416 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



gists. This collection he subsequently presented to the Museum 

 of the Cambridge Philosophical Society, of which Society, which 

 he joined in 1822, he was one of the most active members. His 

 collection of British Birds' eggs, together with a series of crania 

 of the smaller mammalia, he gave to the Museum at Ipswich. 

 His British Land and Freshwater Shells, of which he had a 

 tolerably complete collection, and his Herbarium he took with 

 him to Bath. 



There was one group of shells, the small fresh-water bivalves 

 Cyclas and Pisidium, to which he paid particular attention. On 

 this group, after long study of their characters and habits, as 

 observed in specimens kept alive in water for many months, 

 thriving and breeding freely, he wrote an excellent monograph, 

 with plates by Sowerby, which was published in the fourth volume 

 of the * Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.' 



But his two most important works were his ' Manual of British 

 Vertebrate Animals' and his 'Account of the Fishes collected 

 during the Voyage of the ' Beagle.' ' The former, containing 

 accurate descriptions and measurements of the species included, 

 together with condensed remarks on their habits, forms a good 

 text-book even at the present day, making due allowance for the 

 progress of Zoology during the fifty odd years which have elapsed 

 since its publication. The latter work he was specially invited 

 to undertake by Darwin, who could find no one else willing to 

 attempt it. Regard for his old friend, and the interest he took 

 in all the valuable results of his celebrated voyage, induced him 

 to comply. But the work cost him a good deal of labour, inas- 

 much as he had no previous acquaintance with exotic species, 

 and had thoroughly to master the first volume (on the structure 

 of Fishes) of Cuvier and Valenciennes' great work, the ' Histoire 

 des Poissons,' before he felt qualified to determine the species 

 collected by Darwin, and describe such as were new. 



In 1846 he published an octavo volume entitled ' Observations 

 in Natural History, with an Introduction on Habits of Observing, 

 and a Calendar of Periodic Phenomena in Natural History'; and 

 in 1858 appeared his 'Observations in Meteorology.' In addition 

 to these separately published works, he contributed a number of 

 scientific papers to the ' Transactions' of various Societies, a list 

 of which will be found appended to a pamphlet entitled ' Chapters 

 in my Life' which he printed a few years ago "for private 



