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fields in order that tlieii" discoveries may com])lete our own ; and what 

 is of equal importance, that they ma}' enal^le lis to judge of the value 

 of the conclusions derived from our personal observations. 



The naturalist must learn what there is to look for wlien he goes 

 abi'oad, and in what manner to prosecute his searcli, or many of the 

 most noteworthy objects will escape his attention. Mere rambling 

 about the country, no matter how frequent or how prolonged, will not 

 of itself suffice to make a field-naluralist. The bare-footed iircbin 

 following a winding stream with his piece of twine and bent pin 

 hanging from a willow switch, is an embryo collector, but unless his 

 attention is directed to something beyond the dangling of a worm or 

 grasshopper before a sunfish's nose, he will never develo}) into a field- 

 naturalist. Many a man has fished year after year, from boyhood to 

 old age, and known little even of the prey he captured, while of the 

 thousand other things that come so frequently within his sight he was 

 utteily ignorant. 



The angler, howe\pr, who is not entirely engrossed in his " basket" 

 has rare opportunities of observing the sly frequenters of localities 

 where animal and vegetable life alike are most vari.d. Along the 

 margins of streams, and in meadows through which they flow, are the 

 haunts and retreats of many of our mammals, leptiles and birds. 

 Here also the rare plants seek retirement from the glare of the open 

 fields, and find the moisture and shade so grateful and necessary to 

 them. Profusion and variety of vegetation produce a corresponding 

 abundance of insect life, which is augmented by myriads issuing from 

 the water, and which, to a certain fxtent accounts for the number of 

 birds which frequent the vicinity of streams. 



How seductive do naturalistic rambles in the field become, when 

 one has made some acquaintance with the multitude of objects which 

 belong there. You come home parched by the heat and weary with 

 walking on the dusty road, and think that it will be long ere you go 

 forth again. But on the morrow when the sun shines, and the gentle 

 south wind blow.s, you are eager to be forth tven at the risk of the 

 same penalties. It seems to you that there is something that you ovei'- 

 jooked the previous day, or sometliiug that you require again to inves- 

 tigate, and that you should at once go to Cjmplete your observation.s. 



