much toward the promotion and 

 adoption of such ends. 



When making notes upon animals, or indeed biological obser- 

 vations of any nature whatever, or drawings from life or dissec- 

 tions, they must be made as nearly coincident with the time of the 

 observation as possible. In other words, leave nothing to mem- 

 ory, but make record only in the presence of the subject you pur- 

 pose to describe. Field naturalists and explorers should be par- 

 ticularly exacting in this, their work being reduced to writing 

 every twenty-four hours. By such methods alone can accuracy 

 be insured, and progress be made certain, 



