2 



A NEW HISTORY OF 



enough to comprehend the exact meaning of many 

 newly coined words, whilst the divisions, and 

 subdivisions of species in the birds, perplex me 

 beyond measure, and ever and anon, make me as 

 angry as the "fretful porcupine." 



So that, when I have managed to struggle 

 through a few chapters of modern improvements 

 in the arrangement and nomenclature of animated 

 nature, I feel none the better for the labour. 



Not long ago in glancing over a history of 

 monkeys, which had been sent by a friend for my 

 perusal, I had to pronounce the following words, 

 and comprehend their meaning : " Cereopithecus, 

 Gallitrix, Sciureus, Oristile, Arachnoides, Subpen- 

 tadactylus, Hypoxanthus, Platyrrhini, Pygery- 

 thrceus," etc. 



Possibly I may be wrong in noticing these 

 abstruse words, as, for ought I know to the 

 contrary, they may be essentially necessary in 

 these times of scientific novelty, to help the young- 

 naturalist in his journey onwards to the temple 

 of fame. 



Towards the close of the last century, I well 

 remember, when Billy Pitt's tax upon hair-powder 

 changed the very nature of ornamental hairdressing. 

 The barbers were all up in arms ; and tails, both 

 pig and club, as they were then termed, fell in an 

 universal massacre. 



