. Animals in menageries. , should ever become universal; or that peoplewill purchase a separate treatise upon that subject, in order that they mayunderstand the terms used in another book. Even were all the colours ofone tint, or, to speak more correctly, of one depth, the attempt at affixingnames to every shade would be utterly hopeless : how much more so thenis it, when every tint is capable of assuming an infinity of others, for which,if the principle is to be followed up, separate names should be assigned II found this opinion upon experience; and upon repeated!attempts todescribe the colo
. Animals in menageries. , should ever become universal; or that peoplewill purchase a separate treatise upon that subject, in order that they mayunderstand the terms used in another book. Even were all the colours ofone tint, or, to speak more correctly, of one depth, the attempt at affixingnames to every shade would be utterly hopeless : how much more so thenis it, when every tint is capable of assuming an infinity of others, for which,if the principle is to be followed up, separate names should be assigned II found this opinion upon experience; and upon repeated!attempts todescribe the colour of birds in such a way as to convey the highest degree CANVAS-BACK DUCK. 26a the body greyish white, with very fine zigzag lines ofa darker shade : quills and tail plain greyish white ; leg?and toes ash-grey^ with the membranes darker. The Canvas-back Duck. Fuligula Valisneria, Bonap. (Fig. 41.) Anas Valisneria, Canvas-back Duck Wilson, viii. pi. 70. f. Valesneria, Bo7iap. Synop. p. 392. North. Zool. The estimation in which this species is held, as anarticle of food, by our transatlantic brethren, is well of precision. I procured Symes Nomenclature of Colours, for this veryobject; but I found that, so far from enabling me to accomplish this object,I was perplexed at almost every step : and I soon discovered, that, if Iattempted rigorously to define every tint, I must have invented threetimes the number of names there employed; and, finally, should have endedwith making my descriptions so overburthened with new names, and newcombinations of terms, that nobody would have understood them. How-ever desirable, therefore, such a universal standard might be, I cannotbut think it as chimerical as that all naturalists should adopt one uniformsystem of classification or of nomenclature in systematic or vernacularnames. In describing colours, the happy art is to define them in such away as to avoid the extremes of vagueness and of ^s. I know ofno one, who,
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Keywords: ., bookauthorrichmondch, bookcentury1800, booksubjectanimalbehavior
