22 



fessor Agassiz, who was not unfrequently his hon- 

 ored guest at Middleboro, he formed intimacies 

 which only death interrupted. To the latter he ren- 

 dered important service in the preparation of his 

 great work on the Embryology of the Turtle; a ser- 

 vice which the author gratefully acknowledges in his 

 preface. About this time he was appointed Profes- 

 sor of Zoology in the Massachusetts Horticultural 

 Society, a position of honor without salary, the 

 duties being merely of consultation. The meetings 

 were held fortnightly in Boston. On one occasion a 

 member, who was at the same time State Senator, 

 presented a petition in favor of rescinding the law 

 that protected the Robin, saying he had found it very 

 destructive to fruits. Through Mr. Jenks' influence 

 the petition was laid upon the table, he promising to 

 ascertain the food of the bird for every month of 

 the year. This he did in a most satisfactory manner, 

 showing that the Robin was far more beneficial by 

 destroying worms and insects during ten months in 

 the year, than destructive by eating garden fruits in 

 July and August. The report was published in the 

 proceedings of the Society, and has often been 

 quoted as an authority upon the subject of which it 

 treats. 



Time will not allow me to enter further into the 

 details of his career in Middleboro. During the 

 twenty-nine years of his administration as Principal 

 of the Academy, it attained to a very high rank, hav- 

 ing at one time a roll call of three hundred pupils of 



