AN AWFUL MISTAKE.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 809, 14 June 1879, Page 2

AN AWFUL MISTAKE.

Of Mr. Arthur O'Shaughnessy, one of the younger British poets* and the son-in-law of Dr. VVestland Marston, an amusing story is told. Mr. O'Shangnessy was a 2> r °t e 9 e °f Sir Edward BulwerLytton, who assisted in getting tfoe poet appointed to a position in the Natural History Department of the British Museum. One day the unfortunate O'Shaughnessy accidently sat on a number of very rare- South American butterflies which had juet arrived at the, Museum. Horrified, he proceeded' secretly and hurriedly to repair damages, but being in truth rather ignorant about 'butterflies and natural history generally, he got the pretty insects very much mixed up, gluing wrong wing3 on wrong bodies in the most reckless manner. Great was the astonishment of the wise men when -they came to contemplate and classify the contribution. Such species were never seen before; the insect world arid its.histbry-were r"evolu- : tipnised. And many were the discussions that occurred before Mr. O'Shaugnessy's awful misdeeds and skilful gluing were discovered. Then there Stas a very mad collection of scientists, and the young man would have been dismissed had not Bulwer used his in-' fluence. Warned by his blunder, Mr. O'Shaughnessy undertook the study of natural history, and there is now no one in the Museum better skilled in that department.