editor W.L. Distant

“ The 'Natural History of Selborne' has passed beyond the appreciation and love of naturalists and long since become an English classic, read and to be read as long as our language survives. Whilst science will be coexistent with humanity, few scientific books are perused after a century, save by specialists and the curious, for science is ever advancing, and her publications only describe the area to her new landmarks. Art and literature produce more immortal productions: a great picture is for all the time it can be preserved; a noble tragedy or fine poem receives the imprimatur of humanity ”

“ A sketch of the true environment of a bird is no mean hint as to its habits, and, in looking over our skins obtained in other lands, a mental picture of the scenery where it was procured appears to pertain to each specimen. Apart from its value to all lovers of our avifauna, it would perhaps be difficult to select a more acceptable present to a British naturalist residing abroad than this beautiful representation of the well-remembered birds of the old country. ”

“ On approaching Tristan da Cunha three or four species of Albatross had congregated round the ship, as many as thirty birds settling on the water astern in a manner highly satisfactory for close and continuous observation. After half a gale of wind a lull not infrequently occurs, when the speed is reduced to two or three knots; then the hungry creatures literally clamour for food. Directly a bird intends to alight, the legs appear straddling downwards in ungainly fashion—a moment when even an Albatross looks like an ill-balanced Goose of unwieldy size. ”

“ The time is past when the wretched holiday seeker, uninstructed in zoology, unassisted by state-paid instructors or guides, wanders his weary way past miles of glass cases crammed with stuffed skins, and eventually emerges tired and unenlightened to ardently seek refreshment of another nature. ”

“ To find there is a reason to be adduced on natural causation for the presence of a bird is tantamount to our believing in a purpose running through the ages. We know that causation is often confused with theory by many writers, but the still small voice is yet recognized in biology, despite the discrepancies in rival suggestions. In fact, evolution is slowly becoming an orthodox idea in contradistinction to the theories of specialists and doctrinaires. Science is more concerned with the reason why a bird is in a certain habitat, rather than with the fact that it is there ”

“ We can as little separate the sympathy of the Queen with human progress as we can overestimate the close relationship she held with all that was best in her people; such things are felt rather than seen or written.
As zoologists—few of us, indeed, having lived during any other reign—we see focussed in this period the rise of modern thought. In geology—uniformitarianism; in biology—the unfolding principles of evolution. If strange animals were once brought to Imperial Rome, how can we estimate the zoological treasures we have acquired from our Greater Britain? ”

“ It is sometimes a modern habit to decry the labours of the describer—in fact, species-monger is not an unknown term—and the taxonomist is often looked upon as a harmless enthusiast of the type of the "Scarabee" of Oliver Wendell Holmes. But how can any philosophical observation be recorded concerning a species which belongs to no nomenclature and is outside a known classification? Such a book as we now notice becomes a positive boon as much to the observant naturalist as to the future specialist. ”

“ It is marvellous how rapidly the countless herds of game that once roamed over the rolling plains of South Africa [1] have been practically exterminated. The exquisite fauna of Africa in the past added greatly to the charm and fascination which that continent has had for so many men, but they are being swept away by an unenlightened 'civilization.' Some useful and magnificent forms of feral life are already as extinct as the Dodo, and others are on the verge of extinction. ”

“ It almost seems as if the Myxies were a vagrant tribe that wander sometimes on the one side, and sometimes on the other side of the border-line—like nomads wandering across the frontier of two settled and adjoining states, to neither of which they belong. They would seem to begin life as animals, and end it as vegetables. ”

“ There is an old proverb that he who is his own lawyer has a fool for a client, and the young ornithologist might be advised, if he has the funds, to no more attempt to set up his birds in cases than to try to make his own gun. A few succeed, the many do not. The setting-up of birds is distinctly a profession, as the hideous work of the ordinary tradesman sufficiently testifies. To make one's own skins is, however, quite another matter; while a baronial hall and a respectable rent-roll are both necessary if even the British ornithologist is to possess a cased collection. ”

“ Thus we read there are certain broad facts beyond dispute. "It is indisputable that there was a period in the history of the earth when there was no life upon it; that the elements which constitute living matter are themselves lifeless; that consciousness is correlated somehow with those organic compounds, the elements of which are inorganic. These facts constitute an irresistible presumption that ultimately mind and matter must obey the same laws." Again, we are told of those "who with us accept the continuity and uniformity between nature and man." ”

