AUGUST 217 



animals, at least, it is more discriminating than in the 

 most accomplished gourmet. The faculty, for example, 

 that enables the never-sufficiently-to-be-execrated rabbit 

 to reject as indigestible the common yellow iris, and to 

 devour every blade and flower of crocus, although these 

 plants belong to the same family of Iridece, must be 

 peculiarly subtle. 1 



As I lay in the heather last week, watching through 

 the glass some deer browsing busily on grassy patches 

 among last winter's snow, the thought occurred to me 

 how exquisite must be the palatal sensation of such 

 creatures when the sap begins to stir in the wan, tasteless 

 herbage of winter. 



Once in the same strath of Helmsdale, I received proof, 

 had proof been wanting, how open-air creatures rely 

 mainly for guidance upon the sense of smell, the sense 

 which, of all others, civilisation has induced us to discard. 

 Whether the olfactory nerves of human beings were ever 

 of supreme importance to existence or safety, may be 

 open to doubt; certain it is that they are affected now 

 only by relatively powerful odours. If, at any former 

 period, men employed them for the purpose of recognis- 

 ing their relatives, or distinguishing between friend and 

 foe, political or otherwise, they have quite ceased to do 

 so. 2 In police cases, for instance, a witness may testify 



1 This reminds me of the amount of resentment, not to say execration, 

 which I have incurred by publishing a list of rabbit-proof plants 

 (Memories of the Months, Second Series, p. 293). I can only plead in 

 extenuation that they are plants which I have been able to grow un- 

 protected among many rabbits. I therefore reckon them to be reasonably 

 rabbit-proof ; but it cannot be too well borne in mind that these evil- 

 minded rodents will attack and destroy almost any newly-planted herb 

 or shrub, even if they cannot eat it. They seem to sample it thoroughly. 



2 I am informed by Dr. Augustine Henry, who has spent many years 



