A BOOK OF OUTDOOE LIFE 277 



dicated in the history of the stone-curlew,^ whose 

 young "are withdrawn to some flinty field by the 

 dam, where they skulk among the stones which are 

 their best security ; for their feathers are so exactly 

 of the colour of our grey-spotted flints." And in 

 the well-known remarks upon the work and use of 

 earthworms t the philosopher of Selborne did some- 

 thing more than "throw out hints, in order to set 

 the inquisitive and discerning" philosopher of Downe 

 to work at a paper, which much resembles a " good 

 monography of worms," and was read by him be- 

 fore the Geological Society, just sixty years after the 

 former had written his letter to Daines Barrington. 

 The popularity of the book undoubtedly owes 

 much to its subject. Outdoor life is ever sought 

 after by Englishmen, and perhaps on the principle 



" There's not a joy the world can give 

 Like that it takes away," 



this book of outdoor life loses nothing from the 

 fact that we are becoming more and more a nation 

 of townsmen. As an illustration of this feeling, a 

 well-known London solicitor, the late Mr. Edward 

 Tylee, told the present writer that, when he left a 

 country home as a youth and came to work in a 

 London ofiice, the only alleviation of the great 

 change from his country life was reading ' The 

 Natural History of Selborne' at breakfast-time. 



* Op, cit., Letter XVI. to Pennant. 



t Op. cit, Letter XXXV. to Barrington. 



