THE BOOK: AN APOLOGY 7 



bird protection lor his county. 1 was tuld tluit he was 

 the biggest man on the council and had immense weight 

 with his fellow-members on account of his wealth ;uid 

 social position, that without getting him on our side 

 it would be difficult to obtain an order. He was cer- 

 tainly a big man physically, a very giant in stature, with 

 a tread like that of an elephant when he entered the 

 vast dim room into which a servant had conducted me. 

 So huge a mass, so heavy and stolid, as he stood there 

 silently staring at me out of his great expressionless 

 boiled-goosebcrry-coloured eyes, waiting to hear what I 

 had to say to him. I said it, and handed him some 

 papers, which I wanted him to look at. But he was not 

 listening, and when I finished he held out the papers for 

 me to take diem back. "No," he said, "I have too many 

 calls on me — I can't entertain it." "Will you kindly 

 listen," I said, then repeated it again, and he muttered 

 something and taking the papers once more inclined his 

 head to indicate that the interview was over, and, thank- 

 ing him for his ready sympathy, I went my way to some 

 one else. 



My next visit was to an enthusiastic sportsman. I 

 told him where I had been, and he exclaimed that it 

 was a mistake, a waste of time. "That chunk of a man 

 is no good," he said. "If he sees a roast goose on the 

 table he knows what it is and he can distinguish it from 

 a roast turkey, and that's all he knows about birds.'* 

 Perhaps it was all he knew, from the natural history 

 point of view at all events; yet even this "chunk of a 

 man" had doubtless felt something of that common 



