New-York tribune., 1885-07-19
A BORN NATURALIST.

TIE FRIEND OF ALL THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
iIrF OF FRANK BUCKLAND BY his Brother.n,, lsT,
AAR 1ssoRar G. BoMr4s. With Portrait. Philadei-
fiia J. B. Lppincott Company.
Frank Buckland was remarkable illustration oi
,nberjted aptitudes His parents both had strong
.c;enti8c tendencies. his father. Dean Buckiand,
being naturalist and geologst of high reputation
and author of one of the Bridgewater Treatises.
and his mother "a woman of rare intellectual
accomplishment, whose scientific tastes and power
of accurate drawing enabled her to share In ana
helm forward Dean Bucklands geological pursuits
Youne Frunk showed his bent very early Wnen
he was but two years old his mother recorded IN ner
diary that abe would have gone through all eno
natural history books in the Radcliffe Library WIN
ont making one error in miscalling parrot DUCK
a kingfsher an owl or a vulture" Al tour years
of age in fact, he began collecting spechnon' u
natural history, and at seven he oes"n
journal. About this time clergyman brought Soiii0
fossils TO Dr. Buckland, to find out what they were
The Dean called his little son and said rahkle
what are these Z, "They the vertebr@ OF an
ichthvosaurusr lsped the child, who could not yet
sneak plain. 1t must be said that he was reared III
a most congenial atmosphere, as the following
extract shows:
In his early home at Christ Church, besides the
stnAed creatures which shared the nall Win tne
rccknghorse there were cages dui bsre Ul the side
T nroaned under successive layers Of fossils.
md the candles stood on ichthyosaurls veI.eo,na;
o"cas;onal1v the pony, having trotted down the
steps from the garden, would push open the ah,ng ,
dSoc cb1eS H1S Cn his then marching
through the front door. and down the steps, wouia
continue his course round Tom Quadii ior.s ware the
In the stable yard and large wo0d-nouse were vn9
fox. rabbits guinea-pigs and ferretss hawks anu
owls. the magpie and Jack kdaw besides dogs cats,
end poultry ana sb ~ 1baSegg 1de would stand to try
strength and toads immured IN various .piI' piTIts' !"
test the truth of their supposed life in rock-ceiis
When twelve years old he was sent 10 Wihcnes'er
College, and there he pursued his researches In
natural history and practised poaching with en-
thusasm. One of his old schoofellows gives TINS
account of his doings at that period:
His delight was to study the habits OF live
animals and to e5 anime their structure when dead
An OWL buzzard, and raccoon were sacceSsives
tenants of one of his lockers. whole regment u
tame jackdaws owned him as their patron neaaea
by an evilooking maggie. with name not men, seas
UhsOo tWics day % With With bread and milk from sckhoase
His hedgehogs kept open perpetual iosse az .me
base Of the wall Bounding the college meads ana h
ranks Appearance in the schoolroom at the
crowded mcment, just before the entrance 9f the
Claiming that the viper had got loose. He wass
dexterous taxidermst. and might he seen on nail
holiday in the deserted Moab or lSyatSry PyRs
sublimate, the subjects being cats bats, .whlchh
nested in q hollow plane tree in the meads; ana
Portable waistcoat The ayed bodies of the smaller
creatures were sometimes eaten; squirrel PIE ana
mice cooked in batter, ranking as special dainties
ScsS feii from the bones and it became easy 70
school days his anatomical studies enlarged their
scope; 9ruesome fragments OF humani!y were COL
eysd secretly from the $ hSsPsa n s ssS
with q professional eye. One Ma p1y VIII hs
dolcoccpnalous head used to relate with silght
shsr that hs had wondn aVe Or that fellows
skullp
From Winchester he went to Christ College.
Oxford and soon became noted there for his strange
pursuits and his amiable disposition. debating
society was started by Lord Dufern. VI course
the Young men discussed as rule only the loftest
4opics. But Frank Buckland astonished and dis
mayed them by reading essay on the question
4Whether Rocks are beneficial to the Farmer or
notv The narrator of this story adds :" l think
he must have. had it all his own way. don't think
that even Lord Duficrin, with oil his versatile
genius. made much of the rocks"
He kent bear in his chambers, an eagle, a num-
her of snakes, and bewiidering variety OF snail
creatures. The bear was named I1giath-Peleser.
They used to dress him in cap and gown Dr. Merri-
man records some amusing recoections OF his college
life:
ing with delight and saying, Oh Merriman !
have brought you something yon Will ike !; and nd
then his hands into mU s Erss he
EIs remember also on one occasion going down to
Christ Church to SEQ him. AS opened the door he
adder is outv 1 need hardly say penetrated no
further until ! saw him stoop down. catch the thing
by. the tail-its fsngs had not been drawnnand
shut Just. after this his father came IN 1t was
soon after De was mado Dean of Wentminster He
70. ootn md ia
bisck BAG which he had in his hand. he produced
tortoise for Frank. have often wondered whether
1t was tie one which has now become famous all
tho We, q over as being lecreed to be an I" insect"
in tho nlmcnt Of the railway officers
He came down to me one gay Gay Tor the purpose n OF
iore-namely, panther chopsl He was a. great
5rfenl OF tho curator of the then existing Surrey
Ss the asnher %as dead
once ,ho said to tell him to send me down some
c"ors. "o had. however, been buried q couple of
days but got them to dig 1t up and SEND me some.
1t ras not rery good"
Ho had chameleon who used to stand upon an
inverted wine-glass with his tail round the stem
and assimilate flies. This he did with concen-
trated gravity and entire want of speculation in
his opaque and protuding eyes. which convulsed
wine parties, especially when he concluded his
performance by tumbling bead-foremost into the
preserved ginger" Presently he went to Gessen
20 study chemistry under Liebig. for he had re-
solved to be surgeon. While there he continued
collecting as usual, and on the return journey
funny incident occurred.
He brought with him this time jar full of the red
sugs he wished to introduce into England: they at
least were noseless aud would not croak like frogs.
In the opposite corner of the diligence placidly
Numbered traveller with ample bald head; Frank
Also slept, but, waking at midnight he saw. with
horror that two of his red slugs had escaped and
were crawling over the travellers bald pate. What
was to be dones To remove them might waken the
sleeper Frank sat as IL were on tcnterhooks until
~ho afo at firmly
coyering Cp the Jar and what remained of the slugs,
he slipped quietly out of the diligence. resolved to
hv vauo cor yey ne ext