INTRODUCTION IX 



had no desire to wander into forbidden fields. 

 He had a deep sense of personal dignity, and a 

 genuine modesty which made him shrink from 

 any approach to publicity. But I remember 

 a letter of his to the Times about the protec- 

 tion of wild birds, in which he wrote with force 

 and intensity on a subject on which he felt 

 strongly. He did not, however, feel any ambi- 

 tion for literary distinction, even on the subject 

 that he had made his own. He had something 

 of an Athenian's sense of distinction between the 

 functions of a gentleman and an author. In his 

 writings he studiously made no claim to the 

 position either of a man of science or a man 

 of letters. He was content to be an observant 

 amateur, following his own bent for his own 

 amusement. He gave the results of his personal 

 observation with brevity and simplicity, through 

 which the character of the man penetrated, 

 from time to time, with significant charm. But 

 he entirely refused to pose, in ordinary life, as 

 a scientific man. To experts he would talk of 



