ornithologist's text-book. 21 



improvement on the first, and we approve the 

 bringing the three volumes into one, but we think 

 the " Plan of Study," " Remarks on the system of 

 Linnaeus and Latham," and also those on the 

 tt Quinary System and Modern Doctrine of Types, 

 Affinities, and Analogies " might well have been 

 dispensed with. We never could perceive the use 

 of these controversies. The field Naturalists will 

 always undervalue the studies of the scientific 

 Naturalist, and these in return think lightly of the 

 former. The fact is, that both are perfectly essen- 

 tial to the advancement of the science, but the 

 scientific department may perhaps be considered 

 higher than the other, as the one requires a good 

 development of the reasoning faculties — causality 

 and comparison — and the other good observing 

 powers — chiefly individuality. Now, Professor 

 Rennie affects to despise what he terms " cabinet 

 Naturalists," but he certainly does not belong to 

 the other class, having rarely, if ever, recorded a 

 " fact fresh from the fields." He is a mere compiler, 

 and is not much fitted even for this task. The 

 following extract, from the introduction, will plainly 

 show that our compiler is entirely ignorant of the 

 nature of the system he idly attempts to refute : — 



" In the necessarily limited space of an introduc- 

 tion, I cannot go much into detail either in expla- 

 nation of this system, or in stating such objections 

 to it as have occurred to me; but I shall endea- 

 vour to show that it rests, so far as I can perceive, 

 on very untenable grounds. ' In natural history,' 

 says Mr. Macleay, ' we have always good reason 

 for suspecting methods,' and still more, I should say, 

 for suspecting principles. The doctrine of types, 

 if I comprehend it aright, is one of those suspicious 

 principles, being evidently a shoot from Plato's 

 wild theory of pre-existent ideas, or the archetypes 

 of all things, and more directly borrowed from the 



