THE ENTOMOLOGISTS 
WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER. 
No. 190.] SATURDAY, MAY 26, 1860. [Price Id 
OBSERVATIONS. 
“ Every animal and plant,” remarks 
Agassiz, “ stands in certain definite re- 
lations to the surrounding world ; some, 
however, like ihe domestic animals and 
the cultivated plants, are capable of 
adapting themselves to various condi- 
tions • more readily than others ; hut 
even this pliability is a characteristic 
feature. These relations are highly 
important in a systematic point of 
view, and deserve the most careful con- 
sideration on the part of naturalists. 
Yet the direction which zoological 
studies have taken since Comparative 
Anatomy and Embryology began to 
absorb almost entirely the attention of 
naturalists has been very unfavourable 
to the investigation of the habits of ani- 
mals, in which the relations to one ano- 
ther and to the conditions under which 
they live are more especially exhibited. 
We have to go back to the authors 
of the preceding century for the most 
interesting account of the habits of 
animals, as among modem writers there 
are few who have devoted their chief 
attention to the subject. So little, in- 
deed, is its importance now appre- 
ciated that the students of this branch 
of Natural History are hardly acknow- 
ledged as peers by their fellow-inves- 
tigators, the anatomists and physiolo- 
gists, or the systematic zoologists. 
“And yet,” — we trust our readers will 
mark well the following sentence, — 
“ without a thorough knowledge of the 
habits of animals, it will never be 
possible to ascertain with any degree 
of precision the true limits of all those 
species which descriptive zoologists have 
of late admitted with so much con- 
fidence into their works. And, after 
all, what does it matter to Science, 
that thousands of species, more or less, 
should he described and entered in 
our systems, if we know nothing about 
them.?” 
No doubt these remarks of Agassiz 
will raise up a host of objectors; yet 
still the question will remain, “ What 
does it signify to Science that thousands 
of species should be described, if we 
/mow nothing about them P ” Some 
knowledge, derived from observation, 
respecting six species has always ap- 
peared to us of more value than de- 
scriptions of six hundred species, con- 
cerning the habits of which nothing 
can be recorded. 
I 