“ The interest which my father had felt from his boyhood in the works of nature, animate and inanimate, was much increased by the wild grandeur of the scenes which he traversed, and by the novelty of many of the feathered and four-footed tribes that inhabit them. He ultimately determined, however, to limit his researches and his specimens to British Birds and British Zoology generally, thinking that every collection ought to be as complete as possible of its kind, and being desirous that his own should be the result of his practical studies in the wide field of nature. ”

“ In this sense the naturalist was a man who busied himself with 'Nature' as manifested in living creatures, who sought to solve all the problems which life presents. Form, structure, function, habits, history, all and each of these supplied him with facts from which he wrested his conclusions. Observation was his chief tool, and the field his main workshop. To him invidious distinctions between different parts of biologic learning were unknown. ”

“ Photography is now becoming a valuable adjunct to zoology, and a new weapon for the collector and field naturalist. To obtain an exact reflection of a bird in its natural pose or in some little known attitude, to portray the nest in its natural surroundings and with the incubator in position, is surely more to be desired than the effigies which can so often be truly described as "stuffed specimens." ”

“ It will be said perhaps that the slaughter and sale of these birds is all in the way of legitimate trade, a mere commonplace matter of supply and demand; that the law of nature is a law of rapine and ruthless slaughter; that the fowler for gain who pouches a Humming-bird or a Bird of Paradise, with as little misgiving as an angler baskets a Trout, is a mere instrument of this law to which birds themselves are subject both actively and passively ”

“ A dictionary of birds is a fair trial of strength for any ornithologist. It indispensably requires three possessions: scientific capacity, knowledge of the literature, and the critical faculty; and if the great lexicographer shared the illusion that a language might be "fixed" by making a catalogue of its words, the present dictionary has very largely focussed ornithology to date. But, apart from special ornithology, Professor Newton, his assistant, and three contributors, have probably produced one of the best books on natural history that has appeared in the English language. ”

“ But, though the mutual advantage of the association is plain enough, the absolute and essential necessity of it is not so plainly seen, and it is reasonable to imagine that when in the course of growth the Hermit-Crab has to seek a new and larger shell, the partnership with the Sea-Anemone can be dissolved by simple withdrawal, without dangerously affecting the life of either individual—at any rate until such time as each can find a new partner of suitable size. In other words, there is no adaptation of either animal to the other, and each seems capable of existing apart from the other. ”

“ There is always a danger that the special element of a man's great success may prove a cloud which serves to obscure his other qualities. We are so apt to think and read of the author as the greatest of contemporary Museum Directors, that we are liable to overlook the fact that his influence on Zoology has been exercised over a wider field, and that his services to Anthropology in England have been of a signal character. ”

“ Nothing seems so much in vogue as an acquiescence in the dogmas of a popular evolution designed for the instruction of the man in the street, or for those who like to acquire new ideas on trust. It is, however, probably as true as the facts of evolution itself, that in every civilized country the number of those who have acquired the knowledge to master the conception is not very large. ”

“ It is a history of ornithology from the time of Aristotle, written by an expert both in the science and its literature. It is essentially a criticism throughout, and though the author alludes to the charm in Gilbert White by the apparent absence of conscious personality in those classical pages, his own individuality is, and happily is, stamped on every paragraph. When criticism is really intended it should not be invertebrate; a freedom of expression avoids the sting of innuendo, and even hostility is disarmed when anonymity is absent. ”

“ Fastening a stout rope to it we drop it over the stern with a splash. The eddies have no sooner smoothed away than we see the brilliant little blue and gold Pilot-fish coming towards our bait at such speed that we can hardly detect the lateral vibrations of his tail. Round and round the bait he goes, evidently in a high state of excitement, and next moment he has darted off again as rapidly as he came. He reaches the Shark, touches him with his head on the nose, and comes whizzing back again to the bait, followed sedately by the dull-coloured monster. ”

“ Taxidermy is now an art, a thing of joy to the naturalist as he examines those beautiful cases of British Birds in our National Collection, and many who can spare the cash and not the time or energy, will gladly rely on professional assistance. As our author remarks, there is really no reason for "the narrow way in which most professional taxidermists bolster up their art in a secret and entirely unnecessary manner—unnecessary because no amateur can, but by the severest application, possibly compete with the experience of the technical or professional worker." ”

“ In showing Humming-birds' skins to friends at home one always hears the remark, 'How lovely they must look flying about!' It is true they do look pretty with their graceful poses, but their wonderful colouring is generally then almost entirely invisible, and certainly not seen to proper advantage, many species looking much the same as one another in freedom, but vastly different when held in the hand and turned to the right light. ”