INTEREST OF ANIMAL LIFE 3 



A slight acquaintance, however, with the enthralling 

 mysteries of animal behaviour awakens the latent 

 sympathy between animals and ourselves that is 

 one mark of our community of origin. Many of us 

 begin that acquaintance through the sheer pleasure 

 we find in observing and collecting animals, and in 

 watching their habits. To such field-work the most 

 experienced naturalist returns with increasing wonder 

 at the infinite significance of what he sees, at the 

 unexpected number of fresh problems that lie in every 

 shell and feather, in each insignificant worm or insect, 

 in the colours of organisms, in the very games of chil- 

 dren, and even in social customs. The shell brings 

 up in his mind the image of an organism with brain, 

 muscles, and glands woven into a fabric that has no 

 caprice in its most delicate folds, whose care for itself 

 and its offspring implies ceaseless evasion of fish and 

 shrimp and cunning defence against the destructive 

 power of the waves. The feather, with its perfect 

 system of hooks and eyes, by which its plumes form 

 a firm, airtight membrane for flight or for retaining 

 warmth, is another casual object of beauty and sig- 

 nificance. The meaning of its colours, its position 

 on the bird's body, its replacement at the moult- 

 ing time, are but the first of many problems that 

 a feather suggests. The worm remains no longer a 

 degraded creature or one remote from human interest, 

 for the study of worms has suggested the most 

 effective of modern treatments of that most terrible 

 of skin diseases lupus. It was by the behaviour of 



B 2 



