Lalande, the celebrated astronomer, committed a ludicrous mistake in styling James Ferguson, Berger du Roi d'Angleterre en Ecosse, the King of England's Shepherd for Scotland. The matter has, however, been thus explained:—Daubenton, as a naturalist, had the charge of the royal flocks of sheep in France. In order to retain his situation under the republic, he required a certificate of civism from the Section of the Sans Culottes. In this curious document, he is called the Shepherd Daubenton. Lalande, whose great work on astronomy was published at this period, had seen James Ferguson (the astronomer) designated the Shepherd, probably to distinguish him from Adam Ferguson the Philosopher, and hence he placed Ferguson the Shepherd in the same category with the Shepherd Daubenton, and made him "Shepherd to the King of England for Scotland!"