CHAPTER IX 



CAHOWS AND LONGTAILS 



THE joys of exploration are as varied as the 

 numbers and characters of the explorers them- 

 selves, and the joys change during the lifetime of 

 each person. I can remember the time when my 

 greatest ambition was to be the first to step upon 

 some tropical desert island, or to penetrate to where 

 no white man's foot had ever trod. Then came the 

 period of peripatetic journeys, of covering as much 

 ground as possible in a given time. But I soon found 

 that the island might be " desert " in very truth, 

 with no return in scientific loot, and the thrill soon 

 passed of encircling a sandy spit and seeing none 

 but one's own footprints. I came to learn that 

 worthwhile observations of birds and animals and 

 insects were great in proportion to the smallness of 

 territory covered. One might shoot a large parrot 

 or catch a brilliant butterfly as one travelled, but to 

 go slowly or to sit quietly was to invite the acquaint- 

 anceship of many rare and interesting creatures. 

 To be a good naturalist one must be a stroller or a 

 creeper, or better still a squatter in every sense of 

 the word — never a traveller. 



Then came joys within joys. For to be a squatter 

 alone is only the beginning. We can divide our ob- 



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