142 A SCIENTIFIC APPRECIATION [oh. vi. 
take account of the influence of his style in attract¬ 
ing students and amateurs to the science. He was 
notable for what was in those days rare—a com¬ 
bination of picturesqueness and accuracy. He had 
also a sense of perspective in presenting his studies 
to the laity—in their many degrees—so that his 
exposition was interesting without being falsely 
simple. 
In regard to his style it must be admitted that 
it is at times exuberant, and at times very uncon¬ 
ventional; but it is interesting to observe that he was 
fully conscious of this, and there was a deliberate 
method in his variations. Speaking of this in the 
preface to the second volume of his Bvitish Birds , 
he says:— 
“In the present work, as in others, and in all 
my papers published in various journals, I have 
endeavoured to adapt the style to the subject, 
rendering it compact and precise when engaged 
with technical descriptions, copious and florid when 
treating of the actions and haunts of birds, abrupt 
or continuous, direct or discursive, harsh or har¬ 
monious, according to the varying circumstances of 
the case. My aim has been to amuse as well as to 
instruct, to engage the affections as well as to 
enlighten the understanding, to induce the traveller 
on the road to science to make occasional excursions 
tending to raise his spirits, and to show to the 
public that ornithology is not necessarily so repul¬ 
sive as some of its votaries represent. 
“ Seated on the brow of this craggy cliff, with 
the glorious ocean and the boundless firmament 
spread out before and around him, who, that has a 
mind sensible to the beauties of creation, could look 
