328 



MY LIFE 



[Chap. 



No one who is not a naturalist and collector can imagine 

 the value of this book to me. It was my constant companion 

 on all my journeys, and as I had also noted in it the species 

 not in the British Museum, I was able every evening to 

 satisfy myself whether among my day's captures there was 

 anything either new or rare. Now, such a book is equally 

 valuable to the amateur collector at home in naming and 

 arranging his collections, but to answer the purpose thoroughly 

 it must, of course, be complete — that is, eveiy species must be 

 shortly characterized. During the last fifty years it is pro- 

 bable that the described species of birds have doubled in 

 number, yet with slight alteration the whole of these might 

 be included in a volume no larger than that I am referring 

 to. This could be effected by giving only one name to each 

 species (that in most general use), whereas Prince Bonaparte 

 has usually given several synonyms and references to figures, 

 so that these occupy fully as much space as the descriptions. 

 These are quite unnecessary for the collector abroad or at 

 home. What he requires is to have a compact and cheap 

 volume by which he can name, if not all, at least all well- 

 marked species. A series of volumes of this character should 

 be issued by the various national museums of the world (each 

 one taking certain groups) and be kept up to date by annual 

 or quinquennial supplements, as in the case of the admirable 

 " List of Plants introduced to Cultivation during the twenty- 

 one years, 1876-1896, issued by the Director of Kew Gardens." 

 In this very compact volume of 420 pages, 7600 species of 

 plants are sufficiently described for identification, while by 

 the use of double columns and thin paper, the volume is 

 only about half the weight of Bonaparte's " Conspectus," in 

 which about the same number of birds are catalogued, but 

 only half of them described. By a division of labour such 

 as is here suggested, the mammals, reptiles, and freshwater 

 fishes might be issued in this form without difficulty. The 

 land and freshwater shells might have separate volumes 

 dealing with the eastern and western hemispheres, or with the 

 separate continents, as might the Diurnal Lepidoptera. The 

 other orders of insects are too extensive to be treated in this 



