Address to the L.N.U. 143 
avarice, and greed of civilised man, assisted in late years by that 
rage for wearing feathers that now and again seizes civilised 
women. 
Much might be accomplished if we could give our people an 
intelligent knowledge of their natural surroundings and an 
interest in their preservation. It would be a step in the right 
direction if object lessons were occasionally given in our village 
schools in connection with Natural History, illustrated from those 
easily accessible raw materials of observation in the neighbeur- 
hood, which would best illustrate the every-day life of plants and 
animals. 
I fear there is no class of men, who, considering the very 
favourable opportunities they have, are so proverbially ignorant 
of the economy of outdoor life as the gamekeepers, and so 
systematically destroy what it is often their best interest to 
preserve. Agriculturists, too, asa class, with but few exceptions, 
are deplorably indifferent tc, and ignorant of, the most elementary 
principles of Natural Science. ‘They care for none of these things. 
In looking back, however, | am proud to admit many genuine 
services rendered by agricultural labourers, who have walked 
miles to bring some curious object, or to tell of some strange 
beast or bird seen during their daily toil. 
. Unfortunately, in England, the inculcation of scientific 
knowledge is left almost entirely to private enterprise and in the 
hands of such societies as ours. “This is not the case in foreign 
states, and notably so in America, where neither pains nor expense 
are spared in instructing the people. ‘Ihave now before me a 
volume, most beautifully illustrated, recently published and issued 
by the American Government Department of Agriculture, on 
a The Hawks and Owls of the United States.” ‘his book has 
been scattered wholesale, as a free gilt, over the land, and is 
intended to teach the American farmer the great usefulness of 
j birds of prey, and the good which, as a rule, they confer upon 
him. Surely we have had object lessons sufficient to bring this 
‘matter forcibly home to us in that plague of field voles which has 
laid waste some of the great sheep farms beyond the border, and 
_ the plague of rats in Lincolnshire, 
