2 THE STUDY OF ANIMAL LIFE CHAP. 



hedgerows of Wiltshire a vision of nature, Avhich seemed 

 every year to grow richer in beauty and marvel. It is 

 thus that the study of Natural History should begin, as 

 it does naturally begin in childhood, and as it began long 

 before there was any exact Zoology, with the observa- 

 tion of animal life in its familiar forms. The country 

 schoolboy, who watches the squirrels hide the beech nuts 

 and pokes the hedgehog into a living ball, who finds the 

 nest of the lapwings, though they decoy him away with 

 prayerful cries, who catches the speckled trout in spite 

 of all their caution, and puzzles over the ants as they 

 find their way home heavily laden with booty, is laying 

 the foundation of a naturalist's education, which, though 

 he may never build upon it, is certainly the surest. For 

 it is in such studies that we get close to life. 



The same truth has been vividly expressed by one 

 whose own life-work shows that thoroughness as a zoolo- 

 gist is consistent with enthusiasm for open-air natural 

 history. Of the country lad Dr. C. T. Hudson says, in 

 a Presidential Address to the Royal Microscopical Society, 

 that he " wanders among fields and hedges, by moor 

 and river, sea-washed cliff and shore, learning zoology 

 as he learnt his native tongue, not in paradigms and 

 rules, but from Mother Nature's own lips. He knows 

 the birds by their flight and (still rarer accomplishment) 

 by their cries. He has never heard of CEdicnemus crepi- 

 tans, the Charadrius pluvialis, or the Squatarola cinerea, 

 but he can find a plover's nest, and has seen the young 

 brown peewits peering at him from behind their pro- 

 tecting clods. He has watched the cunning flycatcher 

 leaving her obvious and yet invisible young in a hole 

 in an old wall, while she carries off the pellets that might 

 betray their presence ; and has stood so still to see the 

 male redstart that a field-mouse has curled itself on his 

 warm foot and gone to sleep." 



But the student must also attempt more careful studies 

 of living animals, for it is easy to remain satisfied with 

 vague " general impressions." He should make for himself 

 to be corrected afterwards by the labours of others a 

 " Fauna " and " Flora " of the district, or a " Naturalist's 



