IXTPtODUCTORY. 19 



weasel, make off on the approach of a child ; our only- 

 poisonous reptile, equally fond of making itself scarce, 

 causes little more than temporary inconvenience by its 

 bite, unless, indeed, the patient be in a bad state of health 

 already ; the sharks of our seas are mostly infants ; even 

 our insects are to be dreaded less than those of any other 

 country I know of. 



This little volume may, perchance, prove an incentive 

 and a help to such outdoor study. I hope, indeed I might 

 dare expect, so much of it. For there is much to be gained, 

 by both the individual and the nation, not to speak of the 

 benefit accruing to the beasts and birds themselves, if only 

 this taste for natural history become more general. There 

 is a large and ever-increasing class of readers. These are 

 well in their way, and it is not for writers of books, at any 

 rate, to deny their usefulness. But this reading of natural 

 history should be the prelude to observation at first hand, 

 not its substitute. The book of nature is in many chap- 

 ters, and most of its pages are as yet un- 

 ^* turned by man. The book is free to all who 

 will open it. None are privileged, and the deepest secrets 

 are revealed at a moment's notice to professor or plough- 

 man. The interpretation is another matter ; and what 

 is fraught with meaning for one, causing him, no mat- 

 ter what his creed, to stand amazed, baring his head in 

 presence of that which not all his poor book-learning can 

 explain, another will pass by with a shrug, the even tenor 

 of his thoughts not for one instant disturbed. It is the 

 old story of "Eyes and no Eyes." The boy is father to 

 the man ; and he who, as a truant from morning school, 

 regards the hedge-sparrow as designed for no more than a 

 butt for swan-shot, whose acquaintance with his country's 

 beasts and birds is strictly limited to the fitness of each 

 species for the table, will in riper years make no secret of 

 his creed : The earth is the Anglo-Saxon's, and the fulness 

 thereof ! 



