PARTRIDGE NESTING HABITS 147 



rigid winter, occasionally visit the up-country 

 lake, and tempt us to feats of cunning and 

 endurance comparable with those of an Eskimo 

 watching a seal-hole in a floe — can they in any 

 way be likened to the waddling flocks that sup- 

 ply our Christmas table with its choicest viand ? 

 The man who attempts fco read wild Nature's 

 book and is familiar only with the lives of 

 domesticated animals is much in the same 

 position as he who, having merely learned the 

 Greek alphabet, essays forthwith the translation 

 of Homer. 



The creatures of wood and field may be 

 divided into two classes — ^the hunters and the 

 hunted. The business of the hunters is to 

 learn the ways of the hunted, and so with ease 

 obtain their food ; while that of the hunted 

 is to learn how to escape destruction. Some- 

 times, like the squirrel that, while raiding a 

 blackbird's nest, is pounced on by a sparrow- 

 hawk, or a weasel that, while hunting a vole, is 

 killed by a fox, the hunters become themselves 

 the hunted. Whatsoever may be their path 

 through life, wild creatures are continually alert 

 as they travel therein. From each experience by 

 the way they gather a little. Should something 

 strange meet the eye it is approached cautiously 

 and examined carefully, that in future it may be 

 avoided, or pursued, or treated with indifference. 



