Fran, I only now remembered to check into
the AL (Penguin ed p.409) on A.Appel's note
to p.210:
Felis tigris goldsmithi: taxonomic Latin:
"Goldsmith's tiger"...and allusion to line 356 of "The Deserted Village" (1770),
by Oliver Goldsmith... "where crouching tigers
wait their hapless prey" (the animal is in fact a cougar rather than a
tiger).
Alfred Appel Jr. connects this reference to Nabokov's
poem "A Discovery" (Poems,p.15, 1943).The poem is
quoted in full (AL,p.326) Excerpts:
I found it and I named it, being
versed
in taxonomic Latin; thus
became
godfather to an insect and its
first
describer - and I want no other
fame.
(other connections are found in last year's N-List
archives. Appel's indications don't encompass, here, Pale Fire's
"Wordsmith and Goldsworth" )