- 121 



want of care in making and recording observations, 

 much valuable information has been wasted, and it may 

 be useful to point out to those who have opportunities 

 of observation, errors which have caused the waste of 

 material I have mentioned, and to suggest precautions 

 which careful observers should never neglect, in the 

 hope that some readers may be induced to turn their 

 opportunities to account. 



At the outset it is well to recommend caution in 

 dealing with anything exceptional or sensational lest 

 it should prove to be a mare's nest, but anyone may 

 encounter something extraordinary, and if that should 

 be our fortune we should be content to record the fact 

 in the simplest way, avoiding embellishment and 

 exaggeration, and what is still more dangerous, the 

 substitution of inference for fact, and having sub- 

 mitted the evidence as impartially as possible, let us 

 leave the reader to judge for himself and draw his own 

 conclusions. It is well to remember that evidence 

 which tends to establish the existence of some well 

 defined quality is especially valuable ; as examples, I 

 may mention instinct, where there is no conscious 

 intention, and reason, where there is evidence of an in- 

 ductive faculty and calculated purpose. Then again 

 memory, affection, (and this may be sexual or indepen- 

 dent of such attraction), jealousy, hatred, and so on. 

 It is a definite step to know whether a bird or animal 

 possesses any of these qualities or not. 



When any fresh fact is observed it is desirable to 

 repeat the circumstances if possible, and if this can be 

 done several times all the better, as opportunities are 

 afforded for correcting error if by any chance it has 

 crept in. It is difficult, and perhaps impossible in 



