LAMBOKN] SHERLOCK HOLMES IN NATURE-STUDY 1 27 



nor from the air nor the water. Therefore it must Hve on plants 

 which grew above the ground. But its weak, muffled- foot 

 showed that it could not perch in trees to feed on fruit or berries 

 (the rigorous climate, again, was against the presence of trees). 

 Such a bird looked like starving until it was suggested that it 

 fed on leaves and shoots of plants. This again corroborated the 

 early inference of a harsh climate, as these would be almost the 

 only food available. (Some of the children had read about the 

 reindeer and its food.) 



Again, the clumsy foot was much against the possibility of the 

 construction of any nest. A bird wnth such a foot would most 

 likely lay its eggs on the bare ground. In accordance with a 

 law previously quoted, the eggs would probably be of a brown 

 tint, mottled to resemble the earth. The number of eggs would 

 tend to be large, first because '' ground-game " are especially 

 assailable by enemies and seldom rear the full brood, and also 

 because, however many eggs are laid on the ground, there is no 

 danger, as in trees, of any falling out of the nest. 



Summing up the facts thus deduced from the foot, the children 

 were invited to imagine, as its owner, a bird as large as a small 

 hen, covered with thick white feathers even to its toes, inhab- 

 iting the countries round the Arctic Sea, feeding on lichens, 

 leaves and young shoots of plants, and laying a large number of 

 brownish eggs on the bare ground. Obviously the next thing 

 was to discover whether such a bird existed hi fact, and if so, 

 what it was called. 



Sherlock Holmes having evolved such a description of an 

 unknown individual, would have discovered the person answer- 

 ing to it by making inquiries in the locality in which he thought 

 he might be found. As it was plainly impossible in this case to 

 inquire in Northern Europe, a natural-history book was pro- 

 cured, and the plates in it were examined to see if any one 

 of them tallied with the mental image gained by the children. 

 Practically all the children recognized at once a plate which 

 was stated to be a picture of the ptarmigan. The appended 

 description was then read by one of the boys, and it was seen 

 that practically all the deductions were correct, and that also the 

 printed account only supplemented the deduced one in some 

 minor particulars. This the reader may see for himself by refer- 

 ence to any book on birds. 



