PENNANT, THOMAS, an eminent naturalist, was born of an old Welsh family at Downing in Flintshire on the 14th June 1726. He acquired the rudiments of his education at Wrexham, and subsequently studied at the university of Oxford. His taste for natural history was first excited by the perusal of Willughby's Ornithology; and he had no sooner left Oxford than he set out on an excursion into Cornwall in pursuit of his favourite science. He became a contributor to the Philosophical Transactions as early as 1750; and in 1756 was chosen a member of the Royal Society of Upsal on the recommendation of Linnæus. His reputation as a naturalist was established by his British Zoology, in one volume folio, in 1761, and subsequently extended to 2, 3, and 4 octavos. He visited the Continent while this work was in the press, and made the acquaintance of Buffon, Pallas, and Haller. He set out for Scotland on a scientific excursion in 1771, and published an amusing account of his tour in three volumes 4to, which passed through several editions. During the same year he published his Synopsis of Quadrupeds, afterwards enlarged into a History of Quadrupeds. His Welsh tour was published in 1778, and his journey from Chester to London in 1782, in one volume 4to. About the year 1784 appeared his Arctic Zoology, a work which, although chiefly a compilation, was very much esteemed. He also published a natural history of the parishes of Holywell and Downing, within the latter of which he had resided during more than fifty years. Not long before his death appeared his View of Hindustan, in two volumes 4to, two more volumes being brought out by his son after his death, entitled Outlines of the Globe. Pennant died at his seat at Downing in 1798, in the seventy-second year of his age.