1883-92 
RELIC OF CUVIER 
249 
‘ Of the many recognitions, by my Sovereign, 
by her Prime Minister, by my late masters the 
Trustees of the British Museum of Natural 
History, and by my fellow-officers, not any has 
yielded me more heartfelt gratification than the 
precious relic you have been pleased, with most 
estimable and characteristic forethought, to enrich 
me with. It will be worn by me whilst I live, and 
I believe it will be cherished by my son and his 
sons as evidence of their regard of the representa- 
tive of the name they have so often heard me 
mention with grateful reverence. 
‘ There are fashions of thought as well as of 
dress. A somewhat prevailing one, to which you 
allude, I have occasionally referred to as the 
Biologie conjecturalc ; but the science of living 
things which will endure is based on the foun- 
dation of the fails positifs made known, with the 
true methods of their discovery, in the immortal 
works of Georges Cuvier.’ 
In his declining years it was one of Owen’s 
favourite amusements to observe the habits of 
the birds which frequented his garden. The 
notes which he made upon his feathered visitors 
were, as he writes in his diary, ‘ communicated to 
my friend Robinson’s weekly paper “ The Garden” 
in successive numbers.’ A few extracts from 
these ‘ Notes on Birds in my Garden,’ which 
were published in 1883, throw light on Owen’s 
interests and occupations. The number of birds 
