R USTIC NA TURALISTS 215 



it is his business to protect or destroy ; but the close 

 and accurate observation which these duties require make 

 him in many cases an intelligent and useful auxiliary 

 when properly directed. But the class which supplies 

 the greatest number of observing, as distinguished from 

 collecting, naturalists in the villages, is the brotherhood 

 of shepherds upon the Downs. Partly from the 

 solitude of their life, a solitude so great, that, in spite 

 of the rural etiquette which forbids any one to pass a 

 shepherd without speaking to him, these men often 

 forget how to pitch their voices in the tones of ordinary 

 speech, and partly from being concerned solely with 

 animals and not with agriculture, the shepherds have 

 the keenest eyes and most minute knowledge of animal 

 habits of any class in the country-side. It may safely 

 be assumed that no animal larger than a rat, and no 

 bird bigger than a quail, appears upon the hill, even for 

 a few days, unnoticed by the shepherds. They know 

 the movements of the hares and foxes so exactly, that 

 the writer has seen them point out the particular spot 

 in a ten-acre field of barley or beans, in which the 

 leverets or cubs would be lying. They know in which 

 copse the long-eared owls, the sparrow-hawks, or 

 kestrels are nesting, and the most likely stony patch for 

 the curlew's eggs or plover's nest. They can foretell 

 the approach of rain or wind, or judge the relative 

 value of the herbage on one side of the down and on 

 the other. They know the times when the springs 

 will break out, the signs of plenty, and the tokens of 

 dearth. Like the shepherds of Greece, they still play 



