Militia Laws, or poetical effusions addressed to ladies of his acquaintance.

Those who would form some idea of Pennant's thoroughly original personal character, should read his 'Literary Life,' the only defect of which is that there is not enough of it. The motto to this-vixi et quem dederat cursum fortuna peregi-is itself characteristic of the man. His mind, to use his own words, 'was always in a progressive state; it could never stagnate.' At the same time, he was no philosopher or bookworm, but a keen, shrewd, observant man of the world, fond of an active outdoor life, and mixing much in society. 'In the midst of my reigning pursuits,' he says, 'I never neglected the company of my convivial friends, or shunned the society of the gay world.' His energy was extraordinary, as evinced both by his unwearied literary labours, and by the amount of bodily exertion which he underwent. 'Almost all my tours,' he tells us, 'were performed on horseback; to that, and to the perfect ease of mind I enjoyed in these pleasing journeys, I owe my viridis senectus; I still retain, as far as possible, the same species of removal from place to place. I consider the absolute resignation of one's person to the luxury of a carriage, to forebode a very short interval between that and the vehicle which is to convey us to our last stage.' In another place he says: 'I am often astonished at the multiplicity of my publications, especially when I reflect on the various duties it has fallen to my lot to discharge-as father of a family, landlord of a small but very numerous tenantry, and a not inactive magistrate. I had a great share of health during the

literary part of my days; much of this was owing to the riding exercise of my extensive tours, to my manner of living, and to my temperance. I go to rest at ten; and rise winter and summer at seven, and shave regularly at the same hour, being a true misopogon. I avoid the meal of excess, a supper; and my soul rises with vigour to its employs, and (I trust) does not disappoint the end of its Creator.'

This happy, healthy, energetic vitality remained with Pennant almost to the very end of his long life. In his later years his body doubtless 'abated of its wonted vigour;' but his mind still retained its powers, its longing after improvements, its wish to receive new light through chinks which time hath made.' When close on seventy years of age, he projected, and energetically commenced his colossal 'Outlines of the Globe;' and though he did not live to carry out this bold conception, he will command universal assent when he says: 'Happy is the old age that could thus beguile its fleeting hours, without injury to any one, and, with the addition of years, continue to rise in its pursuits.' After a comparatively brief period of decay and illness, Pennant passed away on the 16th of December 1798, at the age of seventy-two years. In the long roll of British naturalists he will always hold an honourable place. In the words of Swainson, 'whatever he touched, he beautified, either by the elegance of his diction, the historic illustrations he introduced, or the popular charm he gave to things well known before.'

BRITISH ZOOLOGISTS

(CONTINUED).

DURING the last part of the eighteenth century, and during the few years of the nineteenth century which preceded the appearance of the 'Règne Animal,' natural history was diligently prosecuted in Britain by numerous observers, most of whom can be merely noticed here. For intelligible reasons, the groups of animals most largely studied at this period were birds, fishes, and insects, and to a less extent shellfish (Mollusca). One of the most purely British naturalists of this period was George Montagu, a colonel in the army, and a wealthy man, who left behind him two well-known works on our native animals. One of these is his 'Ornithological Dictionary, or Alphabetical Synopsis of British Birds,' in two octavo volumes, published in 1802. A supplement to this work was published in 1813. The other work was the 'Testacea Britannica, an Account of all the Shells hitherto discovered in Britain,' in two volumes quarto, published in 1803, with a supplement in 1808.

The most extensive writer on ornithology of this period was, however, Dr John Latham, a most voluminous writer, and personally a most estimable man. His three great

works are: (1) The General Synopsis of Birds,' in eight volumes, small quarto, 1781. (2) The 'Index Ornithologicus,' in two volumes quarto, 1790. (3) A General History of Birds,' in eleven quarto volumes, 1821-26. This last is little more than an enlarged edition of the 'General Synopsis.'

Insects have always been a favourite branch of study, and the names of Drury, Smeathman (who gave the first good description of termites), and Moses Harris. are familiar to all entomologists. Drury, who was a wealthy jeweller in London, was a great collector of insects, though in no sense himself a naturalist. He sent Smeathman to Africa to collect insects for his cabinet, and he published a work on exotic insects, in which the plates were executed by Moses Harris. This last-named naturalist was an excellent artist, and entomologists still use his Aurelian, or Natural History of English Butterflies and Moths.' He also published an 'Exposition of English Insects.'

In general zoology the two most noticeable of the names of this period are Edward Donovan and Dr George Shaw, both of whom were voluminous writers, though neither left any permanent mark in the science of natural history. Donovan's principal works form a series of thirty-eight octavo volumes (1792-1818), dealing respectively with British quadrupeds, British birds, British fishes, British shells, and British insects. He also published 'Illustrations of Entomology, including the Insects of China, India, and New Holland,' in three volumes (1805), and "The Naturalist's Repository, or Miscellany of Exotic Natural History,' in five volumes (1834). All his works

are illustrated by plates which are elaborately and often very beautifully coloured; but the text is of small value. Dr George Shaw, who was assistant-zoologist in the British Museum, was as copious a writer as Donovan, but his works are in the main mere compilations. The two most important are 'General Zoology,' in fourteen volumes (1800-27), and the 'Naturalist's Miscellany,' twenty-four volumes, with more than a thousand plates.

To this period also belongs the celebrated artistnaturalist, Thomas Bewick, so universally famed for his unrivalled delineations of animals, and for the immense advance which he effected in the art of wood-engraving. Thomas Bewick was born at Cherryburn, near Newcastleon-Tyne, in 1753, and died in 1828. As an artist, his work has received full and critical examination in more than one well-known treatise. As a naturalist, he is best known by his 'General History of British Quadrupeds,' the first edition of which appeared in 1790, and his 'History of British Birds,' of which the first volume appeared in 1797, and the second in 1804. The illustrations of these two works have never been surpassed for power of expression and truth to nature. possessed 'the royal stamp of genius,' and with it 'the humbler, yet quite as necessary, gift of perseverance; and together these led him to approach nature in simplicity, to receive her lessons with faithfulness, and to depict what he saw with unfailing certainty and loveliness.' *

He

In addition to the above, the present period produced two naturalists who have obtained a permanent fame for

* 'The Life and Works of Thomas Bewick,' by David Croal Thomson, 1882.