62 "Behold the Birds of the Air" 



venges which it is the habit of Time to bring. It is the 

 man of birds, routed in the dialogue with which the 

 Compleat Angler opens, who has got the better of the 

 fisherman, though the man of birds is in this case 

 Auspex the Ornithologist, not Auceps the Fowler. 

 In other words, the fishing-rod has been resigned 

 in favour of a binocular, and an object has been 

 found for country walks, in the observation of the 

 manners and customs of Wag-tails and Willow-wrens, 

 instead of attempts to allure the wary and suspicious 

 Trout. 



Fishermen, as I have said, are members of a craft 

 which is indeed a mystery to outsiders, the charm of 

 which can never be understood by any with whom the 

 sacred fire is not inborn. But it is probable that to 

 a still larger multitude this substitute for angling will 

 seem even less delectable. The man who goes roam- 

 ing about the country, poring with his glasses into 

 tree-tops and hedge-rows, must look to having his 

 pursuits as irreverently described as were those of 

 his brethren the geologists, by worthy Meg Dods, 

 "And some ran up hill and down dale, knapping the 

 stones to pieces with hammers, like so many stone- 

 breakers run mad; they say it's to see how the world 

 was made." 



This is inevitable; but it is to be doubted whether 

 those who can speak from their own experience will join 

 in the outcry. It is the peculiar charm of field observa- 

 tion that it puts a point on that which otherwise is 

 pointless, and by making us note variety, creates interest. 

 Botany accentuates a multitude of shades in the seasons 

 of the year, not only the Primrose, the Violet, the Rose, 

 and the Heather, but every obscure waif and stray of 

 the vegetable kingdom making its mark on the calendar, 

 each as it comes hanging out its own private signal, and 

 claiming welcome as an old friend. Ornithology deals 

 with places rather than with times. It does not, to be 

 sure, omit the latter; the autumnal appearance of the 

 Fieldfare and the Woodcock is an event to it as in- 



