42 NATURE'S STORY OF THE YEAR 



so strongly addicted to the destruction of pretty 

 creatures. Boys hunt early butterflies, and thus 

 exterminate locally some of the most beautiful 

 and harmless of insects. Others pelt squirrels 

 from tree to tree, or rob birds' nests. Girls do not 

 hesitate to gather from the plant the immature 

 object of its existence its flower. It seems that 

 children should not only be taught Nature's laws, 

 but proprietary rights, which are frequently 

 violated under the excuse of a love for Nature. 

 Oh that we could exterminate the exterminator, 

 the collector ! To be a naturalist one needs not, 

 surely, a museum ; nor, to love the beautiful, 

 baskets of other people's flowers ! For how much 

 longer will the woodland trespasser be permitted 

 to steal eggs, or butterflies, or rare plants, without 

 fear of a summons, a fine, or a birch ? 



There is a hedgerow I well know, where snow- 

 drops bloomed so abundantly that the ground 

 was white with them, as though winter had been 

 delayed beneath the brambles. One morning, at 

 dawn, some men arrived with a cart from a 

 fashionable town nearly twenty miles distant, 

 and took every root of the flowers. In the same 



