cxl 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



owl is known to hoot ; but here, in Yorkshire, 

 this species of owl can do no such thing. I my- 

 self can eat boiled snails in southern Italy, but 

 I am not quite certain that I would dine on 

 them at Walton Hall, with a sirloin of roast 

 beef on the table before me. At sea, too, I 

 have eagerly consumed decayed biscuit, the 

 very sight of which would be abhorrent to 

 my eyes on the shelves of a baker's shop. In 

 a word, who knows but that the Hanoverian 

 rat, which is so voracious in this appetite- 

 creating climate of England, might be more 

 moderate in the country from which it origin- 

 ally came, were it happily endowed with 

 qualities wherewith to perform a periodical 

 migration across the water. 



I have now been full thirty years in striving 

 to improve the defective mode of preserving 

 specimens for museums. The method which 

 I have invented (as I have observed elsewhere) 

 cannot be attained through the medium of in- 

 structions committed to paper. Nothing, in- 

 deed, short of personal demonstration on my 

 part, in a process of three weeks' duration, 

 will suffice ; but, as there is no probability that 



